It's been a mushroom week for me! First the Mushroom soup, now this! Well, for some reason, the grocery store has been having lots of mushrooms on the discount table. I can't resist inexpensive (well, relatively) mushrooms as they range between $3 and $4 a pound around here...I live in the middle of farm country, but paid less for mushrooms when I lived in the city...go figure.

Anyway, I had a huge bunch of button mushrooms to use up and I've already got plenty of duxelles and Cream o'Shroom soup in the freezer. So I set the dehydrator going with some of them and made my mushroom gravy to freeze with the rest, faithfully keeping up with my resolution to write things down as I make them so I have recipes to give out!

Mushroom Gravy

2 lbs. Mushrooms

1 medium onion-chopped

4 cloves garlic-smashed flat

6 T butter

6 T flour

1 c red wine

t savory

1 t ground black pepper

3 c beef stock

2 c chicken stock

Stem all the mushrooms, and chop the stems. Weigh out 1 lb of the mushroom caps and set aside, chop the rest of the caps.

In a heavy, well seasoned iron frypan, dry saute the chopped mushrooms over a med to med-high heat until they are cooked and pretty dry. Set these aside in a large pot and cook the onions the same way, until they are fairly dry and starting to caramelize a bit, and add them to the mushrooms. De-glaze the pan with the red wine, simmer a bit to get the alcohol flavor out and then add enough of the stock to rinse the juices into the pot of mushrooms and onions. Add the savory, pepper and the rest of the stock and set to simmering.

While this is simmering, make a brown roux a bit darker than peanut butter, but not so dark as a cajun style chocolate roux. I know that it seems like this recipe makes too much roux, but a brown roux doesnÂt thicken nearly as well as a white or blonde roux. For the richest flavor, donÂt cheat on the roux by cooking it over a too hot fire! I know itÂs a pain in the patootie to stand there and stir for half an hour but there really is a world of difference in flavor between a slow cooked roux and a fast cooked roux.

When the roux is done, add the smashed flat garlic and stir for just a few more seconds, then stir the roux into the sauce. Leave that to simmer while you slice the remaining mushroom caps into fairly thick slices..oh, say ¼ inch.

Put the sauce into a blender and puree the heck out of it. It should be as smooth as you can get it.

Then pour it back into the pan and add the sliced mushrooms. Simmer for another 20 minutes to a half an hour until the mushrooms are thoroughly cooked. Adjust salt & pepper to taste.

If you used really rich, home made stock, you will end up with a wonderfully rich, medium bodied gravy full of mushroom flavor. If you had to use canned stock, you might want to add a few drops of Kitchen Bouquet or a bit of beef base (not bouillon) to add some more richness.

I donÂt make this sauce as thick as some like their gravy, because I like to freeze it in small portions and have the option of whether to use it as a lighter, gravy type sauce (as for topping London broil), thicken it a bit for meatloaf, or add sour cream to it for a quickie meatball stroganoff.