Onion and Mushroom Gravy

You can’t have bangers and mash without gravy. Gravy is the sauce of life. The fuel of winter. That which lubricates our very soul. I could go on but I fear I may alienate our honoured reader. Anyway, if your experience of gravy is a brown lumpy mess, let me enlighten you. (Actually, it is quite lumpy but that’s because of the mushrooms).
Ingredients

• 1 medium red onion
• About 8 – 10 mushrooms
• A splash of balsamic vinegar
• A splash of soy sauce
• 1/2 pint of chicken stock
• salt and pepper

Put a pan big enough to hold all the ingredients on the heat with three seconds of olive oil. While it’s getting hot, turn your attention to the onion. Finely slice the red onion then add it to the now hot oil with some salt and pepper and sweat it in the usual style.

While the onions sweat, finely slice the mushrooms. When the onions start to caramelise, add 1 second of balsamic vinegar. Caramelising is when the sugar in the onions starts to go brown but not burnt. It’s a fine line, don’t cross it. In with the sliced mushrooms and a splash of soy sauce, then in with 1/2 pint of chicken stock. Give it all a good stir and keep cooking it till it is the consistentcy you require. That is to say, if it is a bit watery, reduce it a bit . It needs to be thicker than coffee but thinner than custard.

Gravy is a must with sausages but goes with just about anything dry. I think it would even be ok with a roast. Give it a try and if it doesn’t work, don’t do it again.