Short note to myself: More on Fava Beans and Grit brand gravy.

So. Fava beans have to be soaked for a couple of days to really get them ready for cooking. I finally cooked some up with the skins on. 2 days soaking, long enough for them to get nice and plump and have just the hint of the little white sprout break through the brown skin. Into the pressure cooker with a little salt and a smidge of oil, and they were cooked to bursting. I was pleased that they tasted far better cooked this way than going through the misery of peeling the skins. It's still a process to prep them--but soaking them for 48 hours is a darn sight easier than soaking them for 48 hours and then needing three days to peel them.

What I was really happy about, though, was their compatibility with another gravy recipe from the Grit. I stumbled on the recipe a few days ago, and thought to try it as it was a little less fat and milk intensive. Sage and Onion gravy, to be precise. I'd love to show you the picture of the dish in the completed stage, but it was impossible to get a nice looking photo. It's such a brown dish. Really brown. Next time I make this gravy, I think I may cut back on the salt in the soy sauce--when you just don't add salt to your food, things like soy sauce can be overwhelming, and I'd hold off on the added salt in the gravy, as well--there isn't any nut milk to counteract the saltiness. I used olive oil instead of margarine. Other than that, it's a very nice and reasonably compatible dish. The nootch and soy are going to prevent it from ever being a period-like dish, but I think it could certainly be served as a compatible vegan entry at a feast that would be perfectly acceptable to an omnivore's palate. There are a few fava and onion and sage dishes out there in period literature; I may pull it together for a post on Cook-A-Long. And I'll get a picture that is far less brown. ;-)