Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Red Eye Jedi

I think I've been pretty clear about my love — um, obsession —with coffee. I must have my morning joe to make it through the day lest I turn into an evil troll. But I also love coffee in sweets, in my chili, and in my bowl of mornin' red-eye gravy. In the South, folks combine ham or bacon fat with strong black coffee and salt to make a thin red-eye gravy for ham biscuit-dippin'.

My vegan version of Red-Eye Gravy subs a little bit of olive oil for the pork fat, and it's so delicious served with my fluffy Whole Wheat Butter-Soymilk Biscuits and sweet 'n' savory Brown Sugar Baked Tofu Ham:

All the recipes will be featured in my cookbook, which I promise will be out one day! For those who've asked, I don't have a publisher yet. And I'm still wrapping up recipe development, but it's getting much closer.

Anyone who has been following my blog for some time may remember my previous post about this delicious Southern breakfast. I made it again this week to test the recipes, and I'm very pleased with the results. I ended up splitting the biscuit, stuffing it with tofu ham, and dipping each bite into the hot, thin coffee gravy. It's a little like a French dip sub — only not French and not a sub.

Here's a close-up of the Brown Sugar Baked Tofu Ham:

And a neat shot of the of reflection of bare winter trees in my gravy:

I was out on the porch, trying to get some natural light for my shot. When I attempted to focus on the little round bits of olive oil (the red eyes!) in the gravy, my camera went all rogue on me and centered in on the tree's reflection.

17 comments:

Cara Sheppard said...

Sounds fabulous! And I love the photo of the tree reflection - What a happy accident.

Anonymous said...

What a cool photo!!!

*sigh* I love your blog and you're such a teeeease!!! Cannot WAIT for your cookbook lady!

Christine (The Raw Project) said...

Look great, can't wait for the book.

Vegan In The VI said...

Count me in as a future cookbook buyer.

Sarah S. said...

Ah, I have seen red eye gravy several times, but it is never veg friendly. Great idea to veganize this one!

jessy said...

i've never had red eye gravy before; it sounds excellent and that picture is too cool! your biscuits are the best, Bianca! i can't wait for your cookbook to come out so everyone can enjoy them - they're dan's faaaavorite!

Leslie Richman said...

Uhhh...yum! I've never had coffee gravy before.

I just cracked open a coffee-scented moisturizer from Etsy today and I am in heaven (blog post next week!).

Sheridan said...

Wow! This looks delicious!!! I'm so freakin' hungry and it's barely 11am! Argh! Ha!

Samantha Angela @ Bikini Birthday said...

I've never heard of red eye gravy. I'm not familiar with too much southern cooking.

It sounds really good though!

dreaminitvegan said...

Those biscuits look so good. Can't wait for that recipe

Jess - The Domestic Vegan said...

Ooh, love that reflection photo!

I've never heard of gravy like this! Sounds quite interesting... I'd be open to trying it for sure!

Kelly said...

Red eye gravy... hmm! Sounds intriguing.

Love the photo... how cool.

VeganIza said...

This looks very interesting, I think I'm gonna try it!

~Isa

Erin said...

I don't know that I ever had real red eye gravy, which frankly sounds gross, but yours looks very tasty! I'm totally into the idea of tofu ham.

Melisser; the Urban Housewife said...

Coffee gravy?! Whoa!

Cassie - Vegan Fox said...

I'm a gravy gal, myself, but I've never heard of coffee gravy. Sounds terrific! Guess the Missouri just isn't south enough for that one, haha.

Anonymous said...

Oh, red eye gravy! When I was still living at home, Mom and Dad always liked to eat at the Cracker Barrel and my favorite dish was ham with red eye gravy and a biscuit. I'm pretty sure it's the McDonald's of southern food but boy was it tasty! I can't wait to try yours. Thanks for sharing the recipe!