Living through a pandemic has some similarities to living in the 1800s, I would imagine. Think about it: right now grocery store supplies are questionable, and back then there weren't even grocery stores. Now we don't want to venture out into public, back then it took a day long buggy ride or multi mile walk to get into town. In both situations, cooking with simple ingredients that we have on hand and are stable are key — like this tomato gravy over rice recipe.
This recipe comes from Dutch Fork Cookery. When I was a kid, my mom made a tomatoes and rice dish that I always loved and she now doesn't remember making. After I moved out I tried to replicate it and never did. In my memory it was as simple as spiced, canned tomatoes over rice, but also it wasn't, because I tried that to no success. When I saw this recipe in the cookbook, I knew that it wasn't quite it, as the version in my memory didn't include cream, but it still looked like a worthy one to try.
While it wasn't what I was looking for still, it was an excellent meal, a good accompanying dish to a vegetable and a meat main entree, perhaps a simple meal on its own (or I'd pair it with freshly steamed green peas). Sometimes you need a dinner that consists of very few components and can be made in the time that it takes the Instant Pot to take a batch of rice from dry to fluffy. I am so glad I wasn't born in the 1800s, it sounds pretty terrible. So in that way, living through a pandemic in all of its own troubles, has got to be better than living back then. We still need to eat, so let's get to the recipe.
Tomato Gravy Over Rice
Ingredients
- 2-3 tbsp flour
- 1 14.5 oz can petite diced tomatoes
- 3-4 tbsp bacon grease
- 2 cups whole milk
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- If you don't already have bacon drippings, place three to four pieces of bacon in a cold skillet. Heat the bacon over medium high heat and cook until your desired crispness, turning to cook both sides. Remove the bacon and set aside, take pan off of heat.
- Let the bacon grease cool for about five minutes, and measure out 3-4 tablespoons. Save the rest in a lidded mason jar for later.
- Return the measured grease to the same skillet, and heat over medium heat. Once hot, add the flour and mix well to make a roux.
- Add the tomatoes once you have a thick paste and stir, cooking until the tomatoes are tender and begin to break down, about 5-10 minutes.
- Slowly drizzle in the milk, incorporating slowly, until the gravy is your desired thickness. This may not take all of the milk. Heat for two more minutes and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve the hot gravy over freshly cooked white rice, and garnish with additional cherry tomatoes, salt and pepper, and chives as desired. Another serving suggestion in the cookbook is over hot biscuits.
So while I hope the pandemic portion of this blog post isn't applicable too much farther in the future, it's always a good idea to have a few simple meals up our sleeves. I especially think that once people (myself included) have to go back into the office and realize just how much time it sucks out of our lives having to commute and prepare to be away from our homes, we're all going to need simple meals to turn towards.
Even though the first two weeks of working from home for me was truly some of the hardest I've worked with having to get a lot of web content up on my company's website, I still had time and energy at the end of the day. It was and still is, so nice to have mental and physical capacity to devote to my interests and needs after a very long day. There's just something about being stuck in an office under florescent lights and always open to interruptions that can put you on edge enough that it saps your last bit of willpower to come home and dedicate some time to creating good things and feelings for yourself. No matter where you are in your life when you read this recipe, I hope its simplicity and deliciousness gives you comfort and joy in the small things.
See other favorites I've made from Dutch Fork Cookery, like German Leek Soup and syllabub.