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How to make: Gravy

How to make gravy

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Gravy
26th October, 2018

Gravy is the vital part of a great roast dinner and home made gravy always tastes better than shop bought. I've outlined the basics of a gravy and also demonstrate some individuality in flavourings with liquids used to deglaze a roasting tray.

All gravies need a stock to bring them together so I've also included a simple home made stock recipe you can use offcuts of your roast to make. That's why you get gibblets with your Turkey.

Ingredients

  • Home made stock
  • 1 Onion, roughly chopped
  • 1 carrot, roughly chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, crushed
  • 1 Bay Leaf or Bouquet Garni
  • OR
  • Shop bought or Stock cube/powder
  • Other ingredients
  • Small dash of liquid to loosen (i.e. red wine/white wine, beer, brandy or even just water)
  • meat juices from roasting tray
  • 30g plain flour
  • 500mls stock (see above)

    Method

    Using offcuts (i.e. gibblets) and bones to make a stock

    Often with Turkey, Goose or Fowl you’ll get offcuts such as wing tips, offal etc which should be saved to make a stock.

    First of all you’ll need a fairly large sauce pan to hold a litre of water to make the stock.

    Add some oil and bring to a high heat and then throw in the offcuts as mentioned above and fry off to a golden colour. This helps release flavours and juices. Then add in the carrot and onion and keep this moving until the veg is browned off as well. Finally add in the garlic and fry off for another minute.

    Add a litre of boiling hot water into the pan and bring this to a robust simmer for 5 minutes. You’ll notice a lot of scum on the surface and this needs to be removed or it’ll effect the flavour of the stock. Using a spoon, chase the scum to the sides of the pan and lift out and throw away.

    You won’t get rid of all of it but try and remove as much as you can.

    Still at a simmer, add in the Bay leaf or Bouquet Garni and place the lid on the pan to seal it. Let this simmer away for about an hour before removing the lid and reducing the liquid by half so you have about 500mls of stock.

    Take off the heat, sieve out the bones and veg and leave to one side until needed.

    Making the gravy

    By now you’ve removed the meat from the roasting tray and it’s resting. This is the time to put the final touches to the gravy and bring it all together.

    Pour out the meat juices from the roasting tray and save to one side

    Put the roasting tray used to cook the meat on the hob over a medium heat and add the dash of liquid (your choice) and try and scrape up and loosen all crispy bits in the pan because they’re packed with flavour

    Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute whilst constantly stirring. You don’t want to burn the flour so you may have to take it off the heat for a bit. It should form a paste

    Back on the heat, stir in the reserved meat juices and mix well with the paste. It’ll be thick so you want to start to loosen it with your stock. Gradually add the stock now and keep stirring until you get the correct consistency

    Now remove the roasting tray from the heat and pour the contents into a sauce pan and bring this to the simmer for 10 minutes

    Season to taste and remove from the heat

    Warm through when ready to serve