The Bestest Gravy for Roast Dinners (Stews & Sauces)

Member Name: upton66

Product:	Stews & Sauces
Date:	22/10/09 (47 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Best Ever

Disadvantages: None

I've seen so many gravy "recipes" in food magazines that look so vile yet are claimed to be the ultimate gravy I thought I better share my accompaniment to roast meats. Also, in restaurants of any type, fancy or down-to-earth they usually serve up a few teaspoons of posh "jus" which is some insipid coloured water or some poopy brown liquid that tastes artificial and unrelated to the meat it accompanies.

Note this is not a "healthy" gravy but then everything in moderation as part of a fresh balanced diet is good for you, I say.

We cook all roast meats in roaster bags to save all the cooking essential juices. With chicken a large onion is stuffed up it's b**; beef needs nothing extra; lamb has a sprig of fresh rosemary and a couple of crushed garlic cloves and pork is roasted with a couple of onions.

So when the meat is done, always let it sit for quarter of an hour whilst the oven is turned up high to give the roast potatoes a final blast.

Drain the juices from the bag into a large saucepan. Add a couple of dessertspoonfuls of self-raising flour, or just enough to blend in all the juices to a thin roux.

Add about 125ml of tomato passata, the crushed/liquidised whole tomato, not tomato juice or puree. Add a good splash, about 25ml of mushroom ketchup; have only found the one from George Watkins, and the same quantity of gravy browning; a good thick one like Crosse & Blackwell.

Now add about 150ml of cheap red plonk, we keep a stock of the cheapest red wine on offer, no more than £2.50 per bottle after discounts.

Lastly add half a teaspoon of marmite.

Then start blending in the stock, if you have it avaialable:- chicken stock for chicken, lamb and pork or beef stock for beef. If none around then use the cooking water from the carrots. If no carrots on the menu use fresh boiled water and add a couple stock concentrates like Knorr Stockpots. Don't use the water from potatoes, too starchy or from green vegetables, too strong.

Stir in enough liquid to make into the consistency you like and keep stirring it off the bottom of the pan till it boils and starts to thicken, then simmer for a few minutes.

Using the meat juices will give the right flavour for the right meat, so, no, the gravy doesn't always taste the same. Save any gravy left over into a jug and store in the fridge till the next roast.

None of this throwing away all the fat and reducing what's left till it is half the volume to concentrate the flavours nonsense. For us, it's all about making a big saucepan of gravy and enjoying a couple of big ladles over your roast meat, crunchy roast potatoes and veg and tucking in.

The healthy food brigade seems to have forgotten that some flavours only exist in fats, removing the fat from foods removes all the subtle tastes.

To balance the fact that we use all the fatty meat juices we eat no actual meat fat or skin but only because none of us physically like it, the texture or the taste, so we tend to buy the leanest cuts of beef and pork, beef topside/corner cut and pork loin pieces; lamb legs and whole chickens.

See what you make of this simple gravy.

Summary: Always in Demand by Friends & Family, Oldest to Youngest