This recipe was sent in by a new contributor Jeff Bull who found this site on the web and decided to join the recipe cause and who says this:
No offence to Ah Bisto!, but you will quite happily throw it away when you have tasted this wonderful rich gravy sauce. You won't even want to use it as the thickening agent. This gravy is intentionally almost a soup; in fact a good test of whether you?ve got it right is to taste it and imagine having a bowl full with a nice bread roll! A poor gravy on good food will ruin the good food. A good gravy on food that is not quite as good as you'd like, will hide a multitude of sins!
Ingredients:
Liquids | | Strong black tea (as browning). | | Red wine. | Essential ingredients | | Chopped chicken carcass. | | Chopped carrot. | | Chopped parsnip or sweet potato. | | Chopped onion or leak. | | Chopped Clove of garlic. | | Chopped or dried mushroom. | | A pinch of your favourite dried herbs | | Stock cubes | | 1x Chicken/Beef/Lamb oxo, as appropriate. | | 1x Vegetable oxo. | | 1x Italian herbs oxo. | Seasonings (to taste) | | Black pepper. | | A little salt. | | Mushroom ketchup. | | Worcester sauce. | | Balsamic vinegar. | | Dark soy sauce. | |
Thickening agent (optional)
A little plain flour, or as I prefer, a little of the Yorkshire pudding batter.
Method
- Put the liquids into a saucepan with the essential ingredients, bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes. Add more of the liquids gradually, to maintain the volume required.
- Remove from the heat and pass through a sieve to remove the carcass and vegetables; allow the sieved solids to drain thoroughly; discard the solids.
- Return the liquid to the saucepan and crumble in the stock cubes.
- Add the seasonings to taste ? and I mean TASTE; some of the seasonings are quite powerful and should not be allowed to dominate the flavour.
- If you like to thicken your gravy sauce, add the thickening agent now.
- Return the liquid to the heat, bring it back to the boil stirring continuously; then turn the heat down to very low and simmer for another 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Jeff le Chef's Tips
- Experiment with the mix/quantity of Essential Ingredients to create your own variations, to your own taste and preference.
- More often than not when I do a roast dinner, I get the gravy cooking first of all. If you?re going to leave it to the last minute, use the Bisto.
