Brandy Cream Peppercorn Gravy

This is the peppercorn sauce for a Sunday rather than a steak night. It is built in the roasting tin on the back of the meat juices, thickened with flour so it stretches to feed six, and it uses pink peppercorns alongside the black for a fruitier, gentler heat. There is more gravy and less reduction, which is exactly what a roast needs.

Ingredients

Makes about 550ml, enough for six plates

• 3 tbsp fat and juices from the roasting tin or butter if you have none
• 1 shallot finely chopped
• 2 tsp black peppercorns roughly crushed
• 2 tsp pink peppercorns lightly crushed, they are soft and break easily
• 25g (1oz) plain flour
• 4 tbsp brandy
• 500ml (18fl oz) hot beef or chicken stock to match the roast
• 1 tsp redcurrant jelly
• 100ml (3 1/2fl oz) double cream
• salt to taste at the end

Kit

• The roasting tin
• Balloon whisk
• Pestle and mortar
• Sieve

Method

1. Crush the black peppercorns coarsely in a mortar, then add the pink ones and press rather than pound. Pink peppercorns are hollow and fragile, and hammering them turns them to dust and loses the fruitiness that is the point of using them.

2. Rest the joint on a board. Pour off all but three tablespoons of fat from the tin, keeping the dark residue, and set the tin over one or two hob rings on a medium heat.

3. Add the shallot and both lots of pepper and cook for three minutes, scraping the base of the tin constantly with a wooden spoon so the roasted residue lifts and dissolves into the fat.

4. Sprinkle in the flour and stir it to a paste. Cook it for a full minute, still scraping, until it darkens a shade and stops smelling floury.

5. Take the tin off the heat, pour in the brandy, then set it back on and let it bubble hard for a minute until it is almost gone. Never pour spirits into a pan sitting over a flame.

6. Add the hot stock a third at a time, whisking hard after each addition until smooth. Bring it to a simmer and cook for five minutes, whisking now and then, until it is glossy and coats the whisk. Stir in the redcurrant jelly, then taste and season.

7. Turn the heat right down, pour in the double cream and warm it through for two minutes without boiling. Strain through a sieve into a warm jug if you want it smooth, or leave the pepper in for the look of it, and add any juices from the resting board at the last moment.

Tips worth knowing

• Pink peppercorns are not really pepper at all, they are a dried berry, and they bring a resinous, slightly sweet note rather than heat. Use them alongside black rather than instead of it.
• This gravy is flour thickened rather than reduced, which means you can make more of it and it will not break if it sits in a warm jug for ten minutes while everyone finds their seats.
• Keep the cream quantity modest at 100ml in 550ml of gravy. It should still taste of the roast, with the cream rounding the pepper rather than taking over.
• If it thickens too much while it waits, whisk in a splash of hot stock. Adding water dilutes the flavour, adding stock does not.

Keeping and reheating

Keeps three days in the fridge and freezes for three months, better than most cream sauces because the flour holds it together. Reheat in a pan with a splash of stock, whisking as it comes back up, and take it off before it boils.

Questions people ask