Cornflour Gravy in Five Minutes

A roux takes a couple of minutes to cook out and needs a bit of attention. Cornflour skips all of that and thickens the moment the liquid boils. The trade off is honest, you lose the nutty, biscuity flavour that a browned roux gives you, and the gravy sets more jelly like as it cools. In exchange you get five minutes and a gravy that anyone avoiding gluten can eat.

Ingredients

Makes about 400ml, enough for four plates

• 450ml (16fl oz) hot stock check the cube or bouillon is gluten free
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• 3 tbsp cold water
• 1 tbsp tamari or gluten free soy sauce
• 20g (¾oz) butter cold, for finishing
• ½ tsp cider vinegar
• black pepper to taste

Kit

• Small saucepan
• Whisk
• Small bowl or cup
• Kettle

Method

1. Put the stock and the tamari into a small saucepan and bring it to a proper rolling boil over a high heat. Unlike a roux gravy, this one needs the liquid genuinely boiling before the thickener goes in.

2. While it heats, stir the cornflour into the cold water in a cup until there is not a speck of dry powder left and it pours like single cream. Cold water only. Hot water sets cornflour into lumps on contact.

3. Stir the slurry again right before you use it, because cornflour drops to the bottom of the cup within about thirty seconds of you turning your back.

4. Pour the slurry into the boiling stock in a thin stream while whisking. It goes cloudy for a couple of seconds, then clears and thickens visibly. This takes about fifteen seconds.

5. Keep it at a simmer for a further minute so the starch cooks out properly. Undercooked cornflour has a chalky taste that is hard to place but easy to notice.

6. Take the pan off the heat and whisk in the cold butter until it has melted in. This is doing two jobs, adding richness and adding gloss, and it is the step that stops cornflour gravy tasting lean.

7. Finish with the vinegar and plenty of black pepper. Taste before adding salt, because tamari and stock together are usually enough.

8. Pour it while it is hot. Cornflour gravy sets more firmly than flour gravy as it cools, so it does not sit around happily on the side.

Tips worth knowing

• One tablespoon of cornflour thickens roughly 450ml of liquid to a pouring gravy. Use two if you want it thick enough to sit on a plate without running.
• Do not boil it hard for more than a couple of minutes after thickening. Cornflour breaks down under prolonged heat and the gravy will thin out again with no way back.
• Acid also weakens cornflour, so add the vinegar or any lemon at the very end rather than at the start.
• If you need it dairy free as well as gluten free, use a good olive oil instead of the butter and whisk it in the same way.

Keeping and reheating

Two days in the fridge, where it will set to a wobbly jelly. That is normal. Reheat gently with a splash of water and whisk it smooth. It does not freeze well, as the starch separates and weeps on thawing.

Questions people ask