Cranberry and Star Anise Gravy

Cranberry sauce and gravy end up mixed together on almost every Christmas plate anyway. Doing it in the pan means the sharpness spreads evenly instead of arriving in cold lumps. The star anise is there for warmth, and one pod is genuinely all you need. This is a turkey gravy first and foremost, though it works with goose and with a good pork joint.

Ingredients

Makes about 700ml, enough for eight plates

• 3 tbsp fat from the turkey roasting tin
• 2 tbsp (30g) plain flour
• 900ml (1½ pints) hot turkey or chicken stock made from the giblets if you have them
• 2 tbsp cranberry sauce level, the whole berry sort if you have it
• 1 star anise whole, one pod only
• 1 tbsp port or red wine optional
• 2 tsp red wine vinegar
• salt and black pepper to taste

Kit

• Roasting tin
• Balloon whisk
• Sieve
• Large measuring jug

Method

1. Lift the turkey out to rest, which it will need a good half hour for anyway. Pour the fat off the roasting tin until about three tablespoons remain, keeping all the browned sediment.

2. Set the tin across two burners on a medium heat. Whisk in the flour and scrape the base thoroughly. Cook for two minutes, until the roux goes a shade darker and stops smelling of raw flour.

3. Add a ladle of hot stock and whisk hard, working into the corners of the tin where the best of the sediment hides. Keep going until it is smooth, then add the rest of the stock in three goes.

4. Drop in the single star anise and add the port if you are using it. Bring the gravy to a steady simmer.

5. Simmer for ten minutes, stirring occasionally. Then taste it. If you can clearly taste the star anise, fish it out now. If not, give it another five minutes and taste again.

6. Remove the star anise, no matter what. Left in, it keeps infusing and by the time the gravy reaches the table it will taste of aniseed and nothing else.

7. Stir in the cranberry sauce and let it melt through, about a minute. Add the vinegar, then season with salt and pepper and add any juices from the resting turkey.

8. Strain into a warmed jug. It should taste of turkey first, then fruit, with a faint warm spice underneath.

Tips worth knowing

• One star anise in 900ml, removed after ten to fifteen minutes. Two pods, or one left in for the whole cook, will completely dominate the gravy and there is no way of taking it back out.
• Two level tablespoons of cranberry sauce is the measure. It is already sugary, so more turns the gravy sweet and sticky and it stops working with the meat.
• Giblet stock makes a huge difference here. Brown the neck and giblets in a pan and simmer them with an onion and a carrot while the bird roasts.
• Make the base gravy the day before with stock alone if the kitchen is going to be busy, then add the cranberry, star anise and pan juices on the day.

Keeping and reheating

Keeps four days in the fridge and freezes for three months, which makes it a good one to get ahead on. Reheat gently in a pan with a splash of stock, and taste for vinegar again, it usually wants a little more after freezing.

Questions people ask