Creamy Wholegrain Mustard Gravy

Wholegrain mustard behaves differently from smooth mustard, because the heat is locked inside the seeds and survives a bit of cooking. That means you can be much more generous with it, and this gravy uses three heaped tablespoons. It goes with gammon, sausages, roast chicken and a plate of buttery mash.

Ingredients

Makes about 400ml, enough for four plates

• 25g (1oz) butter
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 15g (1/2oz) plain flour
• 400ml (14fl oz) hot chicken stock
• 2 tsp cider vinegar
• 2 tsp runny honey
• 3 tbsp wholegrain mustard heaped
• 100ml (3 1/2fl oz) double cream
• salt and black pepper to taste

Kit

• Saucepan
• Whisk
• Measuring jug

Method

1. Melt the butter in the saucepan over a medium heat and cook the onion for seven or eight minutes until soft and just turning gold at the edges. A little colour is welcome here, unlike in most cream sauces, because it stands up to the mustard.

2. Stir in the flour and cook for a minute until it smells toasted, then add the hot stock in three lots, whisking each one smooth before the next goes in.

3. Bring it up to a simmer and cook for five minutes, whisking now and then, until it coats the whisk wires and looks glossy.

4. Add the cider vinegar and the honey and simmer for a further two minutes. Both go in now, before any dairy, since vinegar dropped into a cream sauce would split it and honey stirred in at the end would sit on top rather than blending.

5. Stir in two of the three tablespoons of mustard and let them cook in for a minute. Wholegrain mustard can take this because the pungent oils are held inside the seed coats rather than sitting loose in the liquid. Taste and season.

6. Drop the heat to its lowest and pour in the double cream. Warm it through for two minutes at a bare simmer, no more, until the sauce turns pale and thickens a shade.

7. Take it off the heat and stir in the final tablespoon of mustard. That last spoonful, uncooked, is what gives the finished gravy its sharpness and the little bursts of seed. Serve straight away.

Tips worth knowing

• Two in, one out is the rule with wholegrain mustard. Cook some for depth, hold some back for bite, and you get both instead of choosing between them.
• If you swap in smooth Dijon, it must all go in at the end off the heat. Smooth mustards have their pungent compounds loose in the mix and they turn bitter with cooking.
• Gammon and bacon are salty, so if you are serving this with either, hold back on salt entirely until the gravy is on the plate next to the meat.
• A splash of the water you boiled the gammon in, in place of some of the stock, makes this taste noticeably better. Taste it first, as it can be very salty.

Keeping and reheating

Keeps four days in the fridge, better than most cream sauces because the flour stabilises it. The mustard flavour softens overnight, so stir in another teaspoon when reheating. It freezes for two months. Reheat slowly and do not boil.

Questions people ask