Freezer Christmas Gravy Made in November

Freezing a finished gravy takes up a shelf you will want for other things in December. Freezing a concentrate takes a fraction of the space and gives you more control on the day. This one is reduced to a syrup, frozen in cubes and bags, and turned back into gravy in ten minutes with hot stock and a roux.

Ingredients

Makes about 600ml of concentrate, which makes 2 litres of finished gravy

• 2kg (4lb 8oz) turkey or chicken wings chopped through the joints
• 3 tbsp rapeseed oil
• 4 onions quartered, skin on
• 3 carrots chunked
• 3 sticks celery chunked
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• 300ml (10fl oz) dry white wine or dry sherry
• 4 litres (7 pints) cold water
• 4 bay leaves
• 8 sprigs thyme
• 1 tbsp black peppercorns
• no salt at all at this stage

Kit

• Roasting tin
• Stockpot
• Wide saucepan
• Fine sieve
• Ice cube trays
• Freezer bags

Method

1. Roast the wings with the oil at 220C (200C fan, gas 7) for forty five minutes until dark, add the vegetables and tomato puree and give them twenty five more. Deglaze the tin on the hob with the wine, scraping the base, and tip everything into a stockpot with the water, bay, thyme and peppercorns.

2. Simmer very gently, uncovered, for three hours, skimming the foam in the first fifteen minutes. Do not let it boil, and do not add salt at any point. A concentrate that is seasoned now will be uneatable once it is reduced.

3. Strain through a fine sieve into a wide pan, discard the bones and chill the liquid until the fat sets on top. Lift the fat off in a disc and keep it in a tub in the freezer, since it is excellent for roast potatoes.

4. Boil the defatted stock hard in the widest pan you own until you have about 600ml. It will take an hour or more and it goes faster as the volume drops, so stay with it at the end. You are looking for something dark, syrupy and thick enough to leave a trail on the pan base.

5. Cool it fast in a shallow tray, then chill until it sets. Properly reduced it will be a firm, rubbery jelly, almost solid. That texture is your sign it is concentrated enough.

6. Portion it. Fill two ice cube trays for small quantities, and freeze the rest flat in freezer bags in 200ml portions, laid on a tray until solid then stacked upright. Label each one with the date and what it is. It keeps six months.

7. On Christmas Day, make a roux with 60g of butter and 60g of flour, whisk in 1.4 litres of hot chicken stock, then whisk in 400ml of the thawed concentrate. Simmer for eight minutes, add the roasting tin scrapings and the resting juices, boil for a minute, then season with salt for the first time.

Tips worth knowing

• Make the concentrate, not the finished gravy. It takes a third of the freezer space and it lets you decide the thickness on the day rather than in November.
• Two cubes of this dropped into any weeknight gravy, casserole or risotto through the winter is what turns a decent dinner into a good one. Make double.
• Never salt a reduction. What tastes correct at four litres will be brine at 600ml.
• Freeze bags flat on a baking tray, then stand them up in a box like files once solid. A stack of flat bags thaws in twenty minutes in a bowl of cold water and a solid tub takes a day.

Keeping and reheating

Frozen concentrate keeps six months and does not lose much. Thaw in the fridge overnight or in a bowl of cold water. Once thawed and made into gravy, treat it as fresh: three days in the fridge, reheated once to a rolling boil, and do not refreeze it.

Questions people ask