Giblet Free Thanksgiving Gravy

Plenty of people cannot face giblets, and a lot of supermarket turkeys arrive without them anyway. Roasted turkey wings give you the same dark, gelatinous depth with none of the liver flavour that puts people off. The real advantage is that you can make the whole thing days ahead and simply whisk the roasting juices in on the day.

Ingredients

Makes about 1.2 litres, enough for ten servings

• 1.2kg (2¾lb) turkey wings chopped through the joints, a butcher will do this
• 2 tbsp rapeseed oil
• 2 onions quartered
• 2 carrots chunked
• 2 sticks celery chunked
• 1 leek washed and sliced, the green part is fine
• 150ml (5fl oz) dry white wine
• 2 litres (3½ pints) cold water
• 4 sprigs thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 60g (2¼oz) butter
• 60g (2¼oz) plain flour
• salt and black pepper to taste

Kit

• Roasting tin
• Large saucepan
• Sieve
• Balloon whisk
• Fat separator or jug

Method

1. Heat the oven to 220C (fan 200C, gas 7). Toss the turkey wings with the oil, spread them out in a roasting tin and roast for fifty minutes, turning once, until they are deep mahogany brown. Add the vegetables for the last twenty minutes.

2. Tip everything into a large saucepan. Put the tin over a hob ring, pour in the wine and let it bubble for a minute while you scrape all the brown off the base, then add that to the pan.

3. Cover with the cold water, add the thyme and bay, and bring slowly to the boil. Skim the scum off, then drop it to a bare simmer and leave it uncovered for an hour and a half.

4. Strain into a jug, pressing the solids gently. Let it stand for ten minutes and skim off the fat. You want around 1.2 litres of stock, so if you have more, boil it down, and if you have less, top it up with water.

5. Melt the butter in a clean saucepan and whisk in the flour. Cook over a medium heat for three to four minutes until it turns the colour of a digestive biscuit and smells nutty. This is a browner roux than you would use for a white sauce.

6. Add the hot stock a ladle at a time, whisking each one completely smooth before the next. Bring to a simmer and cook for twelve minutes until it coats a spoon.

7. Season carefully and cool it down. At this point it will keep in the fridge for three days or in the freezer for three months, which is the whole reason for making it this way.

8. On the day, reheat it gently, then whisk in the strained, defatted juices from the turkey roasting tin. Two hundred millilitres of those juices will lift the whole thing. Check the seasoning one last time and pour.

Tips worth knowing

• Turkey wings are the best value part of the bird for stock. They have skin, bone and collagen in the right proportions, and unlike necks they are on the shelf in most supermarkets.
• Make this a week ahead and freeze it flat in a bag. Thawing takes an hour in a sink of warm water on the day and it frees your hob at the worst possible moment.
• Hold back the seasoning until the roasting juices go in. A brined or salted turkey throws off very salty juices and a fully seasoned gravy has nowhere left to go.
• If your finished gravy is paler than you want, a teaspoon of dark soy sauce darkens it without changing the taste. Purists will grumble and nobody at the table will notice.

Keeping and reheating

Keeps four days in the fridge and freezes for three months, which is the point of the recipe. Reheat gently in a pan, whisking, with a splash of water if it has set too firm. Add the roasting juices only after reheating.

Questions people ask