Gravy for Instant Mash

Instant mash has a specific problem. It is smooth, mild and a bit sweet, and a normal gravy poured over it just sits there being polite. Push the seasoning and the acidity up, keep the gravy slightly thinner so it sinks in rather than sitting on top, and the whole plate improves. No snobbery here, packet mash on a Wednesday is a perfectly reasonable thing to eat.

Ingredients

Makes about 500ml, deliberately generous

• 25g (1oz) butter
• 1½ tbsp (20g) plain flour slightly less than usual so it stays pourable
• 550ml (19fl oz) hot stock made a touch stronger than the packet says
• 2 tsp wholegrain mustard
• 2 tsp cider or malt vinegar
• 1 tsp onion granules
• plenty of black pepper more than you think

Kit

• Small saucepan
• Whisk
• Kettle

Method

1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a medium heat and stir in the onion granules. Give them thirty seconds in the hot fat, which wakes them up considerably.

2. Add the flour and cook the paste for a minute. There is deliberately less flour here than in most of these recipes, because instant mash is already smooth and thick and a thick gravy on top of it makes for a very heavy plate.

3. Pour in a third of the hot stock and whisk to a smooth paste, then add the rest and whisk again.

4. Bring it to a simmer and cook for three minutes only. You are aiming for something that runs off a spoon in a stream rather than dropping off in blobs, so it can soak into the mash instead of sliding across the top of it.

5. Off the heat, stir in the mustard and the vinegar. That is a lot more acid than most gravies get, and it is doing a specific job, cutting through the mild sweetness of the potato flakes.

6. Season with a genuinely heavy hand on the pepper. Taste it on its own and it should be a touch too sharp and a touch too peppery. On the mash it will land exactly right.

7. Make the mash while the gravy simmers, and make it with the smaller amount of liquid the packet offers if there is a choice, so it is firm enough to hold a well in the middle for the gravy.

Tips worth knowing

• Taste the gravy expecting it to be slightly too much on its own. Bland food needs an assertive sauce, and a gravy balanced in isolation will disappear on packet mash.
• Make the mash slightly stiffer than the packet suggests. It holds a well better and there is plenty of liquid coming from the gravy.
• A knob of butter and a good grinding of pepper stirred into the mash itself is worth as much as anything you do to the gravy.
• Instant mash is often quite salty already, so taste both before you add salt to either.

Keeping and reheating

Three days in the fridge and three months in the freezer. Being on the thin side it reheats very easily. If it has thickened in the fridge, which it will, thin it back out with water rather than serving it thick.

Questions people ask