Gravy from Bouillon Powder

The advantage of powder over a cube is precision. You can add half a teaspoon at a time and taste as you go, which means you can build the savoury level to exactly where you want it rather than being stuck with whatever a whole cube gives you. Most bouillon is also lighter and less aggressively salty than a cube, so there is more room to season.

Ingredients

Makes about 450ml, enough for four plates

• 30g (1oz) butter
• 2 tbsp (25g) plain flour
• 500ml (18fl oz) hot water
• 3 tsp vegetable or chicken bouillon powder added in stages, see the method
• 1 tsp tomato puree
• ½ tsp cider vinegar
• black pepper to taste

Kit

• Small saucepan
• Whisk
• Measuring spoons
• Kettle

Method

1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a medium heat, stir in the tomato puree and cook it for thirty seconds until it darkens and loses its raw smell.

2. Add the flour and stir to a paste. Cook it for a minute and a half, longer than you would for a beef gravy, because bouillon gives you a pale liquid and this is your chance to get some colour into the pan.

3. Whisk in a third of the hot water. Note that this is plain water at this stage, not stock. The whole point of powder is that you add the flavour afterwards, in stages, once you can taste what you have got.

4. Add the rest of the water, whisk smooth and bring it to a simmer. Let it cook for three minutes to thicken.

5. Now start adding the bouillon powder, one teaspoon at a time, whisking each in and tasting before you add the next. Two teaspoons is usually enough, three makes a strong gravy, and you may well stop at two and a half.

6. Simmer for a further two minutes once you are happy with the strength, which lets the powder dissolve completely and takes the powdery edge off.

7. Off the heat, add the vinegar and plenty of pepper. Because bouillon is generally less salty than a cube, this is one of the few quick gravies that might actually want a pinch of salt, so taste properly before deciding.

8. If it has thickened past what you want, whisk in hot water rather than more bouillon liquid, otherwise the seasoning creeps up without you noticing.

Tips worth knowing

• Add powder to the thickened gravy, not to the water at the start. Once flour and butter are in, the gravy tastes different, and seasoning after that point is the only way to get it right.
• Bouillon powders vary hugely in salt. A vegetable powder is usually fairly gentle, some catering powders are ferocious, so taste yours on a fingertip before you start.
• Powder clumps in hot liquid if you dump it in. Sprinkle it across the surface from a spoon while whisking.
• Keep the tub sealed and dry. Bouillon powder draws in moisture and turns into a solid brick in a damp cupboard, at which point it is very hard to measure accurately.

Keeping and reheating

Four days in the fridge, three months in the freezer. It reheats very cleanly. If it tastes weak after freezing, which sometimes happens, a quarter teaspoon of fresh bouillon whisked in as it warms fixes it.

Questions people ask