Marmalade and Ginger Gravy

Marmalade is sugar, acid and bitterness in one jar, which is three of the four things a rich meat gravy wants. Use a proper bitter Seville rather than a sweet thin cut and you get a gravy with a real edge to it. This is for glazed gammon, roast duck or pork belly, anything with a fat layer that needs cutting through.

Ingredients

Makes about 450ml, enough for four plates

• 1 tbsp duck fat, pork fat or oil
• 1 banana shallot finely chopped
• 15g fresh ginger peeled and finely grated
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 500ml (18fl oz) hot chicken or ham stock if using ham stock, taste before adding salt
• 2 tbsp Seville orange marmalade level, the bitter thick cut sort
• 2 tsp dark soy sauce
• 2 tsp cider vinegar
• black pepper to taste

Kit

• Saucepan
• Fine grater
• Balloon whisk
• Sieve

Method

1. Warm the fat in a saucepan over a medium heat. Add the shallot and cook for three minutes until soft, then add the grated ginger and cook for one minute more, until the kitchen smells strongly of it.

2. Scatter in the flour and stir it through. Cook for a minute so the flour loses its rawness, keeping everything moving so the ginger does not catch and turn bitter.

3. Pour in a third of the hot stock, whisking hard until the paste has gone smooth, then add the rest and bring it to a simmer.

4. Simmer for five minutes, whisking now and then, until it thickens enough to leave a trail behind the whisk.

5. Stir in the marmalade and let it dissolve completely, about a minute. If the peel is in big pieces it will still be visible, which is fine, you are going to sieve it.

6. Add the soy sauce and the vinegar, then take it off the heat. Taste it. It should be savoury with a bitter orange note arriving after, not jammy. If it is too sweet, another teaspoon of vinegar sorts it.

7. Push the gravy through a sieve into a warm jug, pressing on the peel to get everything out. Grind in black pepper and serve.

Tips worth knowing

• Two level tablespoons is the ceiling for 500ml. Marmalade is mostly sugar and a third spoonful turns the gravy into a glaze, which is fine on a ham but wrong in a jug.
• Bitter thick cut marmalade is what makes this work. A sweet fine cut just makes the gravy sugary without the bitter backbone that cuts fat.
• If you are serving this with gammon, taste before you add any salt at all. Ham stock and soy together can get very salty very quickly.
• Grate the ginger on a fine grater rather than chopping it. You want the juice through the whole gravy, not fibrous shreds in the sieve.

Keeping and reheating

Keeps four days in the fridge and freezes for three months. The ginger gets slightly stronger overnight, which is no bad thing. Reheat gently with a splash of water.

Questions people ask