New Year Beef Wellington Gravy

The problem with Wellington is that all the juices stay inside the pastry, which is the whole point of it. So the sauce has to be made separately, and it has to be a jus rather than a thick gravy or it will turn the pastry soggy on the plate. Buy beef trimmings or a cheap piece of shin and make it two days before New Year's Eve.

Ingredients

Makes about 400ml, a generous spoonful per plate

• 1kg (2lb 4oz) beef bones and trimmings marrow bones and shin, cut small
• 2 tbsp rapeseed oil
• 4 shallots sliced
• 1 carrot sliced
• 1 stick celery sliced
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 250ml (9fl oz) Madeira
• 250ml (9fl oz) full bodied red wine
• 1.5 litres (2 3/4 pints) cold water or unsalted beef stock
• 4 sprigs thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 40g (1 1/2oz) cold butter cubed
• sea salt and black pepper

Kit

• Heavy roasting tin
• Large saucepan
• Fine sieve
• Muslin or a clean tea towel
• Small pan

Method

1. Heat the oven to 230C (210C fan, gas 8). Spread the bones and trimmings in a heavy tin with the oil and roast for forty five minutes, turning twice, until they are dark brown and the tin base is coated in a sticky brown crust. Pale bones give you a pale sauce and there is no rescuing it later.

2. Add the shallots, carrot and celery to the tin, stir them through the fat and roast for another fifteen minutes. Stir the tomato puree through and give it five minutes more so it darkens and loses its raw edge.

3. Tip everything into a saucepan. Put the tin on the hob, pour in the Madeira and the wine, and boil hard while you scrape every bit of the crust off the base. Reduce by half, then pour it into the saucepan with the bones.

4. Add the water, thyme and bay and bring it up very slowly. When it starts to move, drop it to the barest tremble and skim carefully. Do not let it boil at any point, that is what makes a jus cloudy. Cook for two hours uncovered.

5. Strain through a fine sieve into a clean pan, then strain again through muslin or a clean tea towel laid in the sieve. That second pass is the difference between a good sauce and a restaurant one.

6. Boil the strained liquid hard until you have about 400ml and it has gone glossy enough to leave a thin film on the back of a spoon. Taste as it reduces, because it concentrates salt as well as flavour, which is why the stock should be unsalted.

7. Cool and chill until New Year's Eve. On the night, reheat it to a simmer while the Wellington rests its fifteen minutes, then take it off the heat and whisk in the cold butter a cube at a time until it turns shiny and slightly thicker. Season and serve immediately in a small jug.

Tips worth knowing

• Never boil a jus. A hard boil emulsifies fat and fine particles into the liquid and you will never get it clear again. Barely trembling for two hours beats a rolling boil for one.
• The butter goes in off the heat at the last minute and the sauce must not boil afterwards or it will split. Do this after the Wellington comes out, not before.
• Ask a butcher for beef bones in mid December. Come the twenty ninth they will have gone and you will be paying supermarket prices for shin.
• Serve it in a small jug and pour it beside the Wellington slice, not over it. Sauce poured on top turns the crisp pastry lid to paper in seconds.

Keeping and reheating

The unfinished jus, before the butter, keeps four days in the fridge and three months in the freezer. It sets to a firm jelly, which is a good sign. Never add the butter before storing, and never reheat a buttered jus, it splits. Reheat, then mount with butter each time.

Questions people ask