Single Portion Gravy

Making gravy for one is not just a quarter of a recipe for four. Small volumes reduce faster, catch more easily and go cold in the time it takes to walk to the table. This is written for a single portion from the start, with a shorter simmer and a bigger proportion of fat so it still feels like a proper gravy rather than a sad puddle.

Ingredients

Makes about 120ml, one generous ladleful

• 10g (⅓oz) butter
• 2 tsp plain flour
• 150ml (5fl oz) hot stock half a cube in a mug of boiling water
• ½ tsp dark soy sauce
• ¼ tsp brown sauce or a scrap of redcurrant jelly
• black pepper to taste

Kit

• Smallest saucepan you have, ideally 14cm
• Small whisk or fork
• Mug

Method

1. Use the smallest pan in the cupboard. A single portion in a big pan spreads out into a thin layer and either burns or evaporates before it thickens, and this is the main reason small gravies go wrong.

2. Melt the butter over a low to medium heat. Low, because 10g of butter in a small pan browns and then burns in well under a minute if you turn your back.

3. Stir in the flour and cook it for forty five seconds, moving it constantly. In a pan this small you are working with about a teaspoon of paste, so it cooks out much faster than a full batch.

4. Pour in about a third of the hot stock and whisk it smooth. Then add the rest and whisk again.

5. Bring it to a gentle simmer and cook for just two minutes. Resist the urge to give it the usual four or five, because 150ml reduces alarmingly fast and you will end up with about three tablespoons of very thick gravy.

6. Stir in the soy sauce and the brown sauce or jelly, then pepper it. Taste. Half a stock cube in 150ml is a strong stock, so it will probably need nothing else.

7. Pour it out immediately into something warm. A single portion loses heat far faster than a jugful, so warm the plate under the hot tap first if you want it to still be hot when you sit down.

Tips worth knowing

• The ratio here is deliberately fattier than a big batch. Small quantities need proportionally more fat to still taste rich, because there is less liquid carrying the flavour.
• If your smallest pan is still too big, use a milk pan or even a small frying pan, which at least concentrates the heat under a small pool.
• Warm the plate. It sounds fussy for a meal for one but it is the difference between hot gravy and lukewarm gravy in under two minutes.
• Half a stock cube is easier to judge if you crumble the whole cube into a jar and use a level teaspoon of the crumbs.

Keeping and reheating

Honestly, just eat it. If you do have some left it will keep two days in the fridge, but reheating 50ml of gravy is fiddly and it will reduce further. If you regularly cook for one, make a bigger batch and freeze it in ice cube trays instead, then melt three or four cubes at a time.

Questions people ask