Sticky Balsamic and Fig Gravy

Figs bring sugar and a slight graininess that thickens a gravy on its own, and balsamic brings the acid that stops the whole thing being cloying. The two together taste older and more serious than the sum of them. This is the gravy for roast pork belly, duck, gammon or a plate of sausages you want to make a fuss of.

Ingredients

Makes about 500ml, enough for six plates

• 1 tbsp olive oil or pork fat
• 1 red onion sliced
• 6 (about 90g) soft dried figs stalks removed, chopped
• 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar an ordinary supermarket one is fine here
• 600ml (1 pint) hot chicken or pork stock
• 1 sprig of thyme
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard optional, adds Mustard as an allergen
• salt and black pepper to taste

Kit

• Saucepan
• Stick blender
• Fine sieve
• Wooden spoon

Method

1. Heat the oil in a saucepan and cook the red onion over a medium heat for ten minutes, stirring every couple of minutes, until it is soft and has gone properly sweet and dark at the edges.

2. Add the chopped figs and the thyme sprig and stir them around for two minutes so they warm through and start to give off their sugars.

3. Pour in the balsamic vinegar and let it bubble hard for one minute. It will smell sharp and slightly harsh, which is the point, most of that will cook off.

4. Add the hot stock, bring to a simmer, and cook uncovered for fifteen to twenty minutes. The figs need to go completely soft and the liquid should reduce by about a quarter.

5. Pull out the thyme sprig. Blend the gravy with a stick blender, keeping the head fully submerged, until it is as smooth as it is going to get. It will be noticeably thick, which is the fig doing the work of flour.

6. Push it through a fine sieve into a clean pan, pressing the pulp hard with the back of a ladle. There will be some grainy seed left behind and you want that gone.

7. Warm it through and check the consistency. It is usually too thick at this stage, so loosen with hot stock a splash at a time until it pours properly off a spoon.

8. Stir in the mustard if you are using it, then season. Balsamic and figs are both sweet, so this needs more salt than you would expect. Taste, salt, taste again.

Tips worth knowing

• Three tablespoons of ordinary balsamic in 600ml is right. Do not use aged balsamic from a small expensive bottle, it is sweeter and syrupy and you will end up with a pudding sauce.
• Six figs is the limit. Eight and the gravy sets to a jam when it cools and needs so much stock to loosen that you lose the flavour.
• Sieving is not optional if you want it smooth. Fig seeds are tiny but they give a sandy texture that people notice straight away.
• If it tastes too sweet on the plate, salt is nearly always the answer before more vinegar. Sweetness and low salt are easy to confuse.

Keeping and reheating

Keeps five days in the fridge, which is longer than most gravies because of the sugar and acid. It sets solid when cold. Freezes for three months. Reheat with a good splash of stock and whisk it back to a pouring consistency.

Questions people ask