RealGravy

Quick and Easy Gravies

Ten Minute Weeknight Gravy

A small butter and flour roux loosened with hot stock and sharpened with soy and a spoon of jelly, ready in the time it takes the sausages to rest.

  • Contains meat
  • weeknight
  • roux
  • stock cube
  • fast
Illustration of Ten Minute Weeknight Gravy
Prep
2 min
Cook
8 min
Total
10 min
Serves
4
Difficulty
Easy

This is the gravy for a Tuesday, when nobody has roasted anything and there are no pan juices to work with. It leans on a proper roux for body and on two store cupboard bottles for the savoury depth a stock cube alone cannot give you. Ten minutes, one pan, and it still tastes like somebody made it.

Ingredients

Makes about 400ml, enough for four plates

Scale

Kit

  • Small saucepan
  • Balloon whisk
  • Kettle
  • Measuring jug

Method

  1. Boil the kettle first. Everything else in this recipe waits on hot stock, so make the stock before you touch the pan and leave it sitting in the jug.

  2. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a medium heat. When it stops foaming, tip in the flour all at once and stir it into a smooth paste with a wooden spoon or the whisk.

  3. Cook the paste for a full minute, stirring the whole time. It should smell faintly like a digestive biscuit and turn the colour of wet sand. This minute is what stops the gravy tasting of raw flour, so do not rush it.

  4. Pour in about a quarter of the hot stock and whisk hard. It will seize into a thick lump, which is normal. Keep whisking until that lump is smooth before you add any more.

  5. Add the rest of the stock in two goes, whisking between each. Bring it up to a gentle simmer, where you can see the odd bubble breaking the surface, and let it tick over for three minutes to thicken.

  6. Stir in the soy sauce and the redcurrant jelly and grind in plenty of black pepper. Taste it. If it is flat, it usually wants more pepper or another quarter teaspoon of soy, not more salt.

  7. Take it off the heat and let it sit for a minute before pouring. It thickens a little as it settles, so if it goes past what you want, whisk in a splash of hot water from the kettle.

Tips worth knowing

  • The single biggest cause of lumps is cold liquid meeting hot roux. Hot stock and a whisk, added a bit at a time, will get you smooth gravy every time.
  • A stock cube is already salty and so is soy sauce, so season with pepper first and only reach for salt at the very end, after tasting.
  • If you have a splash of wine, sherry or even the last of a beer, tip a tablespoon in with the first of the stock. It gives you back some of the depth you lose by not having a roasting tin.
  • Made in a small pan, this thickens fast at the edges. Drag the whisk round the base and up the sides every so often rather than just stirring the middle.

Change it up

  • Soften a finely sliced onion in the butter for five minutes before adding the flour for a quick onion gravy, which takes the total time to about fifteen minutes.
  • Swap the soy for a teaspoon of Marmite whisked into the hot stock, which gives a rounder, maltier savouriness.
  • Use vegetable stock, a plant butter and a teaspoon of yeast extract to make the whole thing vegan without changing the method.

Keeping and reheating

Keeps for three days covered in the fridge and freezes well for three months in a tub. Reheat gently in a pan with a splash of water, whisking as it comes back up to a simmer.

Questions people ask

Can I make gravy without meat juices?

Yes, and this is the recipe for it. A butter roux gives you the body that pan fat would normally provide, and soy sauce or yeast extract stands in for the roasted flavour. It will not taste identical to a roasting tin gravy, but it is a proper gravy in its own right.

Why is my gravy lumpy?

Almost always because liquid went in too fast or too cold. Add the first splash of hot stock to the roux and whisk it to a smooth paste before adding any more. If it has already gone lumpy, push it through a sieve and carry on as though nothing happened.

How do I make gravy thicker quickly?

Let it simmer for another two or three minutes with the lid off, which reduces it and concentrates the flavour at the same time. If you are in a real hurry, stir a teaspoon of cornflour into two teaspoons of cold water and whisk that in, then simmer for a minute.