This is the recipe that started it all. Get Ahead Gravy for Christmas, I have made this so many times and it is always amazing and really rounds off the meal.
I make this recipe weeks ahead of the event, partly to make sure there is plenty of gravy for the main event and also cos the smell of it cooking just fills the house with warming loveliness that eases into the season nicely.
| Cook Time | 2 hours |
| Passive Time | 1.5 hours |
| Servings |
Litre
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Ingredients
- 2 onions
- 2 carrots
- 2 sticks of celery
- 2 rashers of streaky bacon
- 2 fresh bay leaves
- 2 sprigs of fresh sage
- 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
- 2 star anise
- 10 free-range chicken wings
- olive oil
- 60 ml sherry or port optional
- 4 tablespoons plain flour
- 2 tablespoons Cranberry sauce
Ingredients
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Instructions
- Put the oven on to 180ºC/350ºF. Get your onions peeled and make sure the carrots are clean before chopping them both into chunks. Grab your celery and roughly chop them in to similar size pieces along with the chopped up bacon. Throw all the veg in to a deep-ish roasting tray with the herbs and star anise and the bacon. Bash your chicken wings with a good knife or something heavy and sturdy like the back of a cleaver or rolling pin. This allows all the flavour inside the wings to ooze out and mingle with the rest to intensify the flavour...and it helps cooking quicker. Add the wings to the tray and season with the salt and pepper and drizzle over the olive oil, next get your hands in and mix it all up so things are nice and coated with seasoning and oil. Put the tray in the oven for an hour or so, check it then to see if the meat has cooked or leave in a little longer. The smell in your kitchen is immense!
- Take the tray out of the oven and put it on the hob, on a low-ish heat. Now you need to grab your masher and start squashing and grinding it all up. The tray will be hot and the hob will be hot so have a tea towel to hold the pan unless you have asbestos fingers. Make sure to scrape all the sticky bits from the bottom of the pan, the idea is to get things nice an carmalised. The longer you kind of fry it in the tray the darker the gravy will be. You should end up with a kind of vegetable and chicken-ey mash. Add the sherry or port if you want to and let it cook of for a few minute, its up to you. Get your flour and sprinkle it over and mix it in to the chicken-ey mass. Now pour in two litres of boiling water and stir in, Let it all simmer for a good half hour, stirring occasional to make sure it doesn't stick letting it reduce and thicken.
- Now its the consistency that you like it (some people like thin gravy, others thick), pour it through a quite a coarse sieve into another saucepan or bowl. This is the hardest part of the recipe work-wise, make sure you push and squeeze the mix with a ladle or the back of spoon to extract as much gravy loveliness as possible. Give it a final taste season if needed. Put it in containers or seal-able freezer bags and let cool before putting in the freezer ready for the big day. The basis of your gravy is done!
- When it comes time to use your gravy, get it defrosted and when the turkey has been cooked and is resting skim off the fat from the tray. This will leave all that turkey goodness in the roasting tray, put it on the hob, pour in your gravy base to de-glaze and stir to get all the bits of flavour mingling together. If you want, you can now add the cranberry sauce to give a little more Christmas zing.
- When bubbling nicely pour through a sieve in to a pan to catch the last bits, leave on the lowest heat until ready to use. Just before serving add in any of the turkey juices. Mmmmm gravy!
Recipe Notes
This is how I do it, and it works time and time again. You don't really have to wait for Christmas for this either, after all gravy is for life, not just for Christmas.
Hi – Merry Christmas from Melbourne, Australia!
I love the idea of your Get Ahead Gravy Day. Such a time saver on a busy kitchen day.
So, how can I adjust your amazing gravy to suit our menu? There is not a Turkey or Chicken in sight.
We will be doing a very Aussie Christmas:
* Fresh Chilled Prawns
* Roast Pork Loin & Crackling
* BBQ slow cooked marinated garlic, rosemary lemon Leg Lamb
* Chemical free, organic half Leg Ham
* Roast veg
* Variety of Salads
* Home Garlic Bread
* Rum Sago Plum Pudding, Brandy Cream Sweet Bechamal
* Pavlova with Strawberries and Icecream
How can I pre-prepare the gravy to work with pork and lamb?
Thank you for all your ongoing inspiration, and for taking the mystery out of preparing flavoursome food.
Warm regards
Arlieal-Isa Hill