FYI roasts

Ray McVinnie’s five steps to gravy

1 Once you’ve removed the roast, skim off most of the fat from the roasting dish, but don’t remove the meat juices. A little fat will add flavour and richness. Get rid of anything burnt as this will make the gravy bitter. 2 Place the dish over a moderate heat and as it boils add wine to deglaze and lift the crisp bits stuck to the dish. As it boils, scrape the pan with a wooden spoon to dislodge and dissolve the bits stuck to the dish. Boil for a minute to cook out the raw alcohol flavour. If you have no wine, use water or stock. 3 Then add water or stock to make up the volume of the gravy. Don’t add too much, better to have a small amount of well-flavoured gravy then a lot of tasteless liquid. Bring to the boil and simmer a minute or two. 4 Taste the gravy and add any appropriate flavouring. A little soy sauce will appetisingly darken the gravy and add a savoury umami flavour but don’t add enough to make it taste like soy sauce. You may want to add something tart like a little balsamic vinegar, which goes well with roast meat, but again not enough to dominate the flavour. Or you could add something sweet like redcurrant jelly for lamb, pork or game, but again not too much. Check the roast and add any juices that have seeped out of the roast to the gravy. 5 A thin well-flavoured gravy based on wine and meat juices is often all you need but if I want to thicken it I don’t add flour at the beginning, as my mother would have. I stir in a thin slurry of cornflour mixed with cold water (one part cornflour to two parts cold water). A little at a time. Again not too much because any thickening will cut the flavour. I prefer to thicken with cornflour at the end of the process as you have more control over how thick it will be and the consistency is lighter than gravy thickened with flour. I like gravy to be the consistency of liquid cream. Boil gently for a couple of minutes to cook the cornflour then taste, and season with salt and pepper.