Chef Thomas
Anchovy Sauce
A proper white sauce sharpened with pounded anchovy, the old Georgian trick for waking up a piece of poached fish or a slice of roast lamb on a Sunday in spring.
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Red Wine Gravy
Created by Chef Thomas
A deep, glossy gravy built on red wine and proper stock, the kind you make when a Sunday roast deserves something grander than the usual and the table is set for people you're glad to feed.
Sauces & Condiments
British
Dinner Party
Special Occasion
10 min
Active Time
35 min cook•45 min total
Yield6 servings (about 500ml)
There's a particular kind of Sunday that asks for this gravy. A cold one, usually. The windows have fogged over from whatever's been in the oven for the last two hours, the roast is resting on a board under its foil tent, and the kitchen smells of beef fat and thyme and something good about to happen. That's when you make a red wine gravy. Not the weeknight kind, spooned from a jug without ceremony, but the kind that earns its place on a table set for people you're glad to feed.
The bones of it are simple. A good wine, reduced hard until the raw edge has blown off and what's left smells dark and slightly jammy. Proper stock, ideally one you made yourself from a carcass and a long afternoon. The sticky brown bits left in the roasting tin, which are not to be wasted or washed away. Shallots softened slowly in butter. A bit of flour to hold it all together. Nothing clever. A recipe is a conversation, not a contract.
The wine matters more than people pretend. Use something you'd drink. Not the dusty bottle at the back of the cupboard marked 'cooking wine,' because there's no such thing. A medium-bodied red with some backbone, a Rhône, a Cotes du Rhône, something honest, will give you more than any specialist ingredient. Cook with the wine you'd pour into your own glass, and pour some into your glass while you're at it. It's Sunday.
I wrote it down in the notebook the first time I made it properly: 'Wine, stock, time, attention. The rest is just stirring.' Thirty years on, I haven't found a shorter version of the truth.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
pan drippings from a roast
Quantity
all of them
beef, lamb, or game
banana shallots
Quantity
2
finely chopped
unsalted butter
Quantity
30g
plain flour
Quantity
1 tablespoon
full-bodied red wine
Quantity
300ml
something you would drink
beef stock
Quantity
500ml
warm, ideally homemade
fresh thyme
Quantity
2 sprigs
bay leaf
Quantity
1
redcurrant jelly (optional)
Quantity
1 teaspoon
fine sea salt
Quantity
to taste
freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
to taste
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| pan drippings from a roastbeef, lamb, or game | all of them |
| banana shallotsfinely chopped | 2 |
| unsalted butter | 30g |
| plain flour | 1 tablespoon |
| full-bodied red winesomething you would drink | 300ml |
| beef stockwarm, ideally homemade | 500ml |
| fresh thyme | 2 sprigs |
| bay leaf | 1 |
| redcurrant jelly (optional) | 1 teaspoon |
| fine sea salt | to taste |
| freshly ground black pepper | to taste |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy roasting tin or saucepan
- •Wooden spoon
- •Fine sieve
- •Warm gravy jug
Instructions
- 1
Rest the roast, rescue the pan
When the roast comes out of the oven, lift it onto a board to rest and tent it loosely with foil. Tip the roasting tin gently, and with a spoon skim off most of the fat, leaving behind the dark, caramelized juices stuck to the bottom of the tin. Those sticky brown bits are the whole point of this gravy. Don't wash them away. Don't apologize for them.
If you're not cooking a roast, start with 30g of butter in a heavy saucepan. You'll lose a little depth, but the wine and stock will do most of the work. - 2
Soften the shallots
Set the roasting tin over a low flame on the hob, or scrape everything into a heavy saucepan if the tin is awkward. Add the butter and the chopped shallots. Stir them through the drippings and let them soften gently for five or six minutes until they've gone translucent and sweet-smelling. You don't want colour on them yet. Low and patient.
- 3
Stir in the flour
Scatter the flour over the shallots and stir it in until it disappears into the butter and becomes a loose, sandy paste. Cook it for a minute or two, stirring, until it smells faintly biscuity. This is the step that gives the gravy its body, and it's the step most people rush. Don't.
If the flour tastes raw at the end, it wasn't cooked out here. A minute of attention now saves a flat gravy later. - 4
Pour in the wine
Turn the heat up and pour in the wine in a steady stream, stirring as you go. It will hiss and bubble furiously and smell, for a moment, like every roast dinner you've ever had. Use a wooden spoon to scrape up any sticky bits clinging to the bottom of the pan. Let the wine bubble hard and reduce by at least half, until the raw alcohol smell has blown off and what's left smells deep and slightly jammy. This takes six or seven minutes. Trust your nose.
- 5
Add stock and herbs
Pour in the warm stock, add the thyme and bay leaf, and bring everything to a gentle simmer. Let it tick away, uncovered, for fifteen to twenty minutes, stirring now and then. It will gradually thicken and darken to a deep mahogany, glossy enough to coat the back of a spoon. If it looks too thick, add a splash more stock. If it looks too thin, give it another few minutes.
The test is the back of a spoon. Dip a wooden spoon in, pull it out, draw a line through the coating with your finger. If the line holds, it's ready. - 6
Finish and taste
Fish out the thyme stalks and bay leaf. If you like a little sweetness against the wine, stir in the redcurrant jelly now and let it melt through. Season with salt and pepper, taste it, then taste it again. If it needs brightness, a few drops more wine. If it needs richness, a small knob of cold butter stirred in at the end will give it that final gloss. Pour through a fine sieve into a warm jug if you want it silky, or leave the shallots in if you want it rustic. Your kitchen, your rules.
Chef Tips
- •The stock is the ingredient that does the quiet work here. If you can, make your own from roasted beef bones with a few vegetables and a long simmer. A good shop-bought stock will do, but read the label. If the first ingredient isn't bones or meat, put it back.
- •Don't be shy with the reduction. The wine needs to boil hard enough to cook off its raw alcohol and concentrate into something almost syrupy. Under-reduce and you'll taste the wine as wine, which isn't what you want. Over-reduce and you've got jam. Aim for the middle and trust your nose.
- •A knob of cold butter stirred in at the very end, off the heat, gives the gravy a final gloss and a silkiness that feels like restaurant gravy without any of the fuss. The French call it monter au beurre. I call it the last good thing you do before the plates go down.
- •Save any leftover gravy. It will set into a dark jelly in the fridge and is, on a Monday evening with some cold beef and a slice of toast, one of the more useful things you can have to hand.
Advance Preparation
- •The gravy can be made up to three days ahead and kept in the fridge. Reheat gently in a saucepan, adding a splash of stock or water if it has thickened too much.
- •It freezes well for up to three months. Defrost overnight in the fridge and warm through slowly before serving.
- •If you're making it ahead for a Sunday lunch, prepare it to the end of the stock-simmering stage, then finish with seasoning and the knob of butter just before serving. That final gloss is best added fresh.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 85g)
Calories
145 calories
Total Fat
8 g
Saturated Fat
5 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
3 g
Cholesterol
15 mg
Sodium
380 mg
Total Carbohydrates
6 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
3 g
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