Christmas gravy is a must for any festive roast. Our gravy is a long-standing family tradition and Christmas dinner would not be the same without it.
It probably seems a lot of effort for some gravy, but a great gravy lifts any roast dinner.
Make the stock ahead of time, we all have enough to do on Christmas Day and save some of the stress.
Christmas gravy for turkey
An indulgent gravy to accompany your Christmas turkey
Ingredients
For the Stock:
- 1 Duck carcass uncooked
- 6 Tomatoes quartered
- 2 Carrots medium, sliced
- 2 Onions large, cut into wedges
- 2 sticks Celery chopped
- Mixed herbs
- Sea salt
For the Gravy:
- 50 g Butter
- 50 g Plain flour
Instructions
On Christmas Eve or before:
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C.
- Dismember the duck carcass and chop into 2.5cm pieces making sure all the bones are split. This releases the natural gelatine.
- Put the chopped carcass into a roasting tray with the quartered tomatoes and onion.
- Roast in the oven for 15 minutes. Roasting produces a darker stock.
- Put the roasted carcass and vegetables into a large pan with the celery, carrots and herbs. Cover with cold salted water and bring to the boil, reduce the heat, and simmer gently for 2 hours.
- Strain the resulting stock into a smaller pan. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer until reduced by half.
- Allow to cool a little, and pour into a suitable container, such as a pyrex bowl. Once at room temperature place into the fridge and leave overnight.
- Remove from the fridge, you will now have a gel style stock with a fat layer on top. Carefully remove the fat layer, this is great for the roasties.
- Keep in the fridge or freeze for later use.
On the day:
- Melt 50g of butter over a low heat in a suitable size pan. Add 50g plain flour and heat gently stirring continuously to make a roux. Once it looks smooth and glassy turn up the heat and very gradually add the stock, a little at first, stirring or whisking constantly.
- Allow to simmer gently to cook out the flour, stirring regularly.
- When you take your turkey out of the oven, transfer to the carving tray, and pour the juices from the roasting tray into the gravy. Stir well, and bring to a simmer. Do not allow the gravy to boil.
- If it remains thicker than you would like, thin with chicken stock.
- Serve and enjoy.
Notes
I like to buy a duck, remove the breasts and legs which I freeze, and then use the carcass for stock.
Alternatively, after having roast chicken, freeze the carcass or two, and when ready chop into pieces and without roasting the bones again use to make the stock.