Gravy is best described as that beautiful golden sauce generously poured over roast lamb, turkey, chicken and more. It’s oozy, buttery, delicious and maybe just a tad bit sinful. But considering roast meat is generally quite a healthy dish, gravy helps balance things out a little. And us being Malaysians, we love our kuah. Gravy is to roasts like curry is to banana leaf rice. You’ve just got to have it.
Admittedly, you will need to whip up a roast to make gravy, but once you have your roasting juices, everything else comes together easily and quickly. The most work you’ll have to do is mincing your garlic, shallots and herbs as finely as possible. And considering gravy is quite easy to make, there really is no good excuse for you not to serve some along with your spread.
Just a note of warning – have some spoons ready. The recipe below is so good you’ll want to eat it up like soup!
Ingredients
- Roasting juice (drippings from roasted meat)
- 17g garlic, minced finely
- 50g shallots, minced finely
- 1 tsp fresh thyme (about 3 sprigs), finely chopped
- 45g butter
- 90g flour
- 750ml chicken stock
- 3 tsp balsamic vinegar
- 45g cream
Optional
- 1 tsp rosemary leaves, finely chopped
- ½ tsp cooking caramel
- A pinch of salt
Method
Preparation
- Prepare your ingredients by finely mincing garlic, shallots, thyme and rosemary leaves (if using).
- If your roasting juice has too much oil, you can discard a little bit of the oil. Just make sure you have enough to cover the dark parts of the roasting juice.
Making gravy
- Pour roasting juice into a medium saucepan and set it over the fire on medium heat.
- Add butter and let it melt completely.
- When the mixture starts to simmer, add garlic and stir it through, followed by shallots. Stir it through again. Let it simmer for about 1 minute. You don’t want to burn the garlic or shallots, but just soften it a little.
- Add in thyme and rosemary and stir to mix through for 1 minute.
- Put in flour next. Use a whisk to stir thoroughly until it forms a roux. This will take roughly 3 minutes.
- Pour in chicken stock next and continue stirring it with a whisk until even and smooth, about 3 to 4 minutes if you whisk vigorously. Continue whisking if your sauce still has visible clumps. You want to try and get it as smooth as possible.
- Add balsamic vinegar for colour and a little bit of zing. Stir (or gently whisk) through, for about 1 minute.
- Next, add in the cream and stir for another 1 or 2 minutes.
- If you’d like your gravy a darker shade of liquid gold, add just a little bit of cooking caramel at this stage. Stir it through. Don’t add too much or it will affect the taste of your gravy.
Serving
- Before serving, pour your cooked gravy through a sieve to remove lumps.
- Serve in a gravy boat or bowl, with a pinch of salt sprinkled over the top before serving.
Extra tips
- You can use any roasting juice with this recipe, including roast lamb, roast turkey, roast chicken and roast beef.
- Use rosemary if you’re preparing a lamb based gravy only as rosemary and lamb go great together.
- There are recipes that don’t require roasting juices floating about out there. If you’ve got a good one, share it with us!
- As this gravy recipe contains cream, it won’t freeze well as the gravy may separate upon defrosting. It should be ok to keep for a few days in the fridge though. Otherwise, oh well, you’ll just have to eat it all up!
What did you have your gravy with? Did you pour it over everything? Besides roasts, gravy also pairs perfectly with mashed potatoes. Mmmmmm! Show us your spread by tagging your pictures with #butterkicap!
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Roast Lamb Recipe: A Classic for Christmas & Special Occasions