Recipe for christmas gravy
The sauce is the finishing touch on the table on Christmas Eve. In my world, the Christmas sauce is on par with the presents under the tree – so here you get a recipe with plenty of richness, depth, and festive flavor.
On Christmas Eve, there are various traditions for what to put on the dinner table, but what most Christmas dinners have in common is that the sauce plays one of the absolute main roles. The sauce is such a player that it can save any dry duck/pork/goose or turkey roast. Where I come from, French fries/potato chips were always on the table for Christmas dinner, and dipping them in a good brown sauce – that’s one of my best Christmas memories.
When it comes to the sauce on Christmas Eve, I never compromise. It’s made from a homemade stock and must, of course, contain lots of cream, red currant jelly, and gastrique. I make my stock from trimmings of meat I age myself. You can also use beef bones, turkey legs, duck or chicken carcasses.
You can give your sauce the perfect Christmas flavor by adding the drippings from the meat you are serving – a duck sauce should ideally taste a bit like duck.
Christmas Gravy
Ingredients
- Meat Trimmings Can be replaced with other flavorings, such as bones or carcasses
- 2 pcs. Onion
- 2 cloves Garlic
- 1 pcs. Leek
- 1 pcs. Carrots
- 8 pcs. Peppercorns
- 4 Bay Leaf
- 4 Cloves
- 28.4 gram Butter
- 15.6 gram Wheat Flour
- 300 gram Whipping Cream
- Salt and Pepper Seasoning
- Gastrique Can be replaced with sugar and vinegar
- Currant Jelly Seasoning
Instructions
Stock
- Whether you're making your stock from trimmings like I do, or using chicken carcasses and bones, you can advantageously prepare the stock in the days leading up to Christmas Eve.
- Place trimmings in a roasting pan with cleaned onions, garlic, leeks, carrots, and various spices.
- Now roast the contents in the oven at a high, hard heat so that everything gets a good color - around 250 g. This helps give the stock, and ultimately the gravy, a beautiful color.
- Then pour everything into a large pot and add water until everything is covered. Bring to a boil and skim frequently.
- Let your stock simmer over low heat for about 4 hours.
- Then strain the contents from the water, skim off the fat, and reduce it further. Season with a little salt.
- In another pot, make a roux by melting butter and adding flour while whisking vigorously. Let the mixture turn caramel-colored.
- Now you can add the stock little by little while whisking. Let the gravy cook through over low heat for a while.
- This is the time to add a bit of pan drippings (skimmed of fat) from your meat - pork roast, duck, or turkey.
- Pour the drippings into the gravy and add an appropriate amount of heavy cream. Let the gravy cook through and season it to taste.
- What's missing? red currant jelly, gastrique, lemon juice, salt? Taste, taste, taste.
