Gravy - help!!

[Biscuitsandtea]

I love making a nice roast dinner, or sausage and mash - basically I love meals that go with gravy. The problem is I'm rubbish at making gravy. Any sort of gravy.

I mean even if I make the instant sort of gravy (I often have Bisto Best) I still manage to make it lumpy! How can I make something so easy seem so hard? DH politely said that 'gravy is very hard to make so I shouldn't feel bad', but really 'add water' gravy should not be hard. I mean I can make instant coffee without too much trouble!

So, I wonder if anyone has any tips. I appreciate this is stretching the boundaries of 'recipes' but there isn't a category for 'I'm a hopeless loser'.

I suppose I have 2 strands to what I want to know. 1. What is the best sort of 'add water' gravy and where am I going wrong? and 2. is it actually hard to make 'real' gravy? What do you need to do for that?

Thank you in advance. Please be assured that I am hiding my head in shame at not being able to add water properly. Maybe i should practice on pot noodles......

Just add water gravy - add the water a bit at a time and stir it thoroughly into a paste before adding a bit more water, rather than just chucking the whole lot in at once.
Real gravy - no bleeding idea

Right: I don't eat meat, but gravy making usually starts with the juices out of the meat you're cooking for your roast. I make my gravy by using the starchy bits out of the potato pan (par-boil them before shaking in flour/salt/pepper/paprika/herbs and roasting), a veggie oxo cube and some of the water out of the green veggies I've boiled.

If cooking a roast then you can do it this way: Remove meat from roasting tin, set aside and slice. Into the meaty juices add a stock cube. Put the roasting tin on the hob, stir slowly to get the cube to dissolve. If you did the whole roast veggies thing you can then pour the mixture into the veggies tin to pick up the flavour from there, keeping that tin over the heat OR you can pour the meaty stock cube mix into your potato-ey pan (see above) and thin down some with either water from any boiled veg or boiled veg.

I occasionally further flavour mine with any/all of the following: mushroom ketchup, tomato paste, (veggie) worcestershire sauce, lemon juice.

Hope it's given you some ideas. :)

I like Bisto.

easy gravy

When making it using bisto, put powder in a cup, add a bit o water at a time and stir vigorously until a paste then keep adding (hot water). You can then add to the pan you fried your sausages in. Sometimes nice to fry some sliced onions, add a pinch of brown sugar, then add the ready mixed gravy. Yum!

To stop your gravy (or custard, or white sauce, etc) from going lumpy, always use a balloon whisk to stir it up, rather than a spoon.

Ah thank you ladies - if I can't make lump free gravy after all of those lovely tips then I should probably banish myself from the kitchen :)

For the add water one, add a splash of boiling water and whisk, then add some more and whisk again. It will need to be left for a few seconds then have another look, add more water if needed and whisk again.

For a lovely onion gravy, slice 2/3 onions add a lottle oil, and roast in the oven on a med heat, don't want them dark but need to be sift and starting to colour. Then add to a pan and put in a tbs of plain flour and mix, put the heat on med and keep stiring once it looks like a sticky mess add a pint of chicken stock and some pepper. Stir really well whilst adding the stock slowly to reduce the lumps, but don't worry too much. Then boil it away till thick and yummy.

This is how I make non-lumpy gravy:

Heat a tbsp of butter and a tbsp of oil in a pan until the butter is melted. Take off heat and stir in 1-2 tbsp flour. Crumble in a stock cube. Add some vegetable water or water from the kettle a bit at a time and stir until it's all combined each time before adding more. Put back on heat and stir (use a whisk for guaranteed no lumps). For a chicken dish add a bit of orange juice, mixed herbs and a small glass of white/rosé wine. Keep stirring until it thickens and add water until you have the amount and consistency you want. Add in meat juices.

For a beef dish replace the orange juice, wine and herbs with red wine and a small tsp of marmite.

I'm a Bisto Bitch I'm afraid. But I add (for beef gravy) a splash of balsamic vinegar, a little mustard powder and about half a teaspoon of onion granules. I also use an Oxo cube as well cos I love proper thick 'Northern' gravy

I got an excellent tiny whisk from (mutters under breath Lakeland) that I use for Bisto Best. As even though I am a fairly accomplished cook - I made French eclairs from scratch yesterday - but I do make lumpy Bisto Best and can't boil and egg.

Thank you so much ladies - and Lizcat you make me feel so much better - the only thing I can do from start to finish with a French Eclair is eat it - maybe I'll have to investigate a mini whisk :)