Red wine gravy

[sparklecement]

For Christmas we hate having beef wellington. I am not a fantastic cook but would like to make my own if anyone has a fool proof recipe they can give me? Supermarket ones don’t have good reviews. Open to other suggestions for a gravy if you know of any to match.

I am by no means an expert chef but this is something I do regularly that I got from MILs old recipe book and I really do keep it simple. I only do it for chicken or turkey though but presume it's the same for beef. Half volume of your usual gravy, same volume again of any red wine. Bring just to the boil and add Demerara sugar to taste, then turn down and cook for ages to reduce to a tasty gravy. It's a firm fave here and guests have enjoyed too.

This is one I found a few years ago for my veggie sister at Christmas, as we normally make our gravy with the meat juices. It is lovely, can't remember where it came from, but was a newspaper column with a variety of recipes for 'what to cook for your vegetarian guests at Christmas'. We find it needs a touch more sweetness to balance it out. The mushrooms are strained out at the end so can be used to make lovely 'sausage' rolls.

Ingredients
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 onions, peeled and halved
1 garlic clove, peeled
200ml red wine
10g dried porcini mushrooms
400g flat mushrooms, sliced
½ bunch thyme
2 bay leaves
1 tsp marmite
1 tsp tomato paste
6 black peppercorns
1 tbsp cornflour

Method
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a high heat. Add the onions and colour until well browned. Add the garlic and brown for a further two minutes.
Add the red wine and cook for eight to 10 minutes until a syrup is left.

Add two litres of water and the remaining ingredients. Turn down to a low simmer for an hour.

Strain the liquid into a saucepan. Discard the vegetables.
Simmer the liquid for 20 to 30 minutes until about 400ml remains. Mix the cornflour with two tablespoons of water and whisk into the stock. Cook for three or four minutes until thickened. Adjust seasoning to taste.

There's a good Michel Roux red wine sauce on the BBC website. Have used it for bref wellington.

I cheat - use oxo red wine stock cubes, redcurrant jelly, rosemary and corn starch.

I simply add water, the redcurrant jelly, finely chopped rosemary (or herb of choice) and 2 stock cubes, stirring until dissolved, add corn starch to thicken. Serves 2-3

Just normal convenience gravy- oxo cubes, veg water, bisto to thicken and the meat juices. Then a glug of red and big tablespoon of blackcurrant jam.