Home-made Gravy

The basted bird is in the oven (see the basted bird recipe). The juices have continually flown for about 45 minutes that is you have spooned the bird continually with the residual juices, by this time the skin should still be intact however crispy free because of the continual flow of excess juice. This process is known to retain the moisture within the bird flesh, but also contributes to the birds internal temperature. Try to avoid letting out the heat within the oven. Your oven should set of around 200 - 220 oc. The bird should be cooked inside your favourite dish; Pyrex, aluminium or any suitable cooking alloy big enough to withhold the the bird and all it's juices. If your bird is frozen you should give at least a couple of hours for it to thaw, the risk of undercooking your chuck or over roasting the outer layer of your turkey lurkey could mean the difference between brittle threads and succulent white melt in your mouth bird. Ducks the same however I'd recommend re-basting your duck flesh with the rice oil continually every ten minutes for about an hour before cooking. Make sure no unwanted hairs are present, that goes for all bird. The gravy importantly needs not to be chunky yet I think you'll agree should be thick and of a natural stodgy consistency.

Gravy
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 chopped Onion
1 chopped carrot
1 chopped finger of ginger
1 or two segments of garlic
400ml of boiling water
Sea salt flakes
Black Pepper
White Pepper
Oxo Cube
A tablespoon of Corn-flour
A sprinkling of Plain Flour
Juice of the bird

You'll need a good wooden spoon or a plastic spatula will do depending on your pan of choice. If you want to save dishes you can sometimes use the dish of the bird to boil and amalgamate the gravy. What ever use just be careful not to leave in the mixture to long because it can damage your utensils and the flour can congeal like glue on it's surface making washing up very difficult. But first the stock. As the chuck is going through the basting process you can be boiling the onions, carrots, ginger and garlic to high heaven. If you have a pressure cooker that's good but later you'll want to simmer the 400 ml's of water down to about 250 -300 ml's. This should be enough and if not you can always fill up the gravy mixture with a splash from the kettle. Anyway remove the veggies and throw in the blender you could add these to your carrot and turnip or just keep whole and throw in the oven surrounding your roasts (Spuds, parsnips).

Firstly throw in the corn-flour and OXO cube, if doing duck maybe in addition to this recipe you could add Gravy browning which gives it a darker colour for now though with Turkey or chicken lets keep this gravy a light grey brown colour and obviously the OXO cube should be chicken if using turkey then use turkey cubes. If you can't get hold of turkey cubes don't worry, Chicken cubes will suffice. By now the mixture should be bubbling and the congealing of the corn-flour should be trying to stick to your base of the cooking utensil. This is where the wooden spoon comes in handy. Give the rim a good skim, and spin in the mixture keep the sauce turning, keep checking your temperature and again be sure not to boil away the water, this can happen really quick. If it does have a kettle at hand to rescue your bird sauce concoction. You should be left with a reasonably sloppy solution. Be sure to add a sprinkle of plain flour again whisk briskly with the spoon of spatula (being careful not to melt if plastic & if metal being sure not to leave in tray to long because this could burn your hands. A damp tea cloth or oven gloves are a must in the kitchen (as is a apron). When cooking birds always wash your hands regularly and don't chop things on the same surface as where you kept the uncooked bird.

NB:

Oxo is a brand of various food products, consisting of stock cubes, herbs and spices, dried gravy, and yeast extract. In the United Kingdom, Oxo products are manufactured by Premier Foods. In South Africa, the Oxo brand is owned and manufactured by Mars, Incorporated.