Latest features Cooking a roast - the experts' guide

Date Published:

19/10/2007

Top gastropub chefs share their tips for cooking the perfect roast. Turns out, it's easy

The gravy

The Greyhound, Battersea is a gastropub with the emphasis on 'gastro'. Executive chef Alessio Brusadin shares his tips for making a simple and richly flavoured gravy to complement your roast.

Great flavour comes from the bones. When you buy a joint from the butcher ask him to give you the bones and the trimmings. A packet of chopped up chicken wings can be used if you're cooking a roast chicken.

Prepare your roasting tray. Line the base of the tray with chopped carrots, celery and shallots. These are for flavour only. Sit the meat on top of the vegetables, then add the bones and trimmings to the tray making sure that they don't touch the meat of the roast itself. Add butter, and a little water. Don't add salt. You can always add salt to the gravy later, but you can't remove it.

Keep an eye on the roast as it's cooking to make sure it doesn't dry out. Add a glass of wine half way through the cooking time to keep everything moist.

When the meat is cooked it will need to be left to stand. Take it out of the tray and put the tray with all the rest of its contents onto the hob.

Cook for a few minutes to let the flavours bind. Add more wine and seasoning according to taste. Tasting the gravy as you go along is vital.

Drain the mixture through a sieve and discard the chopped vegetables, the bones and the trimmings.

The fat will rise to the top of the liquid, lift it off with a spoon.

You will be left with a nice brown liquid, this is the jus.

Bring the jus to boil in a pan. Taste the gravy again to make sure it is not too salty, add a little water or wine to dilute if necessary.

The gravy is now ready. Don't be tempted to thicken it with gravy granules or corn-flour. This, according to Alessio, is where most British gravies fall down. The gravy as it is at this stage is thinner but intensely flavoured.

Next up: Sauces and condiments