Madeira Gravy Recipes

Steps:

• Heat the butter in a wide saucepan over a medium heat. Sizzle the onion, carrots, bay leaves and thyme in the pan for 15 mins until the veg starts to brown. Scatter over the sugar and continue to cook for a further few minutes until sticky and caramelised. Stir in the flour until sandy. Cook for 1 min, then add the Marmite, tomato purée, vinegar and soy sauce to make a sticky paste. Pour over the madeira and bubble for 1 min.
• Add the stock, then crush the veg with a potato masher. Bubble everything together for 10 mins until you have a thickened sauce that just coats the back of a spoon. Sieve and use straightaway as a veggie gravy or as the base to a turkey gravy. Can be cooled, then frozen for up to three months.

Steps:

• Gradually mix the madeira into the flour until smooth. Heat the stock in a pan, then pour in the flour mixture and mustard, stirring until thickened. Chill until ready to serve, covering the surface with cling film to stop a skin forming. On the day, reheat in a pan with the turkey juices until bubbling.

Steps:

• At least 24 hours before serving, mix the salt, pepper and herbs, except the thyme sprigs, in a large bowl. Add the duck legs and rub in the herby salt until well coated. Cover and leave overnight or up to 24 hours in the fridge.
• Next day, wipe the salty mixture from the duck legs and place them in a single, tight-fitting layer in the base of a pan. Add the bay leaves from the bowl and pour over the goose fat. If it doesn't cover the duck, top up with the groundnut oil. Cook over the lowest possible heat for 2½ hours, so the fat barely bubbles. The duck skin should be creamy rather than golden once cooked. Transfer the legs to a bowl and strain in the fat, pushing the duck under until fully submerged. (The duck can now be chilled and refrigerated for up to 1 month.)
• While the duck is cooking (or up to 2 days ahead of the meal), make the madeira gravy and cabbage. For the gravy, melt the butter in a small pan, add the shallots and cook for 6-8 minutes, stirring until golden. Stir in the flour and cook, stirring all the time, until the flour browns - take care not to let it burn. Whisk in the stock and continue whisking over the heat until slightly thickened. Add the madeira and cook for 2 minutes more. Strain through a sieve into a bowl. (The gravy can now be cooled and chilled for up to 2 days.)
• For the cabbage, scoop 2 tbsp of the goose fat from the duck as it cooks (if making at another time use olive oil) and put into a medium pan. Add the shallots and cook, stirring, until softened. Tip in the juniper berries and cabbage and cook over a fairly high heat until the cabbage starts to soften. Stir in the vinegar, orange juice, raisins and redcurrant jelly. Cover and leave to cook for 15 minutes, stirring now and then until tender. (Cool and chill for up to 2 days if making ahead.)
• On the day, preheat the oven to fan 180C/ conventional 200C/gas 6. Remove the duck legs from the fat and wipe away any excess with kitchen paper. Put the duck on a wire rack in a roasting tin and top each leg with a sprig of thyme. Roast for 10 minutes, then add the creamy wild mushroom potatoes to the oven (see recipe, below) and cook with the duck for 30 minutes, or until the duck skin is golden. Meanwhile, reheat the cabbage and gravy in separate pans until piping hot.
• To serve, put a generous spoonful of cabbage on serving plates and sit the duck legs on top. Spoon round the gravy and serve with the potatoes. For a green vegetable, quickly stir fry some sugar snaps.

Steps:

• Heat oil and add flour. Cook until flour is nut brown.
• add mushrooms and stock and stir for 2 - 3 minutes Then leave over a gentle heat for for 10 minutes.
• Add soy and sherry/madeira.
• Serve.

Steps:

• Combine water, 2 tbsp butter and lemon juice in a saucepan, bring to a boil and reduce heat to low and add mushrooms, cover and cook 5 minutes Pour off the fat from the roasting pan.
• Add 1/4 cup butter to the pan and place over medium high heat, stir butter to melt and add the onions, saute until transparent Drain mushroom liquid and add to the pan.
• Add beef broth, tomato paste and madeira wine, blend well.
• Stir in the mushrooms and flour.
• Stir until the gravy is slightly thickened.
• Season to taste Serve.

Steps:

• Heat oil in a 5-quart heavy pot over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sauté neck, giblets, and onion until well browned, 10 to 15 minutes. Add remaining stock ingredients and simmer, uncovered, until liquid is reduced to about 4 cups, about 45 minutes. Pour stock through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, discarding solids. Skim off and discard any fat.
• Skim fat from pan drippings (while turkey stands) and reserve fat. Straddle roasting pan across 2 burners, then add Madeira and deglaze pan by boiling over moderately high heat, stirring and scraping up brown bits, until liquid is reduced by about half, about 4 minutes, then add to giblet stock.
• Heat 3 tablespoons reserved turkey fat (if you have less, use butter to make up difference) in a 3- to 4-quart heavy saucepan over moderately low heat, then add flour and cook roux, whisking, 3 minutes. Add hot stock in a fast stream, whisking constantly to prevent lumps. Bring to a boil, whisking, then reduce heat and simmer, stirring frequently, 5 minutes. Add cream and simmer, stirring frequently, 10 minutes. Pour sauce through a fine-mesh sieve into a sauceboat or serving bowl and season with salt and pepper.

Steps:

• Heat the oil in a frying pan. Add the shallots, carrot, thyme, bay leaves and dried mushrooms and fry over a medium heat for 5-7 mins or until deep golden brown. Scatter over the sugar and cook until beginning to caramelise. Stir in the flour and combine well, then add the miso, balsamic vinegar, tomato purée and madeira and cook for 2 mins. Pour over the stock a little at a time, stirring as you go.
• Simmer everything together, uncovered, for 30 mins or until you have a fairly thick gravy. Sieve into a clean saucepan. Season to taste and warm through when ready to serve. Leave to cool completely, then freeze for up to three months or chill for up to three days. Reheat thoroughly in a pan to serve.