Expert: Enrique Torres - 6/23/2009

Question
do you know how to make lamb gravey from scratch?Because i tryed looking it up and the recipes were not to good.I know you have to take some of the grease of the lamb to make the gravy.But i am not sure of the rest.

Answer
Anthony:

There are some general clues about any gravy:
A gravy is a sauce made of meat. In order to reduce costs the cheaper cuts are used (fat, flanks, humps, etc). These are boiled until obtain stock, this stock is used to mix with:
a. Ingredients normally used to spice meat: onions, garlic, carrots, wine, rosemary, laurel, parsley, etc.
b. Other ingredients to give an special character: olive oil.

The process is:
1. Use 20 oz lamb meat the more fatty the more flavor. Don't use just fat, what i recommend is to use no more than 8% of fat in the recipe.
2. Boil the meat for about 20 minutes to obtain stock.
3 Cut 1 medium  onion into very small cubes and stir fry them until get transparent.
4. Use 2 garlic cloves, cut them into small slides and stir fry for no more than 30 seconds.
5. Mix all ingredients.

If you want more flavor use 30-50 ml of olive oil, 100 ml of red wine, and any other ingredient used in meat.

Finally, in order to obtain more texture dissolve 1 small tablespoon of corn starch in 1/2 glass of water and mix with the stock obtained and heat for 10 minutes more.

I hope this information helps you,
Good luck,
Enrique