Yorkshire-born James appeared on ITV’s This Morning to share his tips for making the perfect gravy but one fan said ‘that’s a portion for Southerners’
Celebrity chef James Martin has left viewers stunned with his Christmas gravy recipe, which features a shocking secret ingredient that prompted one fan to ask: “What do I put on the rest of my dinner?”.
The renowned culinary expert appeared on ITV’s This Morning, where he shared with presenter Cat Deeley his foolproof method for creating perfect festive gravy on December 25th.
The chef surprised many by recommending a trip to the supermarket for ready-made stock rather than making it from scratch.
When Cat enquired: “What’s your favourite go to Christmas gravy recipe?” James responded: “In the supermarkets now you’ve got the premade stocks. Go out now and buy it, cos the minute you hit the week before Christmas, you’ve got no chance. So buy it now, it’s veal stock or chicken stock that you want.
“And veal stock is made out of beef bones, yeah, that’s the difference, You can’t really make it out of turkey stock because it’s not going to taste the same, so basically you buy these big tubs of stock, this is what chefs are doing in restaurants, but we do it in a bigger scale.Very, very few make their own stocks anymore.”
Alongside the shop-bought stock, James revealed his recipe includes an enormous quantity of butter.
James, from Malton in Yorkshire, explained: “Red wine in a pan, half a bottle for instance, for Christmas for 10 people, half a bottle of red wine, doesn’t have to be anything fancy in the pan, then you put these stocks in there about, 1 liter and a half of this stock, so decent amount.
“And then you put a good knob of butter in it, and I say a good knob, about 1/3 of a block of, in there, and then you reduce it down, now the butter will sit on top, when the sauce is ready, it all emulsifies into a gravy, into a classic chef-style jus or a or a sauce, and that’s by reducing it down, then you take that, you put it in ice cube trays, freeze it, pop them out of the ice cube trays, and then take 2 ice cubes for one person. And just warm it up in a pan, you’re just done and no need for thickener or you don’t use corn flour, don’t use any of that, none of that, it’s all made the classic, classic way by reducing stock.”
James’ recommendation that just 2 ‘ice cube sized’ portions of gravy per person would suffice left viewers absolutely baffled. Louise commented: “2 cubes for 1 person? ? What do i put on the rest of my dinner?”.
Kelly chimed in: “Louise that’s a portion for Southerners. For us Northerners it’s the full tray.” Jeff remarked: “How many people up and down the country, including me, went, what? ? ?”.
Tract chipped in: “I was thinking the same…I’d have the whole ice cube tray on my dinner… possibly more!”. Another Tracey observed: “I thought the same. We have lots of gravy with our dinner and spare in gravy boats if we want more. 2 cubes wouldn’t cover the meat.”
Patricia concluded: “Not worth bothering if that’s all you get.” Marc, however, offered a more no-nonsense approach: “There’s no secret. There never was, Bisto and hot water, BOOM! Job done.”