Quick and easy gravy

We love our gravy in this house and my Woo is the domestically acclaimed 'Queen of the Gravy'.  She has a touch of genius when it comes to the final seasoning that gets everyone who tastes one of her magical concoctions absolutely rave about it!

However, this is my quick and easy gravy recipe for use when you're having pie and mash, cottage pie or something similar which needs a bit of sauce to finish things off.  It uses a stockpot so it's blatant cheating, takes no time to prep and just cooks away on the hob until you're ready for it.

In a pan soften a finely chopped onion or shallot in about 25g of butter.  I always use unsalted butter as I prefer to add my own salt to taste.  Boil a kettle and add 600ml of boiling water to a stockpot in a jug/bowl/whatever.  Top up to a litre with the wine of your choice and pour the lot into the softened onion.  Cook on a medium heat for half an hour or so and then pass the whole lot through a sieve into another pan.  Don't forget to scrape all of the mushy onion gorgeousness from the bottom of the sieve.

Carry on cooking the sieved gravy until it's lovely and thick.  If you're in a hurry just add a little cornflower mixed with cold water to the pan and stir until it thickens.  Either way it tastes good and any leftovers can be frozen or kept in the fridge for use another time.

Don't forget to taste and season before serving, though!

The choice of stockpot/wine is yours and depends what you're pouring it on; beef or lamb needs red wine, chicken/vegetable/fish is better with white but it's your gravy, your rules at the end of the day.  If you're cooking a roast this gravy works well as a base which you can mix with all the cooking juices to turn the whole thing into a culinary delight.

PS this gravy recipe works even more effectively if you drink wine and listen to cheesy music whilst cooking.  We've got Simon an Garfunkel on Amazon Prime as we speak and it's working a treat!