How to make gravy from left over juice in slow cooker?

[Tiggsy]

Ok...I'm sure this is basic stuff.....but I'm new to cooking!

I have a roast beef joint in the slow cooker for 8 hrs....its sat on some veg and 1" of water.

When the beef comes out I'll serve with some seperate steamed veg.

Now....how do I turn the water/veg/beef juice in the bottom of the slow cooker into edible gravy? Or do I not bother and just use bisto and a kettle???

[Davey S2]

Take out the veg with a slotted spoon and put into a roasting dish with a little oil on a medium heat.

Stir in some plain flour to thicken and let it cook out for a couple of mins. Give the veg a good press with a masher to extract the flavour.

Add the rest of the liquid in the slow cooker dish and then add as much beef stock as you need to make the amount of gravy you want. Good glug of red wine and some herbs would be good too.

Simmer that until it has reduced and thickened to the consistency you want then pass through a sieve before serving.

[Melman Giraffe]

Reduce in a pan or add corn flour to the pot.

With the corn flour add a table spoon of the flour to a splash of water then add this to the pot, it will thicken in seconds. Season and serve

[Wombat3]

I'd take all the liquid out the slow cooker stick it in a pan. Melt some butter & add plain flower (about a desert spoonful)till you get a paste & then stir that in. Add a good glass + of red wine, season & reduce the whole thing down till you get the consistency you want. If you need more liquid/volume, add more wine or stock if you've got some, if its too thin, mix up more flour/butter & add that. Generally avoid adding things like Oxo cubes & gravy granules if possible (IMO).

[skinny]

you get a LOT of juice from a slow cooker. i regularly cook pulled pork and don't add any liquid at all, but still get loads of juice.

i pour it out and reduce it down in a pan. if you add flour straight in, you'll just have thick water.

[Tiggsy]

the gravey was fine....but the meat a little dry and chewy....over cooked? Had almost 8 hrs on low

[new_bloke]

Have a look through this thread:
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
you might find that 8 hours wasn't enough! That was the suggestion when I asked a very similar question. It also might depend on the cut of meat - fatty cuts seem to slow cook well. Modern supermarket meat tends to be much leaner and that can make it dry...