Cooked a leg of lamb, but no way to make gravy?!

[UTH]

Cooked an awesome leg of lamb for the usual roast yesterday, but the recipe (as expected with a roast I guess) said that the basis of the gravy will be the juices that are collected at the bottom of the roasting tin, then some red wine and a bit of flour/butter.

But, after 80 mins or so in the oven, I took the meat out to rest and there was barely a teaspoon of juices in the tin?! What does one do to make gravy when this happens?
Luckily I had some frozen from when I cooked a roast beef a couple of weeks ago, so all was not lost, but I was at a bit of a loss for what to do in this instance, apart from a last minute bisto job?!

[tomsugden]

Put the pan on the hob and tip some wine into the roasting pan to deglaze it.

[UTH]

tomsugden said:

Put the pan on the hob and tip some wine into the roasting pan to deglaze it.

But apart from the onions and carrots I'd put the meat on, there was nothing really in the pan, so it would basically have just been red wine!

[hiccy18]

You will get a lot of flavour from deglazing the burnt on fat from the bottom of the pan. What I would probably do is create a roux in a saucepan from the flour and butter and slowly add some wine or stock to create a basic "gravy", deglaze the roasting pan then strain the contents into the saucepan and season to taste.

Edited by hiccy18 on Monday 30th November 10:26

[omniflow]

UTH said:

But apart from the onions and carrots I'd put the meat on, there was nothing really in the pan, so it would basically have just been red wine!

Firstly, there would have been juices from the meat, but for whatever reason the water in them evaporated as part of your cooking process. As long as what was left didn't burn in the process, then this would have the same flavour as the juices - just more concentrated.

Secondly, it's extremely rare these days to be able to make gravy solely from the juices from the meat - you need to add something to it (not just wine or water).

Thirdly, you would also expect there to be fat in the roasting tin that has rendered from the joint during the cooking process. Depending on the joint, you might use all of this in the gravy, or you might need to pour some / most of it off. It helps if you have a gravy separator to do this - pour everything into this jug, the fat rises to the top and the spout pours from the bottom. Quite simple once you've seen one working.

Leave the veg and any solids in the pan, stir in a little flour (not too much or you'll be slicing the gravy), cook this out for a few minutes, then add in the meat juices, wine and whatever stock you're using (vegetable, or appropriate to the meat) a little at a time to start with, then all at once. Bring to the boil, simmer gently for 15 mins or so, pass through a sieve, pour in the juices from the now rested meat, adjust seasoning and you're done.