Tuesday February 22, 2005

A lean roast

Unlike years ago most UK folks do not have a Sunday roast every week. We go for Curries or other exotic meals nowadays. But once a month I do like a roast dinner and I usually cook it. We have leg of lamb or a chicken usually. Last weekend I did chicken.

I cooked the chicken on a simple metal tray with foil covering it. I usually season the chicken and put a bit of butter on the thighs to keep them moist. Twenty minutes a pound plus twenty over at ~ 180 degrees C. You should be prepared to pour off excess juices from the tray every so often. After it is done you are meant to take it out and let it 'relax' I think the idea is to get the juices in the meat to redistribute themselves evenly again. Of course you must make sure it is cooked, I use a skewer pricking into the meat to ensure the juices run clear - no blood.

Delia Smith would tell you to baste the meat during cooking to keep it moist, Nigella Lawson turns her poultry upside down so the juices from the fatty area drip over the thighs. Another way is to use a deeper tray with a rack and put water in the tray. This has the effect of steaming the meat, keeping it moist. You also then have a good base for a gravy later on.

You cannot have a sunday roast without roast potatoes. I cook mine in water until they are just going soft on the outside. I then take a tray ( fairly deep) and put some oil in it. Drain the potatoes, put the lid on the saucepan and shake them up and then put onto the tray ( which you have preheated in the oven - now turned up a bit). Be careful when you do this as the potatoes (wet) will spit when they hit the hot oil. With a spoon ladle the oil over each potato. Pop in the oven. After thirty minutes turn each potato over and ladle oil over each one again. Put them back for another thirty minutes.They should be crisp and when done pop them on a grill pan with kitchen towel spread over it to soak up the excesss oil.

Other vegetables we have are sauteed leeks, carrots and peas which go well with this. We do not make our own gravy I am afraid we are a Bisto household , looks like you can even get it in the US.