Don't get me wrong, I love the summer. All the salads and BBQs, al fresco dining and all that jazz but there comes a time when I just crave a good roast dinner. I'm not alone in that I don't think? Today is a grey and miserable August today and I'm thinking I should probably have just have caved.
I'm very fussy when it comes to a roast dinner. I enjoy going out for Sunday lunch but whilst always tasty (certainly at my local pub it's a delight) it's never to my exacting standards. I'm a fussy so-and-so and there are components to a roast dinner that must always always be in place.
Obviously you have to start with the meat. I'll normally plump for a chicken. You can't beat a roast chicken. Although I am partial to pork, lamb and beef at various times of the year a chicken seems to go further and can make lunches and tea for the next day or two as well.
Then there's the accompaniments.
Yorkshire pudding goes without saying. I know it's not traditional to have a Yorkshire pud with a chook but I think anything goes these days and if I make an batch of 12 individual puddings, between four of us, they're going to be demolished.
Peas and carrots are standard. Mr M's favourite vegetables and always a child-pleasing selection. Alongside this I may also do some broccoli for the three of us that are not green-dodgers (that's only the husband...).
Two types of potatoes are needed for it to be a good roast dinner in my books - creamy mashed potatoes and crispy goose fat roast potatoes. This is where restaurants normally fail me, usually only providing one type of potato. It's just not on.
Stuffing, there's always stuffing. At various points during the year I'll make my own stuffing but I'm not stuffing snob and on a bog standard lazy, cold, wet Sunday afternoon, a box of Paxo (the one with garlic) will always suffice.
My preference would also to always have crispy sticky roast parsnips and some oozy bubbling cauliflower cheese on the side but this doesn't always happen. It would however be on my PERFECT roast dinner plate.
And of course, some tasty gravy to top it off. Or tomato ketchup if you're my son.
In an ideal world, this taste sensation would be followed by a nice apple crumble or sticky toffee pudding but rarely do I have room for such a treat.
So tell me, what makes your perfect roast dinner?
In an ideal world, this taste sensation would be followed by a nice apple crumble or sticky toffee pudding but rarely do I have room for such a treat.
So tell me, what makes your perfect roast dinner?
*Image Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ARoasted_chicken.jpg (By Vyperx1 (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)
I love boiled and roasted, rather than mashed potato. For me it's slow roasted beef, with gravy made like my grandmother taught me, thick and moreish, with bread after....for dipping. Yummy (btw, I've made soup today, now I want a roast!) x
ReplyDeleteI like just roast spuds with my roast, having mash just feels weird. Same with cauliflower cheese. Yorkshires are a given whatever the roast. I like swede as well with my roasts.
ReplyDeleteI would certainly come to your house for a roast dinner, always stuffing, yorkshire puds and mash and roast potatoes for me! Roll on the colder days :)
ReplyDeleteGosh, I can't imagine ever having mash with a roast dinner! I agree that the potatoes HAVE to be done in goose fat and there must be parsnips and stuffing. I love broccoli with a hint of garlic, too.
ReplyDeleteMy usual roast is a garlic and rosemary rubbed pork shoulder, shredded once done with a rich gravy on top, but if I'm going all-out, I do a porchetta. Mmmm...pig.