J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

The wife suggested I didnt do my share of the cooking at the weekend, fair comment so the other week I did Beef and it was pretty good, want to raise the game this weekend and we have a nice Chicken from the Butchers and some Sausages/Bacon to go with them (I love a meal where a Full English Breakfast is a side serving).

So, need some tips on making the best Roast Potatoes and how to make Gravy (cheated and bought some ready make from Sainsbury's last time).

So its Roast Chicken, Sausage, Bacon, Roasts, Mash, Carrots, Peas and Leeks, Bread Sauce, Paxo Sage and Onion Stuffing and then some stodgy dessert with Custard, bottle of wine.

Any other tips on what to serve gratefully recived.

Cant beat cooking for leisure its ace, Planet Rock on the DAB and a few tins, marvellous.

Blue by You

iTrader: (23)

Roast tatties - Maris Piper.
Peel and boil for around 15 minutes until they start to flake, but not so they're fully cooked.
Pre heat a roasting dish in the oven with enough oil to coat the boiled spuds. Place spuds in the dish and turn in the oil.
Cook for 40 - 45 minutes at 180 or until nice and golden.

Gravy - let the juices from the chicken stand to separate and take off most of the oil.
Place the pan on the hob and add a table spoon of plain flour. Stir and bring to the boil. Add water if too thick and season to taste.

ScoobyWon't

Roast potato is easy. Use goose fat to really give them some flavour.

Par-boil them, then drain. Shake them to fluff the edges, which helps the fat to soak in. Roll them in the hot fat to coat, sprinkle with rosemary and bung them in the oven

For the gravy, once you have removed the chicken from the roasting pan, keep the tray on the heat and splash in some water from the veg or some white wine and scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. If you need to thicken it up, add some (sieved) flour and keep it bubbling. Season to taste.

Don't forget to save the carcass afterwards to use to make a chicken stock

what would scooby do

Asparagus !

oldsplice

You BOUGHT gravy??????

dpb

Stuff it

















with your own






















not literally mind

Chip

Do not buy Paxo, it's crap. Make your own. Put some stale white bread in a mixer to make breadcrumbs , chop and add an onion , add salt and pepper and either mixed herbs or fresh sage , thyme or whatever herbs you like really. Stuff the body not the neck end with the stuffing and it will keep your bird moist as well. Enjoy!

Chip

SJ_Skyline

I use duck fat for my roasties (save it every time we do roast duck and then simply strain store in an old tea mug in the fridge and re-use )

For crispy bordering on cremated potatoes (the way Mrs SJ likes them):
- Par-boil your potatoes, place in cold water, bring to the boil and boil for 10 minutes.
- Drain and leave to dry.
- Pre-heat overn to 180-190 (tried 190 last weekend and they were better)
- Melt about half a tea-mug of the fat in a shallow casserole dish.
- Add potatoes and a couple of sprigs of rosemary.
- Hold down a lid on the casserole dish and shake well so that the potatoes are nicely bashed up and coated in oil.
- Add way too much salt (maldon for preference).
- Place in oven for at least one hour, depending on size 1:30 may be in order.

With the bird, after washing it pat dry with kitchen towel and run in a good few lugs of olive oil. Now mill salt and pepper all over the top to ensure that the skin goes nice and crispy.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Chestnut stuffing: A packet of sage and onion, a pound of decent pork sausage meat, NOT frozen), and a tin of whole pealed chestnuts.
Mix the stuffing as normal. Allow to cool. Mix in the sauage meat, using your hands to get a good consistency. Once satisfied, tip in the chestnuts and mix again, trying NOT to break up the chestnuts too much.

Place into plastic bags and freeze until needed, just as much as you can eat, per bag.

To cook: defrost, then place in a metal bowl, or on a baking tray, and heat in the oven while the meat roasts. Lovely.

To make raost potatoes more tasty/interesting, do as in other posts, (parboil, roast in hot fat), but sprinkle with Schwarz "Spicy Season-all" before roasting. Tip I got from a prefessional chef. (I also use "Steakhouse pepper" and m"Chargrilled chicken" depending on the meat, and it gives variety.)

Also, if you don't already have one, get a slow cooker. Tesco do one at under £20, makes any cut of meat lovely and decent cuts just outstanding.

Try beef in beer..........

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Chestnut stuffing: A packet of sage and onion, a pound of decent pork sausage meat, NOT frozen), and a tin of whole pealed chestnuts.
Mix the stuffing as normal. Allow to cool. Mix in the sauage meat, using your hands to get a good consistency. Once satisfied, tip in the chestnuts and mix again, trying NOT to break up the chestnuts too much.

Place into plastic bags and freeze until needed, just as much as you can eat, per bag.

To cook: defrost, then place in a metal bowl, or on a baking tray, and heat in the oven while the meat roasts. Lovely.

To make raost potatoes more tasty/interesting, do as in other posts, (parboil, roast in hot fat), but sprinkle with Schwarz "Spicy Season-all" before roasting. Tip I got from a prefessional chef. (I also use "Steakhouse pepper" and m"Chargrilled chicken" depending on the meat, and it gives variety.)

Also, if you don't already have one, get a slow cooker. Tesco do one at under £20, makes any cut of meat lovely and decent cuts just outstanding.

Try beef in beer..........

Jamie

Roast tatties

SJ_Skyline

Oddly enough that's what I'm doing tonight albeit in stout

Jamie

Room for one Skyline ?

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

Aunt bessies roasties and sainsburys sell stuffing ready made which is really nice for 79p on the deli counter right next to the cooked chickens

SJ_Skyline

Always mate

dpb

i perchanced a couple of decent sized roast birds the other week at morries for 50p each , friday night jus before they shut up shop

Honestly even at this price i wish id not strayed from the pub

Jer

Get a packet of chicken and beef oxo cubes. Sprinkle a chicken oxo into a few tablespoons of oil and paint on the chicken with a brush before cooking. It makes the skin very nice and crisp with a nice flavour.
For the gravy take out most of the oil but leave enough to absorb a tablespoon of flour. Stir in the flour then add some white wine slowly while stirring flour, meat juices, and oil. add a beef and chicken oxo, salt and pepper and slowly add water until boiling.

Rooster potatos are nice for roasting. Mash with a roast dinner is not normal?

David Lock

Celeriac in a white sauce is a cracking vegetable to have with a roast. I would always go for shoulder of lamb as being much tastier than chicken but a personal choice of course.

Making me hungry now

dl

Hysteria1983

Plenty of good tips here, I just need a sample now. This Sunday you say?

Chip

Ive just dined on 6 fish fingers, buttered mashed potatoes and beans accompanied by a nice cup of tea.

Chip

oldsplice

Living on the culinary edge there, Chip!

Lee247

Thats perfect for the spuds

Gravy is an art
Use the juices from the chicken with the fat skimmed off. Add a chicken stock cube and water from the veg. Then, a few drops of Soy Sauce and Worcester Sauce. Not too much or you will take over the chicken flavour.
Mix cornflour in a bowl with some water, and pour in as much as you need to thicken the gravy to your taste. mm mm mm

Chip

Well yes , we know how to live around here

I kept it simple for the non-foodies that reside on here. What I actually had was:

Goujons of North Atlantic cod coated in seasoned layer of freshly grated golden breadcrumbs.

Crushed Maris Piper potatoes creamed with a little milk and a large **** of Normandy butter.

seasoned with freshly ground Maldon salt and peppercorns

Haricot beans served in a rich tomato based sauce.

Chip

Dr Hu

fnaar fnaar I find the above always helps to keep your bird moist

But I'll second the - par boil, shake, roast - method of Roast tatties - I believe invented by a certain Delia Smith

Chip

I dont think Delia had anything to do with it. My mother was doing that 50 years ago.

Chip

Dr Hu

Your mum is Delia Smith.....






lol

oldsplice

Surely you mean a tomato 'jus'.



And I wish my mum had been doing roast potatoes like that 50 years ago! She used to just cut huge potatoes in half lengthways, and stick them in a roasting tin with half a pound of (cold) lard. And then she'd open a tin of carrots. *shudder*

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

I always roast my potatoes at a much higher temperature than those suggested above - about 220 deg C seems right. Boil for 10 mins with a pinch of salt while heating the roasting dish with olive oil in the oven, then drain the spuds, give them a shake to fluff them up and put them in the oil. Brush all over to ensure they're thoroughly coated and stick in the top of the oven for 20 mins, then take them out and turn them over. Eat 15 mins later.

Can't beat Paxo stuffing and Bisto gravy though...

Jamie

Lydia72

No roast parsnips?