Roast Dinners!

Someone posted about roasting chicken with slices of chorizo slipped inside the skin to keep the bird moist...

And what about SALTING the meat! There are all these things to learn!!

This is about as much as I can help you with, beyond suggesting that you chop your vegetables into cubes, toss in oil and herbs (and a little garlic) and roast in the oven along with the chicken. Num num.

i) in the meat they cause good all-through cooking by the magic of infinity conduction
ii) use them like japanese hairpins and look the thing, punky mikado-style

Chicken is really easy and forgiving. Pork is rather difficult. I am a big fan of lamb - spiked with rosemary, or rubbed with Coleman's mustard powder and pepper before going in the oven.

Yorkshire pudding - tricky, involves verrrry hot FAT and muffin trays. I prefer to do large ones (roasting tray size), with or without 'toad' (Lincs sausages for preference).

Oh, you can also bung half a lemon inside yr chicken to make it lovely and fragrant & keep it moist. Chorizo + chicken! Good Lord.

1. Buy mini chicken from Sainsburys

If you're treating yourself, why not treat yourself??

Mark - skewers too? Punk rock skewer chicken with layers of streaky bacon? See I don't know ALL of this stuff!

I don't really want lemon flavoured chicken though Liz - although is it just there to keep the insides all moist (coo-er)?

I admit for Yorkshire puds I wd consider just buying ready made ones.

I've never had any luck rubbing the chicken with butter - it just burns and goes black. Is there a knack?

Ooh, and keep the carcass to make stock with. It won't be as good as if you used an uncooked carcass, but it still works fine. Put the roasted, stocked chicken outside as soon as you can, though, or it will begin to smell of sick.

Gravy making techniques would be totally appreciated!

Graham in our house we have a very loose definition of "vegetarian". I think it probably includes chicken. I am going to use the bones for CHICKEN STOCK!!!

NO GRAVY.

With gravy, all I know is that I think you have to fry the fuck out of an onion and then I dunno.

Stock: Chicken bones, sprig of rosemary (or a pinch of the dry stuff), five or six cloves of garlic (unpeeled), a roughly chopped onion, a sliced carrot, a couple of sticks of celery... um, I feel as if I've forgotten something... Cover the lot with water, put a lid on, bring to the boil, turn it right down and simmer gently for three hours.

Chicken - need to know weight, should be (according to Nigella and this seems to work) 20 mins per pound + 20 mins extra, at err I dunno 200 Celsius? Until nice and brown and when a skewer/sharp knife plunged into chunky thigh produces only clear jiuces rather than bloody.

Why not get a proper sized chicken and eat it for the rest of the week too? Chicken fried rice, sandwiches, ect. Only if you have fridge space. I buy nice cheap chicken from leering halal butchers on Stroud Green Road, but this will not work for you, wrong side of river, ho ho.

Buttering chicken - this is rather pervy. You have to gently separate the skin from the breast WITHOUT tearing it (wiggling fingers around under skin gently), and slip some herby/plain butter inside as far as it'll go. Skin goes lovely and crispy, breast goes tasty.

Blimey cookingtastic.

Gravy?

NB once I have got this technique I'm going to invite you all round for a dinner party!

You can put this in a 12-bun tin or one big one, but you must put some LARRRRD in each hole or in the big tin and stick it in the oven for 5 mins or so until very hott - I mean spitting heat. Then get the batter in the tin as quickly as possible and roast for 10-15 mins if ickle, 30 or so if big.

Also, gravy:

Do it in roasting tin that chicken was cooked in - the bird should be 'resting' somewhere for 10 mins before carving - add chopped onion if wished, fry it on hob, add water to lift sticky chickeny stuff from bottom of tin, stir around for a bit. Taste, add seasoning if necessary. Add teeny bit of cornflour mixed with water - this makes gravy thick - and stir over heat until desired texture is achieved. You can also shove in boring gravy granules to thicken, but this may produce strange taste.

I like a dash or two of soy sauce in gravy, but I'm odd.

This really makes me want chicken, but alas! I have an appointment with the PUB this evening.

Tim = bang on re: roast spuds, unless you just want to shake them about in the colander so they get nicely bashed up.

and Liz = bang on re: gravy, except I don't thicken mine any more, apart from maybe putting in a little knob of butter to make it shiny and slightly thicker.

i roast em in honey when stand-alone roasting (also parse-nips): this gives good caramelisation if you use exactly the right amt, ie not a whole jar

Cut them in half (or quarter if they're huge) have flat bit at bottom, and slice until you're nearly at the bottom, leaving just enough so that they stay in one piece, 4mm apart, width wise. Cover in salty water and leave overnight. Cook as normal. the salt makes the slices fan open, so you get lots of golden crunchiness.

I am afraid of how hard Tim must be shaking his spuds to lose that much potato.

leftover boiled rice
stale bread, cubed
mugful of veg or chicken stock (yes it can be oxo)
mushrooms
onions
meat from any sossidge - I prefer Cumberland and 3 supermarket bangers skinned should be enough sossidge meat.
pancetta - optional
herbs, salt and pepper to taste

preheat oven as directed by chicken instructions.

put boiled rice (about half the take-away carton) in mixing bowl with two great big handfuls of stale cubed bread. Fry in butter one small chopped onion, cubes of pancetta (not much and cubed small to get the fat into the pan) and when those go translucent, add mushrooms. Add stock to this until it boils and reduces somewhat. Remove from heat, then add sossidge meat to bread/rice combo and also some herbs wot match the herbs in sossidge. Knead this so sossidge pretty much dissipates into the mix. Then add liquid from pan which should be cooler now, and mix thoroughly with dry ingerdients.

Turn to your chicken. Stuff the fucker with all of the stuffing - there'll be great big stuffing pockets with crisp-roasted skin that can be cut off the bird at the end of cooking if you utilise the flaps properly. Stuff the entire cavity. Rub the skin with butter or olive oil. Do not salt the skin or you will dry it out. Place in oven and baste halfway through cooking time and 3/4 through cooking time. I also like to let the skin go as crispy as possible, so add some time to cooking in view of bird being stuffed and the whole skin issue. And make sure you rest your chicken for 15 minutes once out of the oven.

Vegetables: I tend to mash some potatoes but am American.

(also kids, big Yorkshire pudding dusted with cinnamon and nutmeg and powdered sugar = a Dutch Baby/panakoeken)

FOr extra good gravy making its always great if Emma only half finishes a bottle of wine and you can tip it on the pan leftovers to deglaze. Nummy.

(eg stuff a lemon up yr arse and go and lie down with a damp towel acrss yr face for 5 hrs)

liz daplyn said <<
.. whisk until smooth. Needs to rest before...

You can put this in a 12-bun tin or one big one, but you must put some LARRRRD in each hole... until very hott .... Then get the batter in the tin as quickly as possible and roast for 10-15 mins if ickle, 30 or so if big.

Do it in roasting tin..... the bird should be 'resting' somewhere for 10 mins before carving... lift sticky chickeny stuff from bottom of tin, stir around for a bit. Taste, add seasoning if necessary... You can also shove in boring gravy granules....but this may produce strange taste.

!

Anyway Chicken must be free range Why because they are less fatty, tastier, make better stock and haven't spent their life in a small box being shat on by other chickens.

Suzy wrote sossidge I am aghast and she will get marching orders shortly.

For me the best roast is roast Rib of beef. not something I do often due to the sheer cost of beef rib and especially as to do it well your joint needs at least three ribs and that will feed about 10 people on the day plus roast beef sandwiches for all for the rest of time.

Ideally this should be accompanied by roast potatoes carrots an parsnips (if in season and gnarly, smooth undivided parsnip = no taste) and some form of green veg, whatever's in season. I like to toss my parsnips in parmesan and polenta for a nice crispy coating.

Yorkshire pudding is a must but best served as a started with lashings of good beef gravy. The great thing about doing rib is you can cut out one of the bones to stock down to add to the cooking juices. To this you need to add slat pepper and a full bodied red wine, you could use a port. Nothing more. ideally you should make you gravy in the bottom of the roasting tin. The best thing to do is to remove the joint from the roasting tin, drain the juices into a jug and skim off the fat, (add the fat to your roast potatoes, but save some to make yorkshires with).

Then you need to deglaze the roasting tin with your booze, on a low heat dissolve all of those lovely caramelised and slightly burt bits that are stuck to the tin. Then add the juices and the stock and some of the juices that have flowed from your relaxing meat. These will be quite bloody because you joint WILL BE RARE, so don't add to much as they are quite bitter. Add some finely copped caramelised shallots and simmer to thicken, but only slightly, gloopy gravy is an abomination.

Chicken advice seems to be sound but listening to the radio yesterday I heard a chef recommend put a chicken into a cold oven then setting the oven to 70?C and letting it cook for a very long time basting regularly. Interesting but not a recipe for crispy skin.

I also like to roast slabs of pork belly. But I'm not allowed to do this, which is a shame because you get the best crackling crispy fat and great gravy, and pork belly is pretty cheap too.

I also like to roast slabs of pork belly. But I'm not allowed to do this

You are, but the people you live with do not want this for dinner, due to vegetarian and metabolic issues.

er, you mean wine. either red or white. and add mushrooms, especially chanterelles.

Mark: I DID use skewers of a sort, I used skewers of ROSEMARY!! Ph33r m3!

Next time I roast I shall do this at the WEEKEND.

I just don't believe in having my food shipped from the other side of the world it just seems such a waste. Sure NZ lamb may taste just great in NZ but after its been frozen and sat in a ship for a couple of years. OK so I can't get young lamb year round. But hell this is the time of year for good mutton. I often prefer mutton anyway because I love to make stews and mutton has a better flavour for stewing.

I'm not welsh.

Faggots are great. they're just a type of meatball in gravy, nothing sinister about them at all.

Has anyone got any tips on how to CARVE the chicken??

I might actually attempt LAMB on Trace's recommendation but I will have no idea how to carve that either.

Hooray for the bank holiday ROASTING FEAST! (attendees, er... me...)

And then get her to do the carving.

Fun recipe - STAB the lamb with a sharp knife and push cloves of garlic and spears of rosemary into the holes you've made. Then roast as per instructions on pack, I guess.

AGAIN!

Hmmm still no carving solutions...

Rest the meat for 20 minutes or so in a warm place before carving to rest the fibres & ease carving. Beef generally should be carved in thin slices, lamb in thicker ones (cos it should be more tender). Carve across the grain of the muscle so the fibres are as short as poss therefore of maximum eatability. Use a straight carving fork so you can carve all of the joint & use as sharp a knife for carving as you can get. Ideally you should cut the meat with a sawing motion: if the knife is sharp you shouldn't need to put much pressure on it.

A carving dish with spikes to hold the meat in place/channel to collect blood (num) is handy.

Chicken & other birds are complicated because of bones. Just pull the legs off & carve each side of the breast separately.

Will that do?

Definitely let it rest for 20/30 messages. (stick it on a plate out of the way while vegetable and gravy madness is happening)
Big tip for carving is use a sharp carving knife. (I'm not being sarcastic either). Until I got one I massacred the poor bird with vegetable knives, bread knives tea spoons knitting needles etc. Not a pretty sight.
Alternatively if there are only a few people eating - just pull it apart with your fingers - the breasts should come off in big lumps, cut the legs off
If it doesn't look pretty just bury the chicken under spuds and gravy.

...and whatever mooro said :)

Remember to keep the carcass for stock.

THYME! I forgot the thyme. Or perhaps rubbidge Woolwidge Sains didn't have any. Either way. Bums!

Leg of lamb was on special offer but it was still about 7 quid so I didn't gerrit.

Use the rosemary as skewers too!

Can someone please tell me how to avoid this in the future? How does one skim fat? I don't actually know (I thought it wd be obv)...

The chicken looks very poonk rawwwk with big green spikes sticking out of whilst cooking. Then they wilt. Tee hee.

What about this roasting on a bed of chopped onions thing? Do we think this sounds like a good gravy idea? And should I buy some wine to make boozy gravy?

Oh if I am making gravy I will NEED to go the whole roast chicken HOGG (haha PUN!) so I might do it tomorrow instead...

d'you think if i prune the thyme back drastically it will jumpstart? until this year i always found it the least likely to curl up and die on me

Chicken carving, hacking it up with a scimitar also works here. Generally trying to slice it with a very very very very sharp knife, any old how, works for me. A serated knife is no good.

If your stock went kind of solid then this isn't a bad thing, it's just that the gelatine in the bones has come out and basically set your stock like a jelly. You can use this a normal stock, just chuck it in, it'll be fine.

Mark, prune it a bit yes, ie trim the dead bits off. You could buy a bit of baby bio or somesuch to put some life back in the soil?

The alternative is to take all the soil out and start again maybe? with fresh potting compost?

actually i have some really scary grey powder which is plant-style monkey glands or something, which you use to get cuttings to sprout (it's how i started the rosemary off, from a nice little branchlet my mum gave me)

cutting powder? I think my Mum is addicted to it, I think it's made from mugwumps.

i had one of those green plastic things but it sent the water out in a thick fierce jet able to cut through tungsten, so i gaffertaped a cake-icing nozzle onto it to narrow and direct it somewhat, but later the wind blew the whole device off my windowsill down into the garden of our hated neighbour who once took our whole block to court (= where i always throw all the cuttings and debris from my windowbox obv), so fk that

Boozy gravy can be good - cheap wine - The screw top spanish wine from tescos is good for this as you don't feel it's going to be wasted. Also lemon juice will give it a bit of zing. If you roast the chicken with red onions and garlic sling them in too. Though I cheat and use bisto. (((the shame)))