Your Ultimate Roast

Ulala

Awkward Woodward
We don't have enough food threads, methinks, so let's pose a question. What is your ultimate Sunday roast? Discuss/embellish/rep your ends/&c.

Some rules, though (Dogme-style). You may choose:
1x Main dish can be any variety of meat, or if you're vegetarian, 1x roast item (portabella mushroom/chestnut loaf/whatever), but it must be oven-cooked, same with the meat innit (or fish if you're a pervert)
1x potato item (roast is pretty much a given, but mash or other allowable)
1x sauce or gravy (only one, mind)
3x other veg

Got that? 1x main, 1x potato, 1x sauce, 3x veg. I might allow an extra veg if you make your case well enough.

My choices are these: Pork belly (and crackling). Roast potatoes (they need to be par-boiled first and roasted in olive oil, fuck goosefat). Red wine gravy (or jus, I guess - add red wine to the pork juices and maybe some stock). Carrots with rosemary and caraway seeds. Cauliflower cheese. Red cabbage with balsamic vinegar.

What's your ultimate roast?
 
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mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
Nah that's a heresy right there son, it's goose fat all the way, even great great olive oil just doesn't compare, have you tried both back to back? There's just no comparison
 

luka

Well-known member
theres only two veges here, me and matt b. roasts for vegetarians are not really a big event. i eat roast pumpkin, roast sweet potato, roast garlic, roast potato, its all nice dont get mee wrong but its not going to change anyones life.
 

matt b

Indexing all opinion
theres only two veges here, me and matt b. roasts for vegetarians are not really a big event. i eat roast pumpkin, roast sweet potato, roast garlic, roast potato, its all nice dont get mee wrong but its not going to change anyones life.

True- I'm now happy with a quorn roast on a sunday, which is indicative of low standards and of being a long way from 'ultimate'.

I can't think of a really good roast meat replacement- may be a marinated tofu steak thing? But they are an arse to prepare.

Roast veg are a fall back midweek thing, really.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
If this thread were on a football forum, the meaning would be radically changed.

What's the vegetable that undergoes the most/best transformation through roasting? Peppers and aubergines are pretty much unusable if not cooked (peppers only raw for crunch), celeriac and beetroot behave very well when roasted...
 

Phaedo

Well-known member
Nut Roast is the best veggie alternative in my opinion. I'm not vegetarian but I have had some which are just as tasty and satisfying as meat.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
RIGHT.

Meat: gotta be beef. I'm not an expert on different cuts but have had good results with ribs, topside and leg. Give it a good coating of olive oil, coarse-ground black pepper and sea salt. Cook at a high temperature for 15 or 20 minutes, then turn the heat down to quite low and cook for another 10 mins or so per pound. I forget the exact timings. Anyway, it's got to be nice and browned, singed almost, on the outside while still red (not pink) in the middle. It should ooze when sliced. Aww yeah.

Gravy is the next most important thing. Basic mix is half stock, half juices from the joint. Ideally you'd use stock from the same kind of meat as the roast, but I've had pretty good results using (say) chicken stock mixed with beef juices. It should be rich and home-made, is the main thing, though that gel-type concentrated stock is acceptable in a pinch. You can also make a quick pseudo-stock by cutting a few slivers off the beef and frying them with onions until everything's nice and browned then adding water, cooking for a while longer as the flavours are absorbed, with some herbs, salt and pepper thrown in.

Gravy is then thickened with cornflour (not too much, as it's going to be reduced by slow simmering) and flavoured with Marmite, some dark jam (blackberry, elderberry...) and wine - something really poky and full-bodied, Barolo or one of those daft Aussie cabernet sauvignons that basically beat your tastebuds up.

Spuds: peeled, left whole if small or cut into halves or quarters if big, then boiled for nearly as long as you'd boil them for mashing, like 17 minutes or something. Drain, score with a fork, dust liberally with sea salt and dried herbs (sage is esp good) then cook in olive oil that's already spitting hot. I HAVE NOT TRIED GOOSE FAT YET, which may well be far superior, but they're still nice done this way, trust me. Put them in before the meat, they'll almost certainly take longer. As long as they have enough oil, it's practically impossible to overcook them.

Other veg:

- leeks, steamed then smothered in bechemel sauce, loads of mature cheddar grated on top then browned under the grill;
- garlic mushrooms, as big and meaty as possible; heavy on the butter (and garlic);
- spinach, steamed and similarly soused in butter and garlic, plus pepper.

English mustard is needed to, which I consider a condiment rather than a sauce.

Aaand I'm spent.

Edit: pork and red cabbage is a winner, for sure. But I always find gammon much more flavoursome than uncured pork. A big roast ham leg coated in brown sugar and mustard with cloves stuck in it, oh my sweet Lord...unf.
 
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Slothrop

Tight but Polite
Nut Roast is the best veggie alternative in my opinion. I'm not vegetarian but I have had some which are just as tasty and satisfying as meat.

You can do quite good things roasting butternut squashes cut in half lengthways and stuffed with some appropriate stuffing.

Re proper roasts, got to be beef, roast potatoes, steamed carrots, leeks in white sauce as per tea's post, yorkshire puid (that's a vegetable, right?).

Couldn't choose sauce or gravy since gravy is essential but horseradish sauce is as good as essential too...
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Chicken with about a gazillion garlic cloves, lemons a-plenty and possibly a few herbs. Potatoes in the pan with it to soak up juices. Serve with juice as it is, possibly thickened with a little flour, and with watercress. Best meal ever.
 

Sectionfive

bandwagon house
couldn't pick a meat

Roasties + mash

Gravy with a bit of good mustard lobbed in

Roast Parsnip is king, carrot + turnip mash, Yorkshire puddings

apple sauce or a fried apple if serving pork
 

Ulala

Awkward Woodward
This wasn't too popular, was it? Bum.

Lots of love to Mr. Tea for his elaborate entry, though. (Cooking instructions, too! I shall try some of them.)

I stand firm on the goose fat issue. I don't want my potatoes to taste meaty. Olive oil confers crispness but doesn't dominate the basic potato flavour. Also, a girlfriend (now wife) of a former housemate left a pot of goose fat in the fridge for weeks and it smelt and looked exactly like Winalot. (She was (still is) French, naturellement, they love it.) Hungover fumbling for milk was thus greeted with the ripe ming of congealed goose. I don't remember it fondly.
 
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