CHILL FOOD WITH MEL MORRIS
December 13th, 2004 by susanna
It’s roasting in here!
Whether it’s a Sunday roast ‘a deux’ or Christmas luncheon for the extended family, a roast can be one of the most simple, delicious and comforting meals – or an unmitigated disaster. If you are dreaming of potatoes that are crispy on the outside yet fluffy in the middle, lump free yet thick gravy, and tasty, tender meat, but all too often end up with a slightly burnt, slightly soggy mess, then read on.
First you need to choose your meat. The meat you choose is the important bit in making sure you have the right accompaniments and really tasty gravy. As a general rule of thumb, if you are doing a straight roast you need meat from a young animal and you need a tender cut. The most tender cuts are usually legs and rumps. You should avoid belly and shoulders. Even with poultry look for younger birds and where you can’t tell (like a game bird) either be prepared to pot roast or ensure it is properly hung.
Red meat should be marbled through with fatty veins and be a deep red colour. The fat will help keep it tender as it cooks. Avoid joints with those translucent membranes round the outside, these shrink when cooking and make your meat tough. Pork needs a reasonable covering of fat on the outside, especially if you want crackling. For chickens and poultry look for even skin colour (uneven may be indicative of bruising) and those that are too plump (these may have been pumped with water). For all meat don’t be afraid to handle it, you should be able to squeeze a joint and feel it ‘give’, a bird should have loose joints but not broken.
Now you have your meat you need to decide what you are going to cook with it. Traditional accompaniments are, of course, roast potatoes and parsnips. But you could also consider roasting shallots, carrots, courgettes, sweet potatoes, turnip, beetroots or peppers alongside too. The reason specific herbs are often associated with meats stems from a medieval law when meat was more scarce and the landowners wanted to keep the best meat for themselves. Ordinary people of the land were ordered to eat meat only with ‘bitter herbs’ and so the customs of eating lamb with mint or rosemary, pork with sage, beef with mustard or horseradish and chicken with tarragon began. Most meats respond well to being marinated or infused with these herbs (and other flavours) but remember that if you want crackling on your pork you should not add anything that contains water or oil – a little salt rubbed into it before cooking should help it crisp.
So your shopping is done – what next? The first thing is not to refrigerate your meat. Meat should be kept cool, but not cold, unless it is going to be more than 24 hours until you eat it. And if you do refrigerate it, remember to take it out of the fridge at least two hours before beginning to cook it if you want tender meat. Next is where I differ to most cooks. Many will tell you to roast in a moderate oven and more slowly. But I find modern cuts of meat and the age of the animal at slaughter are more conducive to a fairly rapid roasting (the exception here again is pot roasts, recipe below) so turn your oven up pretty high. I usually roast at around the 225 C/ Gas mark 6 point and leave it to warm up properly.
The secret of a good roast is timing. Whichever meat you choose it will need twenty minutes per pound (30 minutes per 500g) plus an extra 20 minutes. For really tasty meat you should also allow it to rest out of the oven for 20 minutes before beginning carving. You need to allow at least 90 minutes for crisp roast potatoes; beetroots and carrots need an hour; parsnip and sweet potatoes 45 minutes; and courgettes and peppers 30 minutes.
Potatoes (both kinds), beetroots and parsnips benefit from a par boiling before being roasted. Potatoes should be cut to size and then dropped into boiling water, brought back to the boil and then cooked until the surface is soft but the ‘core’ still hard. Drain and reserve the boiling water (to make your gravy with) and give the potatoes a shake in the pan to roughen the surface, this shaking is the secret of crispy roasties! Parsnip, beetroots and sweet potatoes just need a little cooking to keep them fluffy and light.
Perfect Roast Chicken
Here are my steps to a perfect roast chicken dinner based on a medium chicken.
2.5 hours before dinner: Turn on oven. Place chicken in a roasting tin and place in the cavity half a lemon, a stick of celery chopped in half, a few cloves of garlic, and a few cardamom pods (if you have them). Put another roasting tin over the top of the chicken – ensuring steam can escape (this helps keep the chicken moist and your oven clean). Put chicken in oven. Peel potatoes and vegetables.
2 hours before dinner: Put kettle on to boil.
1 hour and 45 minutes before dinner: Par boil potatoes.
1.5 hours before dinner: Drain potatoes (reserving the water) and shake. Add potatoes to tin with chicken – they should not need any further oil (if roasting separately then cover with a good drizzle of oil – vegetable oil is fine although I also add a little sesame oil for extra flavour).
1 hour and 15 minutes before dinner: Par boil beetroots, drain and add with carrots around the chicken (also here add shallots, garlic cloves or turnips to tray) – reserve the water (the same water can be used again and again to concentrate the flavours). Ensure potatoes are not sticking to the tray.
1 hour before dinner: Par boil the parsnips, drain and add to tray, reserving the water. Turn other potatoes and veg.
Half an hour before dinner: Remove the chicken from oven. Ensure it is cooked by piercing the chicken in the space between thigh and breast, if the juices look pink or bloody it is not cooked. If the juices are clear take the chicken out of the tray and set on a platter (I use a wooden chopping board) to rest. Transfer all roasting veggies into the top roasting tray and return to the oven – at this point turn up the heat more if they are looking less than crisp.
Take the bottom tray with the juices from the chicken and add a tablespoon of plain flour or cornflour. Mix these together well. Add a splash or wine or sherry if you like here and a two stock cubes crumbled (it doesn’t matter which, I generally add one beef and one chicken). Mix these into the flour paste with a little of the water reserved from cooking the vegetables. Add a little more of the water and mix again. Add the rest of the water and mix. Put on the stove and gently heat the gravy stirring all the time. Once boiled stop stirring and leave to simmer while you serve the roast potatoes and vegetables.
Your chicken dinner should now be ready.
Pot Roasts
Almost any meat can be pot roasted although it is best for stronger meats and game birds. You will need a large casserole dish that you can cover. On the bottom of the dish you should place a chopped onion, a peeled and chopped carrot, two sticks of celery chopped, a bay leaf or two and some peeled and chopped cloves of garlic. Place your joint or bird on top of this and put into a moderate over (180 degrees/ Gas Mark 5) for a couple of hours for a small game bird like a partridge. When the meat is cooked remove it from the pot with most of the vegetables. And then prepare gravy as described above using the juices in the pot. Best served with creamy mash and a good red wine.
