Category Archives: potatoes

fairfields farm crisps

Posted by Gary in crisps, food, potatoes

Three new crisp flavours fairfield farm essex

I was asked if I would like some samples of Essex-grown Fairfields Farm Crisps. Being proud of Essex and an enormous fan of potatoes it took me all of 8 milliseconds to tear off someone’s arm to get some. And what a treat they are.

It’s great to be able to champion a really local product. I smiled at the fact that the flavouring for the bacon comes from Wicks Manor Farm, somewhere I’ve frequented often for their amazing hams and sausages. It’s just a couple of miles from where I work in Maldon and has a lovely farm shop. I was also quite tickled with the fact that Robert of Fairfields featured on The Apprentice as a mentor and crisp expert. On to the crisps themselves and they present some interesting flavours: Butter & Mint which tastes far more minty than you think crisps could; Sea Salt & Black Pepper which is a lovely balance; Smoky Bacon which just makes me drool. There’s also No Salt which I approached with some trepidation but I needn’t have worried. The absence of extra salt just highlights how great the potatoes themselves are; earthy, full of flavour and just cooked enough so as not to destroy their potatoeyness.

There’s a bunch of other flavours too:

  • Lightly Sea Salted
  • Sea Salt and Aspall Cyder Vinegar
  • Sweet Chilli
  • Farmhouse Cheese and Chive
  • Parsnip Crisps with Essex Honey & Black Pepper

I have to try the Aspall ones too, I absolutely love Aspall’s cider. If you see them near you, try a bag out. You won’t be disappointed. Fairfields Farm Crisps are available from farm shops, delicatessens and branches of Co-op in the East of England, and by mail order via www.fairfieldsfarmcrisps.co.uk. You can say to the team on Twitter too.

sunday grill

Posted by Gary in carrots, chicken, food, potatoes

grilled chicken, roast potatoes, stuffing, carrots and gravy

…Instead of Sunday roast, geddit? Except it wasn’t roasted, and I ate it on a Wednesday. Simple, eh? Let me explain…

George Foreman Grills are making a comeback, it seems. They passed me by the first time around; just wasn’t in the right place at the right time. So when I was invited to test-drive their new monster 4-Portion family grill I was intrigued. I tried out a few things but they were keen for me to try cooking a delicious four person meal.

Whatever my recipe was how could I leave out my thing, roast potatoes? So a version of that was definitely going to feature; from there it was only a short step to deciding I might as well do as much of a Sunday roast as possible on the little dude. I can’t use my beloved Maris Pipers though, their texture will cause them to fall apart on the griddle. So I’m bucking the trend and using new pots here. Technically we end up with something closer to a saute potato but so much healthier.

With the potatoes sorted, it’s on to the meat. Chicken seems like the way to go. But I want to maximise the flavour, I am not actually roasting here so a few leg-ups are needed to make regular grilled foods punch above their weight. My love affair with brining told me to try it here; it provides you with excellent seasoning and gives a much ‘bigger’ flavour. The final touch for the chicken is to rub it with a stock cube to impart even more deep chickeny love.

So there it is – my quick and tasty Sunday Grill. Once your chicken has brined I reckon it will take you 25 minutes to get it on the table, so it’s a great midweek meal. Check back later this week where I’ll be giving away a grill of your very own!

If you want to go shopping for a grill now, here’s a deal for you: run over to George Foreman Grills and they’re currently offering free UK delivery and a 50% off sale. But for an extra 10% off, use the code GFSAVE10 and grab yourself a bargain!

Thanks to Sophie for going to a lot (!) of trouble getting me a grill to test on. For more George Foreman Grill inspiration, check out Helen’s lemony maple chicken thighs, and Katie’s sticky griddled plums!

Sunday grill (serves 4):

4 chicken breasts

Lots of salt

1 bay leaf

1 tablespoon honey

1 chicken stock cube

500g new potatoes, halved

750g carrots, peeled and chopped

1 shallot, peeled

50g cooked chestnuts

4 pork sausages, skinned

1 rasher bacon

3 sage leaves

25g breadcrumbs

Gravy, to serve

  1. Put your chicken breasts in a bowl and put it on top of some scales. Cover the chicken generously and note how heavy the water is. Work out 5% of the weight of the water, and add that amount of salt to the bowl. Ad the bay leaf and honey, cover and leave refrigerated for at least an hour, but no more than 6 hours.
  2. When you’re ready to cook, drain the chicken, give it a brief rinse in cold water and pat dry with kitchen roll.
  3. Pre-heat your George Foreman grill to it’s highest setting on both grill and griddle. Get a large pan of water on to boil. Crumble half the stock cube into the water. When it’s ready pop the potatoes in and boil for approximately 8 minutes or until tender enough that a knife can pass into it. Drain and allow to steam-dry for a couple of minutes. As they cool add a teaspoon of oil and toss thoroughly.
  4. In a food processor, whizz up the shallot, then add the chestnuts, sausagemeat, bacon, sage and breadcrumbs. Season well with salt and pepper and pulse several times until the whole mixture pulls together. Scoop out the mix and form into 4 balls, then flatten.
  5. On the griddle section, add the potatoes cut-side down. This will cook for about 1o – 12 minutes, until the are beautifully golden brown. You should also just about have room for the stuffing patties. After about 6 minutes the stuffing should be flipped over and cooked on the other side.
  6. Meanwhile, fill the saucepan that held the potatoes with boiling water again and get the carrots on to cook until tender to your liking.
  7. After the potatoes have been on for about 4 minutes, rub the remaining stock cube half all over the chicken and add the chicken breasts to the grill. Cook for 7 – 10 minutes until cooked through. They will take longer to colour because of the brining, but they will cook inside in the same time. Serve everything up and pour over your favourite gravy.

burger with red onion and red wine sauce

Posted by Gary in beef, burger, food, potatoes, red onion, stock, wine and tagged with

burger with red onion and red wine sauce and saute potatoes

There’s always room on the cookbook shelf for someone offering midweek family meals done in an interesting way. And that’s the motto of Alex Mackay’s new book Everybody, Everyday. The premise is presented simply: take one mother component or recipe and then spin it off half-a-dozen ways. It means it encourages you to use a familiar thing, such as pesto, and find new culinary homes for it. The book also has other dimensions, encouraging family food and how to prepare the same meal for toddlers. As someone always trying to think of new things to cook a littl’un the ideas are very welcome. Handily (uniquely?) the recipes are all for 2 people, the usual amount I cook for, and makes it super-easy to multiply up. Nothing is super fancy or cheffy but there are a few subtle restaurant-style tricks to lift your cooking, such as draining off fat but basting in butter for a finishing glaze. There’s plenty of inspiration to be had.

There are a few downsides to the recipes I’ve tried so far though: the recipes take a while. I can be nippy in the kitchen when I want to be, but I’m taking an hour on each one so far. And they use pans by the bucket, plenty of hob-juggling required which requires good planning or washing up inbetween. Some of the recipes have got the odd text error in as well which is a shame. Don’t let that detract from the great inspiration on offer though, each recipe I’ve cooked so far has been packed with flavour and extremely tasty. Like this one – a minced beef patty, topped with a glossy and rich meaty gravy and served with crisp saute potatoes. Delicious!

Burger with red onion and red wine sauce (serves 2):

60g butter

1 red onion, peeled and sliced

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon dark soy sauce

250ml red wine

200ml beef stock

300g new potatoes, halved

Chopped parsley

350g beef mince

4 teaspoons Dijon mustard

  1. Preheat the oven to it’s lowest setting and get the kettle on. Let’s start the sauce.
  2. Fry 10g of butter with the onion, vinegar, soy and with 3 tablespoons water over a medium heat, covered for about 8 minutes. Take the lid off and crank up the heat, then add the wine until reduced by three quarters. Then add the stock and reduce by about two thirds. Turn off the heat.
  3. While this is going on, simmer the potatoes for 12 minutes in salted boiling water. Drain and leave to steam for a few minutes.
  4. Get a frying pan on really hot and add a splash of oil. Lower the heat, add the potatoes cut side down and fry for 5 or so minutes until golden. Turn off the heat, drain off the fat, then toss the potatoes in 10g of butter, a sprinkle of sea salt and some chopped parsley. Pop in the oven to keep warm.
  5. Mix the mince with the mustard and a pinch of salt and form into 2 burgers. Fry in a little oil over a medium heat for a couple minutes on each side. Again drain the fat and toss with 10g butter and leave to rest for a couple of minutes while you reheat the sauce. Bring the sauce back to the boil and stir in the rest of the butter, seasoning if necessary. Serve and devour!

empire fish and chips

Posted by Gary in chips, cod, curry, curry powder, fish, food, potatoes

empire fish and chips

Just the other week I was bowled over by Jamie’s empire chicken. I was also taken by his prediction that if you ask the British public what their favourite meals are, they’ll say “roast chicken” and “a curry”, hence his Imperial mash-up. But my mind wandered to that other pinnacle of British food, the fish and chips. What would this look like as a crossover?

As it turns out, hilarious fun. Spicy yet familiar.

Empire fish and chips (serves 2):

For the chips:

2 – 3 medium maris piper potatoes

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1 teaspoon nigella seeds

1 teaspoon garam masala

1 teaspoon madras curry powder

For the fish:

150g plain flour

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon garam masala

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon honey

Carbonated water (enough to make a gloopy batter, approx 300ml)

2 cod fillets

  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Cut the potatoes into nice fat chip shapes and drop them into salted boiling water. When tender drain them and allow to steam dry a little. Toss in the spices with a big pinch of salt, toss in oil and pop in the oven for 45 minutes until crispy.
  2. Meanwhile make the fish. Heat some rapeseed or vegetable oil in a pan or fryer to 180°C. Whisk up the batter ingredients and then lay the fish in the batter. Allow the excess to drip off and fry the fish for approx 8 – 10 minutes until golden brown on both sides. Serve immediately with lemon wedges.

roast turkey with all the trimmings

Posted by Gary in brussels sprouts, carrots, food, gravy, parsnips, potatoes, turkey and tagged with , ,

roast turkeySometimes, blog posts I write are to spread the news of some great recipe I found. Other times it’s about crazy experiments. But the aim has always been to be a log of what I cooked, and that’s what this Christmas Day feast is about: to remind myself what worked and what to fix for next time.

Perhaps surprisingly I’d never cooked a whole turkey before: on previous years when hosting someone else provided the turkey on another occasion I went for chicken. So on your maiden voyage into turkey cooking, what technique do you follow to ensure no-one is disappointed (least of all me!) ?

turkey in the brineI was initially tempted by Matthew Fort’s method for slow-roasting the bird, especially given my previous success with long roasting times. But I just couldn’t take the risk and instead went for the technique of that doyenne of domesticity, Nigella. I grabbed a copy of Nigella Christmas from the library and swotted up. She favours a brining followed by a hot, quick roasting. I’m a big fan of brining poultry and with trusty meat thermometer in hand I had to follow this one. And I’m so glad I did. It was no bother to prepare as it is done a couple of days beforehand, and by using a foil roasting tray I could chuck it on the recycling pile and not have to scrub the pan after cooking. I had a 5.5kg bird and anticipated a cooking time of 2½ hrs and bang on then it was done. In fact I probably could have removed it 15 minutes earlier as the very outer skin was a little tough and the internal temperature was in the mid 80s, well within the safe range. That aside the flavour was lovely and texture great, so I was very pleased with bowing down to Queen Nigella’s recipe.

So that was the main event. The roast potatoes, well you might recognise that recipe. Sprouts were also cooked to a previous tradition in my house, while carrots were simply steamed – there’s more than enough flavours going on to bother with tweaking these too much. There were also maple-roast parsnips, Jamie Oliver’s “get-ahead” gravy which I’ve made before and is absolutely terrific (a friend of mine commented that it “tastes of everything you put into it”), and on this occasion raised its game with turkey roasting juices and a quick turkey stock.

Other people may raise an eyebrow at packet stuffing, but I grew up on the stuff and a roast poultry dinner just isn’t the same without it. Yes, I know it is little more than a packet of dust mixed with water making it no more sophisticated than a Pot Noodle but I love it.

I can’t remember ever having bread sauce before but read this recipe on Recipe Rifle which, reading between the lines must be a Josceline Dimbleby recipe and therefore failsafe. However after hours of cooking it was watery. The flavour was gorgeous but unfortunately just too wet. I suspect I used rubbish bread which wasn’t in the mood to absorb liquid but I would definitely like to try it again.

Bread sauce, all in all a success! Very pleased with the results. Merry Christmas!

(I’ve presented it below as an itinerary as a reminder where I saved time for next year. I aimed for a 2.30pm dinner)

Roast turkey with all my trimmings  (serves 7 with leftovers):

For the gravy:

6 chicken pieces (wings, thighs etc)

3 onions, quartered

3 celery sticks, chopped

3 carrots, chopped

2 sprigs rosemary

2 tablespoons flour

1 pint boiling water

Turkey giblets

For the turkey & brine:

5.5kg turkey

10 pints water

125 grams table salt

3 tablespoons black peppercorns

1 cinnamon stick

4 cloves

2 tablespoons juniper berries

4 star anise

2 tablespoons mustard seeds

200g caster sugar

2 onions, quartered

1 piece ginger

4 tablespoons maple syrup

4 tablespoons clear honey

1 orange, quartered

For the bread sauce:

1 large onion, very finely diced

150g wholemeal bread, crusts on

6 cloves

4 cardamom pods

½ a nutmeg

75g butter

900ml milk

300ml double cream

For the yorkshire puddings:

4 eggs

4 heaped tablespoons flour

Milk

Vegetable oil

For the potatoes:

1kg potatoes

200ml goose fat

3 cloves garlic

Peel of 1 orange

1 sprig of rosemary

For the maple parsnips:

6 parsnips, peeled and quartered

2 tablespoons maple syrup

Red wine vinegar

For the brussels sprouts:

500g brussels sprouts

2 rashers bacon, diced

1 vac-pack of chestnuts

Etc:

6 carrots, peeled and sliced

1 packet stuffing

Sausages wrapped in bacon

    • 3 days before: GRAVY – Preheat the oven to 180°C. Chuck the veg and herbs in a roasting dish and top with the chicken pieces. Roast for about an hour then transfer to a hob. Shake over the flour and stir all around until a thick paste forms, then pour over the water. Allow to bubble away for about 45 minutes and then sieve the solids off. The gravy can be frozen until needed.
    • 2 days before: TURKEY – chuck the turkey with all the brine ingredients in a large lidded container and top with water until the bird is covered. Leave in a cold place (I kept mine in the garage).
    • 1 day before: BREAD SAUCE – Preheat the oven to 130°C. Combine all the ingredients in a baking dish, cover with foil and bake for 2 hours. Refrigerate until needed.
    • 1 day before: YORKSHIRE PUDDINGS – Whisk the eggs and flour together with a pinch each of salt and pepper in a measuring jug and add enough milk to make a thin custardy-textured batter. Cover and refrigerate until needed.
    • 1 day before: ROAST POTATOES – peel the potatoes but keep the peelings. I boil the peelings with the potatoes to impart super-earthy flavour, by putting them inside my cheapest (clean) dishcloth tied at the top. Cut the potatoes into golf ball-size chunks. Get a pan of water on to a rolling boil with a hefty hand of salt and boil the potatoes + skins for about 15 mins, or until they are super-tender. Drain and return to the hot pan (off the heat) to steam dry. When cool cover with clingfilm and refrigerate until needed.
    • 9am that day: TURKEY – remove the turkey from the brine, drain and pat with kitchen paper. Leave on a rack over the sink to continually drip-dry and come up to room temperature.
    • 9.30am: GRAVY – put the giblets, neck, any turkey trimmings you have into a pan with a quartered onion and barely cover with water. Leave on a low simmer for a couple of hours.
    • 10am: CARROTS & SPROUTS – put the carrots into a steamer, with the sprouts on the top tier. Halve the sprouts if they are on the large side. You are bonkers if you put crosses into the bases.
    • 10.30am: PARSNIPS – toss the parsnips in a little oil along with the maple syrup, plus a dash of red wine vinegar. Pop them in a roasting dish until needed. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
    • 11am: TURKEY – stick it in the oven. I recommend a disposable roasting dish to avoid dishwash insanity.
    • 1.15pm – 1.30pm: TURKEY – you should be checking this to see whether the bird is done around this time. When ready bring it out and cover with foil and a tea towel. When it comes out, stick the goose fat in a large roasting dish and put in the oven for a couple of minute to get sizzly hot.
    • 1.40pm: POTATOES – put the potatoes into the hot fat.
    • 1.45pm: STUFFING – mix the stuffing mix with boiling water and leave to sit. Put the parsnips in.
    • 2.00pm: LOTS – dot the stuffing with butter and put in the oven. Cover the bases of a yorkie tin with a layer of oil and get in the oven to heat up. Get the gravy and bread sauce into saucepans warming up. Tip the turkey stock into the gravy too. Depending on how salty they are, you might want to add some of the juices from the turkey roasting tray. Bung the sausages in bacon into the oven too. Give the potatoes a quick toss and add the garlic, orange and rosemary.
    • 2.05pm: YORKSHIRES – carefully pour the batter into the sizzling yorkie tin.
    • 2.10pm: VEG – Pop the steamer on for 20 mins.
    • 2.20pm: SPROUTS – get a frying pan over a medium heat and fry off the bacon. When coloured tip in the sprouts and chestnuts, seasoning liberally. After 5 mins take off the heat and add a drizzle of maple syrup.
    • 2.25pm: TURKEY – carve (or better still, get someone else to do it).
    • 2.30pm: Serve and eat!

potatoes dauphinoise

Posted by Gary in cream, food, garlic, potatoes

potatoes dauphinoise

WordPress have really improved the sharing and following aspect of their blog networks; it promotes posts being propagated around the network and readership increases all round. I saw a post featuring potato dauphinoise fly past my nose and it reminded me how long it had been since I had a decent dauph.

The really clever part with this dish is raising the temperature of the cream up first to get the seasoning right – all too often a dauphinoise can be bland as it takes much more salt than you expect.

It comes out lovely and thick, spikes of garlic just offsetting the richness beautifully. Just make sure you don’t eat it all and save a bit for while you’re doing the washing-up, as an hour spent cooling down allows the potato to soak all that cream back up again…

Thanks to Gluttony For Beginners for the recipe!

Potato dauphinoise (serves 4 as a side dish):

1kg new potatoes, sliced about 5mm thick

600ml double cream

100ml milk

4 cloves garlic, minced

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.
  2. Put the potatoes into salted boiling water and simmer for 5 minutes – you just want to get them started, so drain them at this point. At the same time bring the cream, milk to a simmer with the garlic. Add some seasoning and keep tasting until it tastes right.
  3. Put a splash of the cream into the base of a large baking dish, add the potatoes then pour over the remaining cream. Make sure everything gets covered, and dot with butter. Bake for 30 minutes until the potatoes are knife-tender and the top is golden-brown.

empire chicken with indian gravy and bombay roasties

Posted by Gary in carrots, chicken, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, cucumber, cumin, curry, food, garlic, ginger, lemon, nigella seeds, potatoes, red onion and tagged with

empire chicken with indian roasties

What a triumph this is. Just when I was feeling a bit indifferent to Jamie Oliver’s Great Britain along comes this absolute belter. Jamie introduces this by saying most people when asked about their favourite foods will mention roast chicken and curries, and this utterly unites the heart of both of these.

With blackened, tangy skin the chicken comes out juicy and tickling on the tongue, although be warned it will make a mess of your oven as it sits on the rack.

Being the kind of blog this is though, I have to talk about the roast potatoes. They are a triumph. I used to get “spicy spuds” from a dubious takeaway near me and these are very, very close to those – crispy, spicy and fluffy.

I’ve made a few changes to the spices in the potatoes based on what I had, and used floury over new pots to get them really crispy. I’ve served mine with a refreshing salad.

I cannot recommend this recipe enough.

Jamie’s original recipe is here.

Empire chicken, Bombay roasties, Indian gravy and refreshing salad (serves 4):

For the chicken and marinade

1.4kg free-range chicken

1 heaped tablespoon each finely grated garlic, fresh ginger and fresh red chilli

1 heaped tablespoon tomato purée

1 heaped teaspoon each of ground coriander, turmeric, garam masala and ground cumin

2 heaped teaspoons natural yoghurt

2 level teaspoons sea salt

For the gravy

1 stick of cinnamon

2 small red onions, peeled

10 cloves

3 tablespoons each of white wine vinegar and Worcestershire sauce

3 level tablespoons plain flour

500ml chicken stock

For the Bombay-style potatoes

800g new potatoes

sea salt and ground pepper

1 lemon

2 or 3 tablespoons olive oil

a knob of butter

1 heaped teaspoon each of nigella seeds, ground coriander, garam masala, fenugreek and turmeric

1 bulb of garlic

Pinch of chilli flakes

For the salad

½ a cucumber, peeled

3 carrots, peeled

1 red onion, peeled

½ lemon

    1. Slash the chicken’s legs a few times right down to the bone. Mix all the marinade ingredients together and smear all over the chicken. Leave to marinate overnight.
    2. Preheat the oven to 200°C and organize your shelves so the roasting tray can sit right at the bottom, the chicken can sit directly above it, right on the bars of the shelf, and the potatoes can go at the top.
    3. Cut the potatoes into golf-ball size pieces then parboil them in a large pan of salted boiling water with a whole lemon for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked through. Drain the potatoes then let them steam dry. Stab the lemon a few times with a sharp knife and put it right into the chicken’s cavity.
    4. Roughly chop the onions and add to a roasting tray along with the cinnamon stick, cloves, vinegar and Worcestershire sauce, then whisk in the flour. Pour in the stock or water, then place this right at the bottom of the oven. Place the chicken straight on to the bars of the middle shelf, above the roasting tray. Cook for 1 hour 20 minutes.
    5. Put a roasting tray in the oven for five minutes to get hot. Add the olive oil, butter, the spices, halve a bulb of garlic and add it straight to the pan. Add your drained potatoes to the tray, mix everything together, then season well. After the chicken has been in for 40 minutes, put the potatoes in.
    6. Once the chicken is cooked, move it to a board to rest. Pass the gravy through a coarse sieve into a pan, whisking any sticky goodness from the pan as you go. Bring to the boil and either cook and thicken or thin down with water to your preference (I had to add some boiling water to deglaze the surface and make a sauce out of it.
    7. For the salad, use a vegetable peeler to make thin strips of the carrot and cucumber. Then finely slice the onion and add this to it. Add a pinch each of salt and sugar, then squeeze over the lemon and toss to combine. Leave for 15 minutes while everything else finishes off.
    8. Get your potatoes out of the oven and put them into a serving bowl, then serve the chicken on a board next to the sizzling roasties and hot gravy.

pork chops with bubble & squeak and creamy apple gravy

Posted by Gary in apples, cider, food, pork, potatoes, red onion

pork chops with bubble & squeak and creamy apple gravy

If there’s ever leftovers from a Sunday roast, just try and stop me making bubble and squeak. This is proper Autumn grub, with apples, cider, pork… just the kind of thing I could eat all season long. The pork here comes from Farmer’s Choice, a lovely butcher’s providing excellent meat delivered to your door.

Pork chops with bubble & squeak and creamy apple gravy (serves 2):

250g leftover mash

250g leftover cooked veg (maybe carrots, sprouts, spinach, parsnip – anything really)

1 red onion, sliced

2 pork chops

1 teaspoon dried marjoram

250ml cider

250ml creme fraiche

2 firm apples, peeled and sliced

  1. Get two frying pans on a medium heat. Season the pork chops and scatter over the marjoram.
  2. Mix the potato and veg together in a bowl and season well. Form into little patties and add a little oil to each pan.
  3. Put the pork chops in one pan and cook for 5 or so minutes until coloured on one side, then flip over. Add the onions and apples to the pan.
  4. Meanwhile fry the bubble ‘n’ squeak patties on both sides until golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper before serving.
  5. When the pork chops are done, transfer to a board to rest and cover with foil. Turn up the heat and deglaze the pan with cider.
  6. When the cider has bubbled away to almost nothing, add the creme fraiche and reduce the heat right down. Stir well to combine with everything in the pan, check for seasoning and serve over the chops with the bubble on the side.

sunday roast chicken with roast potatoes, carrots and brussels sprouts

Posted by Gary in bacon, brussels sprouts, carrots, chestnuts, chicken, food, garlic, maple syrup, marjoram, parsley, polenta, potatoes

sunday roast chicken with roast potatoes, carrots and brussels sprouts

Sunday lunch is when you want to just go for it. I grew up in one of those lucky houses where my Mum cooked a Sunday roast every week without fail, and recently it’s been nagging at me to do this much more regularly for my own family. But my Mum didn’t have Twitter to distract her. Or Facebook. Or Dave Gorman’s Absolute radio show. But I’m trying.

This is a fairly typical roast for me, and when you do more involved roasts with a few side-dishes, I think you should forgive yourself a few shortcuts. Why not use packet stuffing, or frozen yorkies? We all know you can make them, but the extra timing, oven space and graft is more worthwhile concentrating on getting the big stuff right. So I took a few liberties.

And I know what some of you are thinking. “Yorkies? With chicken?” Yes. They were made to float on gravy of any description. Try and stop me.

roast chicken fresh from the ovenThe chicken here was excellent, from those fine chaps at Farmers Choice. It gave brittle, savoury skin with plump and flavour-packed meat. A real treat.

If the thought of making a Sunday roast scares you, and just seeing that list of things is too daunting, don’t panic. I bet you could cook all those things on the list individually. So it comes down purely to timing. If it helps, write a list. Start with the thing that takes longest to cook, and count things in from then – see below for a guide. Don’t forget to allow the roast time to rest. But be bold, and always remember that the gravy will heat everything back up again :-)

Sunday roast chicken with roast potatoes, carrots and brussels sprouts (serves 4 – 6, + leftovers):

1.6kg chicken

1 teaspoon dried marjoram

1 onion, quartered

20g butter

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon parsley, finely chopped

500g white potatoes, peeled and diced into golf ball-sized chunks

1 tablespoon fine polenta

25g butter

2 bay leaves

Dash of red wine vinegar

3 carrots, peeled and sliced

250g brussels sprouts

100g cooked chestnuts

4 rashers back bacon, rind removed and reserved and sliced

1 tablespoon maple syrup

  1. A few hours before, sprinkle the marjoram over the bird. Spread it all over generously with salt and black pepper, then place on a rack over a roasting dish and pop in the the fridge for about 3 hours. This step draws flavours down into the chicken, while at the same time drying out the skin to make it super-crispy.
  2. Pre-heat the oven to 220°C. This temperature will really blast the skin and make it golden.
  3. Get the chicken out of the fridge and add a few more flavourings: put 2 quarters of the onion inside the carcass and the other two on the base of the roasting dish you’re going to use. Mix the butter, parsley and garlic together. Work your fingers under the skin of the chicken to release it from the meat, then slowly push the butter into this little pocket you’ve created. Put into the oven and leave there for 15 minutes, before turning the heat down to 180°C.
  4. Meanwhile, get the potatoes on. Get a large pan of boiling water on and salt generously. Par-boil for 10 or so minutes, until a knife can slide in and out easily (I usually jab a knife into a wedge then suspend it above the water – when it can fall off within a few seconds they’re ready). Drain well and leave to sit in the warm pan without a lid for a few minutes to steam dry. Put the butter with a splash of rapeseed oil into another baking dish and place in the oven to heat up. Toss the potatoes in the polenta and then tip out into the now hot fat. These are going to need about 45 minutes, which will cross over with removing the meat from the oven. When you remove the meat, turn the heat back up to 200°C for the potatoes’ sake.
  5. When the chicken is cooked (look for juices running clear when probed), remove to a wooden board and cover loosely with foil. Pop the roasting dish on a high hob and add a tablespoon of flour, stirring well. After a minute add about 300ml boiling water to cover the bottom of the tray and get scraping to get all that good stuff. Sieve into a jug for serving, and give it a short blast in the microwave to keep the heat up right at the end.
  6. If you’re using packet stuffing like me, you’ll probably need to do the boiling-water-and-stick-in-the-oven thing here. Let the instructions on the box guide you.
  7. When the potatoes have had about 20 minutes, add sea salt, a little white pepper, the bay leaves, red wine vinegar and the bacon rind. Return to the oven.
  8. Get the carrots and sprouts on to cook. When you are cooking multiple veg I recommend a multiple-tier electric steamer. It gets everything going at once and frees up a space on the hob. The carrots will need around 15 minutes.
  9. While the sprouts cook, get a frying pan on medium hot and add a little oil. Throw in the bacon and wait til it colours on one side before adding the part-cooked sprouts and chestnuts. Stir fry well for five minutes.
  10. The potatoes might need a final blast of seasoning, otherwise they’re good to serve. Take the chicken to the table, pouring any spare juice into the gravy jug, and get someone else to carve. You’ve done enough.
  11. If you’re using frozen yorkshire puddings, they’ll need their 2 minutes in the oven now.
  12. When the sprouts are tender, take them off the heat and add the maple syrup. Toss well to coat and serve, and don’t forget the carrots!

sag aloo

Posted by Gary in curry, potatoes, spinach

sag aloo

One of my favourite dishes from an Indian takeaway, among the mighty lamb balti, brilliant onion bhaji and cracking keema naan, is the humble sag aloo. Spinach and potato. What springs to mind are buttery, savoury bright yellow nuggets of firm potato streaked with iron-y spinach. Yum.

But I’ve never managed to recreate it successfully at home. In a moment of weakness the other day I picked up a packet of Schwartz Bombay Potato mix somehow assuming it would be any good. It smells the part and trying it neat it’s interesting (and bl**dy spicy!) but not really what I’m after. The recipe I used is on the Schwartz link and yet after 30 mins additional cooking the potatoes were only just done.

After whining on Twitter Shauna put me on to this recipe which sounds like the business. I’ll be trying it soon.

BUT – I have an idea for the leftovers. Watch this space…