Roast Lamb dinner.

One of the things we are frequently asked especially by visitors from abroad, is how to make a traditional British roast dinner, or as it is more affectionately known, the Sunday roast. This is always a favourite with our kids when they come to visit, so this one is for the four of them so that they can recreate it themselves at home.

Most important of course are the fresh ingredients. We used Maris Piper potatoes, cabbage, swede, carrots, parsnips, cauliflower, broccoli, onion, garlic, rosemary and thyme. The meat was half a leg of Welsh lamb which I studded by cutting slithers of garlic and sprigs of rosemary and then using a sharp knife cut slits into the lamb and inserted the rosemary and garlic. You can of course use your favourite meat for this recipe such as pork, beef, chicken which you don't need to stud.
If you want to know how I prepare pork, beef or chicken for this meal please leave a comment and I will post the method there.
Start by peeling the potatoes and then par boil them for about 5 mins. in salted water whilst you stud the lamb, then drain the potatoes keeping some of the water in a jug. Let the potatoes steam dry.

Place the lamb in a roasting tin and put into a pre-heated oven (180c) whilst you peel the onion and cut it into chunks.
Take 4 or 5 cloves of garlic (no need to peel) to flavour the oil in the roasting tin.

Add the potatoes, onions and garlic to the roasting tin and toss everything together to coat in the oil and juices that have now started coming from the lamb.

Now it's time to start with the vegetables and because one of the hardest things is to get the timings right we are going to pre-cook the vegetables and finish them off in the microwave so that everything is ready for dishing up at the same time.

Peel the carrots and swede and cut into even sized chunks and boil in salted water for about 10 mins. or until soft enough to mash together. Meanwhile remove the stems from the cabbage leaves and wash the leaves under cold running water. Roll the leaves together into a cigar shape and cut the leaves into strips.

Cut the cauliflower and broccoli into florets and cook in salted water until they are slightly undercooked, then remove them from the water with a slotted spoon and place into a microwaveable dish. set the water in the pan to one side as this will be used later to make the gravy. Boil the cabbage in another pan of salted water for about 5 mins. so that it doesn't overcook and still has a bit of bite to it, then drain the water and put the cabbage in the dish with the cauliflower and broccoli. Drain the carrots and swede by pouring the water into the same pan as you cooked the cauliflower and broccoli, so now you have your vegetable water ready to make the gravy. Mash the swede and carrots together with a potato masher and add the to the microwavable dish together with the other vegetables.
Now make the gravy by pouring off about 4 tablespoons of roasting juices from the roasting tin into a saucepan and add about 2 heaped tablespoons of plain flour. Stir on a low heat to make a roux and allow it to bubble to cook out the flour, then gradually add the vegetable water whilst stirring all the time to get the consistency of the gravy you want. Now add 2 (lamb) stock cubes to the gravy and a splash of gravy browning. Stir well and allow to simmer on a low heat.
Next peel the parsnips and cut them lengthways into quarters, remove the lamb from the roasting dish and put on a chopping board, then cover it with tin-foil and allow to rest. Put the parsnips in the roasting tray together with the potatoes and return the tray to the oven.

Once the parsnips are cooked, place your dish with vegetables in the microwave and heat on full power for 1 to 2 minutes, depending on the power of your microwave. Carve the lamb into thin slices, it should still be pink on the inside for maximum flavour and texture. Ours was cooked in 1 hour, but you can leave yours in there whilst the parsnips cook if you prefer it well done.
Plate up everything from the roasting tray and the vegetables from the microwave, place your slices of lamb on the plate. Check the gravy for seasoning and add a little salt if required, although the vegetable water used to make the gravy should have enough salt in there already. Pour the gravy onto your finished dish and serve immediately.

Roast lamb dinner.

 

Fish pie recipe.

As this is the first entry I thought by way of experiment to post our recipe for fish pie which we had yesterday. It's one of my favourites with a delicious crusty potato topping and the fish cooked to flaky perfection.

The first thing to do is boil some potatoes with a few carrots in salted water to make a creamy mash by adding a knob of butter to the potatoes just before mashing.

Mashed potato and bechemel sauce.

The bechemel sauce is made by melting a knob of butter and adding flour to make a roux. Then add milk as you stir to avoid lumps. Season with a little chicken stock or salt if preferred. A dash of white wine finishes it off beautifully.
At this stage you can allow the bechemel sauce and the mashed potatoes to cool as they will be finished off in the oven once they are combined with the the fish.


 

Next select the type of fish you are going to use in your fish pie. We have chosen cod, salmon and haddock. You can used smoked fish for this recipe, but we used unsmoked.

From top to bottom, haddock, salmon and cod.

Make sure that there are no bones in the fish, otherwise remove the bones using tweezers.
Then remove the skin and cut your fish into bite size chunks










It's now time to assemble the pie. Start by adding your pieces of fish to an oven-proof dish and add a handful of petit pois (optional). Pour over the bechemel sauce and gently mix everything together.

 Next pipe the mashed potato onto the filling making sure to fill all gaps. You can also do this by hand and then fluff the potato up with a fork if you don't have a piping bag.

Place the fish pie into a pre-heated oven (180c) and bake in the oven for 40 to 45 minutes until the fish is cooked and the potato has a golden crust.

We had ours with fine green beans and sugarsnap peas, but you can serve it with your favourite vegetable combination of course, or just have it on it's own.

So there you have it, a delicious fish pie full of goodness and flavour.