Roasted!

Considered by many to be a quintessential part of British cuisine, the Sunday roast is integral to the lives and routines of many families. The constant search for ‘the best roast’ served by pubs/restaurants contrasts with the ‘homely’ nature of it as a meal, the weekly traditional family gathering. Perhaps because of this, people have very individual preferences when it comes to Sunday roasts, especially when it comes to roast potatoes – how often have you heard someone say: ‘My mum’s roast potatoes are the best!’? There are literally hundreds of results to the ‘best roast potatoes’ Google search, many of which are from renowned chefs opining on the matter… I wish not to address this particular issue, but rather one which is being forced upon increasing numbers of families – how to produce a roast that keeps the vegetarians, vegans and carnivores all happy.

The nut roast has long been disparaged by many. There are, however, some fabulous recipes out there. The ones I have tried and found to work well have been: Cranks (good for a no nonsense, quick and easy dish), a Lentil and cashew nut roast of which there are many versions -I have tended to use allrecipes.co.uk and Jamie Oliver‘s Nut roast with salsa rossa. However, none of these seem to go particularly well with the full range of traditional roast ‘accompaniments’ and gravy. Below I outline how I make this work…

And it is simple really… For the vegetarian(s), I slice up vegetarian haggis – I use McSweeny’s – drizzle with garlic oil and red wine and roast with some mushrooms and red onion. The issue is always just to bring it all together at the right time and the vegetarian haggis works well in terms of timings, just going in for 40 mins before you want to serve….I prepare the meat I will be roasting in my usual manner and get it in the oven first, as it will need time to sit and rest post cooking. I then start the gravy (see below). If I’m doing an onion sauce, which I always do for pork I then sweat the onions off with butter and wine prior to making the roux, adding mustard and finishing off. Potatoes are par-boiled, shaken in a colander, covered in semolina (thanks Nigella), then added to a pre-heated roasting tin with hot oil. I have taken to doing star anise glazed carrots (in the recipe section of the blog), as these go well and can be done on the hob, thus saving shelf space in the oven. I’m a big fan of fennel, so tend to roast some as well (seasoned, drizzled with oil and then cooked with lemon wedges). If not cooking pork, I tend to do cauliflower cheese, roasting the cauli first in truffle oil, so that there is some additional, complementary sauce on the plate.

The final element is gravy and I tend to cheat here. I put garlic cloves in cold water and let them cook slowly in a covered pan whilst everything else is being prepared and is cooking. I put some dried porcini mushrooms in a bowl and cover with boiling water. I then divide the water into 2 pans, one for vegetarian and one for non-veggie gravy. I add red wine, mustard and lemon wedges to both pans, put 2/3s of the porcini bowl into one pan and the remaining 1/3 into the other, to which I also add meat juices. A vegetarian stock cube for the veggies and the appropriate meat stock cube for the other pan. To thicken, I lazily add ready made gravy granules, whisk together and boil, adding more wine/water/mustard etc to taste… Et voilà!

Eating: The aforementioned roasts!

Drinking: This very good value red, sourced from NDJohn Wine merchants in Swansea. Light, but with enough heft to complement the strong flavours from the roast.

Listening to: More chilled jazz, as we try to get to the end of lockdown – Art Tatum specifically: Night and Day, Tiger Rag and Tea for Two, but I love lots more too!