Sunday Feast: with Roast Potatoes, Nut Roast and Bread Sauce

You’d be forgiven for thinking that all I eat these days is roasts, seeing as this is the second post on the subject in the space of three. What can I say, I’m a big fan of tradition and this is one of the best. On this occasion I decided to tart up the more basic roast that I am accustomed to making, mainly because I wanted to impress some new friends.

To do this I bought one massive chicken that virtually filled the whole oven, and as well as serving my customary honey roast parsnips, carrots and sweet potatoes and greens, I attempted proper roast potatoes, for the first time ever I might add, bread sauce, pigs in blankets and my super-duper tasty nut roast.

This week I took the plunge and bought my first ever food magazine. I really can’t resist a Christmas theme, and the December issue of Good Food certainly delivered. It was from here I found the Roast Potato recipe, which was surprisingly simple, and delivered on flavour and colour, with a deliciously fluffy interior incased in a golden crispy shell.

-For the Roast Potatoes-

Adapted from the Good Food Magazine

Serves 8

2.5kg roasting potatoes, peeled, and larger potatoes halved or quartered

1 tbsp plain flour

150ml (approx) vegetable oil

2 tbsp sunflower oil

1. Tip the potatoes into a large pan of cold salted water and bring to the boil. Boil for 6 minutes exactly, then drain in a colander and allow to steam dry for a few minutes. Toss in the colander to biff up the sides.
2. Transfer to a large bowl, sprinkle over the flour and toss to combine. Pour over around half the vegetable oil and toss to coat.
3. When ready, preheat the oven to 200C. Pour the remaining vegetable oil and the sunflower oil into a baking tray, and put into the oven to heat the oil for around 15 minutes.
4. Carefully add the potatoes and roast for 25 minutes. Remove the tray from the oven, increase the oven to 220C, turn over the potatoes and return to the oven for a further 40 minutes until gold and crisp.

You may think its more suited to your Christmas Day turkey but the home made bread sauce made a welcome accompaniment to our chicken. This hugely simple recipe is from the most recent episode of Saturday Kitchen and can be found HERE (as can the recipe I followed for the Roast Chicken).

My nut roast has been a firm favourite since I discovered it, I think in an old copy of Waitrose magazine, a few years back. It’s the only nut roast I’ve ever made or even tried, and its far from the bland dry nut roast that is the stuff of veggie legends. This nut roast is sweet and nutty and cheesy and moist and basically YUM. I serve it as an alternative stuffing, but would be happy to have it in place of meat any day.

-For the Nut Roast-

Serves 6-8

1 chopped onion

2 carrots, grated

1 clove garlic, crushed

large handful mushrooms, chopped

175g cooked brown rice

115g brown bread crumbs

55g finely chopped almonds

55g finely chopped brazil nuts

115g grated cheddar

2 eggs, beaten

1 tbsp chopped fresh basil

1. Fry the onion, carrot and garlic in a knob of butter for 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook until soft.
2. Remove from the heat and stir in the rice, bread, nuts, cheese, eggs and herbs and season with salt and pepper.
3. Bake in a greased tin or Pyrex dish at 180C for one hour.

The whole thing may have taken four hours to make, and I didn’t half need those glasses of wine come serving time, but the excellent company, yummy noises and a Scrabble themed Thank You made it all worth while. 

Butternut Squash and Blue Cheese Pappardelle

Sadly, I don’t always get on with Nigella’s recipes, so I approached this Butternut Squash Pappardelle with a little trepidation. Thankfully, I needn’t have worried; Nigella excelled her self with this sweet and salty comfort dish, that looks beautifully Autumnal too. 

Adapted from Nigella Lawson: Kitchen

Serves 4 to 6

1 large butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into 2cm cubes

100g pine nuts

1 onion, peeled and finely chopped

6 fresh sage leaves, chopped

125g soft blue cheese, crumbled

2 tbsp olive oil

¾ tsp paprika

1 tbsp unsalted butter

3 tbsp red wine (Nigella uses Marsala but wine is cheaper)

125ml water

500g pappardelle

1. Heat the oil in a large deep frying pan (with a lid), and fry the onions. Once they have become golden, add the paprika.
2. Add the butternut squash and butter, and stir everything together. Then add the wine and water. Bring to a bubble, put on the lid, and simmer for about 20 minutes until tender.
3. Meanwhile, toast the pine nuts in a dry pan until scorched, and turn out onto a plate to cool.
4. When the sauce is ready season to taste and remove from the heat.
5. Cook the pappardelle according to the packet instructions. Give the sauce the odd stir whilst you are doing this. Reserve a little of the pasta water before draining.
6. Tip the drained pasta into the sauce and combine. If the sauce is too dry, add a little of the reserved pasta water.
7. Crumble over the cheese, half the pine nuts and half the sage and gently combine.
8. Serve, and sprinkle over the rest of the sage and pine nuts. 

Simplest Sunday Roast

I live for Sunday Roasts. I would happily travel the three and a half hour journey home just to eat my Mum’s roast potatoes (as I did last weekend), and there’s nothing better then a long lazy lunch followed by Sunday papers and TV – Downton Abbey anyone?

But all that boiling and basting and roasting can seem a little bit daunting, especially when all you want to do is curl up under the blanket in front of the fire. That is until you invest in a little bottle of Maggi liquid seasoning, just shake it on the chicken, rub it all over, and then sprinkle over some salt and pepper. Pop it in the oven for the prescribed time and let it do its thing. The result? Deliciously crispy and flavoursome skin.

I serve my chicken with caramelized roasted root vegetables and buttered greens, and a simple gravy made from the pan juices.

To make the Roasted Vegetables…

Serves 2

1 tbsp olive oil

2 carrots, peeled and cut into slices lengthways

2 small parsnips, peeled and cut into slices lengthways

6 baby potatoes, halved

½ red onion, sliced

1 tbsp honey

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tsp mustard

a few sprigs of fresh rosemary

1. Preheat the oven to hot. Heat the oil in a deep ovenproof frying pan, and cook the carrots, parsnips onion and potato, turning occasionally, until lightly browned.
2. Remove from the heat, add the garlic, honey, mustard and rosemary and stir.
3. Bake in the oven for around 20 minutes until the vegetables are tender.

 

Halloween Cupcakes

Wishing you all a belated Happy Halloween!! I hope you had the most gorgeously ghoulish of times. I ended up working on the actual night, but managed to attend a Zombie party and dress up as the Solar System over the weekend. And I got in to the spirit by baking and decorating some creepy cupcakes to celebrate.

For the teeth cupcakes I made pink buttercream and attached some sweet toothy accessories, for the devil cupcakes I fashioned devil horns and tails from ready made icing and placed on to more coloured buttercream, and my friend Rose put together some fantastically scary spiders using more of the coloured readymade icing. 

Honey Roasted Pear and Parsnip Salad

Now that I only have to be in University two days a week and Ben is home more in the daytime I have decided to try and make more lunchtime recipes. Rather then reheating leftovers or settling on the lazy option of pasta and cheese, I shall be trying more lunch options, and I’ve started as I mean to go on with a Honey Roasted Parsnip and Pear Salad from one of my faves Cook, Eat, Smile, written by the man behind the brilliant Bills Produce Store.

Root Veg. Pear. Honey Roasted. Blue Cheese. Quite possibly the best flavour combination ever and sexing up humble salad leaves everywhere. I’ll admit to you now, I am NOT a salad person, particularly in October. But the caramelisation of the sweet slithers of pears and parsnips, the creaminess of the cheese, and the zing of the dressing make even the most boring of leaves sensational. This recipe makes salads appetizing for colder weather too, no bad thing if you’re trying to watch your waistline.

Adapted from Cook, Eat, Smile

Serves 2

1 medium parsnip, peeled and cut into strips

1 pear, peeled, cored and quartered

1 tbsp honey

50g stilton, or any other blue cheese

2 large handfuls of salad leaves (I used spinach, Bill uses the head of radicchio)

-For the Dressing-

1 tsp white wine vinegar

1 tsp Dijon Mustard

1 tsp honey

2 tsp olive oil

2 tsp lemon or lime juice

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Toss the parsnips in half the honey, put on a baking tray and roast for 15 minutes. Add the pears and the rest of the honey and cook for a further 10 minutes.
2. Remove from the tray and leave to cool slightly.
3. Place the salad leaves into a big bowl, scatter over the roasted parsnips and pears and crumble the cheese over too.
4. Whisk the salad dressing ingredients together and spoon over the salad. Mix it all together and serve.

Strawberry Jam Tarts

Introducing my exceedingly rustic Strawberry Jam Tarts. Now before you say anything, this was my first attempt at making pastry and to make it more of a challenge I had no biscuit cutters or rolling pin. I don’t make it easy for myself do I? All things considered I think they turned out pretty nicely, they were quick and easy to put together and they taste good too. If your a pastry making King or Queen perhaps stop reading now, but if you too are new to pastry why not give this uber simple recipe a go to get you started.

Adapted from Queen of Crafts

225g plain flour

pinch of salt

1 tbsp icing sugar

110g butter

strawberry jam

cupcake tin

biscuit cutters

1. In a large bowl, sieve together the flour, salt and icing sugar. Add the butter and rub into the flour with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add cold water, 1 tbsp at a time, to bring the mixture into a dough. It is ready when it just about clings together. It shouldn’t be sticky and should come cleanly off the bowl as you gather it together.
2. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
3. Once chilled, take the dough out and leave to warm to room temperature. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180C.
4. Roll out the dough on a surface dusted with flour to about 0.5cm thick. Cut rounds with a fluted biscuit cutter that is slightly larger then the holes of the cupcake tin. Be sure to leave a little pastry to make hearts and strips as decorations.
5. Grease the tin and line each hole with a round of pastry. Put a spoonful of jam in the centre of each round, being sure not to over fill.
6. Place the decorations on top of the jam and glaze with a little jam.
7. Bake for 15 minutes until the pastry is a light golden brown. Remove and cool on a wire rack. 

Paneer Kebabs

Remember the Muttar Paneer curry I made the other day? You should do, it tasted pretty great if I do say so myself. Well, I had a bit of left over cheese to use up and as Ben had gone to London I decided to make my self a romantic dinner for one.

After a quick scan of Google I saw that the majority of recipes where curry based, so I opted for a kebab option. After marinating the cheese, onions and peppers, I threaded the lot on to skewers and grilled for 10 minutes. The flavour was great, the paneer a blank canvas allowing the spices to really shine through, but the whole thing would have been a little bit dry if I had not made my Coriander Chutney to go along side it. Good with curries as well as making a great dip for poppodoms, the chutney takes under 5 minutes to make, and elevated this dish from good to great.

The Paneer Kebab recipe can be found here.

My Coriander Chutney recipe can be found here.