English Sunday Lunch

Everybody in England, for the most part, has Sunday Lunch every week if they have the time. It usually is a roast and can be chicken, beef, pork or lamb. Usually, you have roast potatoes, stuffing, yorkshire pudding and lots and lots of veggies with tons of gravy! Then there are the condiments, mint sauce for lamb, applesauce for pork, horseradish for beef as well as bread sauce, onion gravy and sometimes mustard.

We are having roast chicken today with stuffing, roast potatoes, veg and homemade gravy. I always put cranberry sauce on my chicken too!

Why not try it next week...here is a good recipe I use a lot from Jamie Oliver:

perfect roast chicken
serves 4 - 6

ingredients
• 1 x approximately 1.6kg chicken, preferably free-range, organic or higher welfare • 2 medium onions • 2 carrots• 2 sticks of celery• 1 bulb of garlic• olive oil • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper• 1 lemon a small bunch of fresh thyme, rosemary, bay or sage, or a mixture

To prepare your chicken
• Take your chicken out of the fridge 30 minutes before it goes into the oven • Preheat your oven to 240°C/475°F/gas 9 • There’s no need to peel the vegetables – just give them a wash and roughly chop them • Break the garlic bulb into cloves, leaving them unpeeled • Pile all the veg and garlic into the middle of a large roasting tray and drizzle with olive oil • Drizzle the chicken with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper, rubbing it all over the bird • Carefully prick the lemon all over, using the tip of a sharp knife (if you have a microwave, you could pop the lemon in these for 40 seconds at this point as this will really bring out the flavour) • Put the lemon inside the chicken’s cavity, with the bunch of herbs

To cook your chicken
• Place the chicken on top of the vegetables in the roasting tray and put it into the preheated oven • Turn the heat down immediately to 200°C/400°F/gas 6 and cook the chicken for 1 hour and 20 minutes • If you’re doing roast potatoes and veggies, this is the time to crack on with them – get them into the oven for the last hour of cooking • Baste the chicken halfway through cooking and if the veg look dry, add a splash of water to the tray to stop them burning • When cooked, take the tray out of the oven and transfer the chicken to a board to rest for 15 minutes or so • Cover it with a layer of tinfoil and a tea towel and put aside. Now is the time to make your gravy

consistently good gravy

ingredients
As well as your roasted veg from the roast chicken recipe, you’ll need:• 1 heaped dessertspoon plain flour• a wineglass of red wine, white wine or cider,or a good splash of port or sherry• 1 litre vegetable, chicken or beefstock, preferably organic

To make your gravy
• When you come to make your gravy, your chicken will be covered and resting and you’ll have your tray of chicken juices and vegetable trivet in front of you • Using a spoon, carefully remove 90 per cent of the hot fat from the tray by angling it away from yourself and scooping off the fatty layer that settles on top • Put the tray back on the hob over a high heat • Add the flour, stir it around and, holding the tray steady with a tea towel in one hand, use a potato masher to mash all the veg to a pulp – don’t worry if it’s lumpy • You can rip the wings off the chicken and break them up into the tray to add more flavour at this point • When everything is mixed and mashed up, add the alcohol to give a little fragrance before you add your stock (the alcohol will cook away) • Keep it over the heat and let it boil for a few minutes • Pour the stock into the tray, or add 1 litre of hot water • Bring everything in the pan to the boil, scraping all the goodness from the bottom of the pan as you go • Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes, or until you’ve achieved the gravy consistency you’re looking for

To serve your gravy
• Get yourself a large jug, bowl or pan and put a coarse sieve over it • Pour your gravy through the sieve, using a ladle to really push all the goodness through • Discard any veg or meat left behind • At this point you’ve got a really cracking gravy, and you can either serve it straight away or put it back on the heat to simmer and thicken up • Depending on which meat I’m serving it with, I’ll add a teaspoonful of horseradish, mustard, redcurrant jelly, cranberry, mint or apple sauce – you certainly don’t have to, but I think the little edge of complementary flavour you get from doing this is brilliant

roast potatoes, parsnips and carrots
serves 4 - 6
The best time to put the vegetables into the oven is about 40 minutes before the meat is ready to come out. While it rests there’ll be more space in the oven and you’ll be able to move the veg up to the top shelf to finish them off to perfection.

ingredients
1.2kg potatoes• 6 parsnips• 6 carrots• 1 bulb of garlic• 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper• olive oil

To prepare your vegetables
• If you’re cooking these separately and not as with my perfect roast chicken, preheat your oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6 • Peel the vegetables and halve any larger ones lengthways • Break the garlic bulb into cloves, leaving them unpeeled, and bash them slightly with the palm of your hand • Pick the rosemary leaves from the woody stalks

To cook your vegetables•
Put the potatoes and carrots into a large pan – you may need to use two – of salted, boiling water on a high heat and bring back to the boil • Allow to boil for 5 minutes, then add the parsnips and cook for another 4 minutes • Drain in a colander and allow to steam dry • Take out the carrots and parsnips and put to one side • Fluff up the potatoes in the colander by shaking it around a little – it’s important to ‘chuff them up’ like this if you want them to have all those lovely crispy bits when they’re cooked • Put a large roasting tray over a medium heat and either add a few generous lugs of olive oil or carefully spoon a little of the fat from the meat you’re cooking • Add the garlic and rosemary leaves • Put the vegetables into the tray with a good pinch of salt and pepper and stir them around to coat them in the flavours • Spread them out evenly into one layer – this is important, as you want them to roast, not steam as they will if you have them all on top of each other