roast dinners |

Scotch bonnet peppers: my favourite. When I saw them in the market in The Hague last Saturday I beelined straight for them. I think they’re what I miss most about London. Um. Apart from Aidan.

The marinade is very easy – at least the way I make it anyway – and it’s so good. Even though I’ve only been making it since I moved to London, jerk chicken and gravy is right up there in terms of all-time favourite comfort foods.

Ingredients

Chicken

1 free range chicken

3 scotch bonnet peppers

3 spring onions

3 tbsp sunflower oil

5-6 sprigs of thyme

juice of 1 lemon

generous pinch of salt

Gravy

1 chicken stock cube

1/2 inch minced/grated ginger

pinch allspice (or cloves, if easier to come by)

300 mls water

1 tbsp cornflour

meat juices

Method

Chicken

Step 1: Throw peppers, onions, oil, thyme, lemon juice and salt into a blender and blend.

Step 2: Smother the chicken with the paste and leave overnight in the fridge.

Step 3: Transfer to roasting tin and roast in a preheated oven at 200c for about 1hr 30m – 1hr 45m, depending on weight of chicken. This is a slightly higher temperature than most will recommend but I find it works. Trial and error, and all that.

Step 4: When done, remove from roasting tin, wrap in tinfoil, drape with tea towel and leave to rest.

Gravy

Step 1: Pour some boiling water into the roasting tin and stir/scrape the bottom of the pan with a fish slice to get all the good stuff off the bottom. You know what to do.

Step 2: Fry ginger and allspice in a little oil on a medium to low heat for 1-2 minutes.

Step 3: Add water and stock cube, turn up heat and stir until stock cube is dissolved.

Step 4: Mix cornflour with half glass of cold water until dissolved. Add to saucepan and stir well.

Step 5: Add meat juices from roasting tin to the saucepan and continue to heat. Bring through the boil, stirring continuously, until the gravy thickens.

Plate up chicken, one quarter per person, and drench with gravy. Serve with rice and peas and a side of spiced carrot and cabbage (recipes forthcoming!).

Who doesn’t love a Sunday roast? Crazy people, that’s who. I grew up in a household where the Sunday roast was the single most important (if perhaps only) ritual there was. Whether it was rare roast beef with yorkshire puds, leg of lamb with mint sauce, or good ol’ roast chicken, it was most definitely the highlight of the week.

Ah, those were the days, when precocious banter would descend into personal insults, culminating in “words” and one of the siblings storming off to his or her bedroom.

It is with these genuinely fond memories that I have continued the tradition in my current household, which I share with this blog’s photographer. He eats whatever I cook, takes the pictures and does the washing up. Win.

This is my version, or rather one of my versions, of roast lamb, accompanied by roast potatoes, haricot beans and whatever else takes your fancy. It is delicious. Quick tip: make sure you’ve got at least 5 hours on your hands before you set out.

Ingredients

400g boneless shoulder of lamb

6 cloves garlic

6 sprigs rosemary

4-5 potatoes, peeled and quartered

400g tin of haricot beans, drained and rinsed

sunflower oil and salt

Serves 2-3

Method

Step 1: pre-heat oven to 200c. Remove lamb from packing and arrange in baking tin with rosemary and garlic tucked in all around. Stick the lamb in the oven at 200c for about 10 minutes; remove, cover with tinfoil and then return to oven at 150c. Ideally it should get about 5 hours from this point, with occasional basting. You’ll also want to flip the meat once about halfway through.

Step 2: After about 3 hrs 30 mins, get your potatoes and beans ready. Peel, quarter and par-boil the potatoes (this takes about 10 minutes from the boil). Drain and rinse beans under some cold water. At this stage, I like to put the potatoes and beans in a big bowl with some sunflower oil and a pinch of salt and bash them around a bit. It makes them a bit more absorbent and, ultimately, tasty.

Step 3: About 3 hrs 45 mins – 4 hours in, remove lamb from oven and arrange potatoes and beans around the meat, basting them with any additional lamb fat from the bottom of the oven.

Step 4: Return to oven and cook for another hour to 1hr 15mins, turning the potatoes once, halfway through. You’ll know it’s ready when the potatoes are starting to crisp up and frankly, you can’t wait any longer for food. Once you cut the string, the meat should be falling away at the touch of a fork. If – and only if – your dining companions can be trusted to share, simply place the pan on the table and let them dig in. I serve it with a green salad and citrus dressing on the side, which to my tastebuds is a nice counterbalance to the main event.

roast dinners

Roast Jerk Chicken

Roast lamb with potatoes and beans