Sunday is the day for the traditional Sunday roast and with it being Easter Sunday it’s probably a legal requirement along the lines of fish on Good Friday. (Do not take that to mean we have fish so please don’t make enquiries in that respect.)
For me the roast in Sunday Roast or in Roast Dinner, if eaten on another day, is not the meat it’s the spuds. Of course you need the meat because how else would you make the gravy! (The m-i-l made instant gravy with gran u l e s – ughh I can barely type it.)
After getting home from my last Royal trip I was craving a Sunday Roast as I tend to after any period of avoiding hosptial food. Now Bernard won’t have a Roast on a Sunday – today being the exception but that was because Auntie Ann made it. The reason behind this being that he works on a Sunday night and considers the making of a Roast too much for a Sunday afternoon especially if he has only got up at one. I mean I usually do any Roast we have and it’s not that often but as B has now taken over control of most of the cooking he feels he needs to be involved in additional ways than previously – I used to let him, er I mean request that he cut the meat and he used to stir the gravy BUT only once it had thickened – I once had to trust him with stirring before it had settled and I didn’t think he used the spoon in a manner that fully encompassed the bottom of the roasting tin.
Anyhoo, shortly after I got home we had a Roast and I decided to try something different with the potatoes. Now I’m not going to say this was an easy decision by any means but sometimes you have to be adventurous and try something new.
When I was on my last Royal holiday me and a lady in the same room were informed by one of the hostesses that Aunt Bessies Roast Potatoes in goose fat were exquisite. Neither of us were convinced as no ready made Roast Potato can compare to a homemade one. The fellow patient was 80 so had a few years experience of Roasties, well in fact of everything, so I took note of how she and previously her mother had done theirs and thought I’d give it a whirl.
Instead of par boiling the spuds before popping them in pre heated oil (I use mild olive) her method involved putting the potatoes into cold oil completely raw.
There they are all cold and completely uncooked which is the way they still looked about 40 minutes later – and remember as B was going to work we were on a strict schedule. A friend happened to ring at this point and she suggested that I turn the heat up. I responded that considering they were already on Gas Mark 8 I didn’t think that turning them up to 9 (the maximum) would make that much difference.
Eventually though, and let me tell you way more eventually than was to B’s liking, they did look like this…
I do like mine very crispy. They even looked good on the plate with everything else…
BUT although they were initially crisp, and even though I purposely avoided gravy coming into contact with the top of them, they didn’t stay that crispy and they didn’t have that extreme change of texture that mine usually do with a hard crispy outside and soft fluffy inside. So would I make them like this again – I think not.
On that note may your Easter be Happy and your Roasties be crispy and fluffy!
