A recent survey has shown that fewer families today are cooking a roast dinner at the weekend. This seems such a shame as a roast dinner is very easy as you just bung the meat in the oven and leave it to roast.Sitting around a dining table enjoying a roast dinner is a marvellous opportunity to spend time as a family and for children to learn consideration and table manners and communication
skills, and it is a good time for the
family members to exchange news about their day. In March 2013 researchers at Loughborough
University published a study showing that regular family mealtimes are
associated with fewer eating disorders and a lower incidence of depression in
adolescents. It may not be easy, but try to have at least some meals together as a family and make sure
that computers, mobile phones and televisions are switched off then. Sit around
a table, not in front of a television.
All family members can eat together. I have never been a fan of feeding
the children fishfingers or nuggets and putting them to bed before the adults
eat. Have your baby sitting at the table in their high chair and when they see
everyone eating they will want to try your family cooking and you will have no
trouble getting them to eat vegetables and everything else.
Roast Chicken
Ingredients
1 chicken
4 potatoes
2 carrots
cabbage, sprouts or broccoli
1 tsp cornflour
sausages wrapped in bacon
Equipment
2 roasting
tins
Vegetable
knife
Peeler
Saucepan
steamer
1. Place the chicken in a roasting tin and season with salt and pepper and smear with butter. Wash your hands thoroughly. Put the meat into a hot
oven at 200 for 20 minutes than turn the heat down to 180 and roast for about an hour.
2. Peel the potatoes and put in a saucepan of
water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Put 1 tbsp sunflower oil or goose fat into a
roasting tin and put in the oven to get
hot. Drain the potatoes and put in the
roasting tin ensuring that they are coated in fat.
3. When the meat is cooked remove the meat from
the oven and put it on a plate, covered with foil, to rest. Use that tin to
make the gravy.
4. Turn the oven heat up to 190 to crisp the potatoes. Pop the sausages in bacon on a baking tray in the oven for 20 minutes.
5. Peel carrots, cut them into circles or
matchsticks and place in a saucepan of
water. Bring it to the boil and cook the carrots for 5 minutes. Shred a cabbage
or cut up broccoli or peel sprouts and place in a steamer over the carrots to steam for 5 minutes.
Drain the carrots, reserving the cooking water.
6.
Using the roasting tin in which the chicken was cooked, skim off any fat and place
on the hob. Heat and add a tablespoon of wine or water, scraping up the tasty
bits in the pan. Pour in the water from
the carrots and bring to the boil. Add 1
tsp cornflour mixed to a paste with a little cold water. Stir well until you have a smooth gravy.
Season with salt and pepper.
7. Place the chicken on a board and using a sharp knife remove the legs. Then carve the breast meat downwards into thin slices. Slice the meat off the legs. Serve with vegetables and gravy.
While you have your oven on, don't waste the opportunity to pop something else in there to cook. How about some baked apples?
BAKED APPLES
This is a simple way of using apples, particularly when there is a glut
in the Autumn and this dish can be popped in the oven while something else is
cooking.
Ingredients
4
cooking apples
2
tablespoons brown sugar
1
teaspoon cinnamon
1
tablespoon raisins
Golden
syrup
Equipment
Sharp
knife
Apple
corer
Tablespoon
Baking
dish
1. Preheat oven to 180/Gas4.
2. Wash and dry the apples. Remove the cores
with the corer or a sharp knife and score the skin in a horizontal line around the middle of
each apple.
3. Place the apples in an ovenproof dish and
pour 1 tablespoon of water around them.
4. Mix together the sugar, cinnamon and raisins
and stuff this mixture into the cavity of each apple. Squirt a little syrup over each apple.
5. Bake for about 30 minutes then remove from
the oven and serve with chilled cream, custard or yogurt.
