12.22.08
The Sunday Roast
Expanding my knowledge of British cuisine is of course mandatory while I’m living in the country. So Chris, in an attempt to do just this said that we would be having a “traditional British Sunday roast.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“You get a piece of meat,” Chris said with widening eyes, “and roast it! Then put all sorts of veg and potatoes on the side, Yorkshire pudding, and cover it all with loads and loads of gravy!”
“You had me at ‘piece of meat’,” I replied.
So Sunday finally rolled around, and I walked into the kitchen where Chris was furiously preparing foods of all types to the dulcet tones of British heavy metal played over his new computer speakers. There was a chicken that had been rubbed down with herbs and spices, and all manner of veg being prepped. I asked how I could help. Basically it came down to massive amounts of chopping and cutting of root vegetables. The menu was as follows:
 It all goes on one plate, and then is covered with gravy. This is only about half of the food on this plate so far… |
- Roasted chicken
- Stuffing (dried from a box - reconstituted and all… eep!)
- Boiled carrots
- Mashed sweet potatoes
- Roasted New potatoes
- Roasted Parsnips (rolled in confectioner’s sugar and black pepper - interesting and tasty!)
- Yorkshire pudding
- Brussels sprouts (He was just going to boil them - argh. I ended up making them my way for the dinner.)
- Loads of gravy
I’ll save you the details of all the basic chopping and so forth, the one item I wanted to work on, since I knew nothing about it, was the Yorkshire pudding. I’d eaten them once or twice as a kid, and I remember liking them a lot, but I had no clue how to make them. Heck, I wasn’t even sure what they were…
 I think they look pretty darn good, don’t you?… |
Chris was kind enough to show me a recipe for them, and walk me through some of the technique involved - like making sure the pan and the oil in the pan were really hot before adding the batter. But he still warned me, “Sometimes they just don’t puff at all, and I have no idea why. Good luck.” This was a little scarier, as I didn’t want to be the idiot who ruined the Sunday Roast by serving Yorkshire Hockey Pucks. But the recipe is so simple (basically flour, milk, egg and salt), and Chris’ technique seemed to be spot on - so the result was met with resounding approval from all the Brits in attendance.
Everything was progressing beautifully, until the chicken came out of the oven. At this point I offered to make the gravy.
“No worries mate,” said Chris, and he pulled out a can of gravy powder.
 From left: Chris, Isabel, Dave, myself. Can you believe after eating all that, we went out to the pub for drinks?… Me either. |
The vision of yet another freeze-dried food was more than I could take, especially with all the drippings from the chicken sitting right there in the pan! I had to assert my inner food-snob, and told him to put the can aside, I would take care of the gravy. I sprang into action, using a plastic baggie to separate the fat from the pan drippings, made a quick roux and added some stock and spices. It was so much better than what I fear might have come out of that can if I do say so myself.
And as we began to dig in to our wonderful huge meal drowned in this homemade gravy, we all wondered when we would be having our next Sunday roast.
Oh yeah - next Sunday! 
Stumble it!
Niki said,
December 23, 2008 at 8:42 am
I am intrigued by the parsnips. You must tell me more about those.
Samuel said,
December 23, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Hi Chef,
I’m Sam, a long-time reader. So cool u moved to England! I was wondering why the Yorkshires are called “pudding”; any ideas? Also, was your beloved during that meal? Sucks she missed out on all that food.
kwillmetta said,
December 23, 2008 at 5:18 pm
OMG, this post just made me laugh and laugh! It reminded me of my first Sunday roast with my flatmates when I was a student living in London. I made a pork roast and trimmed off the very generous layer of fat on the top before I popped it into the dinky thing they called an oven. When we sat to eat, they gasped at the roast and demanded to know where the “crackle” was. Once we muddled through our British to American terms, I understood they were talking about the fat and I pointed to the garbage. You would have thought I had cut off the Queen’s hand the way they carried on……. Angry read faces and pulling of hair! After that I was always closely supervised while preparing a roast.
Chef Matt said,
December 25, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Niki - it really was as simple as that. Peeled the parsnips, then they were dredged in a plate that was a mix of confectioner’s sugar (which they call “icing sugar”) and ground black pepper. Those were then put on a lightly oiled baking sheet and cooked until they were tender. Give it a shot!
Samuel - Pudding is a really generic term for a lot of batter-prepared dishes. And in England any and all desserts are referred to as pudding as well. So it’s such a catch-all term, I guess that is why it gets the name. Kind of like how many things we call “sauce”. As for my beloved, if you look at the group photo, you’ll notice in the foreground a full plate in front of an empty chair. That is where she sat, but she stood up to take that group picture. She didn’t miss out, she just had to be the one behind the camera.
kwillmetta - yes, that is a terrible sin! Never leave out the pork fat!!
I cooked some pork chops for some friends in London, and I took the skin off myself. But thankfully I had been paying attention to the way people were eating enough to know better than to throw them away. I made some cracklins and topped the chops with them. The dish was of course a hit. 
kwillmetta said,
December 25, 2008 at 10:33 pm
Dang, dang, dang, what a lousy first impession I have made. In my defense, I plead youth and foolishness!!!!!! I was a dumb college kid in a strange land. I vow I have never squandered the pork fat since, I learned my lesson. Promise.
Keep up the great posts.
North bay dining guide said,
December 25, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Yeah, any recipes for Roasted Parsnips ?
Eize said,
January 8, 2009 at 5:01 am
When I first heard of Yorkshire pudding, I thought it would be some kind of exotic dessert.
Yorkshire Hockey Pucks–LOL!