Sunday Roast

No, this isn't a post about Nicole Kidman's daughter, but about the ubiquitous roast. Since moving to London, hubby has craved roasts, and they are hard to escape. Every pub does it's version of a Sunday Roast for lunch. Our local does a fantastic Roast Lamb, but it's a little on the pricey side, so I thought it would be best to make our own. Hubby decided on chicken, and while our free-range, organic chicken wasn't cheap, it fed us for 2 nights and was still less than the cost of one pub roast.

Roast Chicken (Printable Recipe)
adapted from Stephanie's Roast Chicken - The All-time Favourite, pg 298
Serves 4

1.8kg chicken
1 lemon, halved
4 cloves garlic
a few sprigs of rosemary
small knob of butter
salt and pepper
vegetables to suit*, cut to size
olive oil
2 tbsp plain flour
1/2C white wine
1/2C chicken stock

Stephanie's Rat-a-touillie

The finished product looks less than appetising, but is a flavour explosion. Eggplant in any dish creates a balance that you just can't reproduce.

I think virtually everything in this bowl came out of either my Dad's or my father-in-law's gardens. Thanks guys for the delicious produce!

Well, Abby and Greg have left for the UK, so now the purpose of this blog is really going to come into light. The last time they came over for dinner was the last official Lamb Monday with the 6 of us at our place. I cooked a Maggie Beer lamb dish, but served it with a ratatouille from Stephanie.

I had been given a mass of fresh vegetables and herbs from the in-laws and my parents, so I made an effort to use as many of them in the ratatouille as possible. I love cooked vegetables, especially eggplant, and having them home grown is an added bonus!

The best thing about cooking a dish like this is that it can't really go too wrong. It was prepared well and truly before the guests arrived, and all I did when they came was stick the dish back in the oven to heat it through again, and stirred through a small handful of fresh herbs to freshen it up a little.

Ratatouille (Printable Recipe)
adapted from Stephanie's Ratatouille, pg 1070