When I asked the Celebrity Chef what he wanted to do for his birthday his response was kind of as expected: “Make dinner on his own…” And I have promised to post our standard roast dinner since I posted our post on Feeding the Se7en Thousand. Roast dinner is about the easiest dinner to prepare in the world and we usually have a dinner like this when we have invited dinner guests over because it can be popped into the oven and then there is plenty of time to chat before dishing up. So roast dinner is a life skill I would like my kids to master!!!
Here we go, this is what you ate aiming for:
Part 1: The Roast: It all began with a scramble through the freezer looking for his roast of choice.
And lamb it is:
And a trip into the garden to choose some rosemary. Rosemary preparation is easy enough, pull the leaves off the stalk… and you don’t actually have to chop them but “a man and my mezzaluna” are not easily parted.
Once your meat has totally defrosted, we leave ours in the fridge overnight, put it into a roasting pan. Preheat your oven at 200 degrees Celsius (400 degrees Fahrenheit). Then drizzle olive oil all over it!!!
Pop just a little, not!, crushed garlic along the top of your roast…
Sprinkle on your rosemary…
Salt and pepper…
And into the oven it goes…
Straightaway turn your oven down to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit), and then you can pretty much rely on half an hour per half kilogram of meat and and extra half hour for luck. To make this easier for the junior chef I use a meat thermometer.
After a couple of minutes your roast will become brown on top, just cover it n a bit of foil for the rest of the cooking time… Back to the thermometer… slide the marker to the temperature you are after. Then when your roast gets there you are done… easy enough!!!
Leave it to stand covered for about ten minutes before you start to carve it. Apparently that makes all the juices settle, instead of just dashing out at the first sliver. Then carve away…
Part 2: Roast Potatoes: A Roast dinner just isn’t roast dinner if you don’t have roast potatoes with it… and these are easy as easy can be, there are no secrets to roast potatoes other than to leave them alone while they are cooking!!!
So as you pop your roast into the oven start peeling. You don’t have to peel them but certain members of our household are fussier than others. Keep your peeled potatoes covered with water so they don’t discolor. Peel, chop them in three – because that’s just how a chef does it, and drop them into the water!!!
Pop them into a roasting pan with centimeter or two of oil in the pan. Mix them up with the oil so that they get a good covering. And then salt them… Pop them in the oven and leave them…
When you take your roast out of the oven to stand make sure that you crank the temperature up a bit and crisp up your potatoes… watch them!!!
Place some paper towel into your serving dish, just to absorb any extra oil.
Part 3: The Vegetables… A Se7en Choice Salad: I normally roast some butternut or carrots and steam some greens to go with a roast… But our Celebrity Chef loves a salad!!! So since we are heading into summer, salad it is!!! He begins with his lettuce and dressing… olive oil, basalmic vinegar and fresh lemon juice to keep it nice and crisp.
Then chop all your salad choices up… he keeps them out of the bowl so siblings can pick and choose their favorites…
That’s it… dinners done and I am leaving roast dinners to the Celebrity Chef from now on!!!
I know you already know this, but wow I must say it. What a treasure your amazing celebrity chef is!
My daughter will be so inspired by this post; she adores cooking too. She just hasn’t had the same encouragement your hood has had from Mom.
Well, consider myself inspired too! 🙂
Blessings.
Hi April, Good to hear from you!!! I must be honest he doesn’t have to be too persuasive to get a chance in our kitchen!!! I am all too eager to have a team mate!!! HOwever not all siblings have the passion and certainly not all of them have such a free reign!!!! Hope you have a fabulous weekend!!!
I’m very impressed. Only six and he is way ahead on culinary skills. You obviously make room in the kitchen and make the right encouraging noises. That’s impressive too.
I must add a similar comment to April O. above …. WOW! What a clever celebrity chef to cook a meal like that being so young. And definitely a big nod to Mom for allowing him to pursue his passion like that.
Hay Cheryl… Never come between a man and his passions!!! And let’s face it a roast is pretty easy compared to some of the weird things he wants to make!!! Have a fab weekend… Your rainbow is coming in its own sweet time!!! Have a fun weekend!!!
Hi S, Thanks!!! I don’t think I should tell him about all these compliments!!! Just wait his chocolate dessert is the next post!!! Hope you have a fun weekend!!!