Sunday 10 January 2010

Sunday roast

Fitting a standard Sunday lunch to rations seems a fun idea in the hour before I start actually doing it. It should also provide a method for reducing fat intake after I'm done with this project.

For instance, my roast potatoes have always used a lot of fat. I prepare them in the usual way (and if you don't do it this way, you should!) by parboiling them for 10 minutes, draining and then vigorously shaking the pan until they're all bashed up. This gives lots of corners to get crispy and ensures that the insides are fluffy: perfect. Then I slosh them with olive oil and drop knobs of butter on top of each one before baking.

I plan to adapt this by melting a little fat and a little more butter, then brushing the potatoes with the melted goo; less waste sloshing about the baking tray and less fat on the potatoes themselves.

Similarly, the roast salt marsh lamb would often be rubbed with butter or oil before cooking. Instead, I'm studding it with dried apricots (got with points) that I've soaked overnight in white wine. The apricotty wine will go through the flesh and keep it moist, saving the need for fat. The weather-related shortages this week have taken fresh herbs off the shelves, so I can't push spears of fresh rosemary into the lamb; instead I've put dried rosemary into the wine, so the apricots have taken on some of that flavour too.

The parsnips I'll roast without fat, using honey and balsamic vinegar instead. I bought extra parsnips to make parsnip soup tomorrow, although I personally loathe parsnips (CJBS loves them).

For dessert, I'm making rhubarb and apple crumble. I used honey in the fruit to avoid using sugar, giving me the sugar to use in the crumble part. The crumble itself uses less fat than pastry, and I can cheat a bit by mixing marg with butter but not compromising the flavour.

3 comments:

angygraham said...

You could also use the crumble mix to make some biscuits.

Jamie said...

Is that just by pushing the mix together to make biscuit-shapes from it, or do I need to add water to make an actual dough?

Kif............ said...

This was another great meal. I could eat it daily but for the rationing limits we have imposed on ourselves, at 1940 levels. The moisture added to the lamb by the apricots has to be seen to be believed and the reduced fat roast potatoes really worked with no inferiority to the normal version. Shows how much fat in today's cooking is actually superfluous to the real cooking need. I enjoyed this meal no end. The Rhubarb & Apple Crumble was great and I am having seconds tomorrow. Though the creme fraiche with which it was served was excellent, I actually missed the traditional custard it was normally served with. Superb meal!