sausages and root vegetable bake

We had our meat and our two veg, just not as normal. Sunday lunch with a bit of a twist.

Cumberland sausages: Two for me, three for him. Grilled. Served with Colman's.

Squash and celeriac bake: I made this about a year ago, and stuck pretty much to the same recipe. A couple of changes necessitated by availability: soured cream instead of single; leeks and parsley in place of thyme.

Not to be overly effusive, but this was positively scrummy. I loved every second of it. On par with sausages with parsnip and apple cakes.

Less than 600 calories. Very respectable.

Sunday's simple surprises

The brilliance of the Sunday roast dinner (or lunch, depending on what time of day you eat) lies in its tradition. There’s just something comforting about roast chicken, beef, fish, or lamb. It’s soothing. It whispers to you: “Come on, every thing will be all right, just sit down and eat.” And the smells are out of this world.

I love cooking a roast dinner, partially because I can prepare, go away, return as necessary, checking on progress, and continue about my day, pottering about the flat.

But as some one who enjoys cooking new recipes and ideas, the simple roast can get a bit old. So my job is to add pieces of flair to the roast without it losing its simple, traditional roots.

There are obvious ways of tarting up a chicken, but they’re not all particularly healthy – butter, sausage meat, bacon, the works. Instead, I want something that will inject flavour and make the bird sparkle without worrying about clogging up my arteries, thanks very much.

That’s why I was intrigued by this recipe in the Sunday Times supplement a week ago. Now, I normally stuff herbs between the skin and the breast meat on a whole chicken (and in the old days this is where the butter would come in), but I hadn’t thought of cream cheese.


A lovely mixture of fragrant thyme, chopped garlic, lemon zest and cream cheese (I used light, without any problems) gets stuffed under the skin prior to roasting – keeping the breast meat juicy and succulent, but allowing the skin to brown quite nicely (for those who can’t resist a bit of chicken skin).

The 2 kg bird needs about 1 hour and 40 minutes in the oven, so I don’t have to do much else, aside from basting the chicken every 20 minutes with lemon juice (my favourite trick – you don’t need oil or butter, or even wine, lemon juice is top), until about 30 minutes before the chicken is due to come out of the oven. No need to rush – the chicken sits happily for about 15 minutes on the counter prior to carving.

On to veggies – purple sprouting broccoli, chantenay carrots (quite possibly the world’s perfect carrot), steamed leeks, boiled red potatoes, and some steamed sweet potato. It sounds like a lot – but I planned it that way. There are tons of leftovers, perfect for weekday lunches. And all the veggie trimmings get dumped into a pot with the carcass to make a load of wonderful stock.

An hour after dinner, pleasantly stuffed full of proper food, I feel very pleased with myself.

Image credit: Sunday Times

a belated update to Sunday lunch

Sorry it's so late, but Sunday lunch was fabulous. For those who are just tuning in, I served:

Roast pheasant with clementine, onion, celery and rosemary stuffing (thanks to Crazy Squirrel for the inspiration)

Colcannon (I used a Hugh recipe, always trustworthy)

Steamed purple sprouting broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots

Sauteed leeks (with just a few sprays of olive oil)

And for dessert, poached pears in red wine (many thanks to Heston for his easy-to-follow version), with a dollop of reduced-fat creme fraiche and a square of Lindt dark chocolate.

Comments, concerns, complaints:

Roast pheasant dries out easily, despite constant basting. And although the breast meat is low fat, there's a congealed layer of fat between the skin and the meat. It's bitter and slightly annoying. I'm not sure I'll tackle it again at home; I'd like to see how someone else sidesteps this issue.

Colcannon - basically a mixture of potato, cabbage and onion - tastes lovely. But to get it right, I suspect, one needs to use bacon fat to fry it until crispy. I tried a mix of olive and groundnut oil, and could never get that crispness. But the mixture is lovely - colcannon mash it is!

The star of the show was the poached pears - it said to serve 2 per person, but that was more than enough! Next time I will poach them a bit longer - it will ensure that every bit of flesh gives in to that ripe lovely red colour.

preparing for sunday lunch (on saturday)

Tomorrow, my in-laws are coming over for Sunday lunch. I'm looking forward to it: we've not had them over for a meal at the flat since we moved here in June. We've always gone out, what with the wonderful pubs and restaurants in the Hackney area and beyond.

It's also an excuse for me to try out something (well, a few things) new. I'm foraying into game, with a feeling of wide-eyed wonder. And though I'm not a pudding person per se, I'm doing one (not just buying one from Sainsbury's).

So a trip to Borough market and and afternoon in the kitchen later, I'm ready for tomorrow.

On the menu:

Roast pheasant with clementine, celery and rosemary stuffing
Colcannon
Steamed vegetables: purple sprouting broccoli, carrots and leeks
Roasties

For dessert: poached pears in red wine with creme fraiche and dark chocolate.

I'll let you know tomorrow how it went. Wish me luck.

compare and contrast

Have a look at Sunday’s dinner: roast chicken, steamed kale, swede and chive mash, and boiled turnips. But have a look at portions (mine versus my husband’s).

My plate is healthy, with a focus on portion control. It's under 400 calories. His is stuffed to the brim. But he can handle it.


This is key to establishing a house with healthy eating, when one person is watching calories and the other isn’t. Fill your refrigerators and your plates with healthy food, but let those who don’t need to watch their size eat a bit more. Then everyone’s happy!

sunday lunch with family

A Sunday lunch that's cooked for you can be divine. There's nothing quite as decadent as sauntering to the table with bowl after bowl set down in front of me.

That being said, if I'm not cooking it, I don't know what goes into it, and that often makes me nervous. Luckily, Nigel and Judy (my mother- and father-in-law) love good fresh English food.

For the ladies, fish stuffed with shrimp and garlic. For the men, beef. I don't have a problem with beef, but on a sunny spring afternoon, beef sounds wrong. (On a bone-chilling winter evening, there's nothing so good though).

Vegetables galore:
sauteed cabbage and red onion
roasted aubergine, sweet potato and butternut squash
steamed carrots
new potato
asparagus (a necessity in may)

I personally could have a meal of just vegetables, with options like that. But it's Sunday, and after religiously watching my consumption throughout the week, I devour the fish with garlic butter and multiple helpings of vegetables.