Hi everyone.
Just wondered who has Sunday roasts.
I was brought up having Sunday roasts every Sunday and we now have Sunday roasts where our sons and partners come every week. We all eat round the table for that one meal a week and it is a great time to talk. I love it!!
Hope you all have a lovely day.
Shazzie xx
Each to their own, Shazzie!
Yes, I was brought up with it, but have never done it regularly since leaving home at 18.
I do like the taste, but just can’t cope with all the faffing about - especially just for me. But I would find family get-togethers once a week even more of an ordeal.
Very occasionally, I do treat myself to a “proper” Sunday lunch - in fact I’ve done it twice in the past month - which is rare - must be the onset of November, making me feel as if I need a hearty dinner. But even then, I usually “cheat”, and buy everything pre-prepared from M&S. I don’t mean microwave ready meals - I mean where you do have to cook it, but everything else - trimming and chopping - has been done for you.
Last week I had gammon shanks, which were tender and very nice - there were two, so the second one did for the Monday. I ignored the “do not reheat” instruction - should be OK as long as you make sure it’s really hot - I’ve never come to grief yet by doing this. It’s hard, when you’re cooking for one, never to reheat anything that says not to, otherwise you end up with an awful lot of waste.
The week before that, I had a very small beef brisket joint. Is it a joint? I don’t think it’s got any joints. Anyway…
This was not so successful. I’ve had it before - commonly for Christmas or New Year - but somehow this time I messed up. I don’t have a dual oven, or anything fancy like that. So if two things need different temperatures, I have to split the difference, and hope for the best. It’s a fan oven, too, so I can’t even do the old high-shelf (hotter), low-shelf (cooler) trick my mother used to use, because the heat is evenly disbursed.
So to get to the end of a long story, I needed the higher temperature to crisp the potatoes, but this resulted in the meat being overdone. Very tough. Smothered it in real gravy, and ate it anyway (it was very expensive to chuck out, and what would I have eaten instead? Potatoes and veggies on their own?) But not a great success. I realise it might have been the joint, as they do vary, and I must always have had the issue with the meat and potatoes needing different temperatures, but it’s turned out OK in the past. Don’t think I did anything different this time, but who knows?
Would probably have had the brisket again for Christmas, but as it didn’t go very well, may opt for the gammon this year.
Tina
x
We have Sunday dinners most weeks in the winter. We have a fabulous butcher in our village (he tells us where the piggies and cows etc come from!), my OH makes the best roasties and gravy and we have an array of vegetables. And it’s just for us! We also tend to have particularly nice wine with our Sunday dinner. The OH goes to the wine shop rather than the supermarket. We occasionally invite other people but actually it’s best just us!
Today we have chicken and (unusually for us) are trying out the wine shop managers recommendation of an Australian Chardonnay, which is apparently more like a Chablis than a typical Aussie.
Can’t wait.
Sue
hi shazzie
my mum used to make the most perfect sunday roast.
once i started to do my own roast dinners for my own family, i realised that my gravy wasn’t good enough.
i no longer cook roasts (due to ms, having no oven and being a touch lazy) but can make brilliant gravy - go figure!
for brilliant gravy use the liquid which carrots have been boiled in because it is tasty.
you’ve got me fancying gravy now!
carole x
Yeh, we always had a sunday roast…we still have them, except they can occur any day of the week!
pollx
Hi Anitra
I am not a domestic goddess by any means but I can cook a mean roast dinner!
I can see two problems with your failed brisket of beef.
The first is that brisket is NOT a roasting joint at all and any butcher that tries to sell you it as one needs a good start and talking to! Brisket is a firm joint that needs very slow cooking (preferably pot roasting in a tightly fitting crock in the oven). It can be very tasty indeed but it is not intended for “stick it in the oven” roasting – you need a much higher quality joint of meat for that.
The second problem is trying to cook two things that need completely different temperatures at the same time. This just means you ended up with something that was not Arthur or or Martha. It is not a problem that you can’t get around of course (mums have been doing it for generations after all). Cook your meat at the best temperature for it and, when it is done, you should take it out and let it rest before you carve it. It will stay warm for quite some time but you can always put a bit of silver foil over the top to keep eating if you prefer. Whilst the joint is resting you can whack up the temperature of the oven to finish crisping up your roasties.
That being said, the best Christmas dinner I ever did was one Christmas that I spent alone and I made a pot roast something similar to this http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/pot_roast_beef_brisket_18421 very, very lovely and lots and lots of leftovers!
Hope that gives you a few suggestions for the future. Happy Sunday lunch
I don’t get to have a traditional Sunday lunch very often as there are only two of us and David is a veggie. In an ideal world I would be cooking large joints of meat (rib of beef is a particular favourite of mine) but hardly practical and I am the only carnivore in the house other than 2 very hungry dogs.
I do love the trimmings of a proper Sunday lunch though. (Probably more than I love the meat if truth be told.) Roast spuds are my absolute favourite and I do make pretty mean ones even if I do say so myself.
Very good and quick alternative though is to fry off gnocchi in a tiny amount of oil which was a Nigella Lawson recipe. Nom Nom Nom.
Silver foil to “keep the heat in” of course not “keep eating”.
Curse you voice-activated software! I have just invested in something to help me type but it doesn’t help me with my lack of proofreading skills unfortunately
Haha,
Thanks Boblatina - but I did admit I cheat. It comes already part-cooked - they’ve done the long, slow bit, so all you’re meant to do is finish it off (I guess that’s why they say don’t reheat, as it’s already been cooked twice, but I’ve never had any repercussions from ignoring the warning, as I know the secret is to get it really hot, so I usually slice up the remnants and microwave them on the second day - they come out piping hot, and it doesn’t dry them out).
As I say, I’ve had this cut several times, and it usually works out just fine, despite a bit of compromise on temperature. So I might just have been unlucky with this one. Or perhaps I got distracted and mistook the timings - it’s not impossible. I only know I didn’t consciously do anything different, but it only takes a slip of the finger to set the oven for ten minutes longer than you meant to - which would be the difference between fine, and overdone.
Yes, I always let it rest before carving - though wouldn’t have made any difference on this occasion, as I could have done with a circular saw! Should have a mincer, like my mum. If any meat turned out a bit ropey - which wasn’t often, but I think it happens to everyone sometimes - she used to mince up the leftovers and make burgers - only she called them patties.
Having lived through the war years, she knew how to avoid wasting food that didn’t turn out quite right.
Mind you, I didn’t waste it, either - just ate it, and gave thanks that I still have my own teeth! Smothering it in gravy concealed that it was dry, but couldn’t stop it being chewy.
Tina
x
Well I’m no good at proofreading either (and had considered it as a career change after being made redundant!), because I didn’t even notice anything was wrong.
Probably just as well I didn’t pursue that one, then.
Tina
x
I have a Sunday roast with my mum every week, we either go to a pub to eat or more recently have got a takeaway. Today’s takeaway was roast beef for me and roast chicken for mum very nice it was too
Jan x
Didn’t know you could get roast dinner as a takeaway. Now there’s an idea…
Bet you can’t round here, though.
And come to think of it, I’ve had to stop eating from the local chippy, as I invariably get terrible leg cramps afterwards, so I’m not sure I’d chance it if they started doing Sunday lunch.
Tina
x
Lots of pubs in my area provide takeaway, Toby Carvary (I think they’re national) also provide takaways but you would need transport as they don’t deliver. I’m sure Google would come up with somewhere local who deliver.
Sorry you never got to the bottom of your chippy/cramp problem.
Jan x
hi shazzie
You seem to have captured the public with this thread. a good roast is a great news thing BUT:
got to have a good veggie option not just some microwaved dried out flakes
a good selection of vegetables, ie some in sauces, some roasted and few boiled
never any dry meat. inexcusable for vegetarian or omnivore chefs
something HOT plus custard AND/OR ice-cream for pud
ALWAYS offer pud
… not sure everyone agrees though as its so personal
fluffyollie xx
Thanks for your replies lovelies.
That’s interesting fluffyollie. What vegetarian meals do you have on a Sunday?
Tina, I think that you can get takeaway Sunday roasts from Hungry Horace. I’m sure my son and his other half ordered one while we were on our hols. See even they couldn’t do without for one week. Lol.
Shazzie xx
hi shazzie
as a vegetarian (not moral reasons- i have no morals hehe) living in an omnivore family, i have had a wide selection of meals on sundays including:
as a vegetarian i believe you have to make do with what is available. my eldest son has recently become a (moral) vegetarian, but is gradually realising this. shock, horror- he had to eat a baked potato at school last week!!!
(n.b he is veggie with no input from me as i don’t evangalise about vegetarianism- on the contrary i discourage it in children, but at 11 he’s old enough to make this decision).
fluffyollie xx
I love Sunday roasts. Yom yom. I don’t eat meat, eat fish. Nut roast is really nice. Haven’t had one for ages though. Have to have one this Sunday. 
What is a Sunday Roast?
Sunday lunch is the same as every other lunch - soup and a sandwich.
We are getting into a habit of a good meal on Saturday evening (usually something French from Mr Tescaux) and pasta on Sunday evening (last night was Four Cheeses sauce with Kidney Beans and Broad Beans) and a nice garlicy flatbread to go with it.
For a flexible meal, I do a mean goulash (sometimes with chicken or shredded ham shank - and sometimes just with vegetables) that can do a meal for 4, of just for the two of us, reheated the next day. I had a super one in the Czech MOD back in 2007, and spent two years trying to reproduce the flavour - all it needed was a small handful of Caraway seeds. It is a great dish in that you can choose from a wide range of ingredients and it still comes out good.
Geoff
We have a roast but usually midweek because on a Sunday I am usually worn out by the evening. I catch up with housework/shopping/visiting friends or family. I know I could do shopping online but I quite like getting out of the house for an hour or two. Sunday night’s meal is usually a takeaway which is a treat then I cook a roast midweek. We usually have Aunt Bessie’s roasties and Yorkshire puds though as that’s easier for two and saves chasing spuds across the floor lol.
I love a good selection of veg and there has to be stuffing too if it’s chicken.
Tracey
Aunt Bessie Roasters!!! Yum Yum!!! Although I have to say Tracey that Asda’s own roasters are only £1 and taste the same as Aunt Bessies.
Hope you are keeping ok Tracey.
Shazzie xx