The First Sunday Roast...

So today I cooked the first Sunday roast I've made in the new house, and my parents came over to sample the delights.

Today has been really quite warm - the weather's been a bit odd lately and I'd pretty much accepted that we were officially moving in to Autumn/Winter so I hadn't planned on making such a summery roast.

I opted for a chicken roast and decided to stuff the bird as it has been a lovely warm day today - I mixed together some butter, fresh parsley, marjoram, thyme, salt and pepper in a bowl and then lifted the skin of the chicken to rub the mixture in to.

I then cut a lemon in to quarters, tore up four bay leaves and added a sprig of rosemary into the cavity. I drizzled some olive oil over the chicken and then added some salt and pepper - then left it to
roast at 220 (Celsius) for about an hour and a half.

Next was time to tackle the carrots. In the run up to Christmas, my mom and I always try out different recipes for carrots to ensure we have the perfect tasting ones in time for our Christmas dinner - we have definitely nailed the perfect Christmas carrot and I will share the secret with you in a later post! Today though, as the weather was so sunny it seemed wrong to put such a 'warming' vegetable with this roast, so I opted for this Ina Garten recipe.

I boiled the carrots and then transferred them to a glass dish and added;

1 teaspoon grated orange zest
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed orange juice
Squeeze of honey
1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger (you can add more or less depending on how much you like ginger)
Salt
Pepper
A knob of butter

I then left them to roast in the oven alongside my yummy roast potatoes that I popped under the chicken to roast in the fat, and also added a little goose fat to help crisp them up further - I boiled them a little first before popping them in the oven for about 45 minutes.


Finally I opted for some roasted nectarines for dessert, my Mom has wanted to try some for ages so I thought this would be a nice end to a summery roast - except for my Dad, he settled for trifle!!

Halve the nectarines and remove the stone. Crush up some ginger biscuits and add the crumbs to some melted butter and a blob of honey then spoon the mixture in to the nectarines and sprinkle with a little brown sugar. Pop them flesh side down in a roasting tray and pour over a little freshly squeezed orange juice.

Roast in the oven for about 20 minutes at 190 (Celsius).

Whilst the nectarines are roasting, mix together a few tablespoons of Philadelphia with two tablespoons of caster sugar and a little orange zest.

Enjoy! Tyler did!