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How to cook a most delish roast.
Sunday, May 4th, 2003 01:03 pm
When cooking a roast, don't buy a rolled one. Blade is much nicer than rolled, with no strings to bother with. No bone either.
So, I bought a blade roast. Since I don't have a good baking dish, and have failed miserably to cook a good roast previously in the baking dish I do have, I went and bought a aluminium "rack and roast" tray from the Glad range at the shops. If you have a lid, and leave it on for the first 30-45 min of cooking, it's supposed to make it more moist. A lid isn't essential though, and my meat was very delicious without a lid. Much less bother too.
So, you get home, with potatoes and a blade roast. You now want to cook it. Hope you have plenty of garlic. Garlic is the key to a wonderfully flavoured roast, and it makes a great gravy too. I used 7 cloves last night, and I think next time I'll put two more cloves it, since it was so nice. Garlic, rosemary, and a bit of thyme are the main seasonings. Score the roast all over with a fork, or I used a knife, then rub in the flavours of garlic and herbs. After than, pour oil on (any kind of oil is good, I used grapeseed) and put on your salt and pepper all over. The oil makes the salt and pepper stick on.
The roast is now ready to roast! First, you should have preheated your oven. 180 degrees Celcius, or 375 degrees Farenheit. Second, if you have your potatoes there, they need a head start if you have a crappy oven. You'll know if it's crappy, it's usually old too (and mine takes ages preheating). Cooking potatoes with meat seems to slow down their cooking time. Put them in 30 min before the roast. If you want a crisp kind of outside, then peel your spuds before you pour oil on them in the bake tray (and salt and pepper). I had jacket gourmet spuds, since the spuds are small enough to cook through with no cutting required. I put the roast in the tray, arranged the spuds around it, leaning them on the wall of the tray so they stayed there when I took the roast out and put it on a plate. 30 min after the potatoes had been cooking, I opened the oven door and put the roast in the middle. Either here or 10 min later, you want to put a cm or so of water in the bottom, to keep the roast moist. It's also what you make the gravy from.
To determine how long to cook a roast, check it's weight. It should be cooked 20 min per pound, plus an extra 10 min. My roast last night weighed 1.342 kg (from memory). Now, 2.2 pounds = 1 kg, or 1 pound = 454g. After conversion from kg, my roast weighed about 2.95 pounds or so. 20min + 20 min + 15min, plus the extra ten minutes, meant I had to cook my roast for 1hr 5min. (Are you following there?) It should come out slightly pink in the middle. Not mooing, but that kinda browny pink that's the trademark of tender meat.
You want to turn the roast about 30 min after it has started cooking, and then after another 30 min if you want. I only turned mine once, at the 45 min mark. It was fine. You also want to turn/move a bit/rearrange the spuds while you've got the door open anyway.
Almost there! Gravy time. Pull it all out. Put ithe roast on a plate along with the spuds. Now, siphon off the layer of oil on top of the flavour infused water with a spoon or something. I forgot to do this until after I started making my gravy, so I poured it off in the middle, being careful to not pour away the gravy too! A little bit of oil is okay, but if you don't pour most off, your gravy won't work. So, mix cornflour with a bit of water in a cup or seperate container. The more cornflour, and the longer heating time, the thicker the gravy. grab your salt, pepper, and a jug a water and have them nearby. Now grab the tray and put it on top of your stove. This is why the tray has to be metal, not pyrex. If you have pyrex, you can kinda do it in the microwave, but it's really not as good, and it tends to gets lumps that way. So, you have your tray on top of the heat on the stove. Make sure you stir it "continously" so 1) it doesn't stick, and 2) it doesn't get lumps. Put in your cornflour, salt, pepper. Stir! It'll thicken up. Now you have to heat it for long enough and hot enough that the cornflour taste goes away. It will continue to thicken as water evaporates away, so don't be afraid to add more water every so often from your jug. Your gravy should be done. Just make sure the cornflour taste has gone, and you're only left with gravy taste. Mmmm, much better than gravox. Gravox never has that meaty, garlicy, rosemary-y, thyme-y infusion to it.
What are you waiting for? EAT!
So, I bought a blade roast. Since I don't have a good baking dish, and have failed miserably to cook a good roast previously in the baking dish I do have, I went and bought a aluminium "rack and roast" tray from the Glad range at the shops. If you have a lid, and leave it on for the first 30-45 min of cooking, it's supposed to make it more moist. A lid isn't essential though, and my meat was very delicious without a lid. Much less bother too.
So, you get home, with potatoes and a blade roast. You now want to cook it. Hope you have plenty of garlic. Garlic is the key to a wonderfully flavoured roast, and it makes a great gravy too. I used 7 cloves last night, and I think next time I'll put two more cloves it, since it was so nice. Garlic, rosemary, and a bit of thyme are the main seasonings. Score the roast all over with a fork, or I used a knife, then rub in the flavours of garlic and herbs. After than, pour oil on (any kind of oil is good, I used grapeseed) and put on your salt and pepper all over. The oil makes the salt and pepper stick on.
The roast is now ready to roast! First, you should have preheated your oven. 180 degrees Celcius, or 375 degrees Farenheit. Second, if you have your potatoes there, they need a head start if you have a crappy oven. You'll know if it's crappy, it's usually old too (and mine takes ages preheating). Cooking potatoes with meat seems to slow down their cooking time. Put them in 30 min before the roast. If you want a crisp kind of outside, then peel your spuds before you pour oil on them in the bake tray (and salt and pepper). I had jacket gourmet spuds, since the spuds are small enough to cook through with no cutting required. I put the roast in the tray, arranged the spuds around it, leaning them on the wall of the tray so they stayed there when I took the roast out and put it on a plate. 30 min after the potatoes had been cooking, I opened the oven door and put the roast in the middle. Either here or 10 min later, you want to put a cm or so of water in the bottom, to keep the roast moist. It's also what you make the gravy from.
To determine how long to cook a roast, check it's weight. It should be cooked 20 min per pound, plus an extra 10 min. My roast last night weighed 1.342 kg (from memory). Now, 2.2 pounds = 1 kg, or 1 pound = 454g. After conversion from kg, my roast weighed about 2.95 pounds or so. 20min + 20 min + 15min, plus the extra ten minutes, meant I had to cook my roast for 1hr 5min. (Are you following there?) It should come out slightly pink in the middle. Not mooing, but that kinda browny pink that's the trademark of tender meat.
You want to turn the roast about 30 min after it has started cooking, and then after another 30 min if you want. I only turned mine once, at the 45 min mark. It was fine. You also want to turn/move a bit/rearrange the spuds while you've got the door open anyway.
Almost there! Gravy time. Pull it all out. Put ithe roast on a plate along with the spuds. Now, siphon off the layer of oil on top of the flavour infused water with a spoon or something. I forgot to do this until after I started making my gravy, so I poured it off in the middle, being careful to not pour away the gravy too! A little bit of oil is okay, but if you don't pour most off, your gravy won't work. So, mix cornflour with a bit of water in a cup or seperate container. The more cornflour, and the longer heating time, the thicker the gravy. grab your salt, pepper, and a jug a water and have them nearby. Now grab the tray and put it on top of your stove. This is why the tray has to be metal, not pyrex. If you have pyrex, you can kinda do it in the microwave, but it's really not as good, and it tends to gets lumps that way. So, you have your tray on top of the heat on the stove. Make sure you stir it "continously" so 1) it doesn't stick, and 2) it doesn't get lumps. Put in your cornflour, salt, pepper. Stir! It'll thicken up. Now you have to heat it for long enough and hot enough that the cornflour taste goes away. It will continue to thicken as water evaporates away, so don't be afraid to add more water every so often from your jug. Your gravy should be done. Just make sure the cornflour taste has gone, and you're only left with gravy taste. Mmmm, much better than gravox. Gravox never has that meaty, garlicy, rosemary-y, thyme-y infusion to it.
What are you waiting for? EAT!
