Thursday just gone was my Grandad’s 85th birthday, so I invited he and my Grandma round for a roast dinner today! I cooked a scrumptious lemon-thyme chicken with veg, yorkshire puds and yummy gravy. Here’s a little walk-through!
Pop thyme, a clove of garlic, and a whole lemon in the chicken. Stab the lemon all over so the juices ooze out as it cooks. Rub the outside of the chicken with olive oil, a little salt and lemon zest. Cook on 170 for 20 minutes per 50g, plus an extra 20 minutes. I whacked the heat right up at the end too, to make a nice golden crisp skin! Get out of the oven, cover tightly with foil, and leave to sit for 5-10 minutes.
Mmmm. Not only does that lemon give it flavour, but also keeps the meat inside moist and tender!
Luckily, my Grandmother the Expert Carver arrived at this time, so I set her to work.
Something I’m terrible at is a halfway decent roast potato, but at last I’ve reached the solution! I urge anyone striving for the perfect roasty to whip up my Scruffy Spuds! Score the skin of your potatoes and boil them for 10 minutes. Drain in a colander, then give a good shake. Roast in duck fat for 20 minutes on 170 then 10 – 15 minutes on 220 until golden and crisp. Scoff.
They didn’t last.
The final element of the roast worth mentioning are the Yorkshire Puddings, which I mention for my friend Cindel’s benefit. Cindel, from Australia, lived here in England for one year in 2011 and fell head over heels with Yorkshire Puddings. Since returning to Australia, she hasn’t been able to find a decent one. So Cind, here’s the break down!
- Pre-heat oven to 210 (fan)
- Get a yorkshire pudding tin (or cup cake tin) and pour 2 teaspoons of VEGETABLE OIL (not olive oil) into each receptacle. Pop in the oven.
- In a mixing bowl, combine 140g of plain flour, four eggs and 200ml of milk. Use an electric hand whisk and whizz until smooth!
- Once the oil is smoking, remove the tin from the oven and pour your batter into each pool of oil. Put in the oven, then close the door and don’t open it again for 20 minutes.
Good times!
I also cooked some blueberry muffins for after lunch, after being set the challenge by my Mother who bought blueberries then had nothing to do with them! I decided to search WordPress for a good blueberry muffin recipe, and this one stood out to me. Not only did it seem easy and they looked delicious, but it was a labour of love! So I was sucked in.
The only thing I did differently was plain flour instead of wholemeal flour, and I was extra naughty with Gold Top milk! I also added a step of heating the milk, but you’ll see this below…
Ingredients
- 250g plain flour
- 75g of Demerara Brown Sugar
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- 50g soft butter
- 190g fresh blueberries (I didn’t have as many as this, so I just cut a few in half…)
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 2 large eggs
- 250ml of Gold Top milk
Easy enough. Simply…
- Preheat oven to 200c
- Measure your milk into a microwavable container and add the sugar. Microwave for 1 minute, stir, then repeat. The sugar should now be dissolved.
- In a mixing bowl, combine the flour and baking powder. Rub in the butter until the mix resembles bread crumbs.
- Beat in the eggs with a wooden spoon. Then, pour in the sugary milk and mix.
- I’m a baking failure, so I only managed to get to get 9 out of this. SO, divide the mix into 9 (or so) muffin cases and bake for 20 minutes.
- Enjoy with good company and a nice cup of tea!
Hosting a roast comes with a lot of cooking, a lot of cleaning and if you make the muffins too a lot of work in general! So when all is done, make sure you pat yourself on the back and put your feet up.
recipesarememories.com 
Speechless! Did you really use my recipe? How were they??? Did you enjoy it?? THank you very much for the ping!
Of course! We all loved them! They were so moist inside though, I think I should have made them a bit bigger. Any top tips on making them fluffier?
Uhuuuuu! Amazing!
They were moist because they were spread over 9 trays (more fruit per tray). If they are spread over 12, with a bit more baking powder (but not too much more), they grow a bit more. If you want them with that massive muffin top, you need special muffin tray which you can overflow the paper cup.
So, to make them fluffier and a bit less moist, add a bit more baking powder and just spread over 12 cups (as I mentioned, leave about half a cm of headspace, maybe a bit more). This way, you will have a flour to fruit ratio a bit bigger. You can also add less fruit, if you want, but not much less!
Again, thank you for stopping by and actually using my recipes! It’s good to see that my recipes are actually being put into practice!
And my chocolate scones recipe is, apparently, the only one available on wordpress, so you know it’s good (Well, it’s the only one!)
Excellent! Thanks for the tips!
I’ll look out for the chocolate one! I went with the blueberry because yours was the only one that wasn’t over-the-top or… vegan…