Family roast night

When I was growing up we had a roast dinner once a week.  This was usually beef or lamb and occasionally pork which was more expensive.  Rarely, if ever, chicken which was far too expensive for an everyday meal.  Once a week, in households all over New Zealand (in fact all over the empire) women were roasting a joint and serving with potatoes and seasonal vegetables followed by pudding.  We all knew how to do it.  When our children were growing up we usually served a roast on Sunday.  Often chicken which was cheapest or lamb, rarely beef or pork which was too expensive.  I doubt if any of our offspring could put a roast on the table without consulting a recipe.  (Is this true?)  I obviously failed there!  As tastes and habits changed, the regular weekly roast fell off our repertoire and rarely appears at our table apart from Christmas and Easter and the occasional chicken.  I have decided to revive this flagging tradition as an irregular family get together.
Last night was very cold and the young people were hailed on between the street and the front door so they were very grateful for the gin hot toddy that was offered.  This is a fantastic idea for a winter cocktail.  Per person pour juice of 1/2 lemon, 15 ml thyme infused syrup (or 1/2 tsp brown sugar), 30 ml gin, 15 ml green ginger wine into a heat resistant glass.  Top with boiling water and stir.  Garnish with a sprig of thyme, a few juniper berries and a piece of cinnamon stick.
We started our family roast cycle with a rolled rib of beef from our local butcher.  We drizzled a little olive oil and rubbed the meat all over with dry English mustard.  Put the meat in a roasting dish with enough room for vegetables, add 1 tbsp beef dripping and put in the oven at 250 for 15 mins then reduce to 180 for the remainder of the cooking.  Calculate 35 mins per kilo.  Add the vegetables for the last 45 mins.  We had whole small carrots and parsnips and shallots which had been peeled or scrubbed and tossed in a little olive oil with salt and pepper.
My mother always added potatoes to the meat but we did ours separately in duck fat.  Peel and cut Agria potatoes into chunks - I usually allow three pieces per person plus an extra portion in case. Bring to the boil and simmer 4-6 minutes, then drain until all the steam has dispersed and they are completely dry.  Add to a roasting dish of hot duck fat (2 tbsp) and put into a hot oven (250), immediately turning down to 180.  They will need about an hour.  When the meat is done leave to rest and transfer the vegetables to a serving dish which you can keep warm while making the gravy.  Put the meat pan on the element and thicken with a little flour.  Add 1 cup beef stock, 1 tbsp red currant jelly and a slosh of red wine.  Heat stirring until it is the desired consistency.  I think the best accompaniment to roast beef is frozen peas.  Add a knob of butter and plenty of pepper when you serve. 
We also did Yorkshire puddings which was a bit of an extravagance but in England is an expected accompaniment to the Sunday roast.  My mother NEVER made these. They're pretty simple. For six, make a batter by adding 125g flour to a bowl then make a well in the centre and whisk in 2 egg and 150 mls milk.  Lightly season.  Add a dab of dripping to the required number of  compartments in regular muffin trays and pop this into the oven to get really hot.  Then pour the batter evenly across the compartments and put in the oven on a rack above the meat.  We have two ovens so I had the potatoes in the bottom oven. Serve with gravy and a little horseradish paste mixed with crème fraiche.
The timing is a bit of a juggle but actually not too hard.  Remember women all over the western world managed this every Sunday, and many in the UK still do.  I worked back from the time we wanted to eat and stuck a note on the fridge to remind me what time to put each component on to cook.
And this wouldn't have been a Sunday roast (albeit on Saturday) without pudding.  Our childhood favourite was Dominion pudding from the Edmonds book.  Cream 50g butter with 100g sugar, add an egg and beat well.  Add 1 cup flour sifted with 1 tsp baking powder alternately with 1 cup milk and mix until you have a smooth batter.  I was taught to always end with the flour.  Grease a pudding basin and put a few spoonfuls of raspberry jam on the bottom.  Pour over the batter and secure the lid on the basin.  Steam in  a large pan of boiling water for 1 1/4 hours.  If you have never done this before Edmonds is not helpful.  It says  "steam 1 1/4 hours".  Bring the water to the boil add the pudding, cover and turn right down.  It needs the full cooking time but will not spoil if it goes over. Serve with custard and/or cream.
The next day you could have roast beef sandwiches with horseradish, watercress and some sliced roast potatoes if there were any left over.  This is where that spare portion might come in handy.
Tonight we made a cottage pie with some of the left over meat.  I made a sofrito of onion, carrot, garlic and fennel.  I use whatever is in the fridge that might work including celery or leek which we don't have today.  It's not strictly a sofrito but that gives the general idea.
Add the leftover meat and vegetables finely chopped.  Add the leftover gravy, leaving some aside if you have a Yorkshire to reheat, and a good slosh of some kind of tomato sauce or chutney to give a good consistency of pie mix.  Turn mix into a pie dish.  I always use my mother's 1 3/4 pint Denby casserole dish.  (She used this dish for all potato topped dishes, rice pudding, crumble or with the lid for casserole.)  Top with some kind of mash.  I had celeriac and pumpkin in the freezer so mixed them together.
And now I have one meal quantity of beef left.  Any suggestions?

New York, Paris, Huddersfield

We've been eating around the world recently. We had four friends over for the best of New York City, starting with a Manhattan and a platter of oysters, Bluff & Pacific served with thinly sliced sourdough, lemon wedges & Worcester sauce.  This dinner started out because a friend said she'd never eaten oysters.  She liked them. Oysters made me think of NYC so I went on to do a rib roast served with Delmonico potatoes and a garden salad with Thousand Island Dressing.  I made my first ever attempt at New York baked cheesecake and it was excellent.  Unfortunately we were having so much fun we forgot to take photos!
Then another friend said she'd like French onion soup so we had another group of four for a taste of France.  We started with a champagne 75 , kind of like a gin and tonic but with champagne in place of tonic.  We followed the soup with a boeuf bourgignon, roasted potatoes and buttered peas and then Phoebe kindly made us a cherry clafoutis.  Again too much fun, too few photos.
Then it was back to the best of British for Peter & I.  I had a hankering for parsnips and found a Nigel Slater idea for sausage with baked parsnips.  Nigel had black pudding with his, but I thought we could live without.  Peter however had other ideas and a black pudding was duly purchased.  It was actually really nice.  Not just 'I managed to eat a slice' nice but actually so nice I had two slices and sought out another recipe to use the rest.
We came upon Jamie Oliver's scallops & black pudding with clapshot which is just mashed neeps & tatties with chives.  Note that when the Scots refer to turnips they mean swedes not the little white turnips we get.   I served a handful of rocket & watercress on the side to counter the richness of the pudding & scallops.  Sometimes it's worth trying new things even when we've spent all our lives thinking we don't like it.
Another recent find was toad in the hole for vegetarians - mushroom toad with mushy peas and onion gravy.  This was a perfect meal and just thinking about it makes me want to eat it again.   I got the blue peas at Common Sense Organics.  They're so pretty.  Try them with a simple fish supper.
 I saved the cooked barley and had it as a salad with lamb meatballs later in the week however I think you could actually do the onion gravy without.

Pastrami on Rye

I love New York!  The food is wonderful. Our movements were somewhat restricted due to Hurricane Sandy but that didn't seem to prevent us from eating all the things we wanted to and some things we hadn't thought of.
Again the oysters were unexpected.  Many bars have oyster happy hour - $1 per oyster.  On the Sunday evening before the storm we enjoyed a dozen oysters in a the Domaine wine bar in Long Island City.  Then because there was a hurricane coming by and not so many customers, the barman suggested that we have another dozen at happy hour prices. 
That evening we also went to a nearby bar to listen to Edgar Allan Poe readings by the fireside.  This event was related to Halloween but the eerie atmosphere was enhanced by the strengthening winds swirling outside.  Unfortunately, the basement of this bar was flooded during the storm and it lost power for some weeks and all its sound equipment.
I had the best cocktails ever in the Dutch Kills Bar in Long Island City.  If you are in the area visit this bar.  They serve outstanding cocktails mixed with hand cut ice.  Visit the web site and watch the videos. Rather than too sweet, many of the cocktails are made with ginger and lemon and are really refreshing.
I wanted to go to an authentic New York Italian restaurant and we went with our host and his neighbours to the very thing.  Trattoria L'Incontro in Astoria, Queens.  There is an extensive menu but don't pay much attention to that because once you have perused it and considered what you might order, your waiter will return and reel off a list of specials so long you won't retain any of it although you will vaguely recall that you liked the sound of item 13 if you could only remember what it was.  This was an outstanding meal. 
The other thing I was keen to do was to eat in a New York deli.  We were recommend to try the Stage Deli on 7th Avenue and I can recommend this to you.  Peter and I both went for the traditional pastrami on rye with a side of potato salad.  We barely managed it.  I saw a Triple Decker being delivered to another table and I must have looked so astounded the server came over and said to me, "yours is just a trainer sandwich!"  We shared a slice of New York cheesecake between three with coffee afterwards.  I have never liked cheesecake in my life but I liked this.
And you can't go past the traditional diner.  We absolutely loved the Red Flame diner on West 44th St.  You could even order and have the meals delivered.  Good quality, affordable meals - the problem is what to choose off a menu the length of a small novel.  The salads are really good and it was here that Peter had wonderful homemade lemonade.
It's nice to be back to home cooking but I am looking forward to a follow up hurricane-free visit when I hope to sample more traditional NY fare.