if anything sounds good, theres instructions at the very end.
we only had a plain roast, since the pre-flavoured ones in woolies taste like... not nice, and we havent been to coles for months, so i sliced up 2 cloves of garlic and shoved the pieces into slits in the roast, then covered it in mixed herbs (usually i use rosemary, but no-one told me we were out of rosemary.. just shows how long its been since weve had a roast), doused it in a little olive oil and popped it in the oven, at about 4pm. then quartered (aprox. some were 6thed, some where 3rded, depending on the size and shape of the potato) 5 large potatoes, boiled them for 7 min, and tossed them in the pan with the meat.
i dug out fanny farmer, looked up yorkshire pudding, and gravy, decided i could probably do that. hopefully. if the no-egg actually works this time. last time my mum made yorkshire, we used the no-egg, and the silly things wouldnt cook. just wouldnt do it. so hubby suggested i make some with no-egg, and some WITH egg, just in case. good idea that man! so i will make 2 half-batches. the eggless will go in a square pan, the egged in the muffin tray, so i can easily differentiate. dont want kidlet eating the egg ones. he wont explode, thankfully, but the rashes are still not nice.
so about 5:30, i pulled the roast out, spooned some of the now-meat-flavoured-oil from the pan into the dish i was going to use for the pudding, and put them both back in the oven. the oil has to stay nice and hot for the pudding to go in. mix the no-egg (one tsp no-egg, 2 tbsp water), 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup flour, pinch salt, and beat with a fork till smooth. add a little more milk cause its CHUNKY and GLUGGY. and then take the square pan out of the oven, burning my wrist in the process, and pour in the yorkshire glug. for some reason, the oil decided to.... roll up over the batter. interesting. back in the oven for 25 minutes!
string the beans! fun job. it was far too quiet in the kitchen, since one boy was asleep, and the other was de-nailing the freshly de-carpeted floor, so i put on my princess bride soundtrack. it is so strange to think that the same guy who composed that - mark knopfler - is also behind dire straits. so very very different. anyway, time to get the pudding out, and silly me forgot that the oven has to be at 230 for the pudding, and only 180 for the roast (both celsius), so it stayed in there for a while longer. but i did take out the roast, and transferred the meat and the potatoes onto a plate, which i then covered in foil and set aside. spooned more of the oil into the muffin tray, made up another batch of pudding batter with 1 egg instead of the no-egg, and popped that into the oven, which i turned up. it was about 6pm by now.
put the beans on the boil, put the roasting pan on a hot plate, and added 2 tbsp of flour, and a little more oil. boy does that flour SIZZLE in the hot oil! i probably should have waited a while before making the gravy, cause that flour was sizzling away, and i still had 5 minutes to wait before the beans were done and i could put the water in the pan for the gravy! so i quickly found a ladle and stole a little bean water for the gravy, and also turned down the heat. that helped. a bit. take the eggless pudding out of the oven, and although it hasnt risen up all bubbly like it should, its cooked, and good. YAY!
i ended up turning the beans off after 3.5min instead of 5 (good move - they were perfect) and strained them, catching the water in the small mixing bowl. i added it, slowly, to the gravy pan, continuing to stir it, trying to break up the large chunks of flour that had congealed in the hot oil. add a little salt, four twists of pepper, and a dash of red wine. and keep stirring. at some point it turned into a nice liquid, instead of water with chunks of oiled flour in it. but quite thin. so i gave it a good stirring to make sure it was all mixed together and then ignored it in the hopes some water would evaporate and it would thicken up.
i checked on my egged puddings. rising nicely. much better than the no-egg one. maybe i should try no-egg puddings with self raising flour instead of plain? it still tastes good, but it definitely doesnt have the same effect when its all flat. the gravy was starting to bubble a bit, so went to check on hubby's progress in the room, and asked him to come taste the gravy (i dont eat gravy, so i dont know what it should taste like). which he did. and said it was very yummy. yay! at this point my wrist started really hurting so i went and got some aloe vera gel for it.
when i got back, the gravy appeared to be done, and the puddings were quite browned, so i turned everything off, poured the gravy into a jug (with hubby's help. i have bad wrists), and took the yorkshire out of the oven. hubby carved the meat, the kidlet started begging, and then we all sat down and ate. the kid ate nearly everything he was given (which is good since hes been a bit off his food the past couple days), nad actually seemed to enjoy the yorkshire. hubby used 2/3 of the gravy BY HIMSELF, so i guess it was a success. he also went back for 2nds of the potatoes and seemed to enjoy the yorkshires. YAY. i myself ate too much.. particularly the yorkshire. it doesnt keep, so anything left just gets thrown away.. so i ate most of it. naughty. i'll have to make less next time. i tried the gravy too. the idea still makes me nauseous, but it really did taste good. ill have to try and get over the idea thing.
instructions if anyone is interested:
roast beef
cooking time: about 20-30min per 500g, at 180C, depending how well done you like it
beef
if you have a plain roast, cut numerous slits about 1inch deep, and put a slice of garlic in each slit. sprinkle generously with rosemary (other herbs will work nicely too).
pour on enough oil to coat the meat, and nearly cover the bottom of the pan. put it in the oven while you boil the potatoes. you want the oil to be hot so the potatoes dont soak too much of it up, but start cooking straight off.
when the roast is nearly done, remove it and the potatoes to a plate, and cover with foil. let rest at least 15min before carving. nearly done, because it will continue to cook for a little while under the foil
potatoes
about one med-large potato per person. more if the potatoes are smaller, or if you want leftovers.
bring to the boil enough water to just cover the potatoes.
peel the potatoes, and cut into aprox. 1.5 inch chunks. usually the potatoes can just be quartered.boil about 7 mins. when done, use a strain-spoon to transfer the potatoes to the roasting pan. keep the water in the pot to boil vegetables later.
either turn the potatoes over once, or baste them, then put the pan back in the oven.
sweet potatoes
no boiling! just cut into chunks and put straight in the roasting pan with the meat. if there isnt enough room, spoon some of the meated-oil into a second pan so the sweet potatoes get some flavour, add some garlic if you wish, ad add enough fresh oil to just cover the bottom of the pan. make sure the sweet potatoes are coated in the oil or they will dry out.
if your oil isnt meated yet, dont worry, just use fresh oil, and add some of the meat juice later.
vegetables
cooking time: 3-10 minutes
really, whatever you want is good. i prefer green beans (the long one) or broccoli. if you are making gravy, strain into a bowl instead of straight down the sink. the water will be used in the gravy.
green beans
rinse. string (cut off the ends, cut lengthways discarding the outer edge. much much easier if you have a bean stringer), or chop into 2inch lengths. boil in the water you saved from your potatoes earlier, about 3.5 minutes. strain, serve. best with a very little salt.
broccoli
RINSE WELL. make sure any little bug are out. sometimes they hide. or maybe youre not that fussy. either way. cut into florets. should be fairly obvious where is good place to cut. when you get down to the middle, just cut it into chunks about the same size as the florets. if you like the stalk (my son will eat the stalk to the exclusion of anything else, including chocolate), cut off the very bottom - about 1/4 inch - and 'peel' it: cut off only the very outside, as little as you can manage. cut in half lengthways and crossways. boil in the water you saved from your potatoes earlier, about 3-6 minutes, depending on how well done you like it. 3 minutes is still quite crisp, 6 minutes it will fall apart a good bit when you strain it. strain, serve.
yorkshire pudding
cooking time: 25-30min at 230C
when your roast is out of the oven, take enough oil from the pan to just cover the bottom of a 9x9 or 7x11 pan, and put it in the oven - turned up to 230 - to keep hot.
beat together 2 eggs, 1cup flour, 1 cup milk, and 1/2 - 1 tsp salt (to taste) until smooth. you may find you need to add more milk. i seem to.
pour the batter into the pan and bake. when it is done it will be lightly browned, and should have large puffs. also, it will probably have separated from the edges of the pan.
DONT PANIC if the edges or bottom are quite dark. it is probably not burned, just very flavoured.
cut into equal portions per person. good alone, or covered in gravy.
gravy
cooking time: 20minutes?
put your roasting pan on the stove top, over a low-med heat, to heat up the oil from the roast, and with a metal spoon, try to scrape up anything stuck to the bottom of the pan.
add 2tbsp plain flour. IT WILL SIZZLE LIKE MAD. DO NOT PANIC. stir it up as best you can, spreading the flour through as much oil as possible. keep stirring and spreading. add a little more oil if theres not much there, or a little (1tbsp - 1/4cup) water if your just not sure. add seasonings to taste. salt, pepper, red wine, extra herbs, go wild with it.
after about 5-10 minutes, or you begin panicking, SLOWLY add your vegetable water, about a ladleful at a time, and KEEP MIXING. the flour will begin to dissolve, and everything will come together. add water to about 1/2 inch deep. KEEP MIXING. stir back and forth, slowly, spreading out the flour, and scraping up anything on the bottom of the pan. if its ever too thick, add a little more water. if it gets too thin, leave it to simmer for a minute or two - but only if it is well mixed together. DO NOT LEAVE IT if its still very separated.
when its done (subjective. you might like it runnier than my husband, or perhaps thicker), CAREFULLY pour into a gravy boat or pitcher of some sort, turn off the stove, and put the pan back on the hotplate with some water in it - this will make cleaning it later SO MUCH easier, but be careful carrying it. you dont want to clean up a roasting pan's worth of water from your floor.
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