What you having for your dinner?

[Chedney Honks]

As a kid, a roast dinner meant maybe twice a year getting a translucent photocopy of 'beef' and some indiscriminate veg boiled and mashed within an inch of molecular decomposition, all drowned in lashings of greasy brown water. As a consequence, I've never really developed a taste for a roast and the thought of it and graveyard in particular makes me feel nauseated. Fast forward to last week and I ate an amazing roast dinner. Feels kike life has entered a new chapter.

Today, I'm putting the past behind me and making a roast dinner. I'm going to have a leg of roast lamb and stuff herbs, garlic and feta in the holes. We'll do hasselbaink potato's and a minty, herby feta dressing. Plus some carrots with a bit of honey. What's the worst that can happen? Food poisoning resulting in death? 😂

Genuinely looking forward to it and planning on enjoying many more roasts now to make up for the forty lost years without them?

What are you having for your dinner?

[bakabaka]

Gazpacho. No-one in their right mind has the oven on for four hours at the height of summer[nb]they are an autumn to spring, equinox to equinox thing traditionally[/nb] - you still have a lot to learn about Sunday roasts, young Chedney.

[Buelligan]

Same as I have every Sunday, Pinky, cheese and tomato sarn and a glass of water at 11.45, standing at my station and looking at the mountains, just before the humans arrive for their aperitif.

[bakabaka]

Same as I have every Sunday, Pinky, cheese and tomato sarn and a glass of water at 11.45, standing at my station and looking at the mountains, just before the humans arrive for their aperitif.

You have your own station? Dammit, Mr. Beeching, life could have been so much better without you...

[Buelligan]

Heh.  It's what we call our hunting posts.  You know, these -

[bakabaka]

So you've got the platform, just not the tracks or trains. Not that different to over here after all.

[flotemysost]

the thought of it and graveyard in particular makes me feel nauseated.

Well the second one's reasonable enough to feel queasy about.

I know what you mean re: roasts though, something so uninspiring about a wadge of chewy bootleather flanked by vegetables boiled to an anaemic pulp. I remember dreading going to family things as a child where there'd be a roast, because I knew I'd take forever to eat it and everyone would be watching me and my palpable discomfort at working my way through the bland slops in front of me.

I've since had some lovely Sunday dinners, mind, but it's still not really something I get excited about compared to other dishes. Best Sunday dinner I've had a was at a pub in Sheffield, chestnut stuffing pie with mash and mushy peas (and obviously a fraction of the price of some very sub-par roasts I've had in London).

I ordered a vegan paneer tikka masala last night and there's shitloads left over so I'll probably revive the dregs with some rice and spinach, got a couple of Bombay samosas knocking about too. The vegan paneer's so-so, just tastes like tofu really, but the sauce it's in is incredible.

[steve98]

I was so sure the dread phrase bad-boys was gonna pop up there ^: Vegan paneer tikka masala bad-boys; Bombay samosa bad-boys etc, but it didn't. I'd happily shoot people that say bad-boys.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

It isn't the job of the master of the house to prepare meals of this sort. Rather the task should be outsourced; delegated to a specialist underling. Some guilds were known in history for the skills of their resident catering golem.

In our household one such subordinate exists who we call Roastworm.

Roastworm sallies forth with all manner of homespun accoutrements, trimmings, etc. Dazzling gravies of partridge, pheasant, guineafowl, pigeon, and axolotl are laid out for our delectation. One only has to splutter the first utterances of 'horseradish' to find the demand has already been complied with - and how.

Roastworm is paid for its efforts - not in sterling, of course - an arrangement has been made where Roastworm receives miscellaneous soiled goods on the turn, no longer of tradeable value which it can do with whatever it pleases.

[Chedney Honks]

I laughed, but I sometimes feel like the bloody Roastworm in this house!

[flotemysost]

I was so sure the dread phrase bad-boys was gonna pop up there ^: Vegan paneer tikka masala bad-boys; Bombay samosa bad-boys etc, but it didn't. I'd happily shoot people that say bad-boys.

TW

[Chedney Honks]

Fucking lamb stinks, can't get this smell off my hands. Now my phone smells of it and all. This is a disaster.

[bakabaka]

Any roast is improved with onion gravy. Fact.

Onion Gravy

Chop a couple of medium-sized onions as finely as possible (don't use a blender, it mushes them)
In a saucepan, pour 4 tablespoons of oil (rapeseed or sunflower, but nothing strong-flavoured like olive oil or butter), add the onion and some salt and turn the heat on very low
While you prepare the rest of the meal, keep stirring the onion occasionally
The onion will all brown very quickly when the time comes; keep stirring as it does. It should take at least 15 minutes to reach this point, but the longer the better
When it's almost all browned add enough white flour to soak up all the oil
Stir for another minute then add about half a litre of water, a splash of soy sauce and a veg stock cube
Stir till it thickens and turn off the heat.

It's ready but tastes better with time. Can be sliced the next day and eaten in a sandwich (with or without stuffing)

It's so basic but everyone seems to go wild for it.

[Kankurette]

Onion gravy is fit, will need to learn how to make it. I taught myself how to make a roux earlier this year, so shouldn't be too hard.

I made a veggie chilli con carne with kidney beans, red pepper, garlic, Quorn, tomatoes and spices and I've got about two days' worth left, so will be eating that later with sour cream and rice. (The recipe also includes guacamole but I can't be arsed making my own because it doesn't last long.)

[Jockice]

I'm home alone today so am toying with the idea of veggie sausage sandwiches with cheese. If I'm at my girlfriend's (every second Sunday) we usually order a couple of takeaway giant Yorkshire puddings with roasts inside. And then she takes all the meat, has some herself and saves some for the cat and dog.

[ImmaculateClump]

Fucking lamb stinks, can't get this smell off my hands. Now my phone smells of it and all. This is a disaster.

That's the stench of death. The ghost at the feast.
"Don't eat me, mr honky. I'm only a little la-a-a-a-amb"
You have to have yorkshire puddings, those frozen ones will do, get a bit of carrot on your fork and a bit of yorkshire pudding and you eat them together like that.
Saw my dad do it when I was little and copied him.
I haven't had a proper dinnery dinner for ages. It's not the weather for it, but you've got my mouth watering. I want to roast things, big bit of stuffing as well.

[steve98]

Onion gravy is fit, will need to learn how to make it. I taught myself how to make a roux earlier this year, so shouldn't be too hard.

I made a veggie chilli con carne with kidney beans, red pepper, garlic, Quorn, tomatoes and spices and I've got about two days' worth left, so will be eating that later with sour cream and rice. (The recipe also includes whack-a-mole but I can't be arsed.)

Whacked moles in a veggy chilli?

[madhair60]

Anti semetic slur in the OP completely ignored

[Kankurette]

Whacked moles in a veggy chilli?

Only the Mexican sauce kind. It's got chocolate in it.

[Jittlebags]

Roast Beef marinaded in mustard, pepper, smoked paprika, cumin and Malden salt flakes. Green beans, cauliflower, a couple of roasties, and lazy man's duchess potatoes i.e. supermarket mash, moulded in ramekins, and ejected, sandcastle style onto a baking tray. Might do some batter for a Pudding, although might just buy some frozen ones from the garage. Undecided about gravy at the moment. Might do a mild curry veloute style sauce.

[Pink Gregory]

Anti semetic slur in the OP completely ignored

living the...fuckin...steady on mate

Fry's fishless fillets an chip and pea

[Jockice]

I'm home alone today so am toying with the idea of veggie sausage sandwiches with cheese. If I'm at my girlfriend's (every second Sunday) we usually order a couple of takeaway giant Yorkshire puddings with roasts inside. And then she takes all the meat, has some herself and saves some for the cat and dog.

Actually, that's just reminded me of the year my mum died.  For some reason a female friend asked a few weeks before Christmas what my dad and I were having for dinner that day. My reply: "Dunno, probably pizza,'' left her totally shocked and appalled. The concept of someone not having a full festive dinner was something that absolutely blew her mind. She couldn't contemplate such a thing. Apart from the fact that neither I nor my dad had any interest in or talent for cooking, we were supposed to be able to conjure up one somehow. It came as no surprise when a couple of days later she told me that she'd had a word with her parents and we were invited to their place. Er, thanks but no thanks.

We ended up going to my sister's anyway, where she did a full one. But then three years later my dad also died (near the end of September) and I had at least half a dozen people (wouldn't even describe all of them as friends) inviting me round to Christmas dinner at their's. Nice to be thought of and all that but I just wanted to be left alone and especially not to sit there with a group having a good time when I obviously wasn't. In the end I went up to my sister's again as I knew if I stayed at home and people found out about it I'd probably have them calling round on the day either to try and convince me round to dinner with them, or even worse, dropping food off for me.

I continued going to my sister's on that day until a few years ago, when I found another female to make me Christmas dinner. Although that's not always happened. And I'm not remotely bothered.

[Jockice]

Only the Mexican sauce kind. It's got chocolate in it.

I actually thought I might have misremembered this but years ago I went out for a Mexican meal with a woman from work. Not sure why, it wasn't a date or anything but it was just the two of us. And I had chicken with chocolate sauce on it. Which actually tasted okay. Until I got home and vomited. Is that a traditional thing then? Chocolate sauce on main meals and not puddings? Weirdos.

[colacentral]

I've eaten dozens of pub roast dinners and not a single one has come close to a good home cooked one. Even ones at other people's houses have all been poor. It seems this country can't roast a potato to save its life and loves watery, tasteless gravy. You'd also think no one has heard of herbs alot of the time. Considering it's considered a national dish, this level of mediocrity everywhere you go mystifies me.

Oh, and tonight it's aloo gobi.

[Poobum]

Discovered how easy it is to make good gravy stock from the bones of slaughtered creatures and have to say my roasts have improved immeasurably.

[Jockice]

=vely Sunday dinners, mind, but it's still not really something I get excited about compared to other dishes. Best Sunday dinner I've had a was at a pub in Sheffield, chestnut stuffing pie with mash and mushy peas (and obviously a fraction of the price of some very sub-par roasts I've had in London).

I ordered a vegan paneer tikka masala last night and there's shitloads left over so I'll probably revive the dregs with some rice and spinach, got a couple of Bombay samosas knocking about too. The vegan paneer's so-so, just tastes like tofu really, but the sauce it's in is incredible.

Which pub? That sounds lovely. I went out yesterday to The Forum and had a very nice vegan margerhita pizza and chips with vegan cheese. I mean I'm not totally vegan and it's always a bit of a risk ordering vegan food (as I've said many times before there's an assumption in lots of places that if you don't eat meat, you'll want spicy stuff. I HATE spicy stuff) but it was all great. Real bad-boys in fact.

[mothman]

We splashed out and got an Ooni pizza oven, and I was thinking I might try making a Calzone tonight.

[Retinend]

I have a month to slim down for my wedding, and my home bread baking / pizza baking has been catching up with me in the form of a flabby gut, so I'll going full keto with sugar free cordials in a latch ditch effort to lose a stone. Yesterday I had a cheese omelette of oil-fried vegetables and prawns, and today I'm going to have a lot of beef sausages served with oil-fried cauliflower rice.

One thing I don't understand: they say that a real ketogenic diet is "low protein", but surely all meat (which is the classic keto food) is high protein?

[Wonderful Butternut]

Have a homemade burger for tonight.

[TrenterPercenter]

Feta? Stuffed into Lamb? With a side that also includes feta?

Bizarre but it is your liberty Cheds.


I'm having a roast chuck, with normal accompaniments, roast potatoes, cauliflower cheese, stuffing, greens, gravy (nice homemade gravy) and bread sauce.


Absolutely no feta anywhere.