by Joan Saunders –
While I know that families and friends often expect certain meals at certain times of the year, it’s tempting to change up the menu and try something new. This can sometimes yield unexpected results; I’ve had both praiseworthy and cringeworthy evenings where the meal was either a glorious success or an unmitigated disaster.
At one event I decided to start with a hearty crab and corn chowder. It was tasty but, as the guests were famished when they sat down to eat, they wolfed back the chowder without thinking about the full celebratory dinner coming their way.
Needless to say, there were a lot of leftovers. Which is not, generally, a bad thing.
This year, for Easter dinner, I decided to move away from turkey and ham and try lamb. I headed up to my butcher to get a smallish leg of lamb. What I love about buying meat from our neighbourhood butcher is that they want to know that you understand that this is local, Metchosin lamb. This is quality goods. And, before they hand it over, they check to make sure that you are doing this meat justice, so they ask about the recipe.
I assume I was deemed worthy as the wrapped leg of lamb was passed over the counter, I paid and was allowed to leave the store. Whew! Success with the first hurdle.
The second hurdle was the vegetables. This was very easy as I wandered down to local farm markets and picked up some carrots, onions, parsnips, potatoes, asparagus and garlic. I love roasted vegetables so I kept it simple by throwing a pan of par-boiled veggies into the oven while the lamb was cooking. Then, at the end, I tossed in a dish of asparagus to roast while the meat rested. Easy peasy.
The final hurdle? Making gravy. I have never felt very secure about my gravy, but with a new (to me, anyway) way of roasting meat, I am now a champion gravy guru. The secret is a vegetable trivet. I’d never done this before and I love it!
A vegetable trivet is a layer of vegetables in the bottom of the roasting pan that your meat sits on. My buddy Jamie Oliver taught me that as long as I use a vegetable trivet and good quality meat, my gravy will taste like heaven.
I decided to keep dessert fairly light and made a lemon roll. People are always impressed with a rolled cake and I love lemon curd. The big bonus with a roll is that it takes about 12 minutes to bake so there’s not a lot of time invested in the process. The only real secret that I can share is to roll the hot cake in a tea towel right away. My mom taught me that if you sift the towel with icing sugar and roll the cake as soon as it comes out of the oven, it won’t crack.
Once it’s cooled, carefully unroll it and spread on the lemon curd, either store bought or homemade. Put it on a pretty plate and sprinkle on some icing sugar to decorate and you’re good to go. We often serve ours with some fruit as well (like blueberries), but it’s a zesty, citrusy way to end dinner.
The most important part of any meal are the people you spend it with, so think about what works for both you and those sharing the event. You don’t want to begrudge the time spent in the kitchen; you want to enjoy both the process and the final product, so decide if you want to switch things up a bit.
I’ll be in the kitchen with my new best friend, the vegetable trivet. It’s taken a long time to get there but, finally, I plan on having lovely, praiseworthy gravy. After all, Jamie did promise.
Perfect Roast Lamb
From Jamie’s Food Revolution by Jamie Oliver – Serves 4-6
1 x approximately 4½ pound leg of lamb
2 medium onions
2 carrots
2 stalks celery
1 bulb garlic
olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
small bunch of fresh thyme, rosemary, bay, sage or a mixture (I just used rosemary)
To prepare your lamb: Take it out of the refrigerator 30 minutes before it goes in the oven. Preheat the oven to 475°. There’s no need to peel the vegetables: just give them a wash and roughly chop them. Break the garlic bulb into cloves, leaving them unpeeled. Pile all the vegetables, garlic and herbs into the middle of a roasting pan and drizzle with olive oil. Drizzle the lamb with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper, rubbing it all over the meat. Place the lamb on top of the vegetables.
To cook your lamb: Place the roasting pan in the preheated oven. Turn the heat down immediately to 400° and cook for 1 hour and 30 minutes for blushing pink meat. Baste the lamb halfway through and if the vegetables look dry, add a splash of water to the pan to stop them from burning. When cooked to your liking, take the pan out of the oven and put the lamb on the cutting board to rest for 15 minutes or so. Cover the lamb with a layer of aluminum foil and a tea towel to keep it warm while you make gravy. Carve the lamb after it’s rested.
A Consistently Good Gravy
From Jamie’s Food Revolution by Jamie Oliver – Serves 4-6
As well as the veggies in the pan (the vegetable trivet) you’ll need:
1 tbsp flour
8 ounces of red wine, white wine or cider
1 quart vegetable, chicken or beef broth (I used organic chicken broth)
To make your gravy: With your roasting pan full of the vegetable trivet, remove 90% of the hot fat from the pan. Scoop off with a spoon any of the fatty layer (I didn’t really have much from the lamb). Put the pan on your cooktop on a medium-high heat. Add the flour and stir it around; use a potato masher to mash up all the veg to a pulp. Don’t worry if it’s lumpy. When everything is mixed and mashed, add the alcohol to give it a little fragrance before you add the stock. Keep it over the heat and let it boil for a few minutes. Scrape all of the goodness from the bottom of the pan. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes or until it’s the consistency you want.
To serve your gravy: Get a large bowl or pot and put a coarse strainer over it. Pour your gravy through the strainer, using a ladle to push all the goodness through. Discard any veggies left behind. You can serve the gravy straightaway or put it back on the heat to simmer and thicken up. If you want more complementary flavours (depending on the meat), add a teaspoon of either horseradish, mustard, cranberry, mint or applesauce.
Photos by Joan Saunders
