Dubaiexile

[QUOTE=Scamp;12291417]






Nope, sorry. It's like a roast dinner. Totally overrated.



Is this Scamps room, or everyones??

scrubbedexpat141

I refer the honorable gentleman to the first post of the thread. Particularly:


I'm not being swayed on roast dinners. If you can make a case for fish and chips then I'm happy to hear it because from time to time I will make the mistake of ordering it.

jam25mack

I'm with you on roast dinners but a decent fish and chips is top bollocks! Bad ones are just awful though.

co durham boy

That's a good call , the smell of bovril and the glistening grass . Almost makes me homesick .

Bahtatboy

Large, corn-fed chicken, stuffed with two oranges, garlic butter inserted under the skin and liberally applied on the skin, roasted correctly until the flesh is succulent and tender and the skin crisp. Breasts carved off whole and then sliced vertically so that each slice has a piece of crisp skin on top.

Home-made stuffing cooked separately till crisp on top. Roast parsnips; pan-fried Brussels a la Jamie; swede/potato mash; roast potatoes done in goose fat till really crisp on the outside but fluffy on the inside. Home-made bread sauce and cranberry sauce, and of course gravy made with the roasting juices.

Followed by raspberry pavlova.

Sorry Scamp, but that's going in...

co durham boy

Swap it for a rib of beef and then throw it in .

Gavtek

I'm sure there will be exceptions but in my experience, fish and chips is generally shite unless the chip shop is within 20 miles or so of a fishing port.

Sandboy

soon solve that problem, reality is a pisser

TheShed

as someone born in Brixton, Devon, I can only agree with this.

scrubbedexpat141

I'm so glad I'm not alone.


You're joking aren't you? You had the chance to fight for a roast dinner to go in and you chose chicken?
It's got to be the worst roast option possible. No matter how good or fancy or 'juicy' you claim that recipe or others may be it's worse than turkey.
I'm sorry Bahtat, you're a good man but this is awful.

Palatable. I do enjoy beef in whatever format. People can't be snobby about having yorkshire puds with beef either.

nottmbantam

That stuff belongs in Room 101. Roast dinners are vastly over rated, the only thing I like is the roast beef / chicken, Yorkshires, roast spuds and gravy. Everything else can go down the pan - mashed potatos in particular. Worst food invention ever.

But I do love a bit of pavlova....

scrubbedexpat141

Mashed potato makes me gag. It's the only potato I don't eat. 3-4 forkfuls and I'm retching. Must be the consistency.

Bahtatboy

There's chicken and then there's chicken. And then some. Mouth-wateringly good when done right, provided the bird's premium. But I'd happily go with turkey, crown roast of lamb (or hoggit), beef, beef wellington (verging away from true roast), pork (but only if the crackling's really brittle, which requires cooking it separately), pheasant, duck...

But I'll return to the chicken: as a simple, traditional Sunday roast it's a mainstay of English family cooking; by combining a corn/grain-fed free-range bird and exotic elements (the garlic and orange) the taste, succulence and aroma are fundamentally different from anything you'll get from a limp, pale, ill-fed, ill-nurtured and water-injected obscenity from a "super"market. Add to that the skill of the cook in ensuring that its cooked to a T, is allowed to rest, and then expertly carved onto piping-hot plates, and accompanied by veg and sauces that complement the flavour of the bird, and you have a meal of true excellence.

Dissing that because its "only chicken" demeans refined home cooking. Sorry to say, but if you don't / can't appreciate that, it's either because you've never experienced it done properly (ingredients, technique, combinations, sauces, presentation), or you've been seduced into believing that something can't be excellent unless it's fancy.

IKnowNothing

When you inviting us all around then? (Will pass on the dessert mind you).

scrubbedexpat141

Politely, I'll agree to disagree with you here. I like fine foods, I like cheap nasty food....but I believe the roast to be totally overrated because it is far too much effort for a plate of vegetables. Eating one out involves a plate of badly cooked or average vegetables, dry meat and terrible potatoes. I'd have to come to your house to have a decent one (apparently) and that only goes to put the full stop on my point - they're not worth the hassle.

Put one in front of me and I'll enjoy it if it's good (My step-mother was a fantastic home cook who's roasts were about the only ones I'd ever consider eating.....and they didn't come with oval-pan fried Egyptian smoked twice washed brussels, stuffed king edward herb crusted helmets and basting of the underside of a truffled jam puree and other genuine Heston-inspired bollocks because once you introduce that stuff you're forcing someone to say it's incredible). Taking normal flavours of a 'mainstay' and flowering them up as more than they are is exactly what fancy is.

However, 99 out of 100 are going to be bang average plates of veg which have been cooked by someone who now regrets starting it.

Chicken being the bottom of the pile. Beef is the tallest dwarf and in first spot. Crackling is very hard to do so Pork goes third. Lamb is tasty and goes second for me, but that's because I love beef, Lamb probably deserves top spot I reckon.