Tag: roast dinner

#26 Roast Parsnips

A quick one cos it’s a bit crappo really! Made a nice tea last night with Yorkshire Puddings (see recipe in blog). I bought some parsnips. Followed the Grigson’s guidelines which turned out to be what I do anyway! Par-boil your parsnips in salted water for about 3 minutes. Add to a hot roasting tin, season, and roast in a hot oven until they’re squidgy in the centre and crispy (but not too crispy) in the outside. If you’re cooking them with roast meat, stick them in the tin alongside it. Curiously enough, the Grigson doesn’t give a recipe for roast or mashed potatoes – maybe she assumes everyone knows how to do it; but then again, if you can do those, you can do parsnips… I’ve also noticed some other omissions from the book and will compile a list, methinks and add my own versions.

Anyway, sorry for the rather uninspiring post today, but it’s all I could muster this week – still have no money. Boo! However, it is Valentine’s Day very soon, so I’ll do something from the book then. I intend to go to Bury Market also and get some offal and weird things.

Here’s the score for the roasts:
#26 Roast Parsnips: 8/10. You’ve gotta love em. The Grigson didn’t give any new info on them though. Anyone know a better way to do them, or is this the best?

Tatties wi’ their hats on

Ok. Another of my own recipes. Actually it’s one my uncle used to do. He passed away about 12 years ago, but I went to visit my Auntie last weekend and she made this dish. Tatties wi‘ their hats on has to be pronounced in a Yorkshire accent. Next time you cook a roast dinner make these brilliant potatoes, they’re genius! You roast them in the oven in a tray filled part way up with vegetable stock and sliced onions. The tops have a coating of bought, dry sage and onion stuffing straight out of the packet. If you are doing roast pork or chicken pop the meat in and nestle the potatoes around it. It may all sound slightly naff, but it is one of the bast ways to do tatties! I goes particularly well with a roast shoulder of pork (with crackling, of course) and apple sauce.

You will need:
Medium-sized potatoes, peeled (I do 2 per person)
3 medium-sized onions, sliced
Vegetable stock
Sage and onion stuffing
Salt and pepper

What to do…

  1. Preheat the oven to 108 degrees Celsius (or if having with meat, follow instructions for the meat you are roasting).
  2. Spread the sliced onions evenly on the bottom of a roasting tin
  3. Cut the base of each potato so that they can stand up longways (like large eggs!). Dunk the top of each potato in some stuffing and season well.
  4. Nestle these amongst the onions, or around the joint of meat. Sprinkle extra stuffing on top
  5. Pour enough stock so that it is around 1/2 inch deep.
  6. Roast for around 1 1/2 hours until cooked.
  7. If you’re doing meat – make sure it’s a cut that take at least 1 1/2 hours to cook, otherwise it’ll dry out