Share your Sunday Roast Rituals with Aunt Bessie's - chance to win £300 NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

The team at Aunt Bessie's would love to know all about your Sunday Roast Rituals - what makes a roast dinner go down well in your house? What's the key tip, trick, ingredient or essential item which makes that meal particularly successful? Does your family always sit down at the table? Is Sunday the one day you always insist on everyone being home to eat? And what do you dish up for vegetarians or anyone with specific dietary needs? Do you have roast potatoes even when it's not a Sunday?

Aunt Bessie's say "Aunt Bessie’s recognises how difficult it is these days to get the family together - that’s why mealtimes, and particularly the Sunday Roast, are so important. We’re proud to announce that our Homestyle roast potatoes are Mumsnet Rated*, following testing by members of the site. So whether you whip them out for the Sunday Roast or use them to spice up a meal during the week, give Aunt Bessie’s roasties a try today and see how long you can keep the kids at the table!"

Add your ritual or tip for a great Sunday Roast below and you will be entered into a prize draw where one person will win a £300 Love2Shop voucher.

Thanks and good luck

MNHQ
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*234 Mumsnet testers tried Aunt Bessie's Homestyle frozen roast potatoes - March 2016. 80% would buy again and 85% would recommend them.

I love a roast dinner. I don't do anything fancy, just keep it simple with a roast chicken, roast potatoes, couple of different vegetables, and gravy, but it always tastes good. The gravy is never homemade from scratch, but the roast potatoes always are. I'll happy do roast potatoes with any meal on any night of the week, but they've got to be fresh not frozen.

I stick to the rule that only roast beef is accompanied by Yorkshire puds.

If I'm doing a full roast (lamb or beef) I tend to do it on a Saturday night so that we can have it with wine, followed by cheese etc. It's an event. I don't do a full roast with all the trimmings more than every couple of months if that.

Often do roast chicken, but as a normal meal with chips or roast potatoes and maybe one veg or salad.

I'm hungry now.

Yum! Make enough for dinner the next day and have a small sherry or 2 in the afternoon when prepping the veg!

Lots of Yorkshires, plenty of leftovers to make into a pie for the next day, plenty of proper gravy, and we ask sit together round a table.

I make a single Yorkshire pudding in a deep tin - that way it is thick and doughy - not crispy. I try to get the roasties so crispy you need to watch you don't cut your mouth on 'em,
For beef or lamb, I brown the meat and start if off in the oven so the outside goes brown, then cook it in the slow cooker. I pass this off as "roasted".
DS eats none of the above but that is a whole other story.

In my house the roast consists of:-
Roast potatoes
Mash potatoes
Carrots
Peas
Chicken
Parnsnips
Gravy
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Yorkshire puddings
We always have the same roast every Sunday.

My top tip is actually for the day after - it’s Nigel Slater’s Monday Night Supper. Get offcuts of Sunday’s joint and sautée them in a wok with a tiny bit of oil, a whole chopped Savoy cabbage (other dark green leafy veg like spring greens or cavolo Nero also good) a large wine glassfull of Sunday’s gravy and another wineglass full of red wine. My own addition is that halved left over roast spuds or parsnips added in will make a more filling concoction, especially if you’ve got a bit more gravy. I do realise that it sounds horrendous, but there’s nothing in there you don’t like is there? and the fact that the largest single ingredient is green veg means it’s practically a health food.

The question of leftover gravy is one that has nearly brought me to blows with my otherwise excellent parents. I make very good gravy though I say so myself, but whenever I’m at my parent’s house and have cooked Sunday roast and am about to put the leftovers in the fridge they insist on throwing it away . Surely half a pint of good quality home made gravy from the roast is a godsend, which will make Monday night’s basic toad in the hole, or sausage and mash or onion pie or whatever into a feast? AIBU to go NC over this? It’s not just that I’m deluded about the quality of my gravy - they do it to my cordon bleu brother as well!

Go all out as diet starts Monday! LOL

A roast is always popular here.

I take the traditionalist view, and only have Yorkshire pudding with roast beef, and I serve the Yorkshire pudding as a first course with gravy, just like my Mother used to do.

Her Aunt was a cook at Castle Howard, and we all followed Great Aunt Emma's rules!

I also serve the traditional sauces with the different meats, such as apple and pork, mint and lamb. No mint sauce with roast chicken here!!

Of course part of the delight of having a roast, is being able to use the left overs later, bubble and squeak, quick chicken pie, cottage pie; the left overs can be just as tasty as the main roast.

Ready made Yorkshire puddings - mine never rise and always end up stuck to the tin resulting in no one eating them ("is this an omelette?" DD) and me spending 30 mins trying to scrape the residue from the baking tray!

Semolina. Parboil potatoes, sweet potatoes and parsnips, drain and shake them in the pan, then sprinkle with semolina, salt and pepper before roasting in hot fat. Gives a delicious crispy coating.

Pour the Yorkshire pudding batter into the roasting tin, over the juices from the meat (obviously take the meat out first - to rest).

Cook the roast low and slow, roast veg and make a crumble for pudding. Parboiled potatoes with rapeseed oil makes the best roasties, I cook them till they are very nearly cooked through and then rough them up to get lots of crispy bits heaven!

Sunday Roast isn't roast without
Yorkshire puds & Roasties ( Aunt Bessie's offcourse) .
All enjoyed infront of the telly.
I normally use the extra time to make a new pudding. The influence currently is the GBB!! 👌

A good stuffing always goes down well.

The children's essential = gravy. And at least two types of potato, mummy! (Normally roast and mashed). My essential = cauliflower cheese (normally with broccoli too). The cheese sauce seems to go amazingly with any roast meat.

We always sit down at the table, and I make dinner quite early so the dc have got plenty of time to enjoy it before bath/bed. It's the most popular meal of the week!

I'm a lifelong veggie and don't really get Sunday roasts, but dp assures me it's all about the roast potatoes.

Always cook extra roast potatoes and veg so that Monday's tea can be bubble and squeak.
Meat juices and wine used for delicious gravy.

All the family sit and eat and chat together.

Make the gravy and stick it in a thermos. Then while the meat is resting you can scrub the roasting tray ( I hate post roast washing up)

I find a good roast is all about the timings, I use an electric steamer for the veggies so that’s one less thing to keep an eye on.
Meat is always cooked in an enamel roasting dish, it has a dimpled lid and keeps the meat so tender (I did read it’s something to do with the dimples).
Homemade gravy is an absolute must, and we love Aunt Bessie’s frozen parsnips.

We have a roast dinner most Sundays from September to Easter. I always make too much because we then have the leftovers on Monday evening or incorporated into the rest of the week’s meals. I also love going out for a Sunday lunch but it has to be as good as I can make it myself or I feel cheated. I also miss the leftovers in the fridge to pick at.

Lots of overcooked veggies for me, Yorkshire pudding for the boys and homemade bread to soak up the gravy. We prefer chicken thighs to breast as much juicier.

For us, it's all about the sides and sauces - have to have cranberry and bread sauces with chicken (and stuffing!), horseradish with beef, mint (or redcurrant) sauce with lamb, and apple sauce with pork. I also make sure there's enough leftover cabbage or sprouts and roast potatoes to make a good bubble 'n squeak on Monday. There should always be extra gravy - enough to add the leftover meat to, and reheat on the stovetop the next day.

Make the gravy from the sticky juices left in the roasting tray and add a dash of red wine.

Always have roast dinner on Sunday, my son is autistic and has to have exactly the same each week, chicken, 12 roast potatoes 3 Yorkshire puddings and 5 parsnip and they have to be aunt Bessie no others would do, and yes he can tell the difference so thank you aunt Bessie for making dinner easier x