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Esurientes - The Comfort Zone

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Roast Lamb with all the trimmings



This is the quintessential Aussie family meal. I don't think there are many Aussies who don't have childhood memories of sitting down to a lamb roast - even those with migrant families; my dad, for example, loved it. In fact, there was an amusing ad a few years ago showing a young Asian girl sitting down with her schoolfriend's Aussie family to have a roast.
"So, do they have this where you're from?" says the dad, carving up the lamb
"Bendigo?" says the girl.
Ok, so that's not quite how the ad went, but it was along those lines. There's an even more famous ad from my primary school years about a girl winning a competition to have dinner with Tom Cruise, and knocking it back because "mum's cooking a lamb roast". Yes, I'd go for the roast too, especially if Tom Cruise were the other option!
There are a million and one methods for cooking roast lamb, but I turned to Stephanie Alexander. I liked her method of cooking the lamb on an oven rack suspended above a roasting pan. She recommends cooking at a high temperature (210C), which can cause the fat to spatter, so the pan underneath, filled with a little liquid stops the spattering, and the juices that drip in creates the beginning of your gravy.
The lamb was pink and juicy near the bone (my preference) and a little more cooked toward the outside (A & my mum's choice). It studded with garlic and rosemary, which flavoured the gravy. In fact, that was the first gravy I've made from scratch. I've grown up a Gravox girl, and I'm still quite proud to say that I still do love that thick, dark, salty stuff, But this was a real gravy, made with real elbow grease, and mighty fine it was too!
We had roast potatoes, roast pumpkin, green peas and cauliflower cheese with this; how more traditional can you get? And we even had it on a worknight! Surprisingly it didn't take that long, and we were eating by 8.30.

6 Comments:

  • mmmm lamb roast, mmm real gravy

    ick gravox.... sorry I just can't do it... I grew up on the real stuff.

    By Blogger eat stuff, at 6/22/2005 06:24:00 pm  

  • ooh, looks delicious!

    if only katie holmes' ma could do a lamb roast, things may have turned out differently!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6/22/2005 07:32:00 pm  

  • I'm going to check with Matt; he may be a raging carnivore, but he's awfully particular about how his meat is cooked. Of course, if he likes it...I 'borrow' yet another recipe from you!

    Bendigo? Where is that?

    Where I grew up, in Northeastern Pennsylvania, there was Bendigo State Park; you could canoe in the river, swim in the pool, cook out, you name it.
    Of course, growing up I couldn't help but think "Shadrack, Meshack and Abendigo" !

    By Blogger Stephanie, at 6/23/2005 03:01:00 am  

  • Clare - I know, I know. Gravox is shunned and ridiculed by everybody, but there's something about that thick, salty taste I just love! Especially on mashed potatoes.

    Shauna - It was very yummy, and I agree wholeheartedly about Katie Holmes' mum!

    Stephanie - Bendigo is a provincial/country town in central Victoria (the state for which Melbourne is the capital). It's about 150km north of Melbourne, with a pop of 90,000. It was the richest city in Australia during the 1850s gold rush (I think) and still has many grand Victorian buildings. A lot of Chinese came out for that gold rush, so there are many Chinese families in Bendigo that have been there for generataions, so the ad wasn't as far fetched as it seems.
    Yes, that old testament reading always provokes giggles from Australians. I have actually heard it pronounced as Bendigo by less competent readers! Interesting that you also have Lake Bendigo in the USA!

    Rae- Now that you mention it, I remember being told that. I LOVED her in Brides of Christ. Very amusing about the Nicole Kidman connection. Actually, A. has a friend in Sydney who is the school teacher of the Kidman/Cruise daughter. She sends text messages to him when Nicole turns up to help with Art class. :-)

    By Blogger Niki, at 6/23/2005 11:29:00 am  

  • Hi Nicki,... I'm sorry... I know lots of people that love it :)(but they also like tinned braised steak and onions :P )

    I think if I had of had it as a kid I would probably love it too :)

    By Blogger eat stuff, at 6/23/2005 01:10:00 pm  

  • What a yummy dish, the perfect lunch, what kind of meat is this??? Beefsteak??? Pig chop???

    By Anonymous Generic Viagra, at 8/05/2010 03:22:00 am  

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