Easter isn't just about chocolate eggs and hot cross buns. It's time for a special Sunday lunch with the family. If you're sticking with tradition it's all about ditching the beef and chicken and serving lamb.
Whatever vegetables you go for, it's the meat, roast potatoes and gravy that are the stars of the show. To help you create the perfect dinner to impress your perfectionist mother-in-law or fussy children, we asked some of Nottinghamshire's leading chefs for their top tips - with one or two surprise twists.
MasterChef: The Professionals star Louisa Ellis shared her secrets for cooking lamb - two ways. Dan Coles, head chef at The Nelson in Burton Joyce, gave his recommendations for the best roast potatoes. As for really good gravy, we asked Mark Osborne, co-owner of award-winning Notts pubs, The Railway at Lowdham, The Radcliffe at Radcliffe-on-Trent, and The Plough at Normanton-on-the-Wolds.
Lamb
Louisa said one of her favourite things to cook at Easter is a rack of lamb. She said: "It’s a beautiful cut of meat and perfect for special occasions. I particularly like cooking it on the bone as it retains all its flavour once rested."
She said the best way to cook the meat is on a barbecue from start to finish to give it a delicious smoky flavour but it's also mouth-watering cooked in an oven.
- Season the lamb with sea salt and sear the exterior until caramelised and the fat has rendered.
- Baste it in foaming butter which has been infused with rosemary and garlic and bake in the oven at 180ºC until it reaches the correct temperature. All lamb racks will be different sizes so a temperature probe is a good too to invest in to check whether its cooked through. When you take the lamb out of the oven, the thickest part of the meat should reach 56-58ºC.
- Rest the lamb for at least 10-15 minutes before slicing into it. The lamb will continue to cook from the residual heat and the centre should reach around 63ºC for medium rare after a couple of minutes. The same goes for most red meats you cook, typically rest for the same amount of time as they've been cooked which will retain most of its moisture.
Alternatively, lamb shank is full of flavour and falls off the bone.
- Brown the lamb in a pan first as the caramelisation will help flavour the gravy and lock in all the juices.
- Slow cook the lamb shank in a casserole dish (or slow cooker) with red wine, rosemary, garlic, leek, onion, carrot and lamb stock/fresh chicken stock.
- Submerge the lamb in the stock and bake in the oven with a lid on for 3-4 hours at 140ºC. fan or until the meat falls off of the bone.
- Serve with sticky red cabbage which has been reduced with brown sugar, sherry vinegar and red wine. This will cut through the natural fat in the lamb shank beautifully.
- Serve with a big dollop of mint sauce.
Roast potatoes
The Nelson serves 320 roast dinners on a special occasion such as Mother's Day and averages 200 on a typical Sunday so that's a lot of roast potatoes - 100 kilos a week in fact.
The pub favours fleshy yellow Marquis potatoes but if you can't find them in the shops, any white floury potato will work. Albert Bartlett is a quality spud.
- Peel and chop so they're the same size. If different some will end up like mash, whilst others will be raw after boiling.
- Make them slightly bigger than a golf ball in size. Try to get nice long edges when you cut them. Cut lengthways so you get a flat oblong surface that will crisp up nicely. The more surface area you've got the crispier the potatoes.
- Boil in salted water until three-quarters cooked for approximately 20 minutes. Don't overfill the pan. Boil gradually, don't have the heat too fierce.
- Scoop them out or drain them into a colander and give a good ruffle up on the edges. Spread out on a tray and let them steam which creates that kind of outer bark that soaks up the oil.
- Pre-heat the roasting tin at 200ºC. Use either beef dripping, duck or goose fat. If you're having a veggie roast, rapeseed oil is better than olive oil because it burns at a higher temperature.
- Give the potatoes a good turn so they're fully coated in the oil. Cook for 20 minutes. Remove and for extra flavour, smash a bulb of garlic. Take off the outer peel but leave the skin on the cloves and crush those. Add to the pan along with rosemary and thyme. Cook for a further 15 minutes. Remove again and then squeeze gently with a potato masher to flatten slightly to get a bigger crust.
- Cook for another 15 to 20 minutes, Sprinkle with Maldon sea salt.
Gravy
Chef Mark Osborne says: "Gravy! Most roast dinners are scored on roast potatoes and the meat but the gravy is equally as important. It comes down to the base stock for me." This is the method used at the pubs, which takes some forethought and advance preparation. "It's simple but takes time."
- Roast the bone and add to a deep braising tray. Add red wine, cover with water and slow-braise overnight in the oven. This keeps the fats from mixing.
- Skim any fats off the top in the morning. Take out the bones and reduce.
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