The Sunday roast has been a New Zealand family tradition for generations, although it has fallen from fashion over the past decade or two. However, Selaks roast day is coming up on Sunday, Charmian Smith reports.
Pick up the phone and invite some family or friends around for a late Sunday lunch, suggests Nici Wickes, who for the second year is the Selaks New Zealand Roast Day ambassador.
Roast day aims to encourage family and friends to gather round the table, share a meal, probably a traditional roast, and perhaps a bottle of wine.
For her television show World Kitchen Wickes travels the world seeking to understand culture through food, and is often asked what is typical New Zealand cuisine.
''I think it's pretty hard to pick but if I could pick something it would be a roast that would typify what we are about,'' she said.
''These days we modernise it in all sorts of ways, but there's still nothing like sitting round the dinner table with a large joint of meat.
''I think roasting is such a beautiful way of cooking food, hot air circulating around it, and the beautiful smell going on.
"It's in the oven, it's doing its job and you don't have to faff around too much.''
However, you don't need a large joint to be able to cook a roast.
People are eating less meat these days, either eating it less often or eating less when they do have it, or both, and often families are smaller.
She suggests roasting pork chops or chicken drumsticks, or small racks of lamb.
Silver Fern Farms now also produces small roasts of lamb, beef or venison that are suitable for three to four people, come with instructions and are quick to cook.
Wickes likes to rub the meat with spice or herb salt and add a splash of wine or stock to the roasting pan.
If she wants to cook it fast she will cover it and remove the cover for the last part of cooking to allow it to brown.
One of the tricks to ensuring your roast is cooked to your liking is to use a meat thermometer which will tell you the interior temperature of the joint - rare 60degC, medium rare 60-65degC, medium 65-70degC, medium well done 70degC, well done 75degC.
Besides cooking a roast in the oven or over a barbecue, you could do a pot roast which used a tougher and cheaper cut of meat, browning it first, then cooking it slowly in liquid until it was tender and succulent, she said.
Vegetables are often roasted around the joint or separately, but for vegetarians larger vegetables such as eggplant or pumpkin can be roasted.
Dalmatian-inspired pot-roasted beef
Serves 6-8
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1½-2 hours
The flavours in this dish are reminiscent of the famed Dalmatian dish pasticada, pot-roasted beef with lots of herbs and spices in a rich red wine gravy. Served as hot beef rolls, this makes a fantastic shared plate.
Ingredients
1.5 kg bolar or topside beef
2 cups Selaks Reserve Hawke's Bay Merlot Cabernet
3 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
4 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 onions, peeled and sliced
3 tomatoes, roughly chopped
8-12 baby carrots
1 bay leaf
3-4 cloves
½ tsp salt and ¼ tsp pepper
½ cup prunes, pitted bread rolls to serve
Method
In a large pot, marinate the beef in one piece for at least an hour (or overnight) in the wine and rosemary. Remove the beef, reserving and setting aside the marinade for the sauce/gravy.
Using the tip of a sharp knife, make small holes in the beef and insert garlic slices around the whole piece of meat.
Heat the olive oil to medium to high in a cooking pot and brown the beef on all sides. Once browned, add the onions, cook a little and then add the chopped tomatoes and carrots.
Add the reserved wine marinade (it should half cover the meat and vegetables), bring to the boil before lowering the heat to a simmer and adding all the remaining ingredients - bay leaf, cloves, salt and pepper - except the prunes.
Cover and slow-cook over a low heat for 60 to 75 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding water if needed, to keep the meat half covered and moist. Add the prunes 20 minutes before the end.
Remove the beef from the cooking pot and set aside to rest.
Place the cooking juices on a medium to high heat and rapidly simmer until it thickens slightly (you can thicken with a little cornflour mixed with water if you wish).
Serve the gravy, enriched with the onions, carrots and prunes in a small bowl on the side. Serve the sliced beef in warm bread rolls with shredded Iceberg lettuce and lashings of gravy.
Nici's top tip
Using secondary cuts of meat is not only economical but they're often tastier than the prime cuts. Just remember they usually need to be slow-cooked to avoid being tough.
Wine match: Selaks Reserve Hawke's Bay Syrah.
This recipe form Nici Wickes.
Lemon and thyme roast chook
Serves 6
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
If time is short, this is the perfect roast dinner - a scrumptious dish of chicken, thyme and lemons with sticky potatoes to boot.
Ingredients
6-8 potatoes cut lengthways into 6 pieces
2 brown onions, peeled and sliced roughly
1 free-range chicken, spine removed, butterflied
3 lemons, cut into thin slices
2 Tbsp fresh thyme (or 1 Tbsp dried)
1 tsp salt
olive oil
1 cup Selaks Reserve Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc
½ cup stock
Method
Preheat oven to 220degC.
Take a large roasting dish and scatter the potatoes and onion slices over the bottom.
Place butterflied chicken on top, drizzle in olive oil, sprinkle with salt and thyme. Scatter the lemon slices over the chicken and another splash of olive oil. Pour the wine and stock into the roasting dish.
Cover with a double layer of foil and roast for 45 minutes, uncovered for the last 10 minutes, until the chicken is golden brown and cooked through. The onions and lemons will have caramelised, the potatoes will be soft and the bottom of the roasting pan sticky and delicious with a lemony glaze.
Serve with a simple green salad.
Nici's top tips
For a healthier option, always trim excess fat from chickens when cooking the vegetables in the same roasting dish.
By butterflying the chicken, you almost halve its cooking time.
Wine match: Selaks Reserve Hawke's Bay Chardonnay.
This recipe form Nici Wickes.
Roasted eggplants
Serves 4-6
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 50-60 minutes
Versions of this dish have been known to make priests faint, it's that good! A perfect roast for vegetarians or as a side dish for a main meal.
Ingredients
4 medium-sized eggplants
1 tsp salt
½ cup olive oil
2 large onions (red or brown), peeled and thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
400g can chopped tomatoes
2 Tbsp flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
¼ tsp each of salt and ground black pepper
½ tsp brown sugar
juice of 1 lemon
½-1 cup water
½ cup grated parmesan
Method
Preheat the oven to 180degC. Trim any stalks off the eggplants, then, using a small knife or potato peeler, peel off strips of the skin lengthways, leaving alternate strips of skin and exposed flesh. Sprinkle with salt and set aside.
Heat ¼ cup of the oil in a pan and fry each of the eggplants, turning so they brown on all sides. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Heat the remaining ¼ cup of the olive oil in the pan, to a medium heat. Add the sliced onions and cook gently for 10 minutes until soft and translucent. Add the garlic, cook for a further 2 minutes, then add tomatoes, parsley, salt and pepper. Simmer, uncovered, until it reduces and deepens in colour, about 10 minutes.
Pack the eggplants into an ovenproof dish so they fit snugly. Cut a slit in each eggplant (not all the way through though) and spoon some of the onion and tomato sauce inside each cavity.
Spoon the remaining tomato mixture on top.
Mix the sugar, lemon juice and water and pour this around the eggplants until it almost covers them. Cover the dish with a lid or double layer of foil and bake for 45 minutes or until the eggplants are tender, even collapsing.
Remove the lid or foil, add grated parmesan and bake for 10-15 minutes more until the juices are reduced and syrupy and the top is golden.
Serve warm or at room temperature.
Wine match: Selaks Reserve Hawke's Bay Merlot Cabernet.
This recipe form Nici Wickes.
Lamb leg roast rubwith smashed peas and crispy potato
Serves 3-4
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 45 minutes
Method
400g boneless lamb leg roast
2 Tbsp lamb rub (they use Mrs Rogers brand)
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 white potatoes, peeled and halved
2 Tbsp paprika
¼ cup of parmesan cheese
300g peas
2 Tbsp olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Preheat the oven to 200degC. Remove the lamb leg roast from its packaging and let the meat bloom for at least 10 minutes.
Score the potatoes with a knife and sprinkle with paprika and parmesan cheese. Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes.
Sprinkle the lamb rub on a chopping board. Rub the oil over the roast, and then roll it in the rub to coat it all over. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes (medium-rare). Remove the roast from the oven and allow it to rest for 10 minutes.
Cook and drain peas. Mash roughly with the olive oil. Season to taste.
Slice roast across the grain and serve with potatoes and peas.
This recipe comes from Silver Fern Farms.
