OK I confess...I've never made a roast!

**~Hestia~** · December 14th, 2010, 11:57 AM

Yes I have made it to 29 years old without having made a roast! I have no idea, it just seems too hard. But I think I'm ready to give it a go!

So Christmas Eve is just going to be the three of us - and I'm going to make a roast lamb. Does anyone have any tips for me? Everyone is always telling me how easy it is...is it really?

**leckert** · December 14th, 2010, 01:16 PM

I find it reasonably easy.

My way of doing roast (of any kind)
preheat oven 180 deg C, then cook covered with foil/lid of roasting dish 1/2hr for every 500g (round to nearest 500g) and an extra 1/2 hr. (eg 800g roast = 2x 1/2hr + 1/2hr = 1.5 hrs cooking time but check maybe after 1 hr if liking it pinker)

Then check meat with either meat fork (big long-pronged fork lol) or make a small cut in meat with knife and see if any/much red liquid comes out - if it does I tend to put in for about another 10min then re-check (I prefer my meat med-well done - ie not much pink).

If cooked take out of oven and leave for 5-10min to rest then cut it up (resting apparently lets the meat relax to make the cutting easier)

(you could check meat before the extra 1/2hr at the end if you like a pinker meat - I tend to do this if it's a chook more than any other roast)

**black_rose** · December 14th, 2010, 01:18 PM

Yep that ^ it's pretty easy. I pre boil veggies until they are soft and then pop them in for the last 30 minutes turning once.

**Erin_25** · December 14th, 2010, 01:21 PM

*******me neither********* and I'm 28. DH cooks our roast meat all of the time on his bbq, so I eat plenty of roasts but never cook them

**Miss.September** · December 14th, 2010, 01:21 PM

We do ours Jamie Oliver style - and since we started, DH has insisted on a roast every Sunday night!!

Take the lamb out of the fridge 30 minutes before you need to cook it. Preheat oven to 240, put 2 onions, 2 carrots, 2 celery sticks, 4 garlic cloves and some fresh herbs (we use rosemary and thyme) into a tray and drizzle with olive oil. Rub olive oil into the lamb and season with salt and pepper. Pile the vegies up together in the tray, put the lamb on top and put in the oven - don't cover with foil. Turn temp of oven down to 200 and cook for 1 hour 30 for pink meat, longer if you prefer it darker. It's perfect every time (depending on your oven of course!!). So simple and so delicious. Once it's out of the oven, let it rest for 10 minutes. Vegies, we just peel, drizzle with olive oil and chuck the herbs over the top. They go in for an hour.

**leckert** · December 14th, 2010, 01:40 PM

I didn't even think about how we do roast veg here - peeled, cut up into reasonable chunks, tossed with olive oil (and maybe some roast veg seasoning - Masterfoods has one) and thrown raw into roasting pan with meat (+ some in another pan usually) for about 45 min, turning once usually around the 20 min mark.
Potato (white not sweet) takes longer than sweet potato, carrot, pumpkin or parsnip I've found - usually wants an extra 10-15min for me (or you could toss other veg in at about 15-20 min after potato and then turn them about 15-20 min later.)