The lost art of Sunday lunch.

Sunday lunch, roast dinner, meat and two veg. A British institution as beloved as Coronation street and tea.

My parents have prepared this meal every Sunday for as long as I can remember, Neil's family have too. As far as I'm aware, there has been no deviation from this tradition at all. No sandwiches quickly made in lieu of the meat and veg, no take away or packet meals, instead a full joint of meat roasted to perfection, accompanied with roast potatoes, vegetables, stuffing, sometimes Yorkshire pudding and gravy.

If there was lamb, there would be mint sauce. Roast pork would be coupled with my Mum's home made sage and onion stuffing and roast beef would be presented with horseradish or mustard or maybe even both if you were good. 

When I was a naive child, before my appreciation of good, honest cooking was developed, I would insist that I hated this magnificent lunch and would be presented with either egg and chips, dipping the fries into the egg yolk or a soup that my mum would lovingly create out of the meat and vegetables. It was basically roast Sunday dinner in a bowl, presented in a more kid-friendly version. 

Neil had no such choice. Coming from a family where children ate whatever was put in front of them, he ate his Sunday lunch up eagerly every week without complaint. I can't say definitely, but I am under the assumption that a lot of families in Britain still uphold this tradition. Every pub menu on a Sunday will feature this roast, some exclusively, usually with a choice of meats and trimmings and it was a wonderful surprise for Neil and I to re-discover this one sunny Sunday afternoon while in Cornwall, UK. 

Having already lived in Canada for 5 years, we were expecting the usual burger, sandwiches, soup and wraps option at a small, local pub and were flabbergasted when a menu featuring roast prime rib with red wine gravy and pork with apple and cider jus was presented to us. "Of course, it's Sunday!" we remembered.

The tradition dates back to the time when families would pop their meat in to roast before going to church on a Sunday morning and come home to a 'roast' dinner. This was probably during the Industrial revolution but of course, long before that, even as far back as medieval times, people would roast oxen or pigs on Sundays to share and feast on.

Here, in Canada, there is some tradition of this 'Sunday dinner', but it's served in the evening, which is not quite right to us. For us, dinner is a word that can also mean lunch, so Sunday dinner in Britain is eaten between 12 - 3pm, never in the evening. It's impossible to find a restaurant or pub serving this meal at lunchtime here, even the 'British' ones have succumb to the more North American tradition of evening dinner. So, the only way to really enjoy the authentic experience is to cook it ourselves. 

Maybe I should reintroduce this to every Sunday lunchtime. However with modern life delegating a Sunday to no more restful than any other day of the week, Neil is usually playing football during this time and I feel no desire to slave over a hot stove for most of the morning. Creating this feast certainly is a challenge. The meat should be out of the oven and rested, but still hot, the roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings hot, crispy and ready, the vegetables boiled to perfection, still retaining some bite, (no mush), the boiled potatoes just finished cooking and the gravy hot, stirred and ready to go. All this needs to be ready at the same precise moment to feed a hungry, waiting crowd. Some cooking prowess is required, but not so much culinary as a good sense of timing.

Recipes

Option1 
Roast turkey or chicken (Christmas and Thanksgiving in North America)
(Click on above image for recipe).

Also included would be cranberry sauce, bread sauce or Cumberland sauce.

Option2
Roast beef (click on image above for recipes)

Yorkshire pudding (traditionally cooked underneath the meat to catch all the 'dripping' juices).
Roast potatoes or mashed potatoes or boiled potatoes (the tiny new potatoes called Jersey Royals are a treat in the Spring; earthy, sweet and cute).
Boiled vegetables
Gravy made with a little red wine 
Horseradish sauce
Mustard

Option 3
Roast lamb (click on image above for recipes)
Roast potatoes (recipe in roast beef option)
Boiled or mashed potatoes
Boiled vegetables
Gravy made with a little fresh mint and red wine
Mint sauce
Redcurrant jelly

Option 4
Roast pork (click on image above for recipes)
Crackling (crispy pork skin)
Roast potatoes (recipe in roast beef option)
Boiled or mashed potatoes
Boiled vegetables
Stuffing
Gravy made with a little cider
Apple sauce


Quick and easy roast dinner (45 minutes)

2 chicken breasts with skin
4 potatoes
6 baby carrots or 2 large ones sliced thinly
stuffing mix from a packet or home made (prepared earlier)
1/4 cup frozen peas

1/8 cup white wine
1/4 cup chicken stock
1/2 tbsp flour
1/2 tbsp butter (optional)


Preheat the oven to 400oF
Drizzle a little oil over the chicken breasts and season with some salt and pepper. Place them on a baking dish and pop in the oven to bake for about 35 minutes.

After 10 minutes, bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil and cook the potatoes for about 20 minutes. Drain and mash, adding a little butter and milk if you want, set aside.

By this time, the chicken should be cooked, so check it by using a thermometer or checking that the juice runs clear, remove it from the oven and baking tray and cover with foil to rest.

Now, place a pan of salted water on to boil and add your carrots when ready. After about 7 - 10 minutes of cooking, add the peas.

While the vegetables are cooking, make your gravy. Place the chicken baking pan over  medium heat and add a little extra butter or oil if there isn't much fat and juice. Stir in the flour until no lumps remain and cook over low heat for a few minutes to cook the flour. Stir in the white wine and stock and cook gently for about 5 minutes, adding more wine or stock to suit how thick or thin you like it. Drain the vegetables.

When ready to serve, unwrap the chicken and either place on the plates whole or slice into thick or thin slices.

Warm the mash and stuffing if necessary and plate along with the vegetables and gravy.