Roasts

Relaxed roasts

Gathering friends or family around to enjoy a traditional roast dinner can be great fun, but all too often the cook ends up flustered and frazzled while the guests get grumpy waiting for the food to arrive on their plates.

Last-minute panics can be avoided with a bit of forward planning. While you can safely plonk the meat in the oven and leave it to get along by itself, you'll need to think about when the potatoes or root vegetables should join it, and when you'll need to set the water boiling for the accompanying veg. While it's not rocket science, a bit of planning helps things run smoothly.

Buying the best

Whenever possible, buy joints for roasting from your local butcher - that way you'll be able to find out where it came from and whether it's free-range or organically produced. You can also get hold of more unusual cuts such as lamb or beef shanks and whole lamb shoulders and you'll be able to order it in advance rather than just hope it's in stock at the supermarket.

For roasting, choose meat that's still on the bone - it has more flavour and is less prone to drying out during cooking. Likewise the best roasting joints are usually ones that aren't too lean. Look for beef with a good marbling of fat throughout.

• For more advice on choosing the best roasting meats, watch our video Buyer's Guide to beef, video Buyer's Guide to lamb, video Buyer's Guide to pork and video Buyer's Guide to poultry.

Chicken

Chicken is a classic choice for a roast, especially for smaller groups. It provides great leftovers too - if you don't succeed in picking every last bit off the bird, you can make creamy risottos or hot and sour Vietnamese-style salads with the remaining flakes of meat. And even if the chicken is stripped bare, the carcass can be used to make chicken stock.

Try carefully pushing a flavoured herb or spice butter under the skin of the chicken before cooking - this helps the flavours to penetrate the meat and keeps the breast moist during cooking. Cooked in this way, a simple salad and some crusty bread are accompaniments enough to make a light, satisfying dinner.

• Chilli roast chicken by Jenny White
• Lemon, pancetta and rosemary chicken by Emma Lewis
• Roast chicken (video recipe) by Mike Robinson from Get Cooking

Game

For something a little bit different, try using pheasant instead of chicken, or venison instead of beef. Game may be a bit harder to find than your usual roasting meats, and can take a little more preparation, but once you know where to get it and what to do with it, it's very easy to make a flavoursome, healthy meal from it. For more information on sourcing and cooking game, check out our Cook's Guide to game.

• Roast pheasant with lemon and rosemary (video recipe) by Mike Robinson from Get Cooking
• Peppered loin of venison with red wine sauce (video recipe) by Mike Robinson from Get Cooking
• Roast partridge with garlic, bacon and thyme by Paul and Jeanne Rankin

Pork

There are few things as satisfying as a really good layer of pork crackling - watch Mike Robinson's video recipe for tips on how to get cracking crackling every time. Mike also makes the most of pork's affinity with apple by pouring over a rich cider gravy. For a more unusual flavour combination, try rubbing the skin with freshly grated ginger.

• Roast loin of pork with crackling and cider gravy (video recipe) by Mike Robinson from Get Cooking
• Slow-roasted ginger pork by Angela Boggiano
• Slow-roast shoulder of pork with quinces served with savoy cabbage and roasted potato wedges by Sophie Grigson

Roasting tip

Remember to leave roasts to rest for a while before carving. As the meat relaxes, the juices pull back into the meat making it easier to carve and more tender and moist. Most joints need between 15-20 minutes resting time - leave in a warm place so it doesn't go cold, but avoid covering if possible, especially poultry, as the steam that forms inside the foil will turn crisp skin soggy.

Lamb

Lamb works well with a range of flavours beyond the traditional mint sauce. Try rubbing with spices such as cumin before roasting, or piercing several times and inserting sprigs of rosemary and pieces of anchovy (it loses its fishiness and melts into the meat giving it a salty flavour).

Cooking lamb on the bone and semi-braising it in a mixture of wine and stock guarantees that the meat stays moist and tender, and the best bit is that there's enough cooking liquid to serve as gravy.

Alternatively, butterflying a leg of lamb (removing the bone and opening the meat out flat) helps to incorporate the flavours of marinades and allows the meat to cook more quickly. Watch a video technique on butterflying lamb in this recipe for Butterflied leg of lamb with sherry and honey.

• White wine slow-roast leg of lamb by Silvana Franco
• Cumin roast lamb with sweet potato chips and smoked aubergine by Paul Merrett
• Roast shoulder of lamb with herbs and honey by Valentine Warner

Beef

While other roasting meats might benefit from extra touches and twists, the only way to serve roast beef is plain and simple, with fat Yorkshires, crunchy roasties and a rich, dark gravy. Adding pieces of onion or shallot to the roasting tin will give extra flavour to the gravy.

• Roast ribs of traditional beef with horseradish, crème fraîche and mustard sauce by Delia Smith
• Roast beef with Yorkshires (video recipe) by Mike Robinson from Get Cooking

Making gravy

When the meat is cooked, lift it out and set aside to rest. Pour off any excess fat and set the roasting pan on the hob. Sprinkle a little flour into the pan and stir over a low heat for a minute or two (or leave the flour out if you prefer a thinner gravy). Pour in some wine, beer, cider, hot stock or even just water and bubble vigorously to reduce the liquid and thicken slightly. If you like, you can try adding a touch of sweetness with a little sugar or a spoonful of cranberry jelly, or sharpen up the flavour with a squeeze of lemon juice or a splash of balsamic vinegar.

Veggie roasts and trimmings

Vegetarians sometimes miss out on the fun of Sunday lunches, especially in pubs - when there's a veggie option on the menu, it's often served without all the trimmings, which are half the fun.

Nut roasts have had a bad press - they're seen as a bit of a worthy 1970s dish that sums up the worst of bland, unimaginative vegetarian cookery. However, if done properly, they can be moist and full of flavour, and they go well with the other elements of the traditional roast.

Alternatively, try making a tart or pie using puff or filo pastry, filled with earthy flavours such as squash or mushrooms and served with roast potatoes and other veg. And don't rule out using meat substitutes such as veggie sausages, which are especially useful for popping in the oven if there are just one or two vegetarians present.

• Luxury nut and seed loaf with cranberry, apple and brandy sauce by The Vegetarian Society
• Hazelnut and mushroom parcels by Simon Rimmer
• Thyme and mushroom gravy by Celia Brooks Brown
• Roast celeriac with marsala by Sophie Grigson
• Curly kale (or cavolo nero) with rosemary and chilli by Sophie Grigson