I\’m too lazy to clean the oven very often so I try to avoid putting meat into it. How to cook a \’roast\’ then? Answer: a pressure cooker. Pressure-cooking means less fat, easier cleaning, faster times, and more moistness (no risk of dry meat). But it also means no gravy for said-roast because all that (horribly fatty) dripping will go into the water already at the bottom of the pot. It is shocking to open the lid at the end and see how much higher the water/fat line is. Anyway, apple sauce is arguably a nicer alternative to gravy.
Buy a boneless leg or shoulder of lamb and if you can be bothered, make cuts in it to insert rosemary before rubbing with oil that has salt in it. Of course I don\’t bother with either of those steps.
Then place a trivet in the pressure cooker pot and fill with 1 cup of water (until it reaches the top of the trivet). Put the steaming basket on top of the trivet and place the lamb in that upright. (Assuming the lamb is cylindrical with fat all around it, the fat will drip downwards on all sides into the water below.) Cooking time depends on the size of the meat and how many deep cuts it has in it but I generally go for 50 minutes. If the meat is still a bit too red when slicing afterwards, place the slices onto an oven dish to go into the oven that the veggies have just come out of. This shouldn\’t take long – max 10 minutes at 180C.
Now to the other roasty things…. Preheat the oven to 180C. Peel, chop, toss in olive oil with salt, then place on (quilon-free) baking paper: potatoes, sweet potato, pumpkin, zucchini, onion and cauliflower. Roast them all for 40-45 minutes except zucchini (60 minutes) and cauliflower (30 minutes). Pumpkin might take less time too.
I don\’t think we will ever roast a chicken again but just in case – 35 minutes in the pressure cooker (comes out Hainan style) or 1:10 in the oven at 200C.
While the meat is in the pressure cooker and veggies in the oven, peel and chop 4 to 5 apples. Pop them in a small saucepan with a cm or 2 of water, 1 tbs sugar and a tiny nip of balsamic vinegar. Bring to the boil then reduce to simmer, stirring often to check on water level. If it completely evaporates, you\’ll burn the bottom so top it up in small amounts as necessary. The aim is for all the apples to turn to baby food consistency.