When mum signs up for a roast cooking competition

The night before a Red Tractor beef and lamb roast cooking event with TV chef Fay Ripley I suddenly realised what I had signed up for might not be a cooking demo like I thought. I noticed the word ‘cook-off’ but hoped I was wrong in thinking that made it sound like a competition.

Since I’m not a fantastic cook and had never attempted making a roast before, I’m certainly not a budding MasterChef candidate, who could do well at an event like this.

That’s why I got petrified when I noticed a table of ingredients when I turned up at the venue on Tuesday morning and realised I would have to pick my own ingredients and make a lamb or beef roast in an hour. I texted Daddy T for some last minute guidance, but even his basic instructions were a bit too high level for me.

An hour later, however, I couldn’t believe that I was actually plating up something that looked very much like a roast, and something I could even have served if we’d had guests over for dinner. This session, which pushed me to cook a roast from scratch and make it as interesting as possible in the spirit of the competition, turned out to be much more useful for me than a cooking demo. It was probably exactly what I needed to get the courage to start cooking roasts for my family even on weekdays when I have very limited time for cooking.

I received two pieces of meat to take home and after I served up my first roast at home too Baby Girl asked if we could make “this yummy food” every day, and Daddy T asked if I could try going to more events as he had no idea I could cook like this.

I’ve now made a mini roast three times, and together with the meat, I use rapeseed oil, lemon, rosemary, root vegetables and bacon and put everything in the same pan, which I cook in the oven for around 40 minutes at around 190 degrees. I serve the lamb roast with a sauce made of yoghurt, chopped parsley, lemon and garlic.

It looks like our favourite Fulham butcher Randalls will be seeing a lot more of me from now on.

Thank you for inspiring me to cook mini roasts on weekdays Red Tractor and Fay Ripley!

Tags: Beef, Cooking, Cooking with baby, Dinner, Fay Ripley, Fulham, Lamb, Randalls, Recipe, Red Tractor, Roast, Weekday