Easter Feast

I always look forward to Easter as a big family day of cooking and feasting and celebrating.  This year we are on holidays with some dear friends so we’re cooking up an absolute storm for 15 people. I start the morning by making hot cross buns.  Three of the crowd don’t eat sultanas so I make choc chip ones instead.  The house is a bit cool so I leave the dough to prove in the bathroom under the heat lamp!  It sits there while we go to the Easter Mass in town.  When I get home, the dough is huge and half the choc chips have melted.  During the second kneading they sort of create ribbons through the dough – it looks and smells amazing.  They don’t last long out of the oven.

It’s always a roast dinner for my Easter table.  This year, because there are so many of us, I am doing three kinds of roast – lamb, chicken and pork belly.

The lamb is boned and I spread a sauce made of parsley, basil, anchovies, garlic, mustard and vinegar all over the interior before rolling it back up to roast.  There’s a more traditional lamb recipe with gravy, below.

I make a herb butter for the chicken – parsley, oregano, finely chopped rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper.  I spread it under the skin of the breast before roasting.  Here’s a full recipe for roast chicken …

The pork is prepared for maximum crackle and before long the aroma is filling up the house.  Full instructions on perfect pork crackle –  recipe for slow roasted pork belly is here.  This recipe calls for a 1.5kg piece of pork, but for my Easter feast I go for a 3kg piece.

Along with the meat there loads of vegetables.  So many in fact that I run out of steam and don’t manage to cook the Brussels sprouts.  As I don’t like them very much I can’t say I’m too upset.

Anyway, we have peas, corn on the cob, thyme roasted pumpkin,

Cauliflower cheese – see the recipe here

Sweet potato puree – recipe here 

Honey baked carrots – recipe 

Crispy roast potatoes and of course, mint sauce, apple sauce and gravy.

I’m asked quite often how to get roast potatoes really crispy.  I boil mine first, then I heat the oil in the roasting pan in the oven before putting the potatoes in.  Then just roast until golden, turning once or twice.  They need to be salted while hot too, or the salt just falls off.

The pavlova for dessert gets eaten before it gets photographed!

It’s a huge lunch, and a great day!  Happy Easter!