A damn fine roasting

I have learned many things from my mum over the years but one of the most valuable lessons she taught me was about the ROASTING BAG. Roasting in a bag is a many splendoured thing as it not only speeds up the roasting process, it also keeps the meat moist, does away with the need to baste and, probably most importantly, keeps the oven clean!

In the UK, I get a lot of strange looks and questions about the roasting bag. For anyone who doesn't know what one of these is, here is a link. Until recently, I had only ever roasted chicken (and turkey but more of that in a sec) in a bag. Actually, I had only ever roasted chicken and one leg of lamb in my life. It was time to branch out and so in the spirit of trying something new and also in a bid to have some family meals with the girls over weekends, I roasted both a topside and a rolled leg of pork. I overcooked the topside a bit (lesson learned re speed of bag) but the pork was amazing. To be fair, it started off life as a happy pig and arrived courtesy of an awesome company called Field and Flower but I think the cooking was top notch. And the crackling......oooh, the crackling! Here are some pics of the roast pork:

Now, about that turkey you are tackling over Christmas. Go out and get yourself a turkey roasting bag.  Stuff your bird, cover with bacon (if you do that sort of thing), season, herb and inour case we liberally cover with soya sauce (don't add normal salt then) and worcester sauce. Put the whole thing into the bag, tie it up and bang in the oven. The bacon will crisp, the skin will be lovely (you can take the bacon off once cooked and put the turkey back in for a bit to crisp the skin more) and your oven will be clean! Nom nom.....