Make hay
Head chef Warren Tyson from the Royal Oak at Brookland in Kent is bringing a little rustic Scandinavian flair into his kitchen – he’s giving a Sunday roast staple the hay smoke treatment.
Whole carcasses of Romney Marsh lamb are delivered by a farmer from within a 10-mile radius of the pub, together with hay bales. Half an hour of smoking later and the subtle flavour that is left conjures up sun-drenched meadows.
Tyson and his sous chef are skilled butchers and let nothing go to waste – thick meat slices are served with crispy belly, braised shoulder and a carrot and caraway puree, duck fat-fried sautéed potatoes, roots and greens, all for £10.95.
Roast sandwiches
Artists Jenny Hunt and Holly Darton run the Hunt and Darton pop up interactive eaterie that has been satisfying customers in Edinburgh, Cambridge and Brighton, among other discerning parts of the UK.
And their triple decker roast dinner sandwich – a nod to fond family meal memories from the 80s – has been going down a storm.
Their formula is this: Three chunky slices of buttered white bloomer with the middle one soaked in gravy. Layer with either chicken, beef or nut roast, sage stuffing, sliced skin-left-on roasted carrots and parsnips, dried onion flakes, either cranberry or horseradish sauce and a twist of salt and pepper. Serve cold (hair of the dog optional). £5. It answers a need and the possibilities are endless. There is certainly room for some potato action.
No more nut roast tags
At the Veggie Red Lion in Great Bricett, Suffolk, who get requests for roast dinners from customers wanting a Sunday institution minus any animal, the focus is on exciting Sunday options.
"We don’t like to call them ‘nut roasts’ as that conjures up connotations from years ago, back when vegetarians were not permissible in society," says Jan Wise, the pub’s proprietor.
She and her team are constantly experimenting. The mushroom and thyme roast, served with olive oil, rosemary and sea salt potatoes, maple and mustard parsnips and steamed broccoli, baby carrots and mange tout and red wine gravy, is a winner at £9.90.
The roast has a bulgar wheat-base, which they use with other combinations including spinach, spring onion and pecan with a cider apple sauce.
Go the whole hog
At the Albion in Islington, London if customers can muster between 10 and 15 friends and give three days’ notice, a whole roast suckling pig and roasties, buttered greens and carrots, gravy and apple sauce is theirs to share for £350.
The Magdalen Arms in Oxford also has a dish of gastronomic theatre – a whole slow-roasted local lamb shoulder that arrives at the table in its pool of carrot, celery and onion-laden cooking juice with spicy red cabbage and decadent dauphinoise and carving cutlery for four or five people to share (£72).
Stay all day or take away
Diners can grab some weekend supplements, relax and first line their stomachs with a free Bloody Mary at Drake and Morgan’s The Fable, Holborn Viaduct, London, which opens up at 9am. They have a secret recipe called Bloody Decisive or there is a station for DIY mixing. Roast is then from 12pm with topside British beef, roast belly pork or half a farm reared chicken served family style for self-carving with unlimited roast potatoes (£12.95).
The Crooked Well at Camberwell in London does a whole roast chicken and all the trimmings to share for £29.50. Owner Hector Skinner has invested in American-style takeaway boxes so diners, who decide to leave space for the sticky toffee and date pudding for two can confidently take home all the left overs for stock or sandwiches.
Date for the diary
Make the most of British Roast Dinner Week 2014. Research shows people would be up for a roast on any other day of the week when the mood takes them.
Spend seven days showcasing a range of roast dishes. It runs between 29 September and 5 October.