Fancy Pancy
Do you fancy a white chocolate-peppermint scone? Or a savoury coca cola jellied salad? No? What about a creamy butternut soup…OK….with banana, maple syrup and pecans? Ahhh, maybe not.
Or perhaps the new food accessories, such as Heston Blumenthal’s seafood creation where you can listen to the sound of the sea from a conch shell that you nestle against your ear as you’re eating. A hidden i-pod in the shell gives you the accompanying cry of a gull and a splash of the waves.
Or the old accessories? Centuries ago a specific piece of material was placed next to your plate and you stroked the cloth as you ate to supposedly enhance the experience.
These days there is nothing new in the food world, just variations of the old, but those tried and true recipes you keep going back to are the ones which multi-task in the very best of ways. They comfort, provide nutrition, ease our hunger and quite simply make us feel good. A falling-apart piece of braised brisket, cooked for three-and-a-half hours at a low temperature with the addition of just three onions, some red wine and garlic, will deliver such a meal.
Creative licence is a good thing to have in the kitchen so long as the food still tastes as it should. Some things just can’t be improved upon and it’s good to recognise and appreciate these for what they are. A perfect fig, warm from the sun. New season asparagus, baby potatoes, and a crisp juicy pear…
As Alice Waters (of the famed Chez Panisse) said: “It is a fundamental fact that no cook, however creative and capable, can produce a dish of a quality any higher than that of the raw ingredients.”
Try a free-range chicken roasted till the skin is golden brown and the meat succulent and juicy, flavoured simply with rosemary and lemon wedges stuffed into the cavity, allowed to rest for fifteen minutes before serving with a crisp salad and some boiled potatoes. It’s a shame to lose sight of Simple in the quest just to be Different.
This recipe from Marcella Hazan is simple, though a little care is required. She says that if this dish were a still-life its title could be “Chicken with two lemons”, and that is all there is in it. Marcella recommends serving this with a green salad, simply dressed and eaten on the same plate as the chicken so that the warm juices will mingle beautifully with the salad greens. It’s worthwhile sourcing the best free-range chicken you can afford for this recipe.
Roast Chicken with Lemons
Serves 4
One free-range chicken (1.5-1.75kg)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 small lemons
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C. Wash the chicken thoroughly inside and out with cold water. Let the bird sit for 10 minutes on a tilted plate so all the water can drain out. Thoroughly pat it dry with paper towels. Sprinkle salt and pepper generously on the chicken, rubbing it into the skin and the cavity. Wash and dry the lemons and soften each one by rolling it on the bench, pressing with the palm of your hand. Puncture each lemon at least 20 times with a toothpick or a fork. Place both the lemons in the cavity of the chicken and close up the opening with skewers or sew with string. Place the chicken in a roasting tin with the breast side down. When you roast a chicken upside down like this for the first half an hour, the juices run down over the breast and baste it for you.
Do not add any cooking fat of any kind as this bird will self-baste, and you need not fear that it will stick to the pan. Place it in the upper third of the oven and cook for 30 minutes. Then turn it breast side up, trying not to puncture the skin. Cook for another 30 to 35 minutes, and then turn the oven up to 200°C and cook for another 20 minutes. If you are lucky the chicken will have blown up like a balloon and the skin will be totally crisp and the presentation will be quite arresting. Don’t worry if the chicken hasn’t puffed up, as the flavour will be just as good.
Allow the bird to rest for 10 minutes before bringing to the table and serving with the juices that run from the bird, as these are perfectly delicious.
Fiona Feasey
