pot-roast chicken with winter vegetables and aioli, green salad
Yesterday was a grim and miserable day - cold and rainy. Plus we were going to the football game in the evening so we needed a post-match meal that would warm us up again and could sit happily in the oven for the couple of hours we were going to be gone. Hence this sort-of amalgam of a St John-y boiled chicken with a more traditional pot-roast, the principle being to brown the bird all over, stuff it in a big pan, surround it with vegetables, almost-cover with water and lay two strips of bacon on its breast, leave in a medium oven for 2 1/2 hours.
Actually the weather wasn't that cold at the game, but we nearly lost (just salvaging a draw). Coming home, unfortunately the bloody thing wasn't actually cooked. I blame it on my boyfriend's oven, in my one it would have been done. But in his it was too low a heat (his isn't as fan-assisted as mine) so we had another half-hour of drinking beer and post-match deconstruction while we whacked the heat up for a bit. As a result it wasn't quite as perfect as it should have been, but nevertheless warming and soothing as only moist, poached-ish chicken can be. And turnips...what a joy. The aioli is the most obvious debt to St John where they always serve it with their boiled chicken and it goes very well indeed. Plus it's a great excuse to make mayonnaise, one of the most satisfying culinary alchemies to create.
Actually the weather wasn't that cold at the game, but we nearly lost (just salvaging a draw). Coming home, unfortunately the bloody thing wasn't actually cooked. I blame it on my boyfriend's oven, in my one it would have been done. But in his it was too low a heat (his isn't as fan-assisted as mine) so we had another half-hour of drinking beer and post-match deconstruction while we whacked the heat up for a bit. As a result it wasn't quite as perfect as it should have been, but nevertheless warming and soothing as only moist, poached-ish chicken can be. And turnips...what a joy. The aioli is the most obvious debt to St John where they always serve it with their boiled chicken and it goes very well indeed. Plus it's a great excuse to make mayonnaise, one of the most satisfying culinary alchemies to create.
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