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Tuesday, March 19, 2019

There are two recipes and their culinary concepts, on which a person may base his kitchen:
Roast Chicken and Marinara Sauce.

Today we’ll discuss roast chicken, an elegant and yet fundamental dish.

If you scan the recipe included herein in the Answer section of the blog, you will see a very simple recipe requiring little time and expertise to produce a delicious dinner for four.

Here are some culinary axioms on which the recipe is based.

Cooking well thrives on thought and planning.
What time do we want dinner on the table?
Add up all the time required by each of the steps required by the recipe.
What time does the chicken have to be in the oven?
What day and time does it have to be bought?

Hot temperatures drive the juices out of meat leaving the meat drier than its slow-roasted equivalent.

Cooking at low temperatures does not produce the attractive skin crispness and color that we’ve come to admire.
To at least partially compensate, we may brush on baking soda the night before and let it sit overnight to dry out the skin and make it more susceptible to crisping and coloring.
The olive oil-herb-spice mixture applied to the bird before slow-roasting will help with the effort.
As will the 500* finish.
I’ve sometimes broiled the bird for two or three minutes on each side to add even more color.
Applying extreme heat for a very limited number of minutes will affect the skin only and will not dry out the meat.

Roasts do not need sauces.
They function very well indeed on their own merits: juicy, tender meat; tasty, crispy skin.
Perhaps a squeeze of fresh lemon.
Che vuoi? Or “What more do you want?”
Think Robin Hood food orgies, the juicy chicken legs being ripped off the carcass and devoured out of hand with great swills of wine.
Think of the absurdity of using high temperatures to drive the juices out of the bird making it necessary to deglaze the roasting pan, add things to the scrapings and juices, and pour the resulting juices over the dried out meat.

For the sake of simplicity which is desirable to encourage the uninitiated to make the plunge into cooking, questions like what bird to buy, how to carve it, and what to do with leftovers are all ignored.
We’ll enlist the help of the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker.

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Postings Count, Weather Brief, and Dinner
Tuesday, March 19, 2019
My 341st consecutive posting, committed to 5,000.

Time is 12.01am.
On Tuesday Boston’s temperature will reach a high of 41* and a feels-like temperature of 41* under mainly sunny skies.

Dinner of Roast Chicken.

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Tick Tock : Marking Calendars and Deep Weather

After 341 posts we’re at the 6.82% mark of my commitment,
the commitment a different way of marking the passage of time.

Long term forecast confirms a steady march to spring.
I believe we are all ready for it.

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Question of the Day:
How does one start a kitchen, Part 1?

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Love your notes.
Contact me at existentialautotrip@hotmail.com

Here’s one from Victor, responding to the entry on Averna.

Dom,

Today's post was of special interest to me. I have been a fan of Averna for years.
My mother was born in the Province of Catanissetta in a small town called Riesi.
My Sicilian grandfather introduced me to Averna a very long time ago.

At first I wasn't fond of it but grew to like it especially after dinner.
Sometimes I mix it with ice and tonic water and a twist of lemon.
There is most always a bottle of it at home.
I also use it to cut the bitterness of Fernet Branca which my paternal grandfather introduced me to as a digestivo.

He would drink it neat mixed with sweet vermouth and not just after dinner!
One could always get Fernet in the Blue Front and purchase it in the Green Cross Pharmacy when we were kids.
Presently in Florida I have been mixing Cynar, an artichoke flavored liqueur, and Fernet with a few ice cubes; it's a refreshing after dinner drink.

Salute, cent anni,

Victor

Web Meister Responds: I remember from the distant past. wondering now why I stopped taking it.

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Answer to the Question of the Day:
How to start a kitchen, Part 1?
Learn this perfect and easy Roast Chicken recipe.

The night before the cook, wash and dry the chicken.
Brush the chicken with a slurry of 1t black pepper, 2TB of baking powder, and 3TB water.
Set the chicken on a poultry rack in a roasting pan and refrigerate the brushed, uncovered chicken overnight. 

Prepare a powdered spice mix of 1t each:

Onion, garlic, ginger, cumin, curry, nutmeg, black pepper, paprika, cinnamon, and 2t Herbes de Provence.

Mix 2TB of the spice/herb mix with 2TB sesame oil.

Just before it goes in the oven brush the sesame oil mix over the chicken.

Ready to cook?

Turn the oven on to 200* and roast the chicken for 1 hour per pound.
At the end of the roast, turn the oven to 500* and roast the chicken for an additional 15 minutes.
Take the chicken out of the oven.
If you’d like, use a meat thermometer. We’re looking for 150* for the breast and 155* for the thighs.

Permit the chicken to remain untouched for 20 minutes before serving.
During this time the bird’s interior temperature will rise by 5 degrees.

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Good Morning on this Tuesday, the Nineteenth of March.

Today we talked about starting a kitchen. A brilliantly simple Roast Chicken being the focal point.
We talked about the weather and calendar.
We posted a letter from Victor P regarding drinking a digestif.
And shared a basic recipe on Roast Chicken.
 
And now? Gotta go.

Che vuoi? Le pocketbook?

See you soon.

Your Love