an English dinner

We had an early start yesterday, helping to set up a stall for the local LibDems at the North Somerset Agricultural Show.

I knew we wouldn’t want to spend much time cooking when we got home, so I hurtled up to the local farm shop on Saturday and picked up a few things.

When we got back from the Show at about 3.30, we stuck the oven on to warm up, and removed a free range chickie! from the fridge (and removed the giblets from it>. I generally roast chicken in a Nigel Slater stylee, and this was no exception: cut a lemon in half, and put half inside the bird, squeeze the other half over it, and leave the juiceless bit in the pan. Put a cut bulb of garlic in there too, drizzle some olive oil over the breast, and season well. I generally put an old butter wrapper on top for the first hour – it keeps it moist, and also stopped the bird from browning too quickly.

As the cooking time came to an end, I put some Cornish new potatoes on to boil, with a bunch of English asparagus in the steamer on top. When the chicken went to rest, I poured most of the juices into a jug for later souping, then made a gravy with an organic chicken stock cube, some cornflour and water, a splash of rice wine, and some vegetable water.

Dished it up, ladled (admittedly French) butter over the veg, consumed. Perfect, simple, food.

Followed with a plum crumble, recipe to follow shortly.

Originally posted on Dreamwidth, via Reactive Cooking.