There are some dishes you just don't mess around with. I cook chicken in so many different ways but I only do roast chicken one way.
Before I came to France, I've never used an oven. Never. When I was living in HK, my apartments were never equipped with one. When I was living in NY, my apartment had one & I used it.....to store my wok. I never learnt how to use one cos I never needed to. I didn't bake & I cooked everything over a stove.
Boy do I have a story to tell you about this. So one time in NY, when X was with me, he was going to prepare a meal for me & my friends. I must have received a dozen calls from him at the office cos he couldn't find his way around my kitchen - does your oven work ? If you remove the wok & whatever I have stored in there, it should work. It doesn't. No time to call my super to figure out what's wrong. Do you have more than one pan ? No, but can my wok do ? Do you have dessert plates ? Oops. Needless to say, my rather Asian biased kitchen was not equipped to handle a French meal. But in spite of all that, he turned out the most amazing meal which had my hard-to-please NY friends asking for more (I think it was then I decided that I wasn't going to let this one go).
As you can see, one of the challenges in moving to France was to start cooking more Western meals & to start using the oven. I believe the first dish I did was roast chicken. From then till now, I don't think I've changed very much the way I do it.
So this morning, I decided it was a good excuse to take a walk outside to grab some sprigs of rosemary for the roast chicken. There's a rosemary plant at the entrance of our village, I'm not sure who it belongs to but I'm sure they won't mind if I were to help myself to a few sprigs.
It had just rained earlier & everything felt fresh. Funnily enough I'd never walked around the village by myself cos I'm usually with the Girl. I even remembered to take my camera with me cos I wanted to show my city friends what a rosemary plant look like. So voila.
Rosemary Roast Chicken
Rub chicken with salt, pepper & garlic salt. Drizzle a little olive oil over the pan. Place the chicken skin side down with a small slice of butter & a sprig of rosemary on top. Throw in a few cloves of whole garlic (with skin on). Roast in the oven 210/220C for about an hour until the skin is brown & crispy (half way through turn the chicken over).
Before I came to France, I've never used an oven. Never. When I was living in HK, my apartments were never equipped with one. When I was living in NY, my apartment had one & I used it.....to store my wok. I never learnt how to use one cos I never needed to. I didn't bake & I cooked everything over a stove.
Boy do I have a story to tell you about this. So one time in NY, when X was with me, he was going to prepare a meal for me & my friends. I must have received a dozen calls from him at the office cos he couldn't find his way around my kitchen - does your oven work ? If you remove the wok & whatever I have stored in there, it should work. It doesn't. No time to call my super to figure out what's wrong. Do you have more than one pan ? No, but can my wok do ? Do you have dessert plates ? Oops. Needless to say, my rather Asian biased kitchen was not equipped to handle a French meal. But in spite of all that, he turned out the most amazing meal which had my hard-to-please NY friends asking for more (I think it was then I decided that I wasn't going to let this one go).
As you can see, one of the challenges in moving to France was to start cooking more Western meals & to start using the oven. I believe the first dish I did was roast chicken. From then till now, I don't think I've changed very much the way I do it.
So this morning, I decided it was a good excuse to take a walk outside to grab some sprigs of rosemary for the roast chicken. There's a rosemary plant at the entrance of our village, I'm not sure who it belongs to but I'm sure they won't mind if I were to help myself to a few sprigs.It had just rained earlier & everything felt fresh. Funnily enough I'd never walked around the village by myself cos I'm usually with the Girl. I even remembered to take my camera with me cos I wanted to show my city friends what a rosemary plant look like. So voila.
Rosemary Roast Chicken
Rub chicken with salt, pepper & garlic salt. Drizzle a little olive oil over the pan. Place the chicken skin side down with a small slice of butter & a sprig of rosemary on top. Throw in a few cloves of whole garlic (with skin on). Roast in the oven 210/220C for about an hour until the skin is brown & crispy (half way through turn the chicken over).
2 comments:
You are well travelled indeed. Where else have you lived? I like rosemary, goes well with lamb as well.
That's about it. Sin, HK, NY & now here in France. Since I have the Girl, I hardly ever travel.
I think I may have to grow my own soon before somebody catches me red handed.
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