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Mmm…Roast Chicken
Slathered the bird with a butter/EVOO garlic herb sauce, under the skin and on it. Roasted the bird on a bed of dressing. I thought it a fair idea but the chicken grease (and all that butter and oil) turned it into a greasy slop. I put the dressing under the broiler for a while to try to crisp the top some and that helped a little. I managed to eat a spoonful without gagging. The chicken was great!
Roasted some cauliflower while the chicken rested and made a lemony butter sauce (beurre blanc) that worked very well on the veggies and on the chicken.
Enjoy!
How About Now?
About being tired of turkey yet, I mean. This soup worked about as expected, the only thing I wish I had done different was adding the broccoli as early as I did. Should have waited but ran ran into the “simmer the soup for a long time” mindset. You know what I’m talking about-start it at a simmer and wander by now and again to stir it around a bit. Some veggies just can’t stand long simmers, and broccoli is right there at the top of that list. Bean, carrots, onions, potatoes? Sure you can overcook a carrot but an overdone carrot still looks pretty good. Overcooked broccoli? It’s just sad looking.
Used a couple of those parsnips I bought, never put any of those in a soup before. They held up fine but the very nature of the dish means that their particular flavor was lost-melded with the flavors of every other veggie in there: Carrots, potatoes, onions, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower. I spooned some parsnip chunks out individually just to see what I could tell, texture little different from the potatoes, I could tell it wasn’t a carrot by taste but that was about all.
I made the usual loaf of bread to go with the soup. Used the machine with the basic recipe for white bread but I added lard rather than the butter the recipe called for. I’m not going to make a judgement on the basis of a single loaf but I can say that this loaf turned out just fantastic. I wish I could say that every loaf I’ve made in this unit turned out just the same but that would not be true. There have been few outright failures and different loaves have risen differently. Not sure I can attribute any particular change to a certain thing like bad yeast, or too much flour, or some other technical item-when a loaf fails I generally shrug and make the best of what comes out. I will be making the next loaf with lard again.
Soup’s on!
Armenian Lamb Stew
What to do with leftover roast lamb and veggies is a real no brainer: Lamb stew! Mentioned lamb stew to Iasa this morning in a chat and she quickly shot back: Armenian lamb stew! OK, off to teh Google. Ah yes, many recipes for it. Since my lamb and veggies were already cooked, I skipped over the methods listed and looked at the ingredient list for signature spices. Seems cinnamon, allspice, and paprika were all mentioned, along with red wine and garlic. Had all of that so I just chopped and added and simmered everything for a while. One recipe I looked at mentioned fresh basil so in went some fresh basil. The aromas from the stew as it simmered sure would have had me patting Iasa on the back were she present. Yay Iasa!
Roasted Leg of Lamb
Went with the overnight marinade. Good call. I was hoping to use the reduced marinade for a dipping sauce/gravy but it proved to be too strong flavored for that. I did use some of it in the gravy made from the pan drippings. Made a beurre blanc sauce for the steamed veggies. Modified it from the classic recipe with a bit of lemon juice and some parsley. Basic sauce is diced shallots in a white wine reduction with butter slowly stirred in. I went with the shallots and wine and added some lemon juice, then some dried parsley.
The marinade was one cup white wine, one half cup orange juice, the juice and zest of one lemon, chopped fresh rosemary, a tablespoon of dried thyme, two tablespoons of olive oil, two tablespoons of dijon mustard, two tablespoons of honey, salt and pepper, and several cloves of minced garlic.
I started the lamb in a 450 oven for 30 minutes, then reduced the heat to 325 until the internal temps reached 145. Took another hour or so. You can go with whatever internal temp suits your taste. Mrs J abhors bloody meat, I’m more tolerant. 145-150 degrees will yield some med rare to medium well done, depending on where you slice it, and seemed a decent compromise for us. Lots of pics.
