fine weather for ducks and chicken

It's wet and miserable outside. Such depressing weather. To cure the blues I prescribed myself some potatoes roasted in duck fat. The healing properties of duck fat roast potatoes are acknowledged even in The Bible:

I am the best fat in the world

He who roasts potatoes in me

will not walk in darkness,

but have the light of life

I chose a main based on how well it would get along with duck fat potatoes. Hence ...

25. Chicken casserole

Sitting here with the book on my knees, a few hours before I prepare dinner, I'm nervous about this dish. I like the idea. I'm just concerned--really--about cooking chicken at 230 degrees. Even if it's in a covered casserole dish. Even if it's been lubed up with flavoured butter. Even then. It's what the recipe calls for and I know I said I'd be faithful, but my experience and my readings of Blumenthal and McGee are demanding I lower the temperature. 230 degrees is just too hot.

The recipe otherwise looks good. You brown a chicken, season it and then add some sort of fat--the book says you could maybe use bacon, but I'm opting for a flavoured butter, as cheap supermarket-grade bacon wouldn't make a positive contribution to the dish. The chicken is cooked for a hour in a covered casserole dish and served with pearl onions.

I ended up lowering the temperature to 200 degrees. Into the casserole dish I also added the peeled pearl onions, which I figure will absorb all the grease and juices that leak out of the chicken, as well as some a broken-up bulb of garlic and a couple of torn-up sage leaves.

26. Preparation of flavoured butter

A basic technique that is endlessly useful. Normally, when I roast chicken and quail, I make a flavoured butter using whatever's around, whatever looks good. Some parsley, maybe. Garlic, too. Perhaps some thyme. Tonight I'll be using lemon juice, sage and garlic. As with all basic flavoured butters, the butter (unsalted, I might add) must be creamed first. My food processor died a nasty deaths a few months back and I haven't got around to replacing it yet so I'll be creaming the butter by hand.

I find it interesting that neither Larousse Gastronomique nor Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques tell their readers how to cream butter, either by hand or using a machine. It's one of those simple but essential techniques, so this is a really surprising oversight.

27. Roast potatoes

Larousse Gastronomique offers an interesting recipe for roast potatoes. I've always--always--cooked the potatoes in boiling water before putting them in the oven. I don't remember ever seeing anyone not boil the potatoes first. Larousse Gastronomique tells you to simply use small potatoes--or cut large ones small--and toss them in fat and roast them for '40 minutes or more'. To serve, they are garnished with fresh parsley.

I ended up roasting my potatoes for 60 minutes. I added some roughly chopped rosemary to the roasting dish as rosemary gets along with roast potatoes almost as well as duck fat. The potatoes were nice. I'm surprised at how successful they were given I didn't roast them. The skins were puffed up and crisp. The insides soft and fluffy.