Inversion layer*
Mar. 3rd, 2013 06:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
desperanceThis is a little unexpected, but hey. I'll take it. All my cooking life I've regarded myself - and rightly - as someone who doesn't really roast meat very well. Not that it's complex or particularly challenging except in matters of timing, but it does take practice to get it right, and I never really got the practice. A roast is generally impractical for one, and insufficiently exciting - I always felt - for a dinner party; so I seldom did it, and when I did it was stressy and tended not to work out very well.
Then I came here. Where I'm cooking nightly for twice as many as before, and at least once a week I'm feeding a group on a casual basis where I don't really have to show off; and apparently at some point in the last year things have flipped over to the point where I'm doing roast chicken tonight because I don't feel very well and it's easy and unstressful and I'm hoping to enjoy it. I did go in to apologise to Karen and make sure she wouldn't be bored, but she gave me to understand that that was not the case, so.
Not that I do it the same every time, mind. I'm doing two tonight, so there'll be plenty of leftover chicken for pie or whatever tomorrow, when the yogis come; so I have to use the big pan rather than the cast iron skillet of my joy (I had never thought of roasting a chicken in a skillet! but it's magic, it works to reinforce the pan's seasoning at the same time as preserving more of the bird's juices than a broad tray does), so I've strewn some elderly onions and carrots across the base with a wineglass of water, which will all contribute to the flavour of the gravy. Because really, there may be chicken and potatoes and sprouts, but it's really all about the gravy. We do all know that, right...?
*Heh. D'you see what I did there? Anyone? Bueller? Anyone...?
Then I came here. Where I'm cooking nightly for twice as many as before, and at least once a week I'm feeding a group on a casual basis where I don't really have to show off; and apparently at some point in the last year things have flipped over to the point where I'm doing roast chicken tonight because I don't feel very well and it's easy and unstressful and I'm hoping to enjoy it. I did go in to apologise to Karen and make sure she wouldn't be bored, but she gave me to understand that that was not the case, so.
Not that I do it the same every time, mind. I'm doing two tonight, so there'll be plenty of leftover chicken for pie or whatever tomorrow, when the yogis come; so I have to use the big pan rather than the cast iron skillet of my joy (I had never thought of roasting a chicken in a skillet! but it's magic, it works to reinforce the pan's seasoning at the same time as preserving more of the bird's juices than a broad tray does), so I've strewn some elderly onions and carrots across the base with a wineglass of water, which will all contribute to the flavour of the gravy. Because really, there may be chicken and potatoes and sprouts, but it's really all about the gravy. We do all know that, right...?
*Heh. D'you see what I did there? Anyone? Bueller? Anyone...?