Category: Recipes,Chicken | Post by: Andrea Wong
They say that a change is as good as a holiday. Well last week Mr H and I had a change and went on holiday. We still had to work, cook, clean and put out the rubbish. But it still felt like a holiday even though we were only a 15 minute drive from home, where the floors were getting polished. It was a break from the fumes, dust, rubble and cooking on top of the washing machine. We were house (and pet) sitting for friends for a week and it felt so good, I affectionately called it our Westmere holiday home.
It's amazing how relaxed I felt, even though I was living in someone else's house - it helps that it is a nice house! They didn't have gib board scattered about, nor did they have boxes of things piled up in the sitting room.
Instead they have a stylish, clean house with a nice view of the Sky Tower from the front door. And they have a fully functioning kitchen! Yahoo! We had to feed Monty and Poppy but they were great company and surprisingly, I wasn't allergic to Poppy (the cat). Our Westmere holiday house was conveniently located in between the famous Westmere Butcher and West Lynn shops (think Jafa, Savour & Devour, Gypsy Tea Room) - it truly felt like we were in another city... a bit like inner-suburban Melbourne, we decided.
I had grand plans of spending my evenings cooking up a storm, taking advantage of all the bench space and the 5-burner gas stove and big oven. I also imagined myself spending a few nights out in the cafes of Grey Lynn and still have lots of time left to relax on their couch watching TV with Mr H. Alas, in my dreams I had all the time in the world but in reality, it wasn't to be. A week in our Westmere holiday home just wasn't enough!
Being a good foodie, I brought a cookbook with me: Maze, the cookbook by Jason Atherton. I thought that the recipes in this book would be beyond my ability and/or patience, seeing that Jason worked with the likes of Ferran Adrià of El Bulli. I had earmarked one recipe that sounded d'lish and not too complicated, despite Jason's impressive career history.
Lemon and garlic roasted chicken with Moroccan spices - sounded and looked d'lish. And what was more surprising, was that I had all of the ingredients for this dish. This recipe is perfect for this time of the year, when lemons are in plentiful supply. The chicken is spicy (but not hot-spicy) and a bit sweet. Perhaps the 1kg of sugar in the stock has something to do with the sweetness! One kilogram of sugar, I almost fell over when I first read the recipe!
Using my whanau as guinea pigs, I invited them over and tried it out. And it was good... great in fact! This recipe does have quite a few steps but they aren't difficult steps. You could probably do up to the end of the poaching steps in advance and the rest when you are ready to eat, if you wanted to split the cooking process up.
I love the way this simple looking dish has several layers of flavour: the sweet moistness that is locked in by the poaching, then the layer of spices on top, then the infused butter and caramel flavours that come through from the pan cooking and finally, a little crispiness from being in the oven.
Serve a couple of pieces per person - along with a piece of the sticky, caramelly lemon and soft, sweet garlic. Yum!
I've made this one more time so far, using the stock again but I want to make this again soon, I just need to raid someone's lemon tree... my brother-in-law has one, I wonder if he'll mind?
Our Westmere holiday is over but the relaxing and cooking-filled memories remain. Thanks to Monty and Poppy for letting us stay and for being such great company.
Lemon and garlic roasted chicken with Moroccan spices
from Maze, the cookbook by Jason Atherton
Serves 4
Ingredients
Lemon stock syrup
5 lemons, quartered
juice of 2 large lemons
1kg caster sugar
sea salt and black pepper
2 litres water
few thyme sprigs
few rosemary sprigs
1 bay leaf
1 head of garlic, halved horizontally
Chicken
1 whole chicken (about 1.8kg) or 1.8kg of chicken pieces
1 Tbsp harissa paste (I used Orcona's harissa paste)
1 tsp ras el hanout (I used Alexandra's ras el hanout)
2 Tbsp olive oil
30g unsalted butter
2 cinnamon sticks
1 thyme sprig
Directions
- Joint the chicken into 8 pieces
- Put all of ingredients for the lemon stock into a stock pot and boil. Once boiling, turn it down to a simmer
- Put the chicken pieces (but not the chicken breast) into the simmering stock. Submerge the chicken pieces and poach for 10 minutes.
- Add the chicken breast pieces and poach gently for a further 12-15 minutes. Turn the heat off and leave the chicken in the stock to cool
- Preheat the oven to 200ºC. Take the chicken out of the stock with a slotted spoon. Dry with paper towels
- Spread the harissa paste over the chicken pieces and sprinkle with the ras en hanout and a bit of salt and pepper
- Heat the olive oil and butter over a medium heat, in an oven proof pan. Add cinnamon sticks, thyme and 3-4 lemon pieces and the garlic halves from the stock and fry until the lemons and garlic are sticky and slightly caramelised around the edges
- Add the chicken pieces fry for 4-5 minutes, spooning the liquid over the chicken until golden brown
- Put the pan in the oven and roast for 5 minutes until the chicken is firm and just cooked through
- Take out of the oven and leave to rest for a few minutes before serving
Serve with boiled potatoes and veges.
Tip: the stock can be used one more time, after that it can become bitter. I stored the lemons separately from the stock, which should have reduced the bitterness from the pith leaching into the stock.
