How to make a roast chicken dinner

One of my friends at work is worrying as it’s her husband’s first Christmas without him family this year. She wants to make it special, but seeing as she is Jewish and can’t cook, she is really struggling.

So I wrote this to help her out and learn how to cook a roast chicken dinner, so I thought I would share. It’s actually easier than you think.

The key to a perfect roast dinner is... timing!

An average size chicken will take between 1.5 – 2 hours – check on the packet it should tell you, or ask butcher for the weight. As a general rule, calculate a cooking time of 20 minutes per pound of meat plus an additional 20 minutes at a temperature of 375ºF (190ºC). So a 5 lb chicken will need to be roasting in the oven for at least 1h 50 mins. A 5 lb bird will serve between 4 - 5 people.

Pre-heat oven to 375ºF (190ºC).

Make sure there is nothing inside the chicken – in the UK they sometimes leave the giblets in for people to cook with, but I’m not sure if they do that here or not. I had a friend once who forgot to check and roasted her chicken with a plastic packet of giblets in – how depressing would that be when you went to carve!!

Cut a large carrot (no need to peel) into quarters – i.e. in half long ways and across. Place the quarters flat surface down in the middle of a roasting pan (the metal dish with raised sides).

Cut an onion in half, again no need to peel. Put one half or both – dependent on the size of your bird – into the chicken cavity. Place the chicken on top of the quarters of carrots – these will raise-up the chicken slightly from the bottom of the pan. Drizzle olive oil over the chicken’s skin and rub over with your hands. Grind pepper and if you have some fresh time or tarragon (or both!) break up and sprinkle over the top – it will stick to the oil. Don’t put salt on it yet.

Include a cup of white wine (doesn’t matter what type) and a cup of water into the roasting dish. Break off a large piece of tinfoil to cover the chicken and roasting dish. Place into oven so it is in the middle of the oven – you might need to adjust the shelf. If it’s too high up it might burn.

**Look at the clock and make a note of the time.**

00.00 - The roast clock starts now!

00.30 - After 30 mins, take the chicken out flip back the tinfoil. Spoon (or a baster if you have one) the wine and water over the chicken, do this a few times. If the water looks like it’s disappearing put another half a cup in. Cover back over and put back into the oven.

Now for the roast spuds… some people think it only takes about 30 minutes to roast potatoes. They’re wrong. You want to allow the potatoes a good hour in the oven. Get good potatoes. At home we would use King Edwards or Maris Pipers, I don’t think you have them here so try and find an Idaho Russet.

I’m lazy when I cook, I can’t be bothered to peel and apparently the skin on potatoes is the best bit for you so I leave it on – but it’s personal choice. Once you’ve washed (and peeled if you prefer) your potatoes cut them into quarters and put into a pan for boiling. Boil until the potatoes start to “fall” i.e. they start looking a bit like they’re going to fall apart. If you leave the skin on, you can see the skin starting to fall away from the centre. It should take about 10 minutes, but don’t leave them too long or you’ll have mash! Drain the spuds and leave then in the colander with a teal towel over them.

01.00 – repeat spooning of the chicken – ooh err. Remove tinfoil, keep for later. Drizzle chicken skin with more olive oil and sprinkle with salt – best to use the rough salt. Put back into the oven.

Dependant on the size of the chicken - count backwards 30 minutes from the time you need to take the chicken out of the oven to work out when you need to put your spuds in. (Let’s base this recipe on a 5lb chicken).

I like to do my potatoes in olive oil, but if you want to go all out fancy for Christmas you can buy some goose fat. Either way you want to put the fat or oil (a nice lot to cover the bottom of the pan) into the pan and heat it in the oven for about 5 minutes. While that’s heating, pour the potatoes back into the pan they cooked in drizzle more olive oil over them. Add in some sprigs of Rosemary (preferable fresh) and some bashed garlic clothes – four or five. These again don’t need to be peeled, just bash them with the bottom of the knife or a rolling pin so you break the skin and they look a bit squashed. The secret of great roast spuds is to bash them up a bit. So put the lid on the pan and shake the spuds with the oil, rosemary, garlic and some salt and pepper around so they are coated in oil and the edges are roughed up.

01.20 - Take the pan out of the oven - be very careful as its hot fat. Place on a sturdy service – top of the oven is always good. Pour spuds into the pad – again careful it doesn’t splash. Use some tongs and turn the spuds in the hot oils so they are coated. Put the spuds into the oven

This is a good time to wash up any dishes you’ve accumulated so far so you don’t have such a big job at the end.

Now you can prepare your vegetables. I like carrots and broccoli. Peel and chop the carrots and put into a pan of water and leave with a lid on the stove. Break or cut the broccoli into small florets and put into a bowl on the side.

01.40 – use the tongs and turn the potatoes in the oil or fat. You want to make sure all the sides get crispy. Don’t worry if they haven’t started getting brown yet. If there are any spuds that look like they’re cooking more than others, just swap them over. Put back in the oven.

1.50 – take the chicken out. Push a knife or skewer into the chicken where the bones are i.e. in the joints of the leg and in the main breast. Pull the knife out and push against the chicken. The juice should run clear. If the juice looks slightly pink – don’t worry just pop back in for another 10 mins and repeat until juices run clear. When the chicken is ready to remove, move potatoes to centre of oven if they weren’t already.

Take a pan and tip the juice from the chicken roasting dish into it – you might need some help with this or if you have a baster you could use that. Once you have got all the juice, take the piece of tinfoil you removed earlier and cover the chicken leave on the side to rest. 

Add another cup of wine to the pan with the chicken juice and add a chicken stock cube. Reduce down (keep boiling until it gets thicker). Taste the gravy, add in some herbs or pepper if you think it needs something. Careful with adding salt as stock cubes are already salty. Use a whisk to help thicken. Keep your eye on it. Add a bit more wine if you need to.

2.00 - Check the potatoes. Turn them with the tongs as before.

You’ve got a bit of time to set the table. If you want to put the vegetables in dishes on the table, pop the dishes, gravy boat and your plates on top of the oven by the vent so they warm up.

If you’re having wine, open the bottle now.

2.10 - put the carrots on and ask the man of the house to come and carve the chicken (or leave until you are sat on the table if you want to be like the Griswolds.

2.15 – put the broccoli in the pan on top of the carrots – don’t worry if the water doesn’t cover them as they will steam. Put the gravy into the gravy boat. It’s good for the gravy to cool a little before you serve as it thickens. If it looks like there is a lot of fat from the chicken in the gravy, simply use a spoon or baster to skim the top and remove.

2.20 – check the carrots and stems of broccoli with a knife, it should glide in easily. Drain water and place into bowl. Take out potatoes and put into bowl serve with the bits of garlic as it looks nice.

2.21 – serve and enjoy!!

Skittle Burger Recipe

I came across this awesome new recipe for a burger made out of skittles. I'm off to buy a bag and try it...

Sheep Dogs – Free Gig In Dundas Square – 7th December

Popped out to Sears in my lunch break and stumbled across a free gig going on in Dundas Square, courtesy of Samsung to launch the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus android phone.

The Sheepdogs were playing, a Canadian rock band from Saskatoon. They were awesome, so I ended up staying a bit longer than I should have - but hey! Found out they’re playing this Friday and Saturday at Lee’s Palace, but it’s sold out… damn. I will be adding them to my Itunes playlist, you can check out their music on MySpace: www.myspace.com/thesheepdogs

Toronto is awesome for free live music, even if it’s freezing!

The easiest and best way to cook the perfect steak at home.

I’ve always struggled a bit at home with cooking steaks. I either overcook them or under cook them, which is really infuriating when you have spent quite a bit of money on a good cut of beef.

I have picked up quite a few tips along the way which I will share.

Firstly – get a good cut of meat. My favourite is sirloin as you get the fat for the flavour but it doesn’t run through the actual meat. Whatever steaks you choose you need to remember that different meats should be cooked differently. For example a rump is on a piece of the cow that moves so you can eat it rare, but fillet and sirloin are from a bit that doesn’t move so needs to be cooked at least medium rare to free the elasticity of the meat.

I don’t think that a steak should ever be cooked any higher than medium. It’s just a waste of a good meat… but I’m not going to get started on that debate right now.

OK so, here we go:

My brother told me always oil the steak, not the pan.

So use some good quality olive oil and drizzle over the steak. Get your hands involved and rub the oil all over.

Once it’s covered in the oil, season with some salt and pepper. I don’t think you need to put anything else on the meat, if you have a good steak, why hide the taste?!

Heat a pan (make sure it’s big enough to fit the steaks!) preferable a griddle, but frying pan is fine.

Leave on the heat until the pan starts to smoke slightly – measure you have your extractor fan on.

Add the oiled and seasoned steak to the pan. It will smoke and sizzle, but don’t worry. Leave it alone.

Use a timer or your watch and time 2 minutes.

Once 2 minutes is up use a spatula to flip it over and count another 2 minutes.

Once you have had two minutes on both sides remove the steak and place on a plate or board. Make sure the plate isn’t freezing cold, but room temperature is fine, or if you use a board make sure it has a ridge or lip to catch juices. Cover with tinfoil.

Use your timer again to rest for 10 minutes.

After the 10 minutes is up serve – how simple is that?!

Very.

If you are making a sauce, add any juices that have come out of the steak onto the plate before serving. But I like to serve mine with home made garlic butter.

If you want medium or rare add or minus a minute:

Rare                : I minute each side

Medium rare  : 2 minutes each side

Medium          : 3 minutes each side

How to Make Home Made Coleslaw

It’s so easy and you’ll never go back to shop bought. 

Take a cabbage – I like red best for the taste and also the colour. Thinly slice along the leaves so you get nice long thin strands.

Grate a carrot – you want equal amount carrot to cabbage so how much you grate, depends on how much you want to make!

I like to add a bit of onion for taste (but Dave hates it so I add it to my bit after). Grate if you can bear it, if not just chop up as fine as you can – for each carrot I would add a table spoon of onion. But it’s up to your taste so keep trying and adding more.

Add in a few heaped table spoons of mayonnaise to the bowl season with salt and pepper and mix. You want enough mayonnaise to coat the contents of the bowl. Have a taste and add more onion or seasoning if required. You can also add things like lemon juice or curry powder/paste to suit what you are eating it with.

I can’t stop eating it out the bowl once it’s made so I have to stick it back in the fridge once I’ve finished. It’s best to make as fresh as possible. You can keep it but not much longer than overnight as the mayonnaise goes a bit watery. But as it’s so easy to make you can just make it fresh each time.

You seriously can’t buy that rubbish from the shop again! Especially if you live in Canada – the coleslaw here is green and sweet. Yuk.

I’m sorry; no I’m sorry, no no I’m so sorry.

I just witnessed today a white van and a bicycle have a collision, nobody was hurt but the cyclist was knocked off his bike. I’ve seen similar scenarios in London, where the white van driver shout profanities at the cyclist while continuing to run over the bike, while the cyclist continues the exchange of language.

However much to my amazement, the driver got out of his van and rushed over to the cyclist who was getting up and dusting himself off. They both started apologizing and asking if the other one was alright for about five minutes. At the end of it, they were such mates if they hadn’t have been holding up traffic (which wasn’t beeping ferociously) they would have gone and watched a game together.

I was impressed people of Toronto, impressed. 

Why do toilet doors in Canada have MASSIVE gaps?!

One of the first things I’ve noticed since being in Canada is that all public toilets or “wash rooms” have massive gaps in the side of each door. So much that when you are sitting on the loo, people outside washing their hands, can see you in the mirror. It’s so off putting, especially at work. I don’t know about you but I want my privacy while I’m doing my business.

I’ve asked many people, and when I do they all agree it’s horrible and have no idea why it is so. It’s the same in America too. I’ve done a bit of research and the only reasoning I can find it that it’s either a. cheaper or b. for security reasons - so you can see if anyone’s up to no good.

Either way, I’m not a fan.