More bachelor cooking today.
Get a free-range roasting chicken. Wash, dry. Rip out the kidneys because they skeeve me out. Wash, dry again.
Chop an onion and a stick of celery.
Wash some thyme and sage.
Preheat oven to 350.
Cut off a couple good-sized pats of cultured butter. Shove some butter and thyme under the skin of the breast. Melt the rest of the butter in the roasting pan.
Put the celery and some onion in the cavity along with the sage and the rest of the thyme. Truss.
Put the chicken in the roasting pan. Rub some excess butter on the top.
Realize that I forgot to season the chicken. Too lazy to un-truss, so I just sprinkle a bunch of kosher salt over the chicken.
Put the chicken in the oven for a little more than half an hour.
While the bird is cooking, roughly chop 3 each carrots, parsnips, and beets. Add the rest of the onion. Toss with grapeseed oil and kosher salt, dump in another roasting pan, shove in oven.
When the oven timer goes off, turn up the oven temperature to 450 and set the timer for another 25 minutes. Stir the vegetables.
Halve a double handful of kumquats. Dump in a pot with a little water (enough to reach the top of the fruit). Add some sugar (I didn’t measure, but probably somewhere around 6-8 heaping teaspoons). Set on medium heat till the fruit softens and the water cooks out enough to form a syrup.
When the oven timer goes off again, take out the chicken. Check for doneness. Discover that it ain’t done yet. Un-truss and cut between the thighs and body. Turn down the oven to 350, take out the veggies, and put the chicken back in for another 15 minutes.
Remove the chicken from the oven and let rest for another 15 minutes.
Serve with the roasted veggies and the stewed kumquats (the sweet/sour/bitter flavor goes nicely with the chicken).
Wine: Alexandria from the La Frenz winery. (I actually grabbed the wrong bottle–I meant to get a bottle of chard. The Alexandria is a little sweet & fruity, but works okay.)