16 May 2012

Important Lesson #2 - How not to cook a chicken. 

Do not start with a semi-frozen 3kg beast of a thing and expect that the regular cooking time applies.  The recipe said 'put in a moderate oven for approx 1hr 30minutes'. My chicken (or Gigantor, as I christened him) had 3hrs 5mins snoozing in 200 degree oven and still some parts were dubiously pink (or what I like to call 'salmonella coloured'). I eventually got to carve the creature (with a chainsaw) by which time everything I had made to accompany it was in a sorry state - the potatoes had spent so long in the oven keeping warm they were like rosemary scented bags of flour and the gravy had had a fight with itself and had rudely separated into layers of fat and stock. Damn you Gigantor!!

The morning's triumph were some biscuits I had chosen to make to fill the time while Gigantor was lazily marinating in his own juices. I decided on cinnamon fork-biscuits (so called because you press a fork into them to create a pattern before baking) with a chocolate butter icing to sandwich them together. Once again, I summoned my inner octogenarian to decorate the plate. Brightly coloured plate? Check. Doily? Check. Edible flowers? Check. Faint smell of camphor? Thankfully no, but it would have undoubtedly added to the authenticity. By coincidence, just as I had perched the last biscuit on top of the biscuit mountain the head of the school sauntered past, bit one, declared they were delicious, and voila ... my day was made. Plumpcious was a very happy little cook. In fact, even as I write this there is a second batch in the oven because I decided to make some especially for The Editor. Sadly there are no doilies in our cottage so he is just eating them off the cooling rack - how barbaric!! (And is now covered in delicious crumbs. Om nom nom - Ed.) 

Today we learnt to cook: French onion soup with gruyere toasts, Vietnamese chicken salad, Chilaquiles Verdes o Rojos (essentially a very fancy Mexican way to say 'nachos'), Crunchy chicken and mushroom filos, Chicken and Mushroom Pie with herb mash (there is a lot of extra chicken in the kitchen after today), Spring green salad with vino cotto dressing (Maggie Beer's vino cotto), Pam's chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream icing (a delicious heart attack), Coffee cake, Aunt Florence's orange cake, Lemon curd cake, Chocolate twirls, Broad beans, and we learnt how to cure port to make your own bacon. 

Tomorrow is a theory day where we will be learning about starting our own businesses. On Friday, I am making 'Aunt Florence's orange cake'. There is a competition in the school as to who can decorate the best cake ... and inspired by my biscuit success, I am feeling a little competitive.

P.S. Although the food at school is utterly delicious, sometimes I just crave something simple and familiar.  For that I reason, I could not have been more delighted when I arrived home after pilates this evening and found that a package had arrived from Australia with one of my favourite munchables.  Thanks Mum xx