Oops! I did it again

18 March 2010 by pat.

Bought an organic chicken, and put it breast side up in a roasting pan, decorated with anchovies and coarsely ground black pepper. I gave it an initial spritz of olive oil, and after that, just basted it with juices every fifteen minutes. It was almost 4 pounds: that’s 20 mins/pound plus 20 mins., was 1 hour 40 minutes. It was awesome. I had problems stopping myself from eating.

Something I did with some of the rendered chicken fat: I had a bunch of small button mushrooms (around 15) that had been in a paper bag in the fridge for a couple of weeks. I truly advocate using paper bags for mushrooms: if you don’t eat them immediately, they dry — they don’t turn slimy, they don’t get mouldy. There’s a use for mushrooms that are a bit dry — they’re really great when you cook them! There is less moisture that has to be removed by the cooking process. So tonight I cleaned the ’shrooms, removed the bottoms of the stems, and cut the little ones in half and the larger ones in quarters.  Took a couple of basters worth of liquids from the cooking chicken and put them in a small cast iron pan, brought it up to temperature, then added the mushrooms for 6 minutes. Oh gawd, they were good. Finished them with a little cream, and served on a toasted English muffin.

Saved the rest of the chicken drippings in a container in the fridge so I can repeat the experience, but will try more and different ’shrooms next time: gotta go to the St. Lawrence Mkt and check out what they’ve got, and try cooking them up.

I’m fancying a mushroom paté made of meaty mushrooms with some butter and well cooked eggplant. I may give it a try in the near future!

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