Real Food

Real Food by Nigel Slater is a wonderful book, split into chapters relating to Nigel’s favourite foods: potatoes, chicken, sausages, garlic, bread, Cheese, ice-cream and chocolate. I think I find this book so enjoyable because his favourite foods echo my ideas of food heaven too.

The book is full of glossy photo’s which are inspirational within themselves, even before reading the excellent recipes and general chatter, Nigel has an ability to make you feel he is there with you in the kitchen, which is utterly marvelous.However, despite its wonders Real Food is very rarely cooked from here, I mainly use it for ideas and comfort reading.

Tonight was the exception; I decided to cook Chicken with Roast Onion & Thyme Gravy which I served with roasted carrots, roast onions and mashed potatoes. It turned out to be a very simple but satisfying dinner. I mean after all as Nigel points out there is no better sound in the kitchen than the gentle crackle of a chicken roasting, it is so full of promise. It really is the skin that sets a good roast chicken above a mediocre one; crisp, golden and glistening, utter perfection.

I used a locally sourced organic free range chicken, it’s true to say the more you pay the better the bird, plump breasted, moist and incredibly tasty.  

While I’m talking about chicken, I urge you to please scroll down this webpage and click on the Chicken Out logo and state your dissatisfaction with intensively reared chicken.

In keeping with Nigel’s recommendation I cooked mashed potato to serve with the chicken – fluffy and creamy.  I ask you could anything be more soothing?

Alternatively you could serve Nigella Lawson’s Sticky Garlic Potatoes, from Feast: Food That Celebrates Life(Nigella Lawson) which you be fabulous with this too, although maybe not so cosy.

The carrots and onions, crisp from the oven, yet chewy because of the chicken juices that were allowed to drip onto the during the cooking process added another dimension to the meal, not entirely necessary but very nice all the same.

I’m not much of a gravy fan but this was light, fresh and tasty.  

A definite winner.  

The Recipe (Serves 4): 

• 1.5-2kg free range chicken
• 75g butter
• 4 medium onions, peeled 
• (I used 4 medium carrots, peeled and cut into chunks as well)
• 4 plump cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
• the leaves of 6 bushy sprigs of thyme
• 3 bay leaves
• 250ml chicken stock

1. Preheat the oven to 230′c or the equivalent.
2. Rub the chicken inside and out with half the butter and season with black pepper and a little salt.
3. Cut the onions in half and then cut each half into about six segments.
4. Warm the remaining butter in a roasting tin for a couple of minutes, then add the onions (I added the carrots here too), and toss with the garlic, thyme and bay.
5. Place the chicken on top of the onions and return to the oven for fifteen minutes.
6. Turn down the heat to 190′c or the equivalent and continue roasting for forty five minutes or until the juices run clear, when the flesh is pierced with the point of a knife.
7. Lift the bird from the tray and leave in a warm place to rest.  Remove the vegetables from the tray and leave in the oven wrapped in foil until needed.
8. Pour off the fat from the tin and place over a moderate heat, add the chicken stock.
9. Bring to the boil, check for seasoning and allow to simmer for ten minutes whilst you carve the chicken.
10. Spoon the gravy over the chicken and serve.

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