It's time to revive another recessionary tradition: the Sunday roast
It's the simple pleasures we return to in times of adversity. Ask anyone. Whether a four-star chef or unassuming farmhand, chances are a roast chicken is already high on their list of favourite dinners. It's also a blank canvas-the United Church of the food world-willingly accepting of almost any flavour you apply to it. But perhaps most important now is the fact that a simply prepared roast-just like June Cleaver served-is easily spun into a week of lunches far superior to anything you might find in the food court.
Whole chickens are still one of the cheapest, and tastiest, proteins on the market. Poultry on the bone-and under crisp, salted skin-always tastes better than those pallid boneless breasts. (How we ever got into that mess of eating pricey boneless meat, I'll never understand.) I was reminded of this recently in conversation with Fatos Pristine, the ebullient patriarch of Toronto's Cheese Boutique. Pristine remembers the days when his mother's roast chicken would easily feed eight or 10 guests at the dinner table. That's stretching a dollar. It makes the suggestion (given in many cookbooks these days) that a roast chicken should feed four people sound like profligacy, indeed.
DAY 1
Roast Chicken 1 5 lb (2.25 kg) organic chicken
1 lemon, quartered
1 small onion, quartered
2 sprigs thyme
1 tsp vegetable oil
1 tsp sea salt
Salt and pepper
-Salt and pepper the cavity of the chicken and stuff with lemon, onion and thyme. Place chicken on a rack in a roasting pan, breast-side up. Tie legs together with kitchen string. Rub skin with oil and sea salt. In a preheated oven, roast chicken for 15 minutes at 450 F. Reduce to 375 F and roast 65 minutes more or until juices run clear.
DAY 2
Chicken salad
Mix together equal parts sweet fruit chutney and thick, creamy yogurt. Stir in pieces of chicken meat. Sandwich the mixture between two slices of your best sourdough bread with a few leaves of watercress.
DAY 3
Chicken fajitas
Fry up wedges of onion and thick strips of red pepper in a little olive oil. Add chicken meat just long enough to take off the refrigerator chill. Roll up in tortillas with salsa, grated cheddar, coriander leaves and avocado wedges.
DAY 4
Pot pie
Make a béchamel sauce and add any meat you have left, as well as frozen peas, small pieces of carrot, celery and some thyme. Pour into an ovenproof dish and top with a premade puff pastry (preferably made with butter). Bake at 400 F for 35 minutes.
DAY 5
Chicken soup
No meat left? No problem.
Cover the chicken carcass with water. Add any necks or backbones hiding in the depths of your freezer. Simmer one to two hours until the last of the meat falls off the bones. Strain and return to a simmer. Add shiitake mushrooms, grated ginger, snow peas, tofu, carrots and spring onions.
