Once again, I was walking around the kitchen where I work, the smell from the wood burning oven againg and again draws me closer to it and my brain immediately sends signals to my stomach, chefs are all over the place preparing great food, doing prep work, butchering, cleaning vegetables, fileting fish, seafood, live lobsters are cooked and crabs are picked, meat is hanging in the fridges, bresaola is hanging to dry, all home made, … and then, again and again I have to stop when I see Theo or Gillian preparing what I would say is some of the best food in town. It is every time an ultimate inspiration to watch them smoothly working like an orchestra, in a perfect swan lake ballet choreography, see the glow in the eyes while they prepare a new delicacy. The best thing about it, they all always have time to explain, show and share how to and what is best. Thanks. One chat and walk is as inspiring as reading 1000 cookbooks.
Chicken with garlic, parsley, pagnotta bread, lentils, rucola…this dish I was told, is originally from Wolfgang Puck’s Spago in California. It is a simple, juicy and tasty, elegant and rustic way to roast a chicken. Whether one is a pro or hobby cook, it is just mind buggling to watch them and chat about the food. The garlic and parsley infuses a mild interesting flavor to the chicken.
The chicken:
1 whole free range chicken
Garlic cloves, boiled (to take some of the sharpness)
Bunch of flat parsley
Olive oil
Pagnotta bread (or Poilaine if you cant get the Pagnotta which you most likely cant get)
Prep the chicken as if you wanted to grill, cut out the bottom and lay flat, remove bones. Chop garlic with parsley. Stuff into all open spaces. Sear the seasoned chicken in a pan, roast in the oven with the bread on top, about 15 – 20 minutes at 160 Celsius, slowly. Don’t cook the hell out of the tender juicy animal or it will go dry.
For the lentils:
Lentils de Puy
Chili
Sage
Garlic
Red wine vinegar Olive oil
Cook the lentils slowly in water with a bunch of sage, a pierced chili, garlic clove, salt. Strain when cooked, leave some of the water, add olive oil, salt, pepper to taste, vinegar. before serving, remove garlic, chili, sage.
Finishing it off:
Cut the chicken in large pieces, same with the bread. Put on top of the lukewarm lentils, some rucola leaves, chicken, bread, drizzle with the juice and some olive oil. Done. Enjoy.
(to all ingredients I don’t use any words as “best extra virgin olive oil” and other adjectives as this is a given if you want to prepare good food, don’t go for the Tesco Chickens and alikes…buy free range, from the local butcher, good vegetables and so on, it’s worth it worth every fucking penny spent)
