Roast Chicken With Whole Baked Tomatoes And Chicken Breast With Paprika

Poulet Rôti With Tomates Grillées Au Four And Suprêmes de Volaille Archiduc

Last week had three recipes from "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" but none from 1000 recipes. Actually I've had the idea to make scalloped chicory on Saturday, but my mum decided it was her time to cook. So I only had Thursday and Sunday.

Thursday was 'roast chicken with whole baked tomatoes' and potatoes. I know, I'm saying this quite a lot, but I've never made a whole chicken! Chicken breast and thighs ... but a whole chicken?! They look like babies!
I really had some problems with handling the looks of this chicken. First of all, I bought it for like maybe 3.50 Dollars (2,99 Euro) and everything was fine, because it looked not scary at all, very well packaged and frozen as it was. But then it's defrosting, you remove the plastic wrap and there it is ... a little creature, with human like skin and arms and legs and I felt very terrible.
Now that I think about it, I've made a whole chicken once with a former friend. We even called Bob back then... what were we thinking?!
So I was thinking all about little Bob while rubbing the chicken from the outside AND the inside with salt and butter. Then came the sewing. Julia shows several simple pictures of how to truss a chicken and everything looks so easy. Well, it's not. Or maybe it was just me, handling a way to small needle and white twine, which got bloody in an instant.

Julia says: "While it does not require years of training to produce a juicy, brown, buttery, crisp-skinned, heavenly bird, it does entail such a greed for perfection that one is under compulsion to hover over the bird, listen to it, above all see that it is continually basted, and that it is done just to the proper turn."
What can I say? I mean anything else but "HELLOOOO-HO?!" It might not need years of training to make a good chicken, but maybe at least one year?! My chicken wasn't brown or juicy or crisp-skinned or anything else but sad!

The tomatoes in contrast were great and I'll be having them again, soon! The sauce was great, too. The pictures sucks...

Sunday was "Chicken Breat With Paprika and Onions". At least sort of...
We had lunch at my grandma's and she had turkey escalopes, which usually turn out really dry. Perfect grandchild, that I am, I offered her help and decided to make Suprêmes de Volaille Archiduc with turkey instead. I have to say, it didn't look very nicely, but the taste was great! Sadly I have no pictures of it, because I forget to bring my camera.

This week I'll be making Côtes de Porc Poêlées!

Salade Liègoise and Kempen Powerbroth

Saturday, I've made the first meals from 1000 recipes and it started with Belgian Salade Liègoise and Kempen Powerbroth ... well I'm sure bouillon is the proper term, but powerbroth is the literal translation from German.
So, what gives you the power from the broth ... I have no idea! It consists of like 1 ton of white beans ... and mainly that. You put in some extra leek, bacon (you need Ardennes bacon, but try to find that), Croûtons and that's it. Simple, fast and quite dull. I couldn't eat it up...

The salat was very interesting, I've never had cold potatoes in one. Well of course, I'm German and we love potatoe salat, but there needs to be some mayonnaise or yoghurt or vinegar and oil in it. I actually think for Germans having cold potatoes is like running someone over...

It wasn't that bad actually, but I also couldn't eat it up, too. Well, I was also quite ill and happy to just eat something!

Beans, potatoes and yeah ... bacon.

Tomorrow "Bifteck Sauté Au Beurre" with "Petits Pois Frais à l'Anglaise" and "Purée De Pommes De Terre à l'Ail".

Potage Parmentier à la Julia Child

I know I've been quiet for some days now altough I've promised to started cooking. Well I did, but I got sick on Friday, so I've decided to stay in bed and not to blog.
Today I'm still a little dizzy, but way better so I can tell you about my recipes.

Last week, I made Potage Parmentier from Julia Child's book and Salade Liègeoise & Kempener Soup with White Beans from 1000 recipes. I've just started to translate all the 1000 recipes titles into their real names, but it's just impossible, so you gotta live with my own translations!

Oh by the way, I've looked through the whole 1000 recipes (which actually more than 2000 pages) and I've realized, that I yes! already made 21 out of it... so I only have 979 to go which is going to be so easy, I'm not feeling like I have to cry right now kick that damn book in the next corner of my aparment, where I'll find it in another 10 years.
And just one thing .... there is one recipe I WON'T DO! Tripe. I'm sorry, they're disgusting, they look exactley like what they are and after cooking it smells like a tannery. I can't, I won't, I'm sorry.

So, let me try to remember the Potage Parmentier, which is just a show off word for potatoe soup with leek.

Leek and potato soup smells good, tastes good, and is simplicity itself to make.

That said I had no doubt I would totally rock this dish. Everything went really smooth, I cut tons of potatoes and leek and I had 2 carrots left, they went to carrot heaven as well. Then the recipe told me I needed a 3- to 4-quart saucepan or pressure cooker. You know, I'm German, we don't calculate in quarts. So I took my biggest pot and thought it was alright. It was ... stirring was a no-no and moving the pot would made a mess, that would have send me to carrot heaven, but the soup was cooking!
Luckily that was all to do and after I've mashed the whole thing with a wooden hammer (that I, clever I am, stuck in a plastic bag before) it was ready to go.

I have to say, it's really delicious, but maybe, just maybe ... it's more of an entrée than an whole meal. Just my idea, everyone else loved it!

The 1000 recipes meals will be tomorrow. :)