Serve this masterpiece with an old fashioned onion gravy, roast potatoes and courgette ribbons. Start the meal with a classy salad and finish with a glamorous looking, but dead easy to make, unbaked soufflé!
roast chicken dinner
Cos Lettuce with Blue Cheese and Pecans
Crispy Skinned Roast Chicken and Onion Gravy ON VIDEO !
Mini Roast Potatoes with Cumin
Baby Marrow Ribbons with Cherry Tomatoes
Lemon Cheesecake Soufflé served with Spiced Gooseberries ON VIDEO !
Cos lettuce is often overlooked as a health food. It is packed with vitamins A, K and C and is an excellent source of fibre. Combined with blue cheese and nuts it makes for an easy, delicious starter.
2 cos lettuces
½ cup (125 ml) Ina Paarman's Blue Cheese Dressing
½ cup (± 60 g) crumbed blue cheese
½ cup (50 g) pecan nuts
Divide washed and trimmed leaves in half lengthways Arrange on a platter. Drizzle with dressing and sprinkle with cheese. Top with nuts. Pass at the table.
VARIATION:
Add halved, fresh pears when in season.
My mother used to rub the skin on roast pork with a mixture of seasoning and baking powder to make it crispy. I tried a variation of this method on chicken with excellent results. One gets an even crispier skin and leaner meat if you loosen the skin over the breast and thighs.
1 fresh chicken
Ina Paarman's Rosemary & Olive Seasoning
1 T (15 ml) butter
1 small lemon, cut in quarters
4 sprigs of fresh rosemary or thyme
1 t (5 ml) baking powder
1 t (5 ml) corn flour (maizena)
1 onion, cut into quarters
4 sprigs of fresh rosemary or thyme
2 T (30 ml) Ina Paarman's Brown Onion Soup & Gravy Powder
1 cup (250 ml) water
Preheat oven to 200°C and adjust oven rack to the lowest position. Make two short slits on either side of the backbone with a sharp knife to serve as vents for the fat to drain out while the chicken is roasting. Use your fingers or the bowl of a wooden spoon to loosen the skin over the breasts and thighs. Poke a few holes in the skin with a sharp pointed knife or skewer. Season under the skin with Rosemary & Olive Seasoning and spread the butter over the breast meat.
Mix 3 t (15 ml) of the Rosemary & Olive Seasoning, baking powder and corn flour together and rub it well into the skin of the bird.
Place the lemon quarters and fresh rosemary into the cavity of the bird. Tie the two drumsticks together with string and tuck the wing tips underneath the chicken. Place the bird on a rack over a roasting pan, breast down. Do not cover! Roast uncovered for 30 minutes. No need to baste.
Turn the chicken so the breast faces upwards. Put the onion in the pan under the rack so it cooks in the chicken juices. Add potatoes to chicken on the rack. Roast for a further 30-40 minutes. To test for doneness: pierce deep into the thickest part of the thigh. If the juices run clear, the chicken is done, otherwise give it another 15 minutes. Transfer the bird to a carving board and leave for 10 minutes, lightly tented with foil, to settle the juices before carving.
Make the gravy with the pan juices. Blot off the excess fat with absorbent kitchen paper or tilt the pan and spoon the fat off. Stir the Brown Gravy Powder into the pan juices, add 1 cup of water and bring the gravy to the boil on top of the stove. Strain out the onion if you prefer a smooth gravy. Taste for seasoning. Serve chicken with gravy, roast potatoes and seasonal vegetables of your choice.
CHEF'S TIP:
Once the chicken has been turned brush the skin with a little oil or chicken fat.
Serves 4-5
Select even sized biggish new potatoes. Remember that roast potatoes are best, served straight from the oven.
± 10 (750 g) small potatoes, peeled
¼ cup (60 ml) canola oil
2 t (10 ml) Ina Paarman's Garlic & Herb Seasoning
½ t (2.5 ml) of turmeric (for an attractive golden colour)
2 t (10 ml) of ground cumin
Boil the potatoes for 10 minutes in lightly salted water and drain. Score potatoes down the length with a fork to fluff up the outside. Mix the oil, Garlic & Herb Seasoning, turmeric and cumin. Toss potatoes in this mixture. Roast for about 35 minutes on top of the rack, spaced around the chicken, until golden brown and crispy.
IF PRE-PREPARING:
The potatoes can be prepared and marinated in the oil in the morning or even the day before but they must be roasted and served just before dinner is served.
Serves 6 - 8
Baby marrow becomes much more flavourful, if sliced into flat ribbons and briefly sauteéd.
olive oil
Ina Paarman's Green Onion Seasoning
6-8 (one punnet) baby marrows, sliced lengthways into long thin strips on a vegetable slicer or with a potato peeler
1 x 200 g punnet cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
Sauté the marrow strips in 2 T (30 ml) of oil until bright green and just beginning to soften. Season with Green Onion Seasoning. Spoon into a serving dish. Sauté the halved cherry tomatoes in another 1 T (15 ml) of oil for about 2 minutes until just beginning to soften. Season with Green Onion Seasoning and spoon over the marrows. Serve warm.
A glamorous way to present and dress up our cheesecake.
COLD UNBAKED SOUFFLÉ 2 t (10 ml) grated lemon rind
3 T (45 ml) lemon juice
1 cup (250 ml) cold water
1 x 250 g Ina Paarman's Lemon Cheesecake Mix
1 cup (250 ml) fresh cream
¼ cup (60 ml) pecan nuts, finely chopped
Peg a paper collar tightly around 2 x 9 cm soufflé dishes or use 6 very small ramekins with straight sides. Wash the lemon and grate off the rind. Squeeze the juice to measure 3 T. Measure the water into a medium sized mixing bowl. Add the rind and juice. Sprinkle the Cheesecake Mix over the water and beat until well blended.
In a smaller mixing bowl, whip the cream until soft peak stage. Using the same beaters, whip the cheesecake mixture again for 1 minute until smooth. Gently fold the whipped cream into the cheesecake mixture using a spatula or metal spoon and stir until evenly blended.
Pour the mixture into the prepared soufflé dishes, right over the edge so that it stands up supported by the collar around the dish. Bang the dish down hard on the work surface to level the dessert. Refrigerate overnight to firm. Before serving, carefully peel the collar away from the 'stand-up' part of the soufflé.
Spread a strip of the chopped nuts on paper and carefully roll the stand-up Soufflé in the nuts to coat the 'stand-up' with nuts. Serve with Spiced Gooseberries, when in season, or any other fresh fruit of your choice.
SPICED GOOSEBERRIES ½ cup (125 ml) water
¼ cup (60 ml) sugar
3 cloves
½ vanilla bean or ½ cinnamon stick
3 peppercorns
200 g (1 punnet) gooseberries
As Roast Chicken has both white and dark meat one needs a wine which will compliment any cut of the chicken. The Groot Constantia Gouverneurs Chardonnay '07 ( If you can find '05 or '06 even better !) The toasted barrels used in the wine making impart a buttery flavour to the wine and would be delicious !
The Lemon Cheese Cake Soufflé would be stunning with the Groot Constantia Muscat de Frontignon, as it has has a slight acid finish and will pick up the citrus notes in the soufflé."
Suggestions by Christine Jenner-Clarke