Roast Chicken with Parsnips, Mushrooms & Olives

[js]
Since I'm always going on and on about roast chicken, I figure we'd do a roast chicken post to show how easy it is to do a roast chicken.

Roast chicken is one of my favourite all-time meals. I like the fact that it's infintely versatile: you can flavour it however you want and it still ends up a delicious chicken-y goodness.

One of my favourites is the classic rosemary-garlic-lemon combination. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Lemon-thyme, lemon-oregano, sage-butter. . .the list goes on.

I've done one before with an orange-curry-allspice rub and that was also quite yummy.

For a more Asian twist, I've done it with soy sauce, lime, cilantro, and lemongrass. I think I served that chicken with a bowl of homemade pho.

I could go on and on and on and on about roast chicken. I like the fact that it is very easy to do and easy to pull out for a main dish or a supplemental dish for those times you have more people coming over dinner and one main is not enough.

I've never tried cooking parsnips before but I like the name "parsnip." Seems very English, with its nippy ending. It looks like a white carrot and I thought that it would taste like a creamier carrot.

When I roast chicken, I usually don't bother with a bed of vegetables. Since I have parsnips today, I thought I'd try the parsnips and the bed under the chicken. We put celery, mushrooms, and the parsnips under the chicken. Oh and olives.




[ts]
It really is as simply as this: dump everything into the sheet pan, put the chicken on top, and slide into the oven! =)

As for the measurements, the reason we put the amount of each ingredient is because that's what we had.

4 large parnsips, peeled and sliced lengthwise
a bag of mushrooms
3 stalks celery
2 lemons
less than a cup of olives (green and brown; I don't know what they are!)
olive oil
salt & pepper



We layered the parsnips and mushrooms...





...and drizzled some olive oil and squeezed a couple of lemons. Salt & pepper too, of course.



We rubbed the chicken with some lemon juice and olive oil as well and seasoned it with salt & pepper (both sides and inside). Since we had some leftover olives that have been sitting around in the fridge, we decided to dump those in as well. And oh, we just left the squeezed lemon halves in the pan as well.



In the oven, 350F to 400F. This chicken took about 50 minutes.



Oooh, chicken!

The mushrooms were so nice. The parsnips too! They had a subtle hint of sweetness, almost like a banana... Well, perhaps 1/100 of its taste was the hint of banana. It was VERY good! I gobbled most of it, I think! The juices from the chicken and all the vegetables blended together nicely, and brininess from the olives worked to brighten the "rich" flavor of the chicken juices and vegetables.

This combination is gold! =D

Philippine-style Hamburger

This is how we always used to make hamburgers in the Philippines. Basically, instead of an all-meat patty, chopped onions and celery are added. This makes for a juicy and tasty result.

This is Yaya's recipe. It called for 1/2 kg of beef, but this pack was almost 1kg, so I made adjustments.

1/2 to 1 kg ground beef



1 onion
6 stalks celery

I chopped them in the food processor.

Oh, I also added a few cloves of garlic; that wasn't in Yaya's recipe. =)



salt & pepper
2-3 Tbsp of flour



Mix.
By hand is best, of course. ;)



We fried a thumb-sized patty to test for seasoning.



Shape into patties.

Usually, the patties are pan-fried. However, we are too lazy for that. So we put the patties on a half-sheet to put in the oven. As for the size of the patties, it can be anything. Ours just happened to turn out this way (size and thickness).



400F oven for about 15 minutes. (This will vary depending on the size/thickness & number of patties.)



We haven't really done hamburger patties in the oven before, so we realized that they were a tad pale.

So, we just seared the patties very briefly on a high flame (in a tiny pan). Alternatively, you can broil each side for a short time.

Our patties are so cute and tiny!
(Thumb pictured for scale)



Final product
This can be eaten on a bun with the usual burger condiments, or with rice. =)



They disappeared really fast! ;D
I only managed to eat 2 pieces, I believe.

Yaya's Greatest Hits
Philippine-style Hamburger
Philippine Pork "BBQ"
Philippine Chicken "BBQ"
Golden Egg Torta

eatingclub vancouver Filipino food
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Mama's Ampalaya (Bitter Melon)
Faux Kamote-Que
Philippine-Style Chicken "BBQ"
Fried Hasa Hasa (Mackerel)
"Savory" Chicken Wings
Sinamak (Chile-infused Vinegar)
Pan-roasted Halibut w/ Fava Beans, Potato-Onion Cakes & Bagoong Butter Sauce
Bulalo & Bangus: an even simpler Filipino meal
Baked Tahong (Mussels)
Adobo Kangkong (Adobo Water Spinach)
Oyster Torta (Oyster Omelette)
Chicken Tinola (Chicken Soup w/ Green Papaya & Pepper Leaves)
(Chinese) Roast Pork Belly / Lechon
Tilapia wrapped in Banana Leaves
Pork Belly, Two Ways
Chicken Adobo
Embutido
Salabat (Ginger Tea)
Lechon Manok (Philippine Roast Chicken) & Lechon Sauce
"Chinese Adobo" Clams and Oysters
Bistek (Citrus Beef with Caramelized Onions)
Beef Kaldereta (Beef Stew with Bell Peppers)
Atsara (Green Papaya Pickle)
Sardinas na Bangus (Milkfish in the style of Sardines) and Pressure Cooker Fear

Minestra Cake aka RIP Kale-Chard-Bean-Sausage Minestra

RIP Kale, Chard, Bean, Sausage Minestra.

Last week, we had a double edition of kale soup (minestra). It was yummy the first time, yummy the second time.

But there was simply too much of it the second time.

By Sunday, we still had about 2 L of the soup and I don't think we could have eaten it all. There is the problem of it being a very hearty soup: one bowl and it's hard to eat more. I can definitely see it being Tuscan peasant food. Cheap and filling, not to mention extremely healthy. Goes a very long, long way.

So feeling the necessity to finish off this soup of necessity, we thought to try cooking it as a cake.

[ts]
I happened upon someone who made a ribollita cake, so we thought we'd give it a try.

Here's us winging it:

The soup.



We wanted it to be a bit "drier" so that it would become a cake. So we just turned the heat on and let it reduce/let the liquid evaporate.



It took quite a while before it was "dry" enough. I then thought that perhaps an egg would help the mixture set.

(aside: Look, these eggs are so pretty!!!)



I added the eggs and mixed it in.




We let the cake sit there in hopes that a crust was forming underneath. We then put it under the broiler to let the top brown. (Because there was no way to turn the thing over.)



And here it is! It was so hard cutting a piece out and having it remain intact! (In the picture is a chicken drumstick and some olives & mushrooms.)





[js]
Unfortunately, it tasted better in its incarnation as soup. We're calling this at 8:35pm on March 2, 2008.

Bye, soup! That was a good run.

[ts]
The cake was tasty, but I liked it better as a soup as well. Perhaps we'll make a proper frittata with kale, sausage and beans next time. ;)

P.S. I told JS that we should just freeze the rest of the soup for consumption at a later date. But noooooo, she didn't want to!


[js]
I don't like freezing things, especially leftovers. Whatever the thing we're freezing, when we decide to freeze it, it's already dead. We're just delaying the inevitable by putting it in the freezer. Nobody takes it out of the freezer and eats it at a later date. It's dead.