Isn’t it a treat to be fed? I am always filled with gratitude when someone else cooks. Praise be to Paul for the aromatic chicken he served last night to my sister and me.
The surprise ingredient was the lemon peel which Paul added (after searing the chicken), with the chicken stock, parsley and celery. The peel (and juice) was fresh and tangy, while chilli added an undernote of fiery bite.
My sister and I much admired Paul’s precision and patience for he cut both lemon peel and carrots into long rectangle matchsticks, julienne-style.
We ate in the garden, sitting long after June’s hot sun had faded.
My sister quoted her colleague, Jess, who says: “It’s less rude to say you are a vegetarian than ask whether the meat was happy or battery.”
Paul’s chick was free range, from Sainsbury’s.
I was fascinated by the price issue. Paul had originally wanted four chicken breasts but the cost was not much different from two whole chickens (about £6.50 each).
From two chickens he made the following: teriyaki chicken breasts for four (one breast each); chicken noodle soup from both carcasses; two fried wings for salad; our aromatic chicken (two legs and two thighs). And he still had two legs, two thighs and two wings left over.
But are people put off by butchering a carcass, I pondered? We agreed you need a good pair of scissors and a sharp knife (plus no squeamishness).
Paul was recycling his newspapers and I grabbed the Guardian‘s June 4 supplement before it went to paper-pulp heaven.
Appropriately, G2 (how I love the supplements more than the news) had a review by witty Zoe Williams about the just-released, The Kitchen Revolution.
It’s is all about saving money by not letting the food you buy waste away at the back of your fridge. It is about eating well and saving food miles by cooking from scratch.
In other words it is about reversing the horrors of a junk food culture to return to everything real food lovers care about passionately.
Viva la revoluzione!
Real Food Lover 