myfrenchkitchen

With our weather being somewhat cooler and the rain pouring down constantly, our bones are in need of some warmer nourishment. The grey skies whispered lemon chicken. So we had the old classic, lemon chicken with herbs. An ever popular meal, so easily done in the oven and sliced at the table, which leaves you with ample time to indulge in that book you just glance at every time you speed past it.

Oven baked lemon chicken with herbs

Do I need to give the recipe?

Take a chicken, clean it. Flee into your garden and cut herbs to heart’s delight…tarragon is a must. Lemon cut into chunks is a must. As is some butter, salt and pepper and two or three shallots. Then just stuff the chicken with all ingredients, rub with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Bake in a 180 deg. C oven for about an hour or until you have clear juices running when piercing the chicken into the thick flesh of the thigh next to the bone, normally the part which takes the longest to cook. Turn the chicken over and drizzle often with the pan juices.
In the meantime prepare some vegetables. I used green asparagus, of which I snapped the ends off and some cherry tomatoes. Clean and dry them.
When the chicken is done, remove from the pan and cover with foil on a serving platter. Skim off the excess fat from the pan.
Arrange the asparagus in the pan and roast at 200 deg. c until nicely caramelized. Add the tomatoes 10 minutes before the asparagus is done and roast until the tomatoes start shrinking.
Serve on the platter alongside the chicken, drizzle with the pan juices and serve the rest of the sauce on the side.

*for more about herbs and it’s uses, see “In my herb garden”

…the more you pick, the better I grow…

This is an entry for WHB, whith this week’s host being Wandering chopsticks.

It may seem that all we eat in this house, is salad. Well, in spring and summer, that is pretty much the case! The vegetables and fruit are so beautiful and abundant that we can’t do it any differently. And because of the freshness it would be a shame to dress them up. We leave “creative cooking” for the colder months and eat fresh and simple in spring and summer.

Here is another salad, straightforward and unadorned.

Fava and peitit pois salad.

Decide whether you’d like to serve this on the side or as a starter or even as a light meal and measure your quantities according to that.

Fresh fava beans, blanched in boiling water and shelled. OR use frozen fava beans, treated the same way. I find the frozen beans in excellent condition and much easier when pressed for time. The same goes for the peas. Go fresh and hull them if you have lazy weekend days on hand, otherwise go frozen. I’m not such a purist that I would bend backwards just for the sake of announcing: “I’ve hulled my own, garden picked peas!” Some frozen products are really great substitutes and I have no qualm in using them…petit pois, fava and spinach, comes to mind.

Fresh/frozen fava beans blanched and shelled.
Fresh/frozen petit pois, blanched
A spring onion, finely chopped
A handful of dry roasted sunflower seeds
a spoonful or two of caraway seeds (or cumin seeds)
A vinaigrette made of olive oil, feshly squeezed lemon juice, white balsamic vinegar(optional), salt and pepper

Mix all the ingredients toghether gently and serve at room temperature, decorated with some herbs of your choice.
Serve as a starter with a cold dry white wine of your choice or a cold rose, seeing that we’re in spring/summer. Maybe something like your trusted Sauvignon Blanc, from our region here in the France Loire valley or why not a crisp Tariquet Ugni Blanc/Colombard from the south west of France.