The Susanne

I got the gist of this recipe from Rachael Ray, she called it her lazy Sunday dinner. I have made it count­less times and per­fec­ted it to my own tastes, and must say it’s simply delish!

You’ll need:

• 1 chicken, about 1,5 kg
• 2 potatoes
• 2 carrots
• 1 swede
• 3 onions
• 1 broc­coli
  
• 1 dl tar­ragon, chopped
• 1 dl pars­ley, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp butter, room temperature
• 1 dl water
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar

Set the oven to 200 degrees celsius.

Chop the veget­ables into 1 cm thick pieces and place them (except 1 onion) in an oven dish. Pour over a the water and vin­egar, and put aside.

Wash the chicken, inside and out. Pat it dry with kit­chen roll. Stuff the last chopped onion in the chicken and tie together the legs with kit­chen string, clos­ing the crevice.

Rub the chick all over with salt and pepper, and then with butter. Place the chicken on top of the veget­ables in the dish.

In a small bowl, mix the herbs and the garlic with olive oil and lemon juice, and let them sit for a sec before rub­bing them all over the chicken. Sprinkle what’s left over over the top of the chicken.

Place the whole thing in the oven and leave it for about one hour. It might be a good idea to check after 45 minutes as you don’t want the chicken to become dry!

Move the chicken and the veget­ables to a serving dish and keep warm whilst you deglaze the oven dish to make a deli­cious sauce. Maybe adding some chicken stock for extra deliciousness…?

The Boy­friend has given me the most won­der­ful gift I have ever received: The New Con­cise Larousse Gast­ro­nomique! Oh my lord! How can I study for exams with that abso­lute gem in my pos­ses­sion?! I tell you, it’s pos­sible but extremely dif­fi­cult.
Since my trip to the post office to pick up the mys­ter­i­ous pack­age I have per­used my treas­ure and am now in the pro­cess of making my first ‘real’ stock! It’s been sim­mer­ing for about three hours and has another three hours to go accord­ing to the Larousse. Well, I have noth­ing but time. I can’t wait for tomorrow’s dinner, just make a guess if there will be sauce…

Ok, so I was too impa­tient to wait until it was fin­ished before trying it. I used some for tonight’s dinner, which was sear-​roasted chicken breasts with a garlic and herb rub, and mashed pota­toes. I deglazed the chicken pan with some bal­samic vin­egar and then added about 2 dl of my unfin­ished stock. Reduced to about 1 dl and drained through a piece of muslin. And let me just say: wow! I really had no idea what I was miss­ing, muck­ing about with that store-​bought boul­lion all this time. No more! Here’s a pic­ture of my chicken dinner:

As usual I’m too lazy to write out the recipe, but I will share the secret of my amaz­ing mashed pota­toes! Being lactose-​intolerant I often have to think twice (and resign myself to some uncom­fort­able hours to come if I decide to indulge myself) before tuck­ing into food cooked by other people, and there are cer­tain foods I miss immensely such as pizza (oh my love, why must you hurt me so?). And I used to miss mashed pota­toes. But then I thought of a way to make them just as deli­cious but 100% dairy-​free.

What you’ll need is:

your desired amount of new pota­toes (I keep the skin on for its lovely taste and its nutri­ents),
some non-​dairy mar­gar­ine,
water
and salt.
(and some pepper if you like)

Here’s what to do:

Chop up the pota­toes before cook­ing to drastic­ally shorten the cook­ing time.

Then boil them in some lightly salted water until they are very tender and almost fall apart on touch.

Pour some of the water into a jug before drain­ing the pota­toes in a colan­der, and then throw them back into the pot (off the heat!)

Now add a big slab of mar­gar­ine, and mash away.

Pour in some of the water whilst mash­ing until you reach your favour­ite consistency.

Season with addi­tional salt and pepper to taste, and—

Enjoy!