Springtime in Paris

Well, my Sunday dish this week was roast chicken rather than baking. I was going to make cookies, but due to a mix up with the recipe, and the resulting culinary disaster, they will have to wait until next week...

In the meantime, after the beautiful spring pictures from Amy, and, er, the White House, I'm continuing my spring theme with this picture of spring on my street in Paris:

Poulet rôti du dimanche pour manger moins cher !

In English here.
Ce que j'aime : le poulet rôti, le poulet rôti, le poulet rôti ! C'est un de mes vrais comfort foods (un plat que l'on mange pour se sentir mieux quand on ne va pas très bien).

Ce que je n'aime pas : l'inflation des prix de la nourriture ! Je dépense de plus en plus d'argent au supermarché alors que je fais de plus en plus attention. Selon Robert Solé du Monde, le panier de la ménagère s'équilibre, mais cela ne nous aide pas trop :

"les produits alimentaires locaux sont de plus en plus chers, alors que l'électronique importée est en baisse constante. L'un dans l'autre, le panier de la ménagère s'équilibre. Après tout, il suffit de s'alimenter autrement : mangeons des téléphones portables et des téléviseurs. On doit bien en fabriquer des light, et les bio arrivent certainement".

Mais j'ai peur que même des téléphones portables bios n'assouvissent pas ma gourmandise ! Quoi faire alors ? Pour commencer, j'ai créé le label "Plats pas chers" que vous pouvez voir en bas de ce post pour classer des recettes qui ne risquent pas de vider vos portefeuilles. Heureusement pour moi qui adore le poulet rôti, acheter un poulet entier et le rôtir le dimanche est une très bonne façon de faire des économies pendant la semaine. Chez mon boucher, le poulet (qu'importe le poids) est à 5,90 euros. Donc, cette semaine, j'ai pris le plus gros et je l'ai fait durer toute la semaine, comme ça :

Dimanche midi : poulet rôti avec ses pommes de terre
Lundi midi : encore du poulet rôti et on finit les pommes de terre
Mardi soir : vermicelles de riz à la noix de coco avec ce qui reste du poulet
Mercredi midi : les restes des vermicelles
Mercredi après-midi : je fais du bouillon avec les os du poulet
Jeudi midi : soupe aux poireaux et pommes de terre avec le bouillon (à venir bientôt sur mon blog)
Vendredi midi : les restes de la soupe

On n'est pas obligé d'être un grand chef cuisto pour bien réussir un poulet rôti. Voilà une recette simple pour vous mettre sur la bonne voie. Vous pouvez, bien sûr, varier les sauces et les légumes comme vous le souhaitez.

Poulet rôti et pommes de terre
1 poulet
6-8 pommes de terre (selon la taille)
2 carrottes (facultatif)
3 tomates
50g beurre, fondu
1 c.s. huile d'olive
1 tige romarin (ou 1 c.c. romarin seché)
1 pincée thym
1 pincée basilic
sel, poivre

Préchauffer le four à 210C. Dans un petit bol, mélanger l'huile d'olive, les herbes, le sel, le poivre et le beurre fondu. Enduiser le poulet avec ce mélange (vous n'allez pas tout utiliser) et le mettre au milieu d'un grand plat. Peler et coupé en rondelles les pommes de terre et les carrottes pour les mettre autour du poulet. Ajouter les tomates lavées et coupées en quatre. Verser quelque cuillerées de sauce sur les légumes.

Mettre le plat dans le four et cuire environ une heure, en arrosant de jus et remuant les légumes une ou deux fois pendant la cuisson. Après une heure, retourner le poulet et cuire de l'autre côté 10-15 mn pour être sûr que c'est bien cuit partout (si vous avez un four à chaleur tournante, vous n'aurez peut-être pas besoin).

Découper et servir !

Vous voulez d'autres recettes pour utiliser vos restes de poulet ? Essayez :
Ma Soupe au poulet
Gratin de pâtes de Manou
Tarte au poulet et au comté de Sabine
Salade de poulet à l'indienne de Sahten
Et encore plusieurs idées sur le site Papilles et Pupilles
Régalez vous !

Sunday Roast Chicken

En français ici.
Yes, I'm on a chicken kick (sorry vegetarians!), but let me explain. Recently, one of my close friends sent out an SOS entitled help oh foodie one (I like it - it makes me sound like a food goddess) explaining that after some finance reassessment, she discovered she had very little money for food every month and needed to learn to cook cheap, and fast! What could I do to help? Well, I have to admit, she's not the only one with this problem. With inflation here and food prices going up and up, I've been doing a little panicking on shopping days myself. Nevertheless, I've decided to look at this as a creative food challenge, rather than a catastrophe and I'll be sharing my thoughts with you all (you'll notice the new label on the left Eat Well for Cheap).

True, one of the best ways to eat cheap is to eat vegetarian (more expensive of course if you want to eat organic, but better for you and the planet). However, for those of us who don't feel completely protein-ified no matter how many beans we consume, and who appreciate meat once in a while, the cheapest way I know to eat meat is to buy a whole chicken once a week and roast it. My butcher sells a chicken for 5.90 euros no matter the weight and, he usually winks and points out the heaviest one so you get the most for your money.

Sunday brunch is very important in France, often a time when families come together around good food, and roast chicken is one of the traditional Sunday dishes. Always one to try out local customs, I made my roast chicken last Sunday and D. and I have been eating it all week. Very good for the wallet:

Sunday lunch: roast chicken and veggies
Monday lunch: leftover roast chicken and veggies
Tuesday dinner: comfort coconut noodles with the rest of the chicken
Wednesday lunch: leftover comfort coconut noodles
Wednesday afternoon: stock making time with the chicken bones
Thursday lunch: potato leek soup with chicken stock

Friday lunch: leftover potato leek soup

As Joy of Cooking says:

Roasting a chicken does not require the skills of a restaurant chef. You will get perfectly good results if you proceed as your grandmother did. (Personally, I can't imagine my grandmother roasting chickens... but go on...) Simply arrange the chicken breast side up on a rimmed baking sheet or in a shallow roasting pan...and roast it until the thigh releases clear juices.

See, it's easy!
Here's a simple recipe to get you started.

Roast Chicken and Potatoes
1 chicken
6-8 potatoes, depending on size
2 carrots (optional)
3 tomatoes
3 1/2 Tbsp melted butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 branch rosemary (or 1 tsp dried)
a pinch of thyme
a pinch of dried basil
salt, pepper

Preheat the oven to 400F. In a small bowl, mix together the oil, rosemary, thyme, basil, salt, pepper and melted butter. Using a basting brush or your fingers, coat the chicken with this mixture (you won't use all of it yet), and place it breast side up in a baking pan or shallow roasting pan. Peel and chop the potatoes and carrots into slices and place around the chicken in the baking pan. Wash and cut the tomatoes into quarters and add to pan. Spoon some more of the sauce over the vegetables.


Put the chicken in the oven and roast for a about 1 hour, until the thigh releases clear juices (as Joy of Cooking say) when poked with a knife. Don't forget to baste the chicken once or twice during the cooking process. You can mix the vegetables a bit too to make sure they cook all over. After about 1 hour, you might consider turning the chicken over for 10-15 minutes, especially if you don't have a convection oven, or if your oven is ridiculously small and weak like mine (yes, I have a sissy oven). That way you make sure the bottom is done as well.

Carve, and eat, and make into more meals!

For more ideas for your leftover chicken, try:
My Chicken soup
Leftover Chicken Pesto Salad from Kalyn's Kitchen
Lemon Chicken and Pea Risotto from Love Food Hate Waste
Leftover Chicken Pot Pie from cooks.com
or go to leftoverchicken.com - a whole website devoted to the question !

Simple Chicken Soup to Beat Cold Season

En français ici.

For other spring photos from (I kid you not) the White House, click here.

Here we are heading into April with its "April Showers" and, yes, I know April showers bring May flowers and things like that, (and what do May flowers bring??* - whoops! I'm channeling my dad, sorry!), but what April showers really seem to bring is cold season! ACHEW!! (I'm sneezing just thinking about it.)

Aside from my mom's wonderful ginger-honey-lemon tea, the thing I appreciate most when I have a cold is a bowl of chicken soup. Sure, it's probably psychological. I mean, American culture has been telling me my whole life that chicken soup makes you feel better, but I've bought in to that theory, and so it does! Warm broth, fresh veggies, protein, everything you need to get your strength back, and it always makes me feel loved (even if I made it for myself - it's important to love oneself, no?).

Culture Factoid: Whereas American culture holds that soup (and chicken soup particularly) helps heal, the French believe that soup helps you grow. Children are always being told to eat their soup, the French equivalent of "eat your veggies" so they'll grow up strong.

So, as promised, here's my recipe for chicken soup, so you can use all that wonderful stock you've been making!

Chicken Soup

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 onions
2 carrots
1/2-1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp sage
2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
5-6 cups stock/canned broth/water with bouillon cube
2 potatoes
1 cup roast chicken cut into bite-sized pieces (I just use leftovers from roast chicken, but you can also buy raw chicken and cook it in the soup. Add it at the beginning a minute or so after the veggies.)
salt, pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a pot. Peel, chop and add the onions and carrots. Cook until onions start to go clear (2-3min). Add the curry powder, sage and garlic and stir another minute or two. Add the stock, canned broth or water and bouillon and bring to a boil. Peel, chop and add the potatoes and chicken. Cook until the potatoes are tender. Add salt and pepper to taste, and serve hot.


This soup is especially good the next day, once it's had time to sit and soak up the flavors.

For the VEGETARIAN version, use vegetable stock, and try adding pasta, or rice and/or a mix of other veggies to the soup: mushrooms (at the beginning with the onions and carrots), peppers (same), corn (with the potatoes), etc.

*Um, pilgrims... (Go ahead, groan.)