FLOWER POT KITCHEN: TARRAGON ROAST CHICKEN

17 Jun 2020

TARRAGON ROAST CHICKEN

A classic French dish that is easy to cook and delivers a impressive Sunday roast for the family, succulent whole roast chicken served with a chicken stock cream wine tarragon infused sauce.

Prep time 10 minutes / Cooking time 1 hour

Ingredients

(serves 4)

The Roast Chicken and Stock Sauce

1 whole chicken

Himalayan sea salt

Fresh ground black pepper

1 glug olive oil

1 carrot roughly chopped

1 bulb garlic halved

1 leek roughly chopped

1 large onion roughly chopped

2 sticks celery roughly chopped

750ml water

300ml dry white wine

1 big sprig tarragon approx 4” long

1 clove garlic finely chopped

50g soft butter

The Tarragon Sauce

2 tbsp fresh chopped tarragon leaves

400ml chicken stock from roasting pan

300ml double cream

Pre heat your oven to 200 C / 392 F. Mix the butter and garlic together, reserve to one side. Season the whole chicken with olive oil, salt and pepper and brown off all over in a large deep roasting pan that has a lid. Place the garlic butter and tarragon into the cavity of the chicken, add the rest of the ingredients into the pan, roast for 30 minutes with the lid on then remove the lid for the last 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to rest for 10 minutes.

Strain the stock from the pan, place 400ml in a pan and bring to gentle simmer, add the chopped tarragon and cream and warm through, don’t boil. Taste and season if required. I like to serve this with schmaltz roasted potatoes and smashed buttered peas. Enjoy.

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.