14 February Tuesday

Having made the beautiful potage last night, I woke this morning craving roast chicken. I have a well-salted bird resting on the countertop right now, and a Provencal Butternut Squash Gratin and a wonderful Spinach gratin. Now, this spinach is one of the best things this side of heaven. The spinach has only salt, pepper, a little flour, and olive oil.

Cut to three hours later. The chicken is in the oven, the spinach next to it. The squash is in the other oven, slowly roasting away. These last two recipes come from Richard Olney’s Simple French Food, one of the classic cookbooks of all time. His descriptions and daring are really something else. According to the recipe, the butternut squash should be almost black when pulled from the oven. These sides are really out of this world. I will make a light gravy for the chicken, which is flavored liberally with lemon, garlic, olive oil, rosemary, thyme, tarragon, majoram, and fennel. I hear it sizzling and smell that holy congress. The frigid wind is whipping down the street but inside it is warm and smells beautiful.

Now, it is three hours later. I forgot to take a picture before the eating, but I took one after, with my sated dinner guest.

I don’t recall that I’ve written about this before, but my go-to roast chicken recipe is from Alice Waters. Art of Simple Food Vol.1 Perfection, every time. OK, more to come.