Roast vegetables

Tonight I perfected the roast chicken Maryland dinner

Tonight I think I struck gold and made the perfect roast chicken dinner. My mouth is singing with happiness.

I’ve been thinking of tonight’s dinner nearly all day. I think everyone who reads this blog knows how much I love roast chicken and my favourite part of the chicken is the Maryland. That’s the thigh and drumstick. Everyone of late also knows I’ve taken to quinoa. Given we’re about to breach winter in Canberra, roasted vegetables are high on the comfort food scale. This is a combination dinner that just sung in my mouth.

Tonight I perfected the roast chicken Maryland dinner
Recipe Type: Dinner
Cuisine: Australian
Author: Gary Lum
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 1
Ingredients
  • Chicken Maryland
  • Potato
  • Sweet potato
  • Capsicum
  • Jalapeño pepper
  • Grated cheese
  • Olive oil
  • Diced spam
  • Black peppercorns
  • Worcestershire sauce
  • Quinoa
  • Rice
Instructions
  1. Place about ⅓ cup of quinoa and rice into the bottom of the roasting tray
  2. Add ⅔ cup of water to the roasting tray
  3. Place a rack in the roasting tray and add the Chicken Maryland which has been rubbed with olive oil, salt and dried mixed herbs
  4. Place the chicken into an oven at 150 °C for 1 hour (use a meat thermometer to ensure food safety)
  5. Cut the potato, sweet potato and capsicum into wedges or batons
  6. Dice some classic SPAM®
  7. Finely dice some jalapeño pepper
  8. Put the jalapeño pepper, potato, sweet potato, capsicum and SPAM® into a large bowl and mix with some olive oil, grated cheese, cracked black peppercorns, and a dash of Worcestershire sauce
  9. Lay out the vegetables onto some baking paper on an oven tray
  10. Place the vegetables into the oven on another shelf with the chicken and cook for 1 hour
  11. Pull the chicken out of the oven and make sure the meat thermometer has achieved the correct cooking temperature to kill most vegetative bacteria (this is 75 °C according to chicken.org.au)
  12. Allow the chicken to rest for about 20 to 30 minutes (resting is really important, it helps ensure a succulent flesh)
  13. Scoop out the quinoa and rice from the baking tray and place half in a bowl in the refrigerator for lunch the next day with some salad leaves.
  14. Keep the rest of the quinoa and rice warm to serve with the chicken and vegetables
  15. Hopefully you’ve timed the cooking of the vegetables to coincide with the end of the resting period of the chicken
  16. When the chicken is rested plate up the vegetables onto a plate, then place the rice and quinoa next to the vegetables. Finally add the chicken.
  17. If you are French you probably made a sauce and lots of it to enjoy with the chicken, me, I’m an Australian. We don’t need sauce.
  18. Shoot a photograph
  19. Inhale the meal
  20. Wash the dishes
  21. Write the recipe
  22. Blog (verb)

The combination of jalapeño peppers in the vegetables made a huge difference. As the vegetables were roasting the volatile odours from the peppers were permeating my small apartment. The rice and quinoa in the baking tray had absorbed all the fatty juicy goodness from the chicken and they stuck together really well to form an old fashioned stack. The chicken was perfectly cooked. The meat was juicy and succulent. I cannot emphasise too much the value of resting roast chicken. Oh, I also added my secret ingredient, viz., SPAM®

If you make this or make a variation of this dish please let me know.

I hope you like roast chicken as much as I do 

Roast Chicken Maryland, Capsicum, Cheese, , Jalapeño pepper, Onion, Potato, Quinoa, Rice, Spam, and Sweet potato
Roast Chicken Maryland, Capsicum, Cheese, , Jalapeño pepper, Onion, Potato, Quinoa, Rice, Spam, and Sweet potato

Delicious spam and roast vegetables

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It’s been ages since I’ve eaten spam! Well at least a week. I thought some roast vegetables would be nice for dinner tonight and I pondered what meat to eat. I thought about no meat and then thought bacon. Then I realised I could have spam. The real question was would I use one of the cans I brought back from Hawaii and the recipe book I bought there. 

In the end I chose the classic SPAM® and made up the recipe. 

Delicious spam and roast vegetables
 
Recipe Type: Dinner
Cuisine: Australian
Author: Gary Lum
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 1
Ingredients
  • Potato
  • Sweet potato
  • Capsicum
  • Chili flakes
  • Pepper
  • Curry powder
  • Salt
  • Cheese
  • Olive oil
  • Sesame oil
Instructions
  1. Cut the potato and sweet potato into batons
  2. Slice the capsicum into batons as long as the potato and sweet potato
  3. Dice the Classic SPAM®
  4. Add everything to a large mixing bowl and then add in everything else
  5. Mix with your hands
  6. Pour into a baking tray and place into a preheated oven (150 °C) for 45 minutes
  7. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes
  8. Serve in a large bowl
  9. Shoot a photograph
  10. Eat while watching #MasterChefAU and tweeting
  11. Wash the dishes
  12. Write the recipe
  13. Blog (verb)
 

 

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How do you enhance your roast vegetables? 

Slowly roasted beef recipe

Well we have four days off for Easter and I’m still feeling crook. I thought I’d feel better if I spent some time cooking. Tonight I made slowly roasted beef with vegetables.

Slowly roasted beef with potato, carrot, onion and quinoa
Slowly roasted beef with potato, carrot, onion and quinoa

I should start at the beginning. I woke up feeling worse than the previous few days mainly because I coughed all night and just felt stupidly tired. Given it’s the beginning of a four day long weekend I thought I should make an effort for breakfast so I cooked bacon and eggs with toast.

Streaky bacon and scrambled eggs with fried toast and avocado
Streaky bacon and scrambled eggs with fried toast and avocado

After breakfast I went back to bed and dozed for a bit. I stayed there until about midday and figured I should get out, shower shave and think about what to do for the day. 

I had a blade roast in the refrigerator and thought a slowly roasted beef recipe was in order.

I also had some beef bones and thought the fatty juicy goodness from them would make a good cooking soup for the blade roast. So I started by cooking them and ate the fatty meat for lunch while reserving the juices for the roast.

Beef bones cooked in the oven for a couple of hours
Beef bones cooked in the oven for a couple of hours

Given the protein and fat load I needed something sweet for afternoon tea so I ended up having a teaspoon of Nutella and a teaspoon of crunchy peanut paste.

Nutella and crunchy peanut paste is a marriage made in heaven
Nutella and crunchy peanut paste is a marriage made in heaven
Slowly roasted beef recipe
 
Recipe Type: Dinner
Cuisine: Australian
Author: Gary Lum
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 1
Ingredients
  • 1.5 kg beef bones
  • 1.5 kg blade roast
  • Quinoa
  • Carrot
  • Onion
  • Celery
  • Potato
  • Bay leaves
  • Red wine
  • Water
Instructions
  1. In a casserole place the beef bones and cook in a slow oven (150 °C) for 2 hours
  2. Remove the cooked bones and keep to eat for lunch
  3. In the bottom of the casserole with the beef bone juices add some carrot, onion and celery
  4. Add 1 cup of red wine
  5. Add ½ cup water
  6. Place the blade roast in the middle on top of the vegetables
  7. Add a couple of potatoes and some bay leaves
  8. Cover the casserole and put into the oven at 150 °C for 3 hours
  9. Remove the casserole and take out the meat to rest for 30 minutes
  10. Prepare a plate with the vegetables and slice some of the beef
  11. Pour over a little of the fatty juices from the casserole instead of beef gravy
  12. If you have Hollandaise you could serve that too
  13. Shoot a photograph
  14. Eat the meal
  15. Wash the dishes
  16. Write the recipe
  17. Blog (verb)
 

 

If you want to see a larger version click on one of the photographs and a gallery will pop up for you to review.

Do you like slowly roasted beef on a Friday public holiday? What did you eat on Friday night?