Getting rid of old junk: simple oven-baked chicken

Get rid of old junk, my horoscope said, while I was sniffing away in hanky after hanky. So I looked at the squash that had been on my kitchen counter from before Christmas, cut up a pumpkin, collected whatever winter had left in the herb patch outside, and stuffed a chicken with that. In the chicken went lemon thyme and sage, and a big piece of fresh ginger. Just in case.

Simple oven-baked chicken

Cooking method from Françoise Bernard: bake chicken on its side

1 chicken
2-3 onions
olive oil
salt, pepper,
1 squash
1 small pumpkin
fresh herbs

Preheat the oven at 200 °C.

Rinse the chicken, coat it with pepper and salt, stuff it with herbs and ginger. Drizzle it with olive oil.

Put the chicken on its side in the oven pan, and put the whole onions around it. Put in the oven. In the middle of cooking time, turn the chicken on the other side. In the middle of cooking time, also add the squash and pumpkin, roughly chopped.

I had a chicken weighing 1,6 kg - this needed about 20-25' more than one hour.

Right after this feast, my taste buds went on holiday for three days. Morale: don't even try to cook or eat out then.

Pumpkin Gratin

Another year, another time for cooking 101: with Cuisine: 1000 recettes/recipes by Françoise Bernard. A present. I sighed in desperation: I've long run out of storage space for cookbooks. But I was quickly won over by the simplicity of the descriptions and pictures, which lure one into action. This pumpkin gratin was almost a no brainer for my brain that is quite unable to store recipes. Almost. So this shiny cookbook did take some spitter spatter.

Pumpkin Gratin

Serves 4

1 kg pumpkin, diced
3 big potatoes, diced
1 onion, chopped
30 g butter
80 g grated cheese (I used parmesan)
3 tablespoons bread crumbs
salt
olive oil

The recipe calls for boiling the pumpkin, potatoes and onion for 25 minutes in some water, but my method is stewing veggies in their own juices with just a little olive oil. This takes longer, about 40-45 minutes, but saves a lot of flavor.

Preheat the oven at 250 °C (yes, 250 °C, very high)

Remove the veggies from the heat. Mash to purée consistency. Add 2/3 of the butter and 1/3 of the cheese to the puree, and mix it in well.

Oil an oven tin, pour in the vegetable purée and add the bread crumbs + 1/3 of the cheese on top. Divide the remaining 1/3 of butter in little nibs on top.

Put in the oven, "for a few minutes" the recipe says, under the grill. This takes a good 10-15 minutes, but do watch your oven.

On a day with temperatures knee-deep in minus, a good dish to share with friends.