Cheese Demonstration

As promised, my cheese demo from the Western Fair a few weeks ago...I was pretty busy that weekend with my parents grape festival and wasn't as energetic as I wish I was, but I'm happy with it...especially the comments from the tasters :)

PS Big Thanks goes out to my 'fan club' who came out to support me...it made it all the better :)

Bread Soup of Egg, Garlic and Cilantro (Açorda à Alentejana)

Before I sat down to write this post, the first thing I did was try to find an english translation for açorda. Obviously, I came up empty handed and 'bread-soup' was the closest thing I could come up with. I call it bread soup because as far as I know, all açordas use day-old bread to thicken it. This soup is very typical of the southern Alentejo province of Portugal where açordas are also made using codfish (bacalhau) or seafood (marisco).

This is a very regional dish, and it's rare to see it served outside of the Alentejo province. My Mom fell in love with the dish when we happened on a 'hole in the wall' type of restaurant somewhere in the middle of the province on a very hot day. To this day, my Mom still talks about that meal.

Having never attempted to make this dish before, I had my doubts it would turn out, but it was dead easy to make and tasted SO good. It may take you a few minutes to get used to the texture of the soggy bread, but hopefully the flavour of the cilantro and garlic will make you think of açorda like a Portuguese version of French onion soup (minus the cheese)

Ingredients

4 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
1 bunch of cilantro, washed and roughly chopped
2 tsp sea salt
1/3 cup of olive oil
6 medium eggs
7 cups boiling water
6 cups (a good size loaf) day old Portuguese, French or Italian crusty bread, cut into 1 1/2 inch chunks
1/2 tsp ground pepper

1. In a large pot, get the water boiling and add the salt

2. Using a mortar and pestle, pulverize the garlic and cilantro together until it forms a thickish paste. Transfer to the bottom of a heat-proof bowl or casserole dish and drizzle with the olive oil.

3. Once the water is boiling, poach the eggs. The whites will spread everywhere, just be careful that he yolks don't stick to the bottom of the pot. Gently boil until eggs are cooked through (about 2 or 3 minutes)

4. Add the bread to the bowl and coat all the pieces with the cilantro-garlic-olive oil mixture. Sprinkle with the ground pepper.

5. Pour the boiling egg water mixture into the heat proof bowl and arrange the poached eggs on top. Sprinkle the top with fresh cut cilantro.

6. Serve at the table with a ladle being sure to give place an egg in each person's bowl.

Beat Up Potatoes (Batatas à Murro)

I think this dish embodies many things that are uniquely Mediterranean...it marries garlic and olive oil with a baked potato, replacing the usual sour cream and chives. And instead of gently cutting open the potato, these ones are literally beat up ('à muro') in the true hot blooded fashion that is being Mediterranean.
I've never really liked potatoes, but this, along with my grandma's taters, are by far my favourite ways of eating potatoes. I don't think I'm the only one, since most people that try them, usually ask for seconds.
As a bonus, it's a really easy recipe and goes well with anything, but we usually serve it will grilled fish.

Ingredients

20 to 30 small white baby potatoes, washed
olive oil
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
salt and pepper

1. Put the whole potatoes on a baking sheet or shallow baking pan and bake at 450 F for about 30 minutes, or until the potatoes begin to very lightly brown.

2. Using an oven mitt or clean linen cloth, pick up one potato at a time and squeeze it until it pops open (This is the beating up part!). Transfer to a deep heat-proof bowl.

3. Drizzle potatoes with olive oil until evenly coated, add the garlic and salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

ALTERNATIVE METHOD
My cousin Jorge, lives in Portugal, and is a great cousin because not only does he read my blog, he suggests recipes and ways to make it better. This recipe is one of them.
He emailed me shortly after I posted this recipe to tell me his quick way of baking the potatoes....in the microwave. I've never tried it with this recipe, but I have 'baked' potatoes in the microwave before, and they have turned out just fine. Jorge suggested 8 to 9 minutes at the maximum setting, but use your best judgement.

15 minutes of fame :)

So, my parents own a wine business and last weekend they celebrated their 25th year in business with a grape harvest festival...there were grilled sardines, fresh cheese, grape stomping (it's harder than it looks, I can attest to that) and a local fellow food blogger (and customer) Lisa of Lisa's Vegetarian Kitchen.
Lisa, along with her trusty photographer, Dave, came to our event and wrote a blurb about it on Foodtv.ca (Lisa is a guest blogger for the website) Lisa also graciously included a link to the Curly Cook and my post on how to make the fresh cheese. Needless to say, I had quite the fit when I found out my link would be on Foodtv.ca
Well the post went up last weekend and I thought I would share it with you.
I thought I'd have some photos to show you, but I don't have them with me...but when I do, I'll get them up! For now, enjoy the links (which all have pictures)

Figs!

I grew up eating dry figs, and always liked them, and naively thought that that was just the way figs came; dry. It was on a family vacation to Portugal when I was a teenager that I first tasted a fresh fig. It was late August, and we were driving in the southern region of the country when my Dad suddenly stopped the car at the side of the road. He clambered up a bit of a hill and exclaimed that it was a fig tree full of fruit. Never being one to say no to food, I got out of the car and joined him on the fill where he handed me my first fresh fig. Since then, I have always associated figs with warm weather and warm climate, that is until last fall.
It was the beginning of September and I went to pay rent to my Sicilian landlord. He and his wife were both outside and showed me their garden which included a massive fig tree! I was completely blown away. He was equally blown away by the fact that I recognized a fig tree and liked fresh figs. His wife then picked me a basket of them and when I arrived at my parents that afternoon with them , my Dad had a fit...in a good way.
Last week, my land lady knocked on my door asking when I wanted to come and pick up my figs...I guess living in a small town does have it's benefits :)

Fresh Cheese (Queijo Fresco)

As a child, fresh cheese was something I wouldn’t eat very often, since it wasn’t always available at the local Portuguese grocery store. I remember spending an afternoon at my cousin’s house and having sandwiches of fresh cheese that my aunt had just made. I was always amazed by the fact that she had actually made the cheese right there, while we played during the afternoon.

Years later, during dinner at my godmother Carmen’s house, one of her guests had brought fresh cheese that she had made. I immediately ambushed Rosaria for the recipe and was amazed by how easy it really was to make. I proved it this weekend during a few cooking demonstrations I hosted at the Western Fair. A video of that demonstration will be posted in about a month, once my trusty film/tv guy Marco has a chance to edit the footage.
What follows are some of the pictures I took backstage before the demonstration as well as the instructions on how to make your own fresh cheese.

Ingredients

1 bag of 2 % cows milk (approximately 1.3 L)

1 capful of powdered coagulant (combination of bacterial culture & rennet)

1 tsp. Sea Salt or ¼ tsp. iodized salt

Tools

Cheese mold

Big Bowl

Slotted spoon

Clean cutting board

Note: If you're looking to buy a cheese mold and the coagulating agent, LetsMakeFoodandWine.com sells both as a kit.

Step 1: Warm the milk to 32°C to 35°C using a water bath (if possible)

Step 2: Add the coagulant and the sea salt to the bowl, then slowly pour in the warm milk. Stir gently until the coagulant and salt are incorporated into the milk.

Step 3: Cover the bowl and wait about an hour or until you can see the milk starting to ‘set.’ It will look like kind of like plain yogurt.

Step 4: Place the cutting board at the edge of your sink and place something under the end on the counter to create a slant. I usually use the rim of a mason jar lid, or a saucer. The cutting board needs to be on a slant so that the liquid from the cheese will be able to drain away from the cheese and into the sink.

Step 5: Place the cheese mold on the slanted cutting board. With one hand, securely hold the cheese mold and while using a slotted spoon, transfer the contents of the bowl carefully into the cheese mold.

All the contents of the bowl won’t fit in the mold right away. You’ll need to wait for the liquid (whey) to drain out of the cheese. You can speed up the process by using a shallow spoon to scoop out more of the liquid and make space for the remaining contents of the bowl.

Step 6: Keep adding the contents of the bowl into the mold until the bowl is empty. Make sure the cheese mold is secure on the cutting board and will stay put once you let it go. Now all you need to do is wait until most of the whey drains and the fresh cheese is left. If you leave it overnight, it will definitely be ready by the next morning.

Step 7: Carefully remove the mold from the finished cheese and transfer to a serving dish. You can keep the cheese refrigerated for 2 or 3 days (if it stays in your fridge that long!) It will lose more liquid and become denser with time, and you’ll likely need to drain the excess whey from the container that you store it in.

Serve with fresh cracked pepper, red pepper dip or anything else you can think of!

Back to Blogging

Hi all,

So I've taken a bit of an hiatus during the summer months. It wasn't really planned, but as the weather became warmer, so did my apartment, and cooking in a hot apartment is, well, very hot. In any case, it's not that I've stopped thinking about the blog, or food for that matter, in fact I would say that I've been doing a lot of food related things, but just not posting.
I've been keeping busy with other food related things....I taped a cooking demo. You can check it out on YouTube I have to give props to my friend Marco Raffa, an aspiring filmaker/producer/tv guy, who found me a place to shoot the (3) part demo as well as edit the whole thing....THANKS MARCO! You can check out his portofolio of videos through the link above...happy viewing :)
I've also been traveling a bit...Toronto (Summerlicious @ Bymark....VERY good), Stratford (Theatre, Dining and picnics by the river), Simcoe (Cherry Picking), British Columbia (Sushi!!!) and of course in and around my neck of the woods for the usual sort of thing.
I've kept taking photos of good meals I've had or things that have struck my fancy with the intent of posting them all eventually. Well I guess all it took was the endless 'Back to School' commercials to get me off my duff and back to blogging....so I am officially back and will try to keep up with as best I can.
Come back soon and be sure to leave your comments and questions.
Oh and I've added a few photos below to prove that the 'Curly Cook' never stops thinking about food and blogging :)
Seared Ahi-Tuna at Bymark (by Mark McEwan) during Summerlicious in Toronto

View of the Avon River from our picnic table at Stratford on Father's Day.


Posing with a very full sour cherry tree on Tio Tony's Farm in Simcoe
Sushi House Takeout, Vancouver, B.C.

Leftover Shepherds Pie (Empadão)

Remember how I mentioned that my brother had 2 favourite dishes? Bife a Cavalo and Shepherds Pie or Empadão, in Portuguese. I’ll have to admit this was one, and still is one of my favourite comfort foods. I can still remember distinct times when my Mom would ask us what we wanted to eat and we’d say “empadão!” 95% of the time. She wouldn’t make it all the time, and I understand why. It’s generally a long process; making the meat mixture on the stovetop, cooking and mashing the potatoes and then baking the whole thing. Well, I decided to cut out a step and used leftover chili and roasted vegetables from lunch time as the filling which left me only having to boil and mash the potatoes. Overall the results were pretty good. My family was happy with the fact that food was ready quickly and that it wasn’t just warmed up chili from lunch. My brother had his beloved empadão and no food went to waste.

Ingredients

• Leftover meat, could be BBQ, chili, stew, whatever, be as creative as you like
• Cooked vegetables, I used roasted peppers and asparagus, but you could use canned or frozen mixed vegetables too.
• Potatoes for mashing, here’s where you’ll have to eyeball it. I used about 8 medium sized potatoes which made enough mashed potatoes for a 9” square baking pan. It depends on how much filling you have. However, it’s better to make more mashed potatoes, you can use the extra as another layer in your empadão, or keep it to make some soup tomorrow
• Butter, a few tablespoons
• Milk, about a ¼ of a cup
• 1 or 2 eggs

1. Preheat your oven to 375 F.

2. Bring a pot with water to a boil and add the potatoes and some salt. Cook for 10 minutes or so, or until you can easily pierce the potatoes with a fork

3. Drain water from the potatoes and begin mashing with a potato masher. Add a tablespoon of butter and a little milk and keep mashing. Check the consistency of the mashed potatoes and taste them to see if they need more salt. Add more butter and/or milk if they’re not smooth or creamy enough for you.

4. Once the potatoes are mashed to your liking, get an appropriately sized baking pan and layer the meat mixture and vegetables on the bottom. Then smooth over the mashed potatoes.

5. Beat the eggs and apply as an egg wash on top of the potatoes before putting it in the oven.

Layering the mashed potatoes over the leftover meat and roasted veggies

The Shepherd's Pie baking in the oven...the egg wash makes it brown to a pretty colour :)

First BBQ of the Season

The one BIG thing I’m missing at my place is a BBQ. I live on the third floor of a house and don’t have a balcony so BBQ related food doesn’t happen during the week for me. As a big lover of all things grilled, this makes me sad, but on the up side, it means that I usually have BBQ all weekend when I go to visit my parents.

My parents are also big BBQ fans, although my Dad is adamant that charcoal or wood is the only ‘real’ way to grill food. My Mom is a bit more of a realist and places the need for food on the table quickly above most other things. They usually meet halfway by grilling on the propane grill during the week when things tend to be more rushed, and opting for the slow grill on the weekends.

Since my parents are such fans of grilling we, (my brother, uncle, grandparents and I) decided to buy them a really nice BBQ for Christmas. I naively thought that lots of other people must want to buy people BBQ’s for Christmas, but I soon found out otherwise. There was only one place I found that had a decent BBQ for sale, and since the plan had already been made, we stuck with it. All in all, it turned out pretty well. They loved the BBQ and it works and looks good.

My Mom started cooking on it once the snow melted, but it wasn’t until about 3 weeks ago that it really started getting warm enough to actually stand outside beside the BBQ as you cooked. That’s when I took these pictures. My good friend Milana came over too and the three of us, Mom, Milana and I, chatted and sampled as we grilled. My Mom chose the prepackaged kabobs, which is rare of her to do, but we were all tired and just wanted to eat. We cut up some peppers and mushrooms and I made some tzatziki to go with all of it. I think it’s this sort of thing that makes me love food and cooking. There are few things that make me happier than cooking while you have good people around you and just sort let time pass you by. I find it calming and settling, and when I look at these pictures again, I get a smile on my face because that’s the feeling I remember.

Do you love to BBQ? Have any ‘must haves’ at every BBQ? I’d love to hear your stories.

Portuguese Style Rice Pudding (Arroz Doce)

It was my grandfather’s birthday last weekend so the whole family got together at my
grandparents house on Sunday afternoon for a big meal. When I say big, I mean we had trouble fitting all of the dishes on the table. But that’s my grandma when it comes to food, ‘go big, or go home.’ Everything she made was really good, as usual, but she is known for a few dishes and makes them every time the family is together. Arroz Doce, Portuguese style rice pudding is one of them. I thought I would try my hand at making some myself and bring it to lunch for an informal taste test. So after everyone was done their main course, dessert plates were brought out and the tasting began. I should mention that this wasn’t a controlled tasting by any means. Everyone knew which version was mine and which dish was my grandma’s, and did I mention that we were in my grandparent’s house? Needless to say that I didn’t stand a chance, but I still received some accolades for my interpretation of arroz doce; better than ‘boos.’ Here’s the recipe I used and below you’ll see some key tips to making your arroz doce a success.

Ingredients:

4 cups of water
1/2 tsp. of salt
2 cups of short grain rice (like the kind for risotto)
4 cups of milk
1 cup white sugar
1 tbsp. butter
1 or 2 cinnamon sticks
zest from one lemon
cinnamon (to decorate)

1. In a large pot, add the water, lemon zest and cinnamon sticks and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Let the lemon and cinnamon infuse the water for about 10 min.

2. Meanwhile, in another pot, add the milk and warm it up so that it’s ’scalded’ not boiled.

3. Remove the cinnamon sticks from the water and bring the liquid to a rolling boil and add the rice and salt. Be sure to mix it a big so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the
pot.

4. Cook the rice for about 15 minutes, or until it looks like most of the water is absorbed,
then add a few ladles of the scalded milk. Stir occasionally to incorporate the milk.

5. Once it looks like the rice has absorbed the milk add another few ladles of milk and
repeat until you’re left with your last few ladles of milk.

6. Before you add the last bit of milk to the rice, add the sugar to the pot.

7. Finally add the last of the milk. The rice should look very creamy and thick.

8. Pour the dessert either into a large serving platter, or you can use individual ramekins.
Decorate with cinnamon either with designs or just sprinkled on top. Let it set at room
temperature or in the fridge.

Important things to remember:

I think there are a few key things you have to remember when making this dish. One, although most recipes I found call for 1 cup of sugar or less, it tastes better if you add closer to 1 1/2 cups. I think this has to do with the fact that one usually serves this dish at room temperature or slightly chilled which tends to make it taste less sweet than when it’s on the stovetop. Two, make sure the rice is cooked all the way through or the milk and sugar won’t penetrate the the rice. Lastly, avoid stirring the pot too much or you’ll end up with a gooey mushy dessert. Low heat and occasional stirring in the key.

Grandma's Potatoes

In my last post, I mentioned how my grandma has two signature dishes she makes at every family function arroz doce, and these roated potatoes. There are very rarely leftovers when she makes them, since everyone usually takes seconds. This is a guideline to make these amazing pototoes, since like most seasoned cooks, my grandma doesn’t use any concrete measurements.

Ingredients:

6 to 8 medium yukon gold potatoes (my grandma insists on them), cut into bit size pieces

1 medium onion, chopped

2 or 3 cloves of garlic, cut into quarters

1 tsp. sweet paparika (approximately)

1 or 2 dry bay leaves

2 tbsp. olive oil (approximately)

salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat the oven to 400 F.

2. Place the cut up potatoes in a flat baking pan (i.e. like those rectangular Pyrex ones) and add all of the other ingredients. Mix well so that everything is evenly distributed and the potatoes are coated with olive oil.

3. Cover with tin foil and bake until done (20-30 minutes). Put the broiler on for the last 5 to 10 min so that the top of the potatoes become toasty

4. Tastes great with any kind of roast, or BBQ

Saffron Scallop Rice with Asparagus Wrapped in Presunto

I was probably 16 or 17 years old when I first tried scallops. One of my friends ordered scallops wrapped in bacon when we went out for dinner, and after taking a few bites I fell in love with yet another type of seafood. When I went home that night, I remember asking my Mom if she had ever tried scallops and she said she had, but never really liked them. I was slightly annoyed at having been kept in the dark about scallops, just because my Mom, the everyday cook at our house, didn’t like them, and so, didn’t bother buying them. In hindsight, (brought on by my years of wisdom of course ;) I realize that Mom probably didn’t and still doesn’t like scallops because she didn’t grow up eating them. This may sound like a weak argument, especially when you consider that I didn’t grow up eating sushi, Indian, Thai, or lots of other things that I eat, but the difference is that I truly adore food, and my Mom, not so much. In any case, I’m pretty sure she would like this, especially if it meant that she didn’t have to cook

So that was my scallop history, now onto why this recipe. The Liquor Stores in Ontario have this AMAZING magazine that is published quarterly (I think) and always have really cool recipes for food and drink. I think that’s what the magazine is called, how original Anyways, I picked up the latest issue, along with a small bottle of Bailey’s that is now gone and saw this beautiful photograph of pan seared scallops on a bed of something yummy. All day at work, I kept thinking about scallops and trying to remember what the recipe called for (besides scallops) but couldn’t. So then I googled ‘food & wine’ which brought me to a similar magazine based out of Australia (if you’re interested) but alas, no scallop recipe. I finally threw my hands in the air (well in my head, not literally, because I’d look funny doing that at work) and visited my trusty food tv website. I typed in ’scallops’ and came up with a few pages of hits….scroll, scroll…’what’s a reduction?’, ‘edame…I don’t think I can get those in this town’, ‘ Scallops, Tapas style’, BINGO! The original recipe didn’t call for rice, just the scallops in the saffron white wine sauce. It didn’t say to add red pepper or garlic either. And the asparagus wrapped in presunto (Portuguese version of proscuitto), well I needed to get my greens in somewhere

Ingredients (Yield for 2)

For the Saffron Scallop Rice

1/2 onion, chopped

1 or 2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1/2 red pepper, julienned (fancy word for cut in thin strips)

8 scallops (the bigger ones)

1/4 cup white wine

a few threads of saffron

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup of long grained parboiled rice

Ingredients for Asparagus Wrapped Presunto

6 stalks of asparagus, washed and stems removed

6 thinly sliced strips of presunto (cured ham)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F to prep it for the asparagus

2. Get a small pot with water for boiling the rice. Follow the instructions on the bag.

3. Heat some oil in a medium sized sauce pan and saute the onions and garlic for a minute or so. Add the red peppers.

4. Push the veggies to one side of the pot, add a little more oil to the empyu side of the pot and add the scallops. They’ll start releasing their juices, so let them do their thing for another minute or so

5. You want the scallops to get a pretty brown caramel colour, so start mixing the veggies (which are probably carmalizing a bit) with the scallops so that all the juices mix and the scallops start to gain some colour. Remember to turn the scallops so that they cook evenly.

6. There should be a little sauce being created at the bottom of your pot. Now add a pinch of saffron and season with salt and pepper.

7. Get a baking sheet and your asparagus wrapped in the presunto. Add a little oil to the baking sheet, arrange the asparagus so there is space between them and put them in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until the asparagus is soft and the presunto sizzling.

8. Once the scallops look cooked (about 5 minutes or so) turn up the heat and add the wine.

9. After a minute or so, add the cooked rice (it should be done by now or just about) and carefully incorporate the scallop mixture.

10. Cook a few more minutes and serve with the asparagus

Bife a Cavalo

Before Rachel Ray. my Mom was (and still is) the fastest cook I know. She would have my brother and I time her, just to prove that her making food at home was just as quick, if not quicker than going to a fast food place (which is what my brother and I usually wanted) This dish is as close as Portuguese cuisine gets to fast food; only tastier and I’m sure, healthier.

I’m pretty sure this is my brother’s favourite dish, second maybe only to Shepherds Pie. I’ve tweaked the recipe a bit, adding sauted onions and mushrooms to the plate, since they go so well with everything else in the dish. Bife a Cavalo, literally means “Beef Steak, Horse-style,” which makes not sense to me. The only thing I can think of is that it’s a meal for someone who is as hungry as a horse. That would make sense, since it is alot of food and is a quick dish to make. I’ll go with that interpretation until I (or you) hear different.

So as a tribute to my Mom who made this, and many other dishes in 30 minutes flat, and my brother, who convinced me to start this blog in the first place, I present ” Beef steak if you’re as hungry as a horse”

Ingredients (For 2)

2 thin fast fry beef steaks

2 cloves of garlic, chopped in quarters

1 onion, coarsely chopped

6 or so mushrooms, coarsely chopped

2 potatoes, cut for fries

2 eggs

salt & pepper

1. If you want to deep fry the potatoes (the traditional way) do it closer to the end so that they stay warm. I personally do not like deep frying so I chose to bake my potatoes on a baking sheet with some oil @ 400 F for 15 minutes. You could just as easily use pre cut french fries and bake them. Your choice.

2. Heat some oil in a medium sized skillet and add the garlic to infuse it. Add the beef steaks being sure to brown each side. Season with salt and pepper. The cooking time will depend on the thickness of the steak.

3. Remove beef from skillet and place one steak on its own plate and cover to keep warm.

4. There should be some juices left in the skillet to saute the onions and mushrooms in. If not, add a little more oil, then saute the onions for a minute and add the mushrooms. Saute until mushrooms have released their juices remove.

5. Divide half of the sauted onions and mushrooms and pile on top of the steak. Cover the plate again.

6. Still using the same skillet (did I mention I don’t like doing dishes!) add a little bit of oil to fry the eggs. Fry however you like it, although in this case sunny side up is perfect to dip your fries in

7. The potatoes should be ready by now, and you can arrange them around the beef piled with the mushroom onion saute.

8. Finally, add the fried egg on top of the sauted mushrooms and onion and check the clock…betcha it was less than 30 minutes!

Fantastic Roast Chicken

You know, I didn’t know who Jaime Oliver was for a really long time. I kept hearing people rave about him but didn’t even know what he looked like. That was until I happened to flip the channels and come across this cooking show that I had never seen before. I thought the guy was great! He was using lots of flavour and keeping things pretty simple…and then when I saw the credits and the light bulb went off. This whole thing is the segue to the fact that this recipe is from none other than Jaime Oliver and coincidently enough, it’s taken from that original episode that introduced me to him in the first place.
This roast chicken really is fantastic. I added a handful of baby carrots to give the dish some more colour, and couldn’t find a celeriac so omitted that, although I’m sure it would taste awesome.

Ingredients

2 pounds chicken, preferably organic
1 large lemon
8 slices prosciutto or Parma ham, thinly sliced
1 to 2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
2 good handfuls fresh thyme, leaves picked and finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 ounces softened butter
2 pounds potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 large celeriac, peeled

1. Preheat the oven and an appropriately sized roasting tray to 425 F. Wash your chicken inside and out and pat dry. Using your fingers, part the breast skin from the breast meat. It's important to try to push your hand gently down the breast, being careful not to rip the skin.

2. With a peeler, remove and chop the fragrant yellow skin of the lemon, keeping the peeled lemon to one side. Chop prosciutto and add to the bowl with the lemon skin, garlic and thyme. Season, with salt and pepper and then mix it all into the butter. Push this into the space you have made between the meat and the skin -- rub and massage any that's left over in and around the bird.

3. Slash the thigh meat to allow the heat to penetrate a little more, which makes it taste better. Cut the peeled lemon in half and push it into the cavity. Then put chicken in the hot roasting tray and roast in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.

4. While the chicken is cooking, parboil the potatoes in salted water for 10 minutes and drain. Cut the celeriac into irregular chunks around the same size as the potatoes.

5. Remove the chicken from the oven, by which time the tasty butter will have melted, flavored and cooked out of the chicken into the bottom of the tray, awaiting your potatoes and celeriac. Put a fork into the cavity of the chicken and lift it off of the tray for 20 seconds while tossing and coating the vegetables in the butter. Put the chicken back on top of the vegetables and cook for around 40 minutes. Leave to stand for 10 minutes.