Hi all,
You’re getting four recipes in one newsletter today, because we’re recreating the dinner I served my family last week when they visited me in London. On their own each dish is extremely easy and enjoyable, but they complement each other and create a lovely spread that seems a whole lot more sophisticated than the amount of effort required. Make just one for a quick meal, or the whole menu for a nice weekend gathering with friends or family.
Last time my family visited I was living in a flatshare on the other side of the city, and I showed them my room for about three minutes before we left, because there was no place for four people to feasibly hang out. That made it all the more special this time to bring them to my new flat, where I live alone and have an actual sitting area separate from my bedroom and full control of my own kitchen. Granted, we still have to squish around a coffee table to eat because I sacrificed the dining table as my desk, but I’ll take what I can get in the London rental market. My new place is also in a much more neighborhood-y spot, and it was so fun to show them the markets that dominate my weekend routine and local bakeries I’ve come to love so much.
Cooking dinner at home one night was a nice break from eating out again and again, but of course we have many excellent meals out and about in the city. I took them to some reliable visitor classics like Noble Rot for wine and weekday set lunch, and The Wolseley for afternoon tea (see this post for my full list of restaurants for London visitors), but I also used them as an excuse to check out places that I’ve been eyeing for a while. The Tamil Prince easily made itself one of my favorite London Indian restaurants, with buttery roti and flavorful sauces, and dosa the size of a football which the table behind us ordered at least three times in a row. It was my second visit to Brawn, but everything from the salty saucisson and perfectly briny oysters to the delicate handmade pasta and rich chocolate mousse reminded my why this is my ideal cozy neighborhood spot. Returning home from the seaside one Saturday evening with no dinner reservations, I was just hoping to avoid serving my parents sidewalk kebab in the rain (would have been fine for my brother and I honestly), but we lucked out with a walk-in table at Acme Fire Cult and devoured some of the most delicious fire roasted vegetables I’ve had in a while.
Roast chicken dinner party
Serves ~4 adults
This meal is an amalgamation of a few other recipes I’ve shared in the newsletter, so if you’ve made any of those then this will be even easier than it already is. Here’s what’s on the menu:
Burrata with wild garlic and anchovies
House salad
Roast chicken
Butter beans with leeks and fennel
Make one, make two, make them all - they’re great on their own but even better together. The methods are so simple it’s hard to even call them recipes, but here you go.
Burrata with wild garlic and anchovies
Throw this together for people to nibble on while you finish up the salad and main dishes. The simplicity of this relies on really excellent ingredients, so look for burrata from a producer you trust and/or with DOP on the label, spring for the nicer anchovies (Cantabrian if you can find), use your nicest olive oil, and fresh bread from your favorite bakery.
Ingredients:
burrata (about 1 ball per 2 people)
wild garlic puree (instructions here, sub with basil puree if you don’t have wild garlic)
1 tin anchovies
olive oil
flaky salt
good crusty bread
Split open the burrata so the creamy insides spill out onto the plate. Drizzle wild garlic puree all over, then lay anchovy filets over top so that each section of cheese has one. Drizzle again with olive oil, and finish with a sprinkle of flaky salt. Serve family-style alongside slices of nice bread for mopping up.
House salad
This is just a nice salad I make a lot at home, so much so that I’ve christened it my “house salad” (which aligns with the chalkboard menu in my kitchen and my delusion that I live inside a restaurant). It’s simple, it’s delicious, and it’s just interesting enough to feel more elevated than your standard seasoned greens. The two types of lettuce give dimension in both color and flavor, the mustard and honey give acid and a hint of sweetness, and the toasted hazelnuts add a satisfying crunch.
For the dressing:
1t Dijon mustard
1t honey
1 lemon
2T olive oil
Salt
Pepper
For the salad:
1 medium head little gem or butter lettuce
1/2 radicchio (about half the volume of your lettuce)
50g whole blanched hazelnuts
Parmesan
Flaky salt
Chop the hazelnuts into small pieces (but not dust) and lightly toast until they are golden brown and smell nicely nutty. You could do this in a sauté pan by just stirring them around over medium heat, or by roasting in the oven, but either way watch them closely as they will go from golden to burnt more quickly than you’d expect. Tip: toast more than you need and save them for future salads.
Mix the dressing ingredients in a large bowl, using juice from 2 wedges of the fresh lemon to start. Whisk vigorously to emulsify and taste, then adjust with any of the same ingredients to your liking.
Chop the baby gem lettuce and radicchio into bite-sized pieces and add to the large bowl right on top of the dressing. Toss to coat thoroughly. Taste, and add a drizzle of olive oil and/or another squeeze of lemon as necessary. Sprinkle over flaky salt, then grate Parmesan liberally and toss again. Add the hazelnuts and serve.
Roast chicken
A roast chicken is endlessly versatile, it’s easy but shows that you put care into the meal, and requires little more than opening and closing the oven door, allowing to you prep other dishes and hang out with your guests. Since it’s the focal point and prepared so simply, it’s worth buying the nicest one you can find. Go to a butcher you trust or ask the meat counter at the grocery store for advice. There’s a million ways people recommend to roast a chicken - this is the method I’ve liked best so far for flavorful meat with little fuss. By roasting on top of vegetables, not only are you cooking both a main and a side dish in one, but the roasty chicken fat drips down on your veg and makes it even more flavorful than if cooked alone.
Ingredients:
whole chicken (1.75-2 kg / 3.8-4.4 lbs is about right for 4-6 people with sides)
salt
olive oil
vegetables for roasting (if doing the beans below, refer to those instructions, otherwise use whatever veg you like)
As far in advance as possible (a 24 hours if you can, otherwise just as soon as you are able) pat the chicken dry, and salt liberally all over including the inside cavity. Put in the fridge to rest, uncovered, until you’re ready to roast.
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. If combining with the bean recipe below, chop your leeks into half-moons, fennel into quarters (with the leafy tops removed), and slice the top off the garlic bulb so that all of the cloves are exposed. If you’re not doing the bean recipe, chop whatever veg you like, or omit entirely. In a roasting tray, combine all of the vegetables and drizzle all over with olive oil, then generous pinches of salt, until everything is coated. Place the chicken in the middle of the pan with the vegetables nestled in around it. With the longer cook time if any vegetable is sitting totally alone it could burn, but if they’re all piled up on each other they’ll just steam and won’t get any nice roasty bits. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but depending on the size of your pan and chicken just maneuver the vegetables around (adding more if necessary) so you get mostly a crowded single layer surrounding the bird.
Roast the chicken and vegetables for 40 minutes. After this point, take them out and baste the bird with some of the fat that has collected in the bottom, and rotate any veg that seems to be getting too dark. Turn the whole pan around 180 degrees and place it back in the oven the opposite way (to account for uneven ovens like mine) and roast again for 25 minutes. By this point it should be golden and the temperature should read at least 73.9C/165F when measured with a meat thermometer. If it’s not quite there, roast again in 10 minute intervals until fully cooked.
Set the chicken aside to rest while you finish other things. If you want to use the roast vegetables now (like for the bean recipe below), carefully lift the chicken onto a separate platter to finish resting there. After at least 15 minutes resting, carve the chicken (detailed instructions here if you need) and serve.
Butter beans with leeks and fennel
This is a continuation of the recipe above, a way to turn the roasted veg into a cozy accompaniment to the main chicken dish. You have such a good head start already since the vegetables roasted under the chicken and benefited from all the flavorful fat, plus there’s even more collected in the pan which will intermingle with the beans and create a cohesive side. If you want to make this bean dish on its own, ignore the instructions below and instead refer to this recipe from a few newsletters ago:
If you’re cooking these with the chicken though, refer to this method:
Ingredients:
700g very good butter beans (if you’re in the UK and haven’t tried Bold Bean Co yet, what are you even doing)
2 large leeks, white parts sliced in half lengthwise, then in rings for half-moons
2 fennel bulbs, leafy tops removed, sliced in quarters
1 bulb garlic, top sliced off to expose all the cloves
salt
olive oil
lemon
parsley (optional)
Remember, we’re continuing from the chicken recipe above, so the veg has already roasted. Set the chicken aside to rest on another platter while you continue.
Remove the fennel and garlic bulb from the roasting pan, leaving only the leeks and remaining chickeny juices behind. Pour in the whole jar of butter beans and mix together. Squeeze the garlic cloves out of the roasted garlic into the beans (careful - they will be hot) and mix again. Put the pan back in the oven at 200C/400F for 10 minutes.
Remove from the oven and stir. By now the beans should be warmed through, and the flavors are melding together. Squeeze over juice of half a lemon, mix, and taste. Add salt if needed (depending on your bean brand the beans may be plenty salty already). Carve the chicken and lay on top, placing fennel pieces in between. Garnish with chopped parsley if you like. Serve with a large spoon so guests can take chicken as well as scoops of beans as they like.
Have a great week,
Susanna