Tonight's dinner - Potato gratin and Heston Blumenthal's roast chicken

I like using the oven to cook dinner. It is so easy and all I need to do is to prepare the food and pop them into the oven.

 

Potato Gratin from Taste.com.au

• 3 medium potatoes 
• 1 onion                            
• garlic, thinly sliced                            
• salt and cracked black pepper                            
• 1 cup cream
• 2 tablespoons grated parmesan or swiss cheese  

Directions   

Preheat oven to 180C. Lightly grease four 1-cup capacity ramekins. Thinly slice potatoes and onion. Arrange some of the potato over the base of each ramekin and top with a little onion. Sprinkle with a few slices of garlic and season with salt and cracked black pepper. Continue layering with the remaining potato and onion, adding garlic every second or third layer. Combine cream with cheese. Pour into the ramekins then bake for 45 minutes or until potato is cooked through and top is golden. Stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Heston Blumenthal's roast chicken

Ingredients

• 1.5–2 kg whole chicken
• 6 % brine (300 g salt dissolved in 5 litres water)
• 1 lemon
• 1 bunch thyme
• 125 g unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for rubbing into the skin
• 30 ml dry white wine

For the gravy (optional)

• 20 ml dry white wine
• 250 ml (1 cup) chicken stock
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 sprig tarragon
• 1 sprig parsley

Instructions

Resting time 45 minutes
Brining time overnight
Warning In this recipe, while Heston cooks his chicken to an internal temperature of 60°C, if you want to stick to safety guidelines your chicken should reach 75°C in the thickest part of the breast.

Remove the trussing from the chicken then place it in a clean container. Pour over the brine, ensuring that the chicken is submerged, then cover the container with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight.
Remove the chicken from the liquid and dry well with paper towel. Remove the wishbone and place on a wire rack set over a tray.
Preheat the oven to 90ºC (about 70°C fan or gas mark ¼, but use an oven thermometer to get an accurate temperature).
Roll and pierce the lemon, then place it in the cavity of the bird with half of the thyme. Rub some butter on top of the skin.
Place the chicken on the rack in a roasting tray and place in the oven. Roast the chicken for about 3–4 hours or until the internal temperature in the thickest part of the breast is 60ºC.
Remove the chicken from the oven and allow to rest for 45 minutes. Turn the oven temperature as high as it will go.
In the meantime, melt the butter in a pan and add the wine and a few sprigs of thyme. Bring to the boil then remove the pan from the heat and use the melted butter to baste the chicken before and during browning.
Once the resting time has elapsed, put the chicken back in the roasting tray and return it to the oven for about 10 minutes or until golden brown, taking care that it doesn’t burn.
Once coloured, remove the chicken from the oven and place on a cooling rack.
To carve the chicken, remove the legs by slicing down where they meet the breast and splaying them outwards to expose the joint, which you can then sever.
Remove the breast by running a sharp knife deeply into the flesh along one side of the centre bone that extends the length of the bird, making a deep vertical cut. Then cut horizontally through the flesh at the bottom of the breast until the horizontal cut meets the vertical, separating the breast from the ribcage. Repeat the procedure on the other side of the centre bone. The breasts can then be laid cut-side down on the chopping board and sliced.
Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
If making the gravy, when the chicken has been browned and removed from the roasting tray, place the tray containing the juices on the cooktop over medium-high heat. Add the white wine and scrape and stir to deglaze the pan. Add the chicken stock and cook until reduced to a sauce. Strain into a small saucepan.
Before serving, stir in the mustard and warm through. Finish with freshly chopped tarragon and parsley and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.