Jubilee Extravaganza Day 4 - English Roast

After our lovely curry the night before, we finally reached the end of the Jubilee Weekend and I celebrated by randomly cooking a dinner for my friends!

Sunday Roast - There's not much for me to say on this weekly English dish.  Although, as someone who likes to cook, improvise recipes and present visually pleasing and tasty meals, I've always got to put my own twist on things!

As I was trying to do only British themed activities this weekend, my roast (which is basically a lightweight Thanksgiving dinner to my American readers) couldn't include my staples of mac n' cheese, some form of green veg in pork and vinegar and cornbread. Tragic, I know.

I did make a roast chicken that was meant for 2-3 but fed 5 in the end!

Orange and Herb Roasted Chicken

Orange and Herb Roasted Chicken

I'm not very good at recipes but here goes

• 1 whole chicken
• 1 orange cut into quarters
• 1 onion cut into quarters
• 1 sliced clove of garlic
• fresh thyme, rosemary and sage
• 2 tablespoons of softened butter
• salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoon of oil (I think I use EVOO)
• Dried mixed/italian herbs if you want

Pre-heat oven to 210ºC. Run the chicken under cold water, plucking any extra bits that are still on it and rinsing out the cavity completely. If there are any necks or giblet type thingies get rid of that. If you know how to make gravy with it, go for it but I normally have these already removed.

Place chicken on its back on a clean surface or even in the pan you'll be cooking this in.  At this point, I start thinking of the chicken as a little person that's getting a massage and going in the sauna for a bit. (Don't judge me, I spend a lot of time in the kitchen by myself - gotta stay entertained!)

In a small bowl mix the butter, salt, pepper and dried herbs (if you're using them) together. With the cavity facing you, just at the top you should be able to lift up a bit of the skin and fit most of your hand underneath the skin over the breast. (If you're squeamish about touching meat, imagining this as a massage helps!) The slit between the skin should go down to the legs as well. Keep using the butter mix and massaging the chicken under and over the skin, front and back, until you're happy with the seasoning. This butter mix will also help the chicken have nice and crispy skin.

Transfer the chicken to the pan if it's not already there and top with more salt, pepper and dried herbs if you wish.

Take one orange quarter and squeeze over the chicken. Put one quarter inside the chicken, another quarter behind a wing, and the last quarter behind a leg diagonal from the orange wing.

Take one onion quarter and put inside the chicken, use the other 3 to put around the chicken behind the wing and leg with no orange and peel the last quarter to sprinkle around the chicken.

Put several slices of the garlic inside the chicken and sprinkle the rest around him er her er it. :) See, it becomes my little friend before I send it off to the nice warm sauna. 

Decorate it with the fresh herbs as you wish. I normally tuck rosemary sprigs on its legs, and put a mix of the herbs inside the chicken.  Finally prop the wings behind its neck like it's lying back and kicking up its legs to relax (this helps the wing tips not to burn). People wrap up the legs with poultry string for the same reason, but I never have a problem with them burning. 

Drizzle a bit of oil at the bottom of the pan.  Set in the oven, on the middle rack, for however long the pack tells you since it depends on the size. I think this bird took about 30 - 45 minutes but you want it to look like the second picture up there (obvs). If you see it turning brown too fast, turn down the heat. If by 30 minutes it's not brown enough, turn it up to 220ºC for the last 10 minutes or so and it should be good. 

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I also had my first stab at Yorkshire Puddings, which must've been created when someone didn't know what to do with their excessively soupy bread mixture. I found this recipe online, followed it to.a.T. and created these bad boys as my cornbread replacement!

Best Yorkshire pudding recipe evar

Gorgeous yorkshire puds on the first try!

I'm stil amazed by how they work, how do they grow like that?!!? Apparently the trick is heating the pan to cooking temp with vegetable oil before adding the batter. The more oil, the more they rise. The hotter the pan, the better they rise.  Give it a try!

Here's the final dinner feast!

Orange and Herb Roasted Chicken, steamed broccoli, roasted carrots and potatoes, Yorkshire Pudding, gravy

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And finally, I may have broken my 'no American' things rule a bit with dessert. Well technically it's Sicilian, but who cares - it's my beloved Cassata Cake that I blogged about over a year ago.  I haven't made it since moving to England, and to be honest it's a bitch of a cake to make. It takes up your life, but it is WELL worth it once it's done. I normally try to save it as a summer weather cake as it's heavy in fruit and cream ingredients, but, well, like I said I haven't made it since moving to England. (Will it EVER be summer here!?)

I wanted to make a Jubilee themed cake so here are the results.

Cassata Cake

Click here for the recipe: http://arielcking.blogspot.com/2011/03/cassata-cake.html

This was my first time making everything, even the cake from scratch (I normally use box cake)! Very pleased with the results!

Building a Cassata Cake 

So that's that for my English Roast and Jubilee Weekend.

If you have any questions, have tried these recipes before, or have similar dishes to share let me know in the comments!

Jubilee Extravaganza Day 2 - BOATS!!

After Day 1 of Jubilee weekend, I'm surprised I even woke up on Sunday.

Watching Telly - Did you know that primetime television is on Saturday and Sunday evenings here? I don't get it, in a country that boozes so much you would think everyone would be down the pub, but this is a serious thing! As I had completely destroyed myself the day before, staying in and watching the flotilla river pageant jubilee thingy indoors was a brilliant idea. 

Yes we had freshly delivered pizza for breakfast, no we didn't change out of our PJs all day, yes many cups of tea were consumed whilst it rained all over the fools that stood outside to get a short glimpse of what we saw on BBC for 5 hours - but this level of lounging seems to be the standard for when big events are happening on your doorstep.

Without further ado, here's the best recap of that day

Oh my days, I've just linked to something from Perez...

The better part of this bit is afterwards when John Oliver flails excitedly talking about the boats and gets rained on/beans'd on/toast'd on.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Queen Who Stares at Boats - Royal Jubilee
www.thedailyshow.com
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On a side note, the BBC wasn't much better than CNN as far as coverage.  My favourite bit of flotilla commentary: 'Well, what some people don't realise is that driving a boat isn't like driving a car.'  

FFS.

Jubilee Extravaganza Day 1 - Field Day and Fin Fest

Since 2009, I've been lucky enough to live in London during some fairly exciting and historic events and the first weekend of June 2012 was certainly one of them.  While the world and the media set its eyes on Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee, I celebrated HRM's 60 years in the most British way possible...by doing everything BUT participate in the Jubilee.

Don't get me wrong, the boats, and Tom Jones and the processions are all very lovely, but you have to be crazy to sit through the hours of rain, hunger and anticipation just to see that - and I think most Londoners would agree.

For most of us, the Jubilee was celebrated from our homes, in a nearby pub, or even out of the UK. I however, spent the 4-day holiday weekend doing things that have come to define the British (although arguably more English) way of life for me.

Festivals - before moving to London, I rarely heard of music festivals. In Columbus, we had the free ComFest each year and that was the extent of my knowledge.  I mean I'd never even HEARD of Glastonbury.  Then I moved here and I really think there's no going back, I'm totally addicted to all things including music, in a field/park with lots of cider and at a fee.

With no Glastonbury on this year, I'm trying to find ways to replace this empty musical hole in my heart.  I started it with Camden Crawl in May and carried it on to Field Day in June. Field Day only lasts for one day so no camping required.  As I didn't take any photos, here are some tunes from the bands I did see that you should check out.









Franz Ferdinand apparently don't want us to embed their songs but here's a link.

And of course, the loves of my life, Spector:



I finished off Field Day and carried on with the festivities up North at The Finsbury just after midnight.  This place deserves a post of its own, and I will do eventually but I just want to say it is quickly becoming one of my favourite spots. They regularly have live music and on this weekend they put on their very own festival!

No clue who was playing when I came in, but they were a pretty awesome Turkish rock band.

This girl, DeLooze BLEW MY MIND. She's got a great voice, and I could really hear her + a DJ happening in the future.



Lazytalk reminded me of something circa late 90s - very entertaining bunch!

I'm not sure how it happened, but life lasted until at least 3.30am that day and I fit in two music festivals.  This, is how One celebrates a Jubilee in London.

Seeking Manchester - People's History Museum

Manchester is my second home here in England, but I rarely get to see Manchester. I typically just see the 'in-laws' and there's not much to do because it's a holiday. I finally had the chance to go up there with no tea time obligations and had a wander around the city.

I love it there because so much of the city reminds me of Cleveland, where I'm from.

The Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, OH - 2009

OK - so that is a bit of a glamour shot of Cleveland, but let me tell you, it's quite an industrial town. So much so that the river before your eyes once caught fire in the 70s due to all of the pollution from the factories along the river over the century.

None-the-less, walking around my Northern home, was a great escape from busy city life down here in the South and I spent hours walking around the People's History Museum.  If you have the chance, I highly recommend you go there for a vist.  I'm not much of an art museum kind of person, and I like to see exhibitions that are a bit different like when I visited the Canal Museum in London or the Fishing 'museum' (it was a room, so that term is used lightly) in Brighton.  PHM was a nice combination of history and political issues that workers faced at different points in England. They had some great political cartoons that had been used to win the working man's vote and later the working woman's vote and an entire section on banners that people carry during protests or for unions etc.  Interesting I suppose, if banners are your thing.

I learned a nice deal about 1819 Massacre (Peterloo) where 15 people died during a peaceful protest in MCR for the right to vote as working citizens. Also heard for the first time, 'phossy jaw' which little girls got while working in the matchstick factories and the phosphorus began to deterioratie the bones in their jaw. I got really happy when I reached the part about the NHS coming about in the late 40s and wondered, WTF we were up to in America that we STILL haven't sorted it out today.  And finally, I understood why football is on Saturdays - due to their work weeks being 6 days, but later granted a half-day Saturday so that's when people went out and had fun. I even saw a few clips from the 1923 Bolton v West Ham FA Cup Final.

View of the River Irwell

How long have we been fighting against sweatshops?

This was lolz to me

Different year, same argument.

That's a big promise to make. I swear I've heard this claim before tho...

A really powerful image of police 'authority' taking it too far.
She was helping a man who was hit by the police during a riot

Mega-lulz

OMG I WISH!!!