Sunday 17th Aug '08

I spent all of today in bed with a migraine. Damn stupid things. When I finally crawled out of bed at about 6pm, the first thing I did was feed my fish and head to the kitchen to make dinner. I'd missed breakfast and lunch because I was in bed all day - argh!

My mum was also cooking so I packed some of what she made to take to work for lunch tomorrow.

Mum's Combination Ho Fun

I slowly began chopping the vegetables (and fruit) to go with my spatchcock for dinner (see my previous day's post for details). I diced some potatoes and parboiled them in water with some sea salt. Meanwhile, I sliced some red onion into wedges and a couple of Granny Smith apples. I combined these with the parboiled potatoes in a bowl and drizzled some olive oil over them and seasoned with some cracked black pepper. I then arranged the vegetables in a baking dish with the spatchcock in the centre.

I know the recipe tells you to put the spatchcock ontop of the vegetables, but from previous experience I've found that this ends up in the vegetables underneath being undercooked. By the time they get cooked, the ones that aren't underneath will have started to burn. During cooking, I gave the vegetables a bit of a mix up a few times.

I have a fan force oven so I don't really find that the cooking times provided by recipes really work for me. I just sorta use my own experience and instinct. That and if the vegetables are starting to burn, it's time to take the dish out and check anyways heehee. About ten minutes before taking the spatchcock out, I threw some prosciutto over the vegetables that I'd torn up.

I tested if the spatchcock was ready by stabbing it with a metal skewer and watching juices run out. If they run out clear, the chook is ready.

Dee-licious!
two maryland pieces (tiny drumsticks) and a bit of breast

While my spatchcock was roasting in the oven, I set about preparing tomorrow's dinner. I bought a rack of lamb the other day which I needed to marinate. I peeled and squashed a few cloves of garlic and stuffed them in a few slits I made in the layer of fat on the lamb. Yeah, there was a layer of fat about a centimetre thick on the top of the lamb but I'm leaving it on. It adds to the flavour and you know the meat won't dry out during cooking. In a small bowl I combined some olive oil, rosemary, thyme, chilli flakes, sea salt and cracked black pepper. I don't have any fresh rosemary in my herb garden yet so I decided to just use the dried up packaged herbs in the cupboard. They do the same trick. I rubbed the herb mixture all over the lamb...

...into the fridge to soak up the flavours before being roasted tomorrow!