SUMMER’S DONE; TURN ON THE OVEN

I have a house rule—no turning on the oven from June till September. With the first day of fall and a somewhat cooler kitchen, I am so excited to roast a chicken again! 

Burnished roast chicken, an autumnal pleasure.

When my kids were growing up, roast chicken was a favorite easy, weeknight meal. While the boys were doing homework and baths, I would bung a whole, small chicken in the oven with nothing more than a scattering of thyme and chopped garlic, salt and pepper. In a little more than an hour, dinner was on the table.

Now, I seek out free-range chicken, much larger than those battery-raised supermarket birds. They’re much more expensive and take longer to roast, so chicken is a special dish.

The first day of fall also marks my switch from the chilled rosado (rosé wine) that I favour in torrid summer weather to tinto (red wine). As I select a robust Rioja crianza—a red wine from La Rioja with a little time on oak (this one is tempranillo with a little garnacha), I recall that the most famous dish of La Rioja was the one that didn’t get eaten--a roast chicken set before the town magistrate of Santo Domingo de la Calzada back in the 14th century.

The story goes that a youth who was traveling with his family on a pilgrimage to the holy shrine of Santiago stopped over at an inn in Santo Domingo and was framed by a scheming girl, possibly because he spurned her advances.

The girl placed a piece of silver in his rucksack, then falsely accused the boy of thievery. He was sentenced and hanged for the crime. But his parents heard his voice calling out from the gallows, saying he was still alive.

They rushed to tell the town magistrate, who was just sitting down to a dinner of roast chicken. He dismissed their claims, “Your son is as alive as this chicken that I am about to eat.” With that the chicken hopped from the plate and began clucking and strutting about. The boy, indeed, was still alive and was released. The saying goes, “Santo Domingo de la Calzada, que cantó la gallina despues de asada,” where “the chicken cackled after it was roasted.”

Dinner from the oven--roast chicken with chorizo and sweet potatoes. Pour some red Rioja wine to go with it.

Chorizo sausage adds color and flavor to the chicken and pan sauce.

La Rioja is also known for vivid displays of red choricero peppers hung from balconies to dry in the fall. These peppers are used for flavoring the region’s chorizo sausages. That gives me the idea to use chunks of chorizo to flavor the roast chicken.

And, now that I’ve turned on the oven, I might as well roast some sweet potatoes, the first of the season.

First of the season--locally-grown sweet potatoes.

Roast Chicken with Chorizo
Pollo Asado con Chorizo

Roast chicken is juicy, basted with chorizo fat.

Use chorizo link sausage, the slightly soft type that is best for grilling and stewing. (Dry-cured chorizo is best sliced as a cold-cut rather than used in cooking.) If chorizo is not available, use a spoonful of pimentón (paprika) mixed with olive oil for basting the chicken.

The pan drippings with chorizo fat are good spooned over potatoes or other vegetables. 

Herbs, garlic and chorizo are stuffed in the bird's cavity. On the left are dried choricero peppers, used to flavor chorizo.

4 ½ - 5 pound chicken
Salt
Freshly-ground black pepper
Bay leaves
Thyme sprigs
Rosemary sprig
Lemon slice
3 cloves garlic, lightly crushed
3 chorizo sausages (7 ounces)
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup white wine

Sprinkle the chicken inside and out with salt and pepper. Allow to stand 30 minutes.

Tie the bay leaves, thyme and rosemary into a bouquet and insert in the chicken’s cavity with the lemon slice and (unpeeled) garlic.

Slice the chorizo. Heat oil in a small skillet and fry the chorizo, turning to brown both sides. Tilt the pan and skim out the chorizo. Save the fat in the pan.

Preheat oven to 425ºF.

Use chorizo pan drippings to baste the chicken.

Stuff the chorizo into the chicken cavity with the herbs. Tie the legs together and set in a roasting pan. Brush the chicken all over with the fat rendered from the chorizo. Roast 30 minutes.

Baste the chicken with pan drippings. Lower oven temperature to 350ºF. Roast 30 minutes more.

Baste the chicken again with pan drippings. Pour over the wine. Roast chicken 30 minutes more or until juices run clear.

Remove chicken to a platter or cutting board and allow to rest 15 minutes before carving. Discard the bunch of herbs. Place the chorizo on serving platter with the chicken. Peel the garlic cloves and use them as garnish. Serve the pan juices in a separate bowl.

More recipes for roast chicken:

Lemon-roasted chicken.
Roast stuffed chicken.

and, for Potatoes, La Rioja Style (with chorizo) http://mykitcheninspain.blogspot.com.es/2010/04/potatoes-from-canary-islands-to-la.html

POTATOES---FROM THE CANARY ISLANDS TO LA RIOJA

Can you imagine life before potatoes? Unless your origin is, perhaps, Peruvian, there was such a time--hardly 500 years ago--when potatoes didn’t exist. No fries. No jacket potatoes. No mashed. No potatoes. Not in Ireland. Nowhere in Europe. Not in India, nor China. Not in North America.

It wasn’t until some 40 years after Columbus set sail from Spain that potatoes found their way to the Old World and, much later, back to the New World.

The potato is native to the high Andes regions, where the Indians were eating it as early as 3000 BC, although it was unknown through the rest of South and North America. It was “discovered” in Ecuador by one of Francisco Pizarro’s band of explorers, and brought  to Spain in 1534.

The potato was cultivated as a curiosity in monasteries, but, at first, hardly anyone dared eat it’s tuberous root. Related to poisonous nightshade, the potato was believed to be dangerous and, because it’s not mentioned in the Bible, ungodly. Nevertheless, potato eating spread widely in Europe amongst hungry people, who discovered the tuber easy to grow on poor soil. In Spain it soon displaced other starches such as dried chestnuts as sturdy addition to lentil and garbanzo stews.

It wasn’t until the famine of 1770, when Antoine Parmentier in France won a prize for a study showing how the potato could be the solution to famine, that the potato really gained culinary ground. Parmentier launched a heavy-duty public relations campaign promoting the potato.

There’s no record explaining how the potato got to Ireland, although some stories say it arrived there around 1586, possibly from ships of the Spanish Armada wrecked on the Irish coast. Much later it was Irish settlers who carried potatoes to North America. So, from the New World (South America) to the old, Spain, and back to the new.

In Spain potatoes are, after bread, the most favored food-stuff. Patatas fritas, Spanish fries, preferably fried in olive oil, are a standard side with the Spanish meal and, of course, potatoes are the essential ingredient for a Spanish tortilla.

While potato dishes are to be found in every region of Spain, the Canary Islands, the stopping-off point between the New World and continental Spain, are a veritable Garden of Eden of potatoes, with many heritage varieties still grown. .

Read my story about “wrinkly potatoes,” papas arrugadas, from the Canary Islands in this week’s LOS ANGELES TIMES food pages. Cooking in heavily salted water wrinkles the potato skins and leaves them with a light crusting of salt. They are delicious served with baked or grilled fish and Canary Island mojo sauces. (Click HERE for the story and follow the links for recipes.)

Here is a recipe for a potato dish from La Rioja, in northern Spain. A robust Rioja crianza, a red wine with a little time on oak, would go nicely with the potatoes.

Potatoes, La Rioja Style
Patatas a la Riojana

La Rioja cooks say you shouldn’t cut the potatoes with a knife, but rather cut them slightly, then break them into pieces. The rough broken surface releases more potato starch, which is what thickens the cooking liquid.

This dish can be served, instead of soup, as a starter or main dish.

Serves 4.

3 pounds mature baking potatoes, such as russets
¼ cup olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 small green pepper, cut in 1-inch pieces
1 tablespoon pimentón (paprika)
pinch of cayenne
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups water
12 ounces chorizo sausage links, sliced


Peel the potatoes and cut and snap them into chunks of about 1 ½ -inch.

Heat the oil in a cazuela or heavy skillet and sauté the onion until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the potatoes and turn them in the oil for another 5 minutes. Add the green pepper, pimentón, cayenne, bay leaf, salt and water. Bring to a boil, then lower heat so potatoes cook gently for 10 minutes.

Add the chorizo to the potatoes and continue to cook for another 25 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.

Let the dish rest for 10 minutes before serving. The cooking liquid should be thickened to a sauce consistency.