Roast Chicken at the Farm

                                              
    San Francisco is an awesome city.  It's colorful, diverse, has good weather, it's artsy, food oriented, and as I always say, no matter what you are into (literally!) San Francisco has something for you.
But I'm a little worn out from it.  Or maybe it's from cities themselves.  I'm sick of the noise, of the dirt, of the pee smelling sidewalks (dog pee, people pee, there seems to be pee everywhere I go...) the puke from drunken nights right as I walk out of the building, the poop that some jerk dog owner failed to pick up, the lack of green space, of fresh air, of wild animals.
So whenever I have the chance I take the train northeast to Auburn.  My little sanctuary. 

                                                          
      My dear friends C and E live there with their beautiful daughter J.  They live on a small farm, where C is slowly but surely starting a sheep dairy.  They have chickens, plenty of sheep, a llama, a dog.

                                          
  
      A vegetable garden in the summer.  There are apples, citrus, plum and fig trees on the land.  There are blackberry bushes and Concord grape vines. Even in the winter there are little surprises to be found like a Padron pepper forgotten on the plant, transformed into a sun dried Padron. 
                                             

                                           
      
   Being in the farm, tending to the animals, is to me the strongest reminder to think about where our food comes from.  Whether we are drinking the sheep's milk or just delivering it to the baby lambs, we are still moving the sheep, milking them, this weekend also castrating a few of the babies.  The chickens need fresh water, more feed, they also need to be me moved.  And then we can collect their eggs, just laid, packed full of nutrients.  The effort and care involved makes us so much more appreciative of what we are consuming.  It brings about the kind of mindfulness around our food that I feel we should always practice.

                                                                   
  C and E are both chefs, and C also works at a few farmers markets in the area.  Most of California's produce that we get down in the city actually comes from the areas surrounding Auburn, in the Central Valley.

                                           

    So when we are visiting, delicious and nutritious meals are always the norm.  This weekend, in order to give my friends a much deserved break, I decided to cook us dinner.
I asked what kind of meats they had frozen: lamb or chicken, both from D, C's friend and co-worker, a lamb farmer himself.
I honestly think that a properly made - not overcooked with a dry breast that makes you wonder why the hell people like chicken breast - roasted chicken is one of the most delicious things to eat in the whole wide world! As my husband always says, sweet simplicity.  

                                                         
  I inspected the produce that C had brought back from Saturday's market, and found carrots, baby russet potatoes, thyme and rosemary, one onion, green garlic Meyer lemons, tangelos, arugula,  and asparagus.

                                             

  Here are my steps to turn the above list of ingredients into one simple, easy and ridiculously taste meal.                                          
  First defrost your chicken.  Then pat it dry with a towel or paper towels.  Be very thorough in this step.
Make a dry rub with ground coriander, cumin and salt.  Rub your chicken with it making sure to get in every nook and cranny.  With your fingers, separate the skin from the breast being careful not to tear it.  Then stick a little piece of the green garlic and a sprig of either herb in between the skin and meat on each side.
  Season the cavity of the bird with some of the rub (or just salt and pepper) and place a few more pieces of green garlic, herb sprigs, and a few slices of Meyer lemon inside it.
Chop your carrots in large chunks, and peel and half your onion and slice it. Then rub the bird all over with a generous amount of olive oil.  Using twine, or alternatively a piece of foil rolled thinly into a strip, tie the legs of the bird together.
  If you have a cast iron pan, place it on the stove on high heat for a few minutes. Once hot, place your chicken on the pan, breast side up.  It will sizzle. If you don't have a cast iron, or a heavy all metal pan, skip this step and just place in a roasting pan. 
Scatter the carrots and the onions around it, and place in a preheated 400 degree oven.  Cook for 30 minutes undisturbed.
  Meanwhile juice 2 Meyer lemons and 1 tangelo (or other orange) and reserve.  Wash and dry your potatoes, and cut into chunks being mindful to make them all around the same size for even cooking.  Toss in a bowl with olive oil.  In a separate bowl, slice some green garlic and set aside.  I also added that sun dried Padron here, which was very peculiar in flavor, a wonderful mixture of spicy and sweet.

     After the first half hour, every 10 to 15 minutes, take the chicken out of the oven and baste it with the citrus juices, followed by the fat from the pan. Then return to the oven.  If you see that the carrots and onions are sticking to the pan  or burning, splash the pan with about 1/2 cup of wine or beer, whichever one you are drinking.  Once the chicken is evenly brown, you can turn the temperature down to 350.  Depending on the size of the bird, the total cooking time will vary between 45 minutes and as long as an hour and a half.

  Wash and slice your asparagus in sticks about 1 inch long.  Reserve the tops.  You can start cooking the potatoes while you wait for the chicken. In another cast iron pan or heavy bottomed saute pan, heat some canola or grapeseed oil on high heat.  Then thrown in your potatoes and season well with plenty of salt and pepper.  Every once in a while, stir them around a bit.  Once they are browning nicely, turn the heat to medium.  If your chicken is still far from being done, you can actually turn them off half way, and finish them later. This is a good time saver for having everything done at the same time.
                          

                                                    
   Once your chicken is done (you will know when the leg comes loose where it attaches to the breast when you slightly pull on it) take it out of the oven, transfer it to a dish, and let rest 15 minutes.

   Meanwhile, finish cooking the potatoes on medium to high heat.  Pour the cooking juices from the chicken into a heat resistant bowl, and let settle.  In another saute pan, heat some olive oil on high heat, then throw in the asparagus (minus the tops) season with salt and pepper, and squirt a little Meyer lemon juice.  Turn heat to medium and saute until they are cooked but still have a little bite to them.  Add the tops, stir around once more and turn the heat off, but leave in the pan.
When your potatoes are cooked, turn the heat to low, squirt a little lemon juice on them, and throw in the sliced green garlic.  Toss well and cook for another minute on low heat, just to soften the garlic a bit.
Taste your potatoes and asparagus, make sure everyone is okay on salt and acid, if not add a little more.

   By now your chicken should be ready to carve.  Break it down with a sharp knife and arrange the pieces on a platter, on top of the potatoes.  Then skim the fat off the cooking juices, and pour onto the chicken, including the carrots and onions.  Taste the chicken, if it needs a little more salt, sprinkle a few pinches over the  meat.

                                                        
   Please don't take the skin off the chicken. EAT IT!!!!! As Nina Plank explains on her amazing book Real Food: "...chicken fat is mostly monounsaturated and polyunsaturated, two fats even the conventional experts say are healthy...Chickens raised on pasture contain more conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), an unusual fat that builds lean muscle.(...) The diet of the bird affects the composition of the fat. (...)  Typically, chicken fat is about 40% monounsaturated oleic acid, which lowers LDL."
 Toss the arugula with a little olive oil, salt, pepper and lemon juice, and mix in the asparagus in.
Dinner is served!

   We were lucky enough to have some leftover Olive Oil and Orange Pound cake, so I candied some kumquats from the market, and we had that for dessert.
  

                                                  
  I know everyone is not that lucky, so scavenge around your fridge and see what you can find. Alternatively, send the boy(s) to the corner store to get you some Haagen Dazs or Ben and Jerry's :)

  This meal was so tasty, and so fresh.  Everything we ate came from a farmer that C knew. Even the spices (Two Spicy Ladies).  And the Padron forgotten on the summer garden, resilient through fall and winter, still there almost in spring.

  If you can get everything for this meal at your local farmers market, please do.  Talk to the farmers, get to know them, and allow them to get to know you.
If not, then at least think of how you can make your meals one step closer to the people who raised and grew them.  You don't have to change your life all at once, just take baby steps, and you'll see how much tastier your food can be.