ROASTING WEEK

Two weeks ago was roasting week...

Perfect timing before Thanksgiving time and I learned a lot. The trussing of the chicken seems so HARD; but it's so easy! We trussed and fabricated a chicken (Maria & I) and stuffed it with garlic cloves, herbs & lemon. We placed the bird breast facing up on top of the wing tips and roasted it in a saute pan within a 350 degree oven. With 30 minutes left in the cooking we tossed the medium diced mirepoix into the saute pan and continued roasting the bird.
After we pulled the chicken (temp read 180 degrees behind the thigh/leg area) and let it rest off to the side. We created a pan gravy in the saute pan adding flour to the mixture and then straining the gravy.
Within the two days we made 6 different sides one of which was make your own potato. Yea...I screwed that one up...I made this awesome mashed potato that I piped into these awesome swirls. I then (stupidly) placed them in a hot oven and forgot about them...they were actually really good but looked terrible.
As for the other sides we made glazed carrots, acron squash soup, sauteed green beans, stuffed tomato duxelles and steamed broccoli.
The glazed carrots were made the same way in a pan with water, butter, salt, pepper and sugar. The acorn squash was roasted in the oven scooped out and simmered with onions, carrots, celery, and chicken stock.
The tomato duxelles is a mushroom mush that is reduced to a paste and stuffed inside of a tomato. Then baked in the oven for 5 minutes with parmesean cheese to warm it up...kind of bland if you ask me.
The twice baked potatoes I made the following day were awesome! They had chives, bacon, parmasean cheese, creme fresh, salt and pepper. As for the roasted sirloin...WOW!
Rubbed down with only coarse salt, black pepper and white pepper; we roasted the sirloin in the oven (trussed) for about 45 min and then as the meat rested we made the sauce (au jus lie) to go on top of it.
Overall awesome week and learned alot about roasting...