BOILERPLATE: Have you heard? I’m a finalist in the 2009 Bloggies. Best-Kept Secret Blog! No shitting. I’ve added a new page to the site specifically to pander for votes.
Who doesn’t like a simple roast chicken, especially when you throw carrots, blue potatoes, onions and day-old bread cubes underneath so they roast basted in delicious chicken-y juices? Nobody. And nobody does it better than my husband, who is the chicken master. Chickens panic at the very mention of his terrifying name.* Granted, this has nothing to do with chicken; I was just taunting you with my dinner. Because it was really good.
*Brian.
But if you want to learn about poundcake and passionfruit curd, you’re also fucked.
Kidding! Recipes below. You know how I love to scare you like that.
Orange-Coriander Poundcake
adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking
3 sticks unsalted butter, softened but still cool
1 1/2 c. sugar
6 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp. good vanilla
1 1/2 tsp. pure orange oil
1 tbsp. orange zest
3 c. AP flour
1 1/2 baking powder
2 tsp. ground coriander
1/4 tsp. salt
NOTE: You can omit the orange and coriander and have a plain buttery poundcake, or add whatever flavor agents you want. Heh, that makes the flavors sound kinda like spies. Synchronize your watches, boys, the lemon and ginger are going in.
Anyway.
Pre-heat the oven to 325. Whisk the flour, baking powder, coriander and salt together in a medium bowl. Butter a 9×5 inch loaf pan.
I know, the “softened but still cool thing” seems like an oxymoron. What you need here is butter that holds its shape, but that you can dent with gentle pressure. There’s going to be a lot of beating and creaming, so butter that’s at too high a temperature will just get soft and greasy.
Beat the butter and sugar at medium-high speed until light and creamy, a good 5 minutes, scraping down the bowl as needed. You could do this by hand, but that would be crazy.
Reduce the beater speed to medium and add the eggs one at a time, beat for 1-2 minutes between each addition and again with the scraping down. Add the vanilla, zest and orange oil.
Reduce the beater speed to low (or switch to hand mixing) and mix in the dry ingredients until they’re just incorporated. Once the last trace of flour is gone, stop mixing.
Dump the batter into the greased pan, filling it 2/3 full. You’ll have a little left over; either fill a mini pan of some kind, eat the uncooked batter (like you wouldn’t do it) or dump it. I could have figured out how to scale the recipe down by 1/12, but, you know, fuck that.
Bake for a total of 80-90 minutes. Check on it after 45 minutes or so and put a foil tent over it if it’s getting more brown than you’d like. Let it cool in the pan for 5 minutes and turn it out onto a cooling rack to complete cooling.
It really is better if you wrap the cooled cake in plastic wrap and eat it the next day.
You want some damn poundcake pr0n? Here’s your poundcake. Behold my breakfast, suckas.
Keep going for the curd recipe. Get an energy drink if you need.
Passionfruit Curd
adapted from my own fucking head
1 whole egg
4 egg yolks
1/3 c. sugar
4 tbsp. unsalted butter (in chunks, not melted)
1/2 c. passionfruit puree
3 tbsp. heavy cream
In a non-reactive saucepan, whisk the eggs and sugar until combined. Stir in the passionfruit and add the butter. Heat the mixture over low heat, stirring constantly until it thickens visibly and coats the back of a spoon. You could probably take the temperature or something, I think you’re shooting for 170ish?, but I just cook it until it thickens up like cheese sauce.
Strain the mix into a bowl to get out any eggs bits that might have scrambled. Whisk in the heavy cream. Serve hot, tepid, cold, or anything in between.
Thursday Night Smackdown 
have pity on us – and take a one day break.
have Brian post the chicken recipe you described. no offense to your own wonderful recipes, brain, and photos. Or I will take my Bloggie vote back. No, I won’t. But I would like that recipe.
Ohhh yum. I could more or less drink lemon curd, but passionfruit curd is even more alluring.
When I first saw the cake recipe I was thinking of actual, leafy green coriander and wasn’t so convinced, but ground coriander is a whole other story altogether, and sounds delicious. I’m personally addicted to adding ras-el-hanout spice mix to everything I bake.
With all the hype about blue and purple potatoes, I always wonder: Do they REALLY taste any different, as so many people have claimed, or is it just a color and presentation thing? We were thinking of growing some this year, but I don’t know if it’s really worth it, except for the novelty factor. Thoughts?
I’m in a cardamon phase. What would go with cardamon like orange goes with coriander? Thanks for the recipe. It’ll be a coupla weeks, since I’m traveling starting tomorrow, but I’ll get there.
Once again, Michelle, you leave me drooling and 10lbs heavier!
Now if someone could just roll me into the kitchen so I can make this…..
PS: I just love the Magritte reference, he’s one of my favorites!
bev, here you go: salt and pepper chicken. put in on a v-rack in a roasting pan. throw veggies underneath. cook.
okay, it’s a little more complicated than that. hopefully, brian will show up in the comments and fill you in on the details (i’m usually napping when chicken night happens, because i know i’m not needed in the kitchen in any way).
laura, i’ve gotta get my hands on some ras-al-hanout, it intgruies me.
kristin, they’re actually my least favorite potato; i don’t think they taste any different, and i far prefer the texture of a yukon gold. these just happened to be the only potatoes we had that weren’t in the root cellar (read: basement crawl space), so we used them.
kay, ooh, cardamom. one of my other favorites. i like cardamom with peach and ginger, so i would maybe do the cardamom in the cake with some kind of ginger-peach compote (take bag of frozen peaches, throw in pot w/some sugar, a little cointreau and some slices of fresh ginger, cook down, fish out the ginger, adjust the sweetness, pour over pound cake warm, add scoop of ice cream).
anna, the best thing to do is probably to have someone make this for you, so you don’t have to get off the couch.
Easy roast chicken:
Cut up some veggies and toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and put in a roasting pan. Lightly oil a 3-4 pound chicken (brined if you can remember, but I usually don’t) and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Don’t forget the inside of the bird. Tuck the wings back and put it on its side on a V rack over the veggies. Roast at 375 for 20 minutes then flip it onto its other side for another 20 minutes. Now turn the oven up to 450 and roast the bird on its back for about 30 more minutes or until it’s done (180 thigh / 165 breast is my guideline). Take it out to rest, remove the V rack, remove any excess fat in the pan and broil the veggies for a few minutes until they look too good to leave in the oven any longer. Carve chicken. Eat.
This recipe comes courtesy of the New Best Recipe cookbook. They have never failed me.
Pound cake is definitely a “next day” kind of food.
You’re on a roll. Congrats for the nomination and your recent win:-)
roast chicken with roots, onions and garlic is possibly one of my favorite meals…for all its simplicty *sigh*
I gotta say though, here lately I have to roast them separately. Chickens are fatty as all get out these days!! the pool of schmaltz that used to be tasty and tempting, is now kinda runny and gaggy.
brian, yay! thanks. (he almost never leaves comments). seriously, y’all this chicken comes out perfect EVERY TIME.
kate, totally.
marc, thanks! i nominated you in a bunch of categories, i can’t believe blogs like cake wrecks (which i like, but i don’t really think is a “food blog”) got in instead of you.
ms. roboto, sometimes we have to drain some fat off and throw the veg under the broiler, but usually we’re okay. we’ve been pretty happy with bell and evans or empire (kosher brand) chickens.