psmv5: Chicken dinner

We thought to celebrate the end of the recent heat wave with a chicken dinner, complete with sage and onion stuffing which was not stuffed. Thinking with my fingers again, I have no idea when we last actually stuffed the stuffing into either a chicken or a turkey. It has probably happened since we moved to Epsom, but certainly not recently. I think we found that both chicken and stuffing were improved by keeping them separate in the cooking, the theory about stuffing taking on flavour from the interior of the chicken notwithstanding.

Factory bread made with flour of unknown origin. Celery and onion of unknown origin. Hazel nuts (50g) from Turkey. Sage (two packets) from Kenya. Black pepper, old if freshly ground, so two teaspoons. Certainly foreign. Two white eggs, probably UK. Streaky bacon described as UK, dry cured by hand - so probably none of the white foam one used to get with cheap bacon. No oil, no salt (apart from that in the bacon) and no garlic - which last I dare say I have used in the past, if not on a regular basis.

Ready to go.

My part of the cooking done, off on a circuit around town, as noticed at reference 1. The blue car to be found there is still present, at least for a good part of the time.

Took a beer at TB and returned home to attend to the wine, some more of the Volcaia from Inama.

With the chicken dinner hot on its heels. I had not bothered with real gravy on this occasion. Rice, chou pointu (the sort that it is very easy to overcook), parsnips.

On the plate, where the chicken did well. My current theory is that big chickens are good because they have had a chance to develop both texture and flavour.

We had had a good go at the stuffing by the end of the first shift. The balance would have melted away before it could turn up as a left-over.

Stewed apples with cloves for dessert. Without custard, which I am not keen on in this context. With something like a crumble yes, but with plain stewed fruit no. And we are bearing down on crumbles in the hope that that will bear down on our waist lines.

Maigret present because I was wondering about the slightly different uses of the (French) word 'scrupules' in the title of the story at reference 2 and the title of a chapter of the story at reference 3. That is to say: 'III: Les allées et venues de la petite comtesse, et les scrupules de Maigret'. As I recall it was the difference between a legal standing awkwardness and a social standing awkwardness, but I need to check. A digression from a digression, both having found their way to the back burner.

Out a bit later to find ant action around a hole in a pavement in Meadway. Maybe they are getting ready to kick out the males? See references 5 and 6 for previous incidents, from which I learn it is not a male thing. And perhaps the flying only happens from time to time, rather than every year?

Cold chicken did well on the Monday.

And given the size of the chicken and the presence of stuffing, there was enough left for the Tuesday. Taken in the form of an amateur stir-fry, made up with new-to-us soft noodles from Amoy. The reorganisation at Sainsbury's meant that BH did not find our usual brand - Sharwood's - but did find these. Double wrapped, white and soft, just needing to be warmed up rather than cooked.