They said DRAW the chicken!

Today's "Mis en place"  -  sorry chef talk for things to do list, included preparation of a our lunch of caramelised onion soup with croutons, a very large pot of beef stock, which after about 6 hours had been reduced (boiled to buggery) to a small saucepan of what resembled Marmite - very tasty!  We also had to prepare our dinner which we eat around 5 - 5.30 pm, which seems very early to me - one consolation is that it is always accompanied by a glass of wine!  Todays dinner consisted of of Roasted "Ark" chicken breast with wild mushrooms, white wine butter sauce with julienne courgettes, glazed carrots, new potatoes followed by a citrus fruit salad with passion fruit sorbet. 

Having prepared the soup and we were set to get our chicken breast ready.  The only problem was that it, along with the head, legs, feet and all internal organs were still attached to the long legged bird!  I foolishly thought that we would just need to prepare the breast from the supermarket packet!  Phil, our tutor today, demonstrated how to butcher the fowl.  Phil had spent a number of years working with chickens so what he didn't know about them wasn't worth knowing.  So I launched into my bird with the frenzy of a Japanese Samurai warrior - at the end of my attack, the chicken breast had been removed, the gizzard had been split, the heart and lungs removed and the carcas looked like it had been nuked- the only problem was that inserting my hand into the chicken and trying to remove the insides, I had split the gall bladder - the stench that eminated from the back end of my bird was enough to clear the entire building!  Not only that,  but prior to its guts being ripped out by my fair, ungloved hand,  my bird had decided to poo itself  - I had to keep wiping its bottom with kitchen towel - reminded me of my kids, Matt & Jonny,  when they were babies!

Everything came together eventually and so at, 1700 as the snow fell we sat down and ate - tasty, well pepared and well cooked food! I would have to say that my presentation needs a little work - still there's always tommorrow - lamb stuffed with olive, mozzarella & rosemary stuffing!  I can't wait!