Chinchai Cook: Of Roasts and Toasts

I had a strange urge to bake some bread, and thanks to Sister Tompok, I got a pack of yeast to start my home experiment. It seems making bread is like the easiest thing in the world, just follow basic instructions that can be found all over the net. Right? Well, making it was certainly fairly simple. Making it so that it comes out right is a whole other matter. Suffice to say I managed to make edible bread. Or some sort of bread that might have been the offspring of a roll and a chewy biscuit. D’oh!

Fortunately, dough wasn’t the only thing I had thrown into my oven last weekend. I figured I’d roast chicken and pumpkin and actually make a proper meal out of it. So I pulled out whatever I had lurking in my larder and semi-invented a suitable marinade.

Here’s what I had put together:

*4 chicken thighs
marinated with 2tsp olive oil, 2tsp mustard powder, 1tsp black pepper, 1/2tsp mixed herbs, 1/2 tsp salt
*1 small pumpkin, cut into chunks
tossed with some chilli flakes, a drizzle of olive oil, a bit of salt, several cloves of garlic (crushed and coarsely chopped) and a generous sprinkling of bacon bits

I lined a baking tray with the pumpkin, placed the chicken on top, and stuck the tray into an oven at about 200°C for 45 minutes.

I had the roast chicken and pumpkin with the bread-cuit roll thing and lettuce. There was plenty leftover, of course, so I shredded the chicken meat and kept those and the remaining pumpkin in the fridge. Had intended to use those to make a different dish but wound up eating them again as a sandwich on the remaining bread, this time with the pumpkin mashed and mixed with the chicken, and topped with cheese.

That means I still have an untested idea for pumpkin and chicken. Hmm… maybe I’ll go grocery shopping again soon!