roast herb chicken

It may not make a foodie magazine photo shoot, but here's half a chicken ready, once stuffed under the skin with the chopped herbs on the paper just beyond it, to be laid on top of the vegetables in the roasting pan in the front of the picture. No real fuss about which ones or what quantity - what's in your fridge? It's more about the principals of flavour and moisture. In the pan are some roughly chopped carrots and onions and a fennel root that was about to give up the ghost. But parsnips, potatoes, swede - or, for a different flavour direction, heads of endive sliced longways - could take over the base. Whatever you use, wet it with a glass of white wine. Or water. Or stock. Having run your finger under the chicken's skin to loosen it, then stuffed inside with chopped herb smashed into a tablespoon of softened butter (I used tarragon frozen from the summer garden), lay the half or whole chicken on the vegetables and roast for an hour in a 200F oven.

In the background? Freshly bottled home-made ginger beer. Good with ice cubes. Or Jamaican rum. A recipe for another time...

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