Ei-Nyung and the Forty Cloves

Seppo's birthday dinner consisted of the following:

• Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic
• French bread
• Salad
• Pineapple Upside-Down Cake (courtesy of Seppo's mom)
• Hot Chocolate Pudding Cake (or whatever the name is)

The chicken was pretty easy to make, once I was able to disassemble the chicken into eight parts from the whole carcass. That part was pretty arduous, especially since it was my first time doing so. The unpeeled garlic was roasted with shallots tossed in olive oil and a bit of salt and pepper, separate from the chicken for a while so that it has time to roast enough to take out any lingering bite, while the chicken was browned slightly on the stovetop then finished in the oven on top of the garlic. The sauce is really simple: some chicken broth, some vermouth, a bit of fresh herbs, cooked along with the chicken in the oven, followed by a little time on the stove top with some of the garlic smooshed (ha, I accidentally typed "smooched" the first time around) into it, finished off with some cold butter.

The garlic was truly fragrant and creamy, with no harshness or bite. It was perfect spread onto the bread, dipped into some of the sauce. The sauce retained some of the flavor of the rosemary and thyme, even though the herbs were not a part of the cooking process for very long. The salad was just a bagged salad, but it was tossed in some reduced balsamic vinegar and fairly good olive oil.

The best part of this dinner, from the preparation end of it, was that only the entree and dessert needed any work at all. The bread and salad rounded out the meal, but were totally work-free, saving me the time it would have taken had I chosen to go with a side vegetable or rice/pasta/potato to accompany the chicken. The thing I would do next time is just pick up some chicken parts (with skin on and bone in) instead of cutting up my own. It's cheaper to cut your own, but it is very time-consuming, unless you are already an expert.

I was going to take a pic of the food, but I, er, forgot to. I did take a pic of the pudding cake after we had already started to dig into it. We served it with some Dreyer's Vanilla ice cream. The cake is utterly hideous, but it is supposed to be, so I will post a pic of it soon. The pineapple upside-down cake was delicious, but it was very sweet, so a small piece was enough to satiate me.

I got Seppo a bunch of cooking-themed stuff (along with some other things), so I'll let him post about them if he wants. :D

I give this meal a 3.5 out of 5.