Roast Chicken for Les Paresseux - FFWDORIE

Roast chicken. I think I was probably eating one roast chicken with potatoes cooked in chicken drippings every week when I grew up. What I liked even better was to dip a piece of fresh baguette in the leftover juice at the end of the meal. Ahhhh, it was so good... I really makes me wonder why I had never made a roast chicken by myself before.

I bought a nice looking fat organic chicken. It was so big, it took all the space of my Le Creuset. I could not even put the lid on. I added the garlic, some rosemary, and herbes de provence, et Voila. Perfect roasted chicken.

It smelled incredible, was really easy to make, and the juice was as good as the chicken from my childhood. I wish I had a bigger pot to add some potatoes in there.

I will definitively make this again.

Potato Gratin - FFWDORIE

All right, gratin dauphinois, another traditionnal French dish that anyone should be able to make. Did I say anyone? Of course, this is without taking into account my inability to cook potatoes properly...
How can I not make this right. You only need to slice up some potatoes, cover them in warm milk/cream, add some salt, pepper, and cook. How hard can that be?

Well. I bought the right kind of potatoes this time, delicious organic idaho potatoes, and sliced them up nicely. I made the cream and milk infused with garlic, and layered the potatoes with the cream mixture, adding salt and pepper. No cheese please (there is a controvesy on whether to add cheese or not, personally, I prefer without).
Et hop, in the oven. So what did I do wrong? I am not sure...

It took forever to cook the potatoes; they were not done (after 1h30mn in the oven). And there was too much liquid left (I should have measured I guess). Overall, the garlic infused cream was a great idea, it adds some extra depth to the potatoes, and my gratin was ok. I will leave it longer in the oven next time.