Roast Potatoes and Chicken with Romesco

Happy Monday you guys! This is the second Monday this summer where I didn’t have to work (the first one was the short one week break at the end of the school year), and will be enjoying this for two more Mondays. Yep, summer school is over! As much fun as that was, I need to recuperate and get geared up for School Year 2012-2013. My summer vacation will be over before I know it, so in the meantime, I will cook, read, walk, run, bike, yoga, camp, travel, sleep, and eat the rest of my summer away.

Yesterday, as I was shopping for wedding presents for two of my friends who are getting married this weekend, I bought myself a little present… a kitchen scale! Molly Wizenberg gives this advice to kitchen lovers in her book. Measuring ingredients by weight is more accurate than measuring them by volume. So, when I read that we need 1 ½ lbs of potatoes for this week’s Food Matter’s Project, Roast Potatoes and Chicken with Romesco, my spankin’ new kitchen scale was happily opened and put to use to measure the potatoes. Mireya, author of My Healthy Eating Habits, chose this week’s recipe. Check out her healthy eating website for the full recipe. Thank you Mireya for choosing a delicious recipe… DFJ and I loved it!

This recipe already sounded really good just as it is, so the only modifications I made are the following:

Green bell pepper instead of red (I do not recommend this because I think it affected the taste of my sauce a bit. The only reason I used the green bell pepper was because it was an entire dollar cheaper than the red!)

Since I didn’t have sherry or white wine vinegar, I used 1 tablespoon white vinegar + 2 tablespoons rice vinegar + a splash of fresh lemon juice.

The recipe instructed to just season the chicken with salt and pepper. That was good enough, but personally, I would have liked it better if it was marinated for a few hours in a bit of lemon juice. I was very impressed with how the chicken thighs cooked perfectly, tender and moist, almost melt-in-your mouth soft. Mark Bittman sure knows how to cook meat! Potatoes scented with rosemary are always great. It is one of the simplest ways to cook potatoes and is very homey. A note to myself though, I should have sprinkled more salt and then a little dash of smoked paprika on the potatoes for extra flavor.

The romesco sauce was new to me. It is like the love child of chimichurri and pesto. It is herby and fresh tasting with sweet undertones from the vinegars. Mark Bittman encourages the use of roasted peppers if we have it. That would be a really great addition for a nice smoky flavor. This sauce would also taste great when slathered over seafood or simply as a topping over a good sourdough or baguette. 

For other ideas on how to cook with romesco sauce, see what other FMP members came up with at our website. There are always tons of delicious surprises when these ladies are involved! Have a great week everyone!