Estragon's and Pozzo's Picnic Pickles, Waiting for good days.

 A Picnic isn't what would normally spring to mind in the course of Waiting For Godot.... but in a soft light with leaves on the tree and the warmth of summers breeze relaxing the tone the ingredients are there for a bit of joy and with no great change to the plot with a few twists the vegetables from Vladamir's pockets could instead come foraged of the shelves of a Deli pickled and jarred perfect crudites for Estragon before the ensuing squabble over Lucky's Chicken bones, the throwaways from Pozzo's feasting, I always imagined them to be the legs perfect for the casual fling and most likely the ones with the most flesh left on drumsticks, the thigh meat consumed by Pozzo before letting fly in the direction of Lucky. 

Luckily there's wine on the go as well in the play, grab a bottle of country style red and butter up some rustic bread and find yourselves a grassy knoll in the sun. Don't forget to bring enough chicken to go around so there's no bickering.

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Roasted Chicken Drumsticks, Brined with brown sugar, seaweed and chili flakes.
1 Kg Legs or Drumsticks or as many as you need, free range it if you can and 1 litre of Brine
For the Brine 

Brown Sugar 75g, 

Honey 20g,

Sea Salt 75g, 

Chili Flakes a pinch, 

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced thinly.

Whole Black Peppercorns 12, 

Ground White Pepper  1/2 teaspoon

Seaweed flakes, dessert spoon, usually available in the health food store or decent greengrocer, Kombu / Sugar kelp ids good for this.

1 Lt Water Ice cold

Paprika oil (10 of paprika mixed with 2og of vegetable oil) for brushing pre-roasting

Method for the Brine

Put all the dry ingredients into a small pot add 100ml of the water a bring to a boil to dissolve the sugar and the salt and to start the flavours infusing. Remove from the heat and add the rest of the water, give it stir and let it go cold again. Set it into the fridge or Freezer.

Brining the chicken

Place your chosen chicken joints into a container that is big enough to hold the chicken with the brine plastic or stainless steel is good. Cover with the brine move the pieces around to ensure they all get coated. Cover them with a lid or cling film and place in the fridge for approx 12 hrs.

2-3 hours before you cook the Chicken remove your pieces from the brining solution and pat the pieces dry with paper kitchen towel place onto a plate or baking sheet and put them into the fridge for a couple of hours to let the skin dry a little for a nicer roast when the time comes.

For Roasting 

pre-heat your oven to 180℃, take your chicken from the fridge place the pieces on a roasting tray brush the skin with the paprika oil and sprinkle with a pinch of sea-salt - as you'll be eating this cold it's better to have it well seasoned. Put it into the oven on the middle shelf and cook for......... minutes. When cooked remove from oven place your roasted pieces onto a cooling rack and let them cool down before transferring to the fridge to chill properly.

Basic Pickle liquid, (we can use this for the carrots and turnips and add complimentary flavours to each)

500ml Water

500ml Cider Vinegar

250g Sugar

12 peppercorns cracked / 3-4 twists of the pepper mill will do as well.

1 bay leaf

40g  sea salt

Bring the water to the boil add the sugar & salt stir to dissolve then add the peppercorns, vinegar peppercorns and bay leaf.

Chill & Store in a sterilised bottle until needed.

 

Quick Pickled Turnips with Tarragon
White Turnips, fresh and young tender ones are the best for this, peel them and slice thinly sprinkle with some pack dried tarragon and pack them into a preserving jar pour in pickling liquid to cover give them a stir to ensure they all get a coating of liquid as the slices tend to stick together, Seal them and give them a shake and put in the fridge they'll taste better and be more tender after a couple of days but an overnight soak for them will be fine. I've added salted cherry blossoms to mine, some rose petals or magnolia petals would work in here as well to add a bit of interest for the eye. 

Quick Pickled Carrots with Lemon & Elderflower
Carrots, from a fresh bunch

Top Tail and Peel them, cut into thin wedges pack into a sterilised preserving jar with a a couple of strips of lemon peel and and some Fresh elderflower or a pinch of dried Elderflower pour the pickling i liquid into the jar to cover and refrigerate, you can use them the next day but it's better to leave them a couple of days for the for the flavours to develop you can keep them for up to a week .
Lemon Peel

If you can add some fesh Elderflower blossom as well apart from flavour it makes it look pretty.

Salted Radishes

A fresh bunch wash them you can leave a bit of the top on, cut them in half,take a thin of the round that will help the salt get in, sprinkle with a pinch of sea salt pack into a clean jar put the lid on and give them a shake and that's them done, Best Done on the morning of the picnic as they'll retain most of their crunch but it's to do them beforehand the texture will change the day before will be fine. Put them in the fridge and use them before they get too weary.

 If you like them fresh and crisp just top them wash them and leave them whole and skip the salting.

Remember the country code of good practice and take your rubbish home with you. Enjoy Pat.