Don't Sweat the Aubergine

by little, into the roux. You add a bit, stir vigorously until it’s incorporated, then repeat the process until you get the consistency you want. It’s just like making a béchamel ( see here ).
    I suggest that you want a gravy of about the consistency of single cream; or perhaps, since you need to bear in mind that it will thicken as it cools, slightly thinner. Having used 1 dstsp flour, you’ll probably need 150ml to 200ml of liquid to reach that consistency – that should be enough sauce for 4 to 6 people. So you may need some more stock. Don’t add more alcohol at this stage – it will taste raw. If you don’t have enough stock, revise your expectations downwards, and use just a teaspoon of flour, which should cope with the liquid in the bowls.
    You could make a little stock while the chicken is cooking. One way, as in the recipe here , would be to put giblets and vegetables, along with wine or water or both, with the chicken in the roasting pan; the disadvantage of this method is that the bottom of the pan won’t give you any tasty, crusty residues. Or you could put the giblets (if you’re lucky enough to have them) with some vegetables in a pan and make a simple stock ( see here ). If you don’t have giblets, buy a few wings; or chop the wings from your chicken and use them. Or you could chop off just the wing tips, using them to add some chickeny flavour to a vegetable stock ( see here ).
    By this time, you might be starting to see why I have come to like the version here so much. And there is more work to do, if you want your gravy to taste as refined as possible. Put the pan on one side of a ring, and continue to simmer very gently. On the cooler side of the gravy, away from the heat, you’ll get some skin, which you can lift off. You can continue with this process until your impatience overcomes your fussiness. Check the seasoning, and serve, in a warm sauce boat.
    I used to like getting plenty of thick, dark gravy to cover my food. It seemed to me to be unsatisfactory to have meat and veg sitting on a thin puddle. But my taste has changed: I’ve come to recognize that the disadvantage of thickeners is that they inhibit flavour, and that thin sauces may be more satisfying for the taste buds. You can follow the procedure above without the flour stage: throw away as much fat from the meat juices as possible, then combine these juices with the sauce you made by deglazing the pan, and add as much stock as you need to bring your gravy to the required quantity. You could skim this gravy, as above, too.
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ACCOMPANIMENTS
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    Roast chicken with gravy can take more elaborate accompaniments than the version here . Much as I love roast potatoes, I’ve come to feel, for some reason, that they don’t go particularly well with roast chicken; I’d prefer a gratin dauphinois ( see here ). As the chicken and the gratin are both pale, serve a green vegetable with them; or carrots, perhaps.
    Cauliflower cheese ( see here ) goes well with roast chicken. Again, you’ve got two pale preparations; so, instead of serving potatoes as well, offer another vegetable.
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WHY YOU DO IT
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    1 • You don’t have to wash the chicken . You may want to dry it, and to get rid of any gubbins inside the bird; but bacteria there will be killed by the high heat of the oven. It won’t be killed by cold water. I am indebted to Richard Ehrlich for the information that the Food Standards Agency advises against washing chickens, warning that the procedure is more likely to spread bacteria than to kill them.
    2 • Oven temperature . Roasts benefit from an initial cooking at a high temperature; 25 minutes at 200°C will start off the browning reactions, also known as Maillard reactions, that meat-eaters find most toothsome. (Don’t ask me to explain them: even Harold McGee calls them ‘exceedingly complex’.) In the case of chicken, what you’re browning is mostly the skin; but that, too, is desirable.
    Recipes sometimes instruct you to brown the meat in oil before putting it in the oven. It’s a good idea to give small roasts, such as poussins, an initial browning, because the oven alone won’t get very far with the process in the short time they take to cook.
    The browning, once started, will continue at the lower temperature, which is perfectly adequate to cook the meat. Maintaining the high temperature might cause it to dry out. Your chicken will probably cook perfectly well, after the initial 200°C blast, at gas