Cooking and Yoga – building the foundation: Pranayama and roasted chicken!
I am very excited to bring to you the first installment of the cooking and yoga series! Through this project, I will be delivering wonderful recipes that are simple, healthy, and full of fun times! I am fortunate enough to have Heather Hyman, who works for Heritage Foods as one of my best friends. I want to learn more about cooking, and Heather wants to learn more about yoga – and so it begins…
Here is some info on Heritage Foods from their website:
“We believe the best way to help a family farmer is to buy from him.
Heritage Foods USA was formed in 2001 as the sales and marketing arm for Slow Food USA, a non-profit organization founded by Patrick Martins and dedicated to celebrating regional cuisines and products. The Heritage Turkey Project, which helped double the population of heritage turkeys in the United States and upgraded the Bourbon Red turkey from “rare” to “watch” status on conservation lists, was Heritage Foods USA’s first foray into saving American food traditions. In 2004 it became an independent company.
We are proud combatants in the fight to promote difference and diversity in a marketplace dominated by monocultures. In this kind of marketplace, animals raised on pasture without antibiotics are hard to come by, as are rare and heritage genetics that evolved naturally rather than from laboratories designed for meat production and fast growth.”
For our first session last night, we focused on building the foundation, and so I taught Heather some basic pranayama followed by a gentle asana practice. Pranayama is the foundation of life. Breath is the source of al life. Prana means life-force, ayama means to set free. Therefore, the practices of pranayama enable us to set free our life force into the world! In New York City, we move at such a fast pace, it is easy to forget to take time out for ourselves, and so, we did just that.
Roasted Heritage Chicken with Root Vegetables
1 lb of baby new potatoes (the smaller the better)
2 carrots
3 sticks celery
1 large Vidalia onion
3 lbs mixed root vegetables and aromatics coarsely chopped. (Parsnip and turnips good in the winter)
3 cloves garlic, whole
1 Heritage chicken 2.5 lbs
¼ c olive oil
2 T fresh sage or 2 t dried
1 T salt
2 t black pepper
Preheat oven to 425 F. Mix sage olive oil pepper and salt . Combine vegetables in bowl use half olive oil with vegetable mixture. Use other half to rub on chicken.
Place chicken on rack in roasting pan fill pan with vegetables.
Loosely place a small amount of onions and celery in the cavity of the chicken to add flavor during cooking. Do not stuff as that will add extra cooking time and dry the breast.
Cook at 425 for 20 minutes breast side up. Baste with olive oil and bake for another 8 minutes. Baste again, turn heat down to 325. Roast for anywhere between 50 and 70 minutes to reach an internal tem p of 160 using an thermometer in the thickets part of the thigh.
Let rest before carving.
If the potatoes are not fully cooked when chicken is done take the chicken out and turn oven back to 425 and let finish cooking while chicken is waiting to be carved.
Serve with mixed greens and vegetables.
YUM!
Check out the Heritage Foods blog for recipes and lots more!
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