We almost always roast our chicken on a bed of vegetables. Usually, we roast 7-pound birds, butterflied and resting on the bed. It looks like a chicken sitting on its nest. Recently, we had an abundance of radishes, from daikon to purple, and we decided to roast our bird on them. We added some leeks and carrots, ginger, and kimchi, and roasted away. The chicken juices blended with the roasting vegetables. We enjoyed the dinner, but there were plenty of roasted radishes and juices left over. We put the vegetables and their juices into a bowl and let them cool overnight. The following morning, we decided not to just reheat the vegetables in their original form. Instead, we put the vegetables and the congealed juices through a food mill. The result was an incredible sugo of roasted radishes. This result was not only delicious but also started an avalanche of ideas for creating flavored roasted vegetables, from lobster bodies roasted on white mirepoix to bacon on a bed of onions. The blending of fond and roasted vegetables is delicious and a wonderful platform to build dishes and sauces upon.
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