Curried Spatchcocked Chicken

This recipe is a cross between Madhur Jaffrey’s Curried Whole Chicken (“The Ultimate Curry Bible”) and Diana Henry’s Spatchcocked Chicken with Chilli, Garlic etc (“How to eat a Peach”).

1 large chicken (about 1.7kg) and 2 red onions

Marinade ingredients: 5cm piece of fresh ginger; 3 cloves garlic; juice of half a lemon; 2 tablespoons olive oil; 2 green chillis or a scant teaspoon chilli powder; 1 teaspoon each of cumin, coriander and sea salt; some black pepper

To serve: curried roast potatoes, green beans or salad, yoghurt, wedges of lemon, fresh coriander

1. Plonk the chicken on the surface, breast side down, legs towards you.
2. Use good scissors to cut through the flesh and bone along either side of the breastbone, and remove it.
3. Open out the chicken, turn it skin side up, then flatten it by pushing down hard on it with your hand.  Cut off any raggedly bits of flabby skin.
4. Skoosh together the marinade ingredients in a mini-processor.
5. Ease up bits of skin and squeeze in teaspoons of marinade between the meat and the skin, all around the breast and legs, wherever you can find a point of entry.  Gently massage the remaining marinade all over the outside and underside of the chicken and leave in the fridge (covered) for any time between 10 minutes and six hours, whatever suits you.
6. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees and let the chicken come to room temperature.
7. Put a few slices of the red onion along the base of a roasting tin and plonk the chicken on top, skin side up.  Roast, uncovered for an hour.  Wiggle a leg or two to see if it’s done and make sure the juices run clear.
8. Cut into serving pieces (you’ll want to prise the meat away from the spindly little bones if you have young diners) and serve with curried roast potatoes (Liz’s recipe: just roast in the usual way, but mix in a tablespoon or so of curry powder fairly early on), green beans or salad, yoghurt, lemon wedges and fresh coriander.

 

LDS

Lamb with Rosemary, Garlic and White Wine

Remove as much fat from a smallish leg of lamb as possible; don’t worry if the meat starts to come undone.

Skoosh six cloves of garlic, a good handful of rosemary leaves, a teaspoon of sea salt, the juice of half a lemon and a tablespoon of olive oil and honey in your mini-chopper.

Rub the mixture into the leg of lamb and leave covered at cool room temperature for 4-6 hours.  A lidded oval Pyrex is ideal for this.  Then put into a warm oven (160 – 170 degrees) with a few sprigs of thyme and rosemary and half a bottle of disappointing white wine for four hours.  Two hours in, add some new potatoes.  Stir them every half hour or so, adding a drizzle of honey if you feel like it, or turning the oven up if nothing much is happening.

When the knife goes in easily, take the meat out to rest in foil, turn the oven up, and let the potatoes frazzle a bit with the lid off for 15 – 30 minutes.

Cheese and Rosemary Scones

I’m not usually one for cheese scones, but Andrea has converted me with this lovely recipe.  This recipe makes eight small scones.

Preheat oven to 210 degrees.

200g SR flour

a quarter teaspoon each of salt, mustard powder and cayenne pepper

40g butter

60g mature cheddar cheese (plus extra for sprinkling)

one tablespoon fresh finely chopped rosemary (plus extra for sprinkling)

100ml milk

Sift the flour, salt, mustard powder and cayenne pepper into a large bowl.  Add the butter (in small, cool cubes) and rub in gently until it looks like breadcrumbs.  Stir in the cheese and the rosemary.  Add the milk and stir gently, using your hand to bring it together into a dough.  Press down lightly until it is 2cm thick, then use a small cutter to shape your scones.  Cover a baking sheet with greaseproof paper and pop the scones onto it.  Dab over a little milk, sprinkle on the rosemary and cheese and then bake in a hot oven for about ten minutes, until well risen and golden.

 

Fluffy Bacon Pancakes

 

In your food processor, mix 135g SR flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 2 tablespoons caster sugar, 130ml milk, 1 large egg (beaten), a tablespoon of butter (melted).  Leave to sit while you start grilling the bacon.

Put your frying pan over a medium heat.  When it starts to warm, rub a thin layer of butter over the base.  Use a dessertspoon to dod four smallish spoonfuls of the mixture onto the frying pan.  Turn over as soon as you see bubbles forming.  When both sides of the pancakes are golden, keep them warm in a low oven.  Smear your pan with butter between batches as necessary.

Serve with the bacon and maple syrup.

Finca, Dorchester

Introducing the most perfect toastie and latte ever.