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.

 

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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.

Moroccan-Spiced Pork Kebabs

This gorgeous recipe is pretty much from ‘Moro’ by Sam and Sam Clark (Pinchitos morunos).  I’d never thought of using pork fillets for kebabs, but they were perfect.

Take one pork fillet (500g) and cut in half lengthways.  Cut each piece into cubes (2-3 cm) and pop into a bowl.

Put a pinch of saffron into a cup with 2 tablespoons of boiling water and allow to infuse while you prepare the other spices.

Grind half a teaspoon each of coriander seeds, cumin seeds and fennel seeds.  Add 3-4 cloves of garlic, a ripped up bay leaf and half a teaspoon of salt and mush them all up together.  Add a dessertspoon of olive oil and a dessertspoon of red or white wine vinegar and mix.    It doesn’t need to be a smooth paste.

Pour the spice mix and the saffron-infused water over the pork, mix it together and leave it covered in the fridge for a minimum of two hours.

Thread the meat onto metal skewers and finish each one with a green chilli.  Cook on a hot barbecue until well charred and cooked through on each side.

 

Chicken Curry with Green Beans

3 onions, in wedges

4 green chillis, halved lengthways

3″ ginger, peeled and grated

6 garlic cloves, bashed

4-6 chicken breasts, in thinnish pieces

tin of tomatoes

a squeeze of lemon juice

a handful of green beans

fresh coriander

spices:  ground coriander, ground cumin, paprika, turmeric, cardamom pods, bay leaves

First make the sauce:

Put one of the onions, half of the tomatoes, the ginger, 3 garlic cloves, the 4 green chillis, a big handful of fresh coriander, stalks and all (reserve about the same amount for sprinkling later), and 4 tablespoons of olive oil into a small pan with a teaspoon of salt, half a teaspoon of turmeric and 200ml water.  Boil together with the lid on for 20 minutes.  Now use a hand blender to blitz this into a sauce.  By all means leave some of the chillis unscathed, if that’s how you like it.

Now, make the curry:

Put 3 tablespoons olive oil into a frying pan.  When it’s hot, add 3 bashed cloves of garlic, 2 bay leaves, and 6 bashed cardamom pods.  Let them sizzle for a few moments, then add the remaining sliced onions.  When they are just starting to burn, add the chicken and a little more salt.  Let the chicken colour for a couple of minutes before turning down the heat and adding a teaspoon each of ground coriander, cumin and paprika.  Stir well, and add the remaining tomatoes, the green beans, the sauce from Stage One and about 100ml of water.  Before popping the lid on, add a squeeze of lemon juice.  Simmer for 30 – 40 minutes.  Stir in some more fresh coriander before serving.  Serve with a drizzle of natural yoghurt and some basmati rice.

Lamb Curry with Tomatoes and Green Beans

The photo doesn’t do it justice, but this is my new favourite curry.  First, get about a kilo of diced lamb.  It’s best to buy a leg of lamb joint, and snip it up yourself, because it’s easier to trim away all the fat this way.  Put the lamb into a bowl with one teaspoon each of turmeric, dried ginger, sea salt, half a teaspoon of cinnamon and a squeeze of lemon juice.  Mix well and set aside.

In a large, lidded pan, heat two tablespoons of oil until shimmering.  Add four cloves, two bay leaves and sizzle.  Now, add two sliced onions and let them brown.  Remove the onion from the pan, then add the lamb and let it brown.  When it’s browned, pop the onions back in, and add two chopped cloves of garlic and a teaspoon each of ground coriander, cumin and paprika.

Stir well, then add half a tin of tomatoes and 200ml of water.  Put the lid on and simmer for 60 minutes.

Meanwhile, make your fresh, tomatoey, curry sauce by putting one and a half tins of tomatoes, 100ml water, a chopped onion, four cloves of garlic, four long, green, hot chillis, six slices of fresh ginger, one teaspoon of turmeric, one teaspoonful of salt, two tablespoons of oil and a handful of fresh coriander into a medium-sized saucepan.  Boil with the lid on for twenty minutes, then liquidise.  Set aside until the lamb has cooked for an hour.

When the lamb is tender, add the sauce and a few handfuls of green beans.  Simmer for 15-20 minutes. Serve with plain, boiled rice and fresh coriander.  Also delicious with a few potatoes added.