sunday night salad

rocket
2 slices stale sour dough or ciabatta bread, cut into 2cm chunks
1/2 butternut pumpkin, peeled and cut into 2cm chunks
2 red chilis, deseeded and cut in half
1 red onion, cut into 0.5cm wedges
4T sunflower seeds
2T pumpkin seeds
2T walnut pieces
200-400g cooked chicken, shredded
200g broad beans, cooked, skins removed, tossed in a little oil and lemon juice

~dressing~
4T lemon juice
1T balsamic vinegar
10T olive oil
Maldon
black pepper
1t sugar
1T Dijon mustard

Put pumpkin, chili and onion into baking tray and toss in olive oil and salt. Put in hot oven (180C) and bake for 10-20 minutes, shaking every 5 minutes. Add the bread for the last 5 minutes or so. Once the pumpkin is cooked and the bread is toasted, remove from oven and set aside to cool. Chop cooked chilis into small pieces and return to mixture.

Toast the seeds in a dry pan with some salt until slightly browned.

Put all ingredients into a serving dish and toss well with your hands. Mix dressing in a separate vessel, shake well and drizzle over salad. Toss gently to coat ingredients in the dressing. Serve.

leek, potato & chicken soup

2 leeks, washed trimmed and finely sliced
1 small red onion and 1 small white onion, finely diced
2 sticks celery, trimmed and finely chopped
25g butter
3 cloves garlic, finely sliced
olive oil
Maldon
freshly ground black pepper
1l chicken stock
200-400g diced chicken
4T cream
25g grated Parmesan
4 medium or 2 large potatoes, peeled and diced
fresh chopped parsley

Sweat the onions, leeks, garlic and celery in oil and butter until translucent. add the potato and stir for several minutes. Add stock and seasoning, cover and leave to simmer for 5 minutes. Blitz with a handheld blender. Bring to a gentle simmer and add the chicken. cook for 1 minute, add cream and Parmesan. adjust seasoning to taste. Serve with freshly grated Parmesan and a scattering of parsley. Eat with some crusty, toasted sourdough smeared with cold butter.

asian poached chicken with rice

1 whole chicken
1 bunch coriander (leaves pulled off, stalks/roots reserved)
4 cm piece of ginger, sliced
1 stick cinnamon
2T soy sauce
1t Maldon
3T rice vinegar
1 bunch spring onions, 1/2 chopped into 3 cm lengths, rest left whole
6 star anise

~dressing~
3T soy sauce
1T palm sugar (or other)
1 clove garlic, crushed
1T sesame oil
1 spring onion, finely chopped
1 red chili, finely chopped

Tie coriander into a bundle and put in a large heavy pot with star anise, ginger, cinnamon, whole spring onions, Maldon and soy. Put chicken in (breast-side down) and cover with water. Add vinegar and bring to a gentle simmer, cover and leave for 75 minutes, checking occasionally and skimming off any scum from the surface. Check that the chicken is cooked by skewering in the thickest part to see if the juices run clear.  Remove from the heat, take the chicken out of the stock and place on a dish to cool.

Pour 500ml of the stock into a pan and bring to a simmer to reduce. Save the rest of the stock for soup. Add the spring onions and coriander and simmer for a minute. Remove the skin from the chicken and shred the flesh. Whisk together the dressing and serve the chicken with Basmati or Jasmine rice, wilted greens and a drizzle of the dressing.

red chicken curry with mango salsa

4 spring onions
4 kaffir lime leaves
1/2c coconut milk
1t raw sugar or 2t palm sugar
1/2 red pepper, sliced
1/2 butternut squash, peeled and cut into 2cm cubes
300g chicken pieces (preferably those little long pieces from either side of the back bone)
handful corriander leaves
2 sloshes fish sauce
2T red curry paste
squeeze lime

~mango salsa~
1/2 mango, chopped
1/2 small red onion, chopped
juice of 1/2 lime
small handful chopped corriander leaves

Put 3T coconut milk into a pan and heat gently. Once reduced slightly, add curry paste and mix together. Add rest of coconut milk, lime leaves and pumpkin and simmer gently until pumpkin is getting soft. Add all other ingredients (except lime, fish sauce and coriander leaves) and cook gently until chicken is just done. Season with fish sauce and serve with jasmine rice and mango salsa. Finish with a squeeze of lime and a scattering of corriander.

chicken, leek & mushroom lasagne

1 whole cooked chicken, skin and bones removed, coarsely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
3 leeks, cleaned and coarsely chopped
400g mushrooms, halved and sliced
1 organic chicken stock cube
Maldon
butter
olive oil
freshly ground black pepper

1 pkt fresh pasta sheets or freshly made pasta sheets

~cheese sauce~
2T butter
2T flour
2c milk
50g cheese

Parmesan, coarsely grated

Sweat the leeks and garlic in a pan with a large knob of butter, a scattering of Maldon, a few twists of pepper and a slug of olive oil. Partway through cooking, add the broken up stock cube and continue cooking. Once leeks are soft, remove from the pan and set aside. Reheat the pan, add another knob of butter and gently cook the mushrooms with salt and pepper. Once cooked and slightly brown, set aside and mix with the leeks and chicken.

Use the same pan to heat the 2T of butter gently, adding the flour once melted. Stir the mixture while it bubbles and becomes a biscuity colour. Switch off the heat and whisk in milk gradually, letting the mixture thicken slightly between each addition. Add salt and pepper and cheese.

Put the lasagne sheets in a bowl of boiling water for a couple of minutes.

In an oiled ovenproof dish place a layer of lasagne, then a layer of cheese sauce, then a layer of chicken. Repeat, finishing with a layer of cheese sauce scattered with parmesan. Bake at 180C for 20-30 minutes or until bubbling brown.

Serve with a green salad.

chicken with lemon & red onion

1 or 2 kilos of chicken thighs and legs (or chop a whole chook into pieces)
4 regular or 2 large red onions, sliced
4 large sprigs of fresh rosemary
4 heavy slugs of olive oil
juice and zest of 4 lemons
Maldon and freshly ground black pepper

Spread out the onions on a roasting pan with the lemon zest and rosemary (pulled off the stem, but the stems can be thrown in too). Place the chicken pieces on top and pour over the lemon and oil. Scatter with the salt and pepper. Cook at 180-200C until done (the chicken will be cooked and browned and the onions soft and sticky. Serve with brown rice or puy lentils.

chicken & aubergine coconut curry

1kg chicken pieces (legs & thighs), bone and skin on
1 red onion cut into wedges
1 large aubergine or 2 small ones, cut into chunks
1 tin coconut milk
2T tumeric
1 red pepper, sliced
handful fresh coriander
1 cube chicken stock
Salt to taste
1T raw sugar
1/2 lime
6 chopped cherry tomatoes

~spice paste~
2 hot chilies
1t cumin seeds
1 inch cinnamon bark
5 black pepper corns
1/2t mustard seeds
1/2 red onion
2T oil
2 cloves garlic
1/2t fennel seeds
1/2t corriander seeds
1/2t black onion seeds
1/2t fenugreek

Toast seeds in a pan and then blitz in a spice mill with other ingredients.

Heat a deep heavy pan 2T oil, toss the chicken pieces in the tumeric and cook until brown. Turn down the heat and add the onion. Once the onion is transparent, add the spice paste and stir for a couple of minutes. Add all ingredients except for the aubergine and pepper. Add some water to loosen the mix if required. Cover and cook for 35 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Rinse some Basmati rice and cook. When the rice has 10 minutes cooking time remaining, add the aubergine, 1/2 the coriander, and the pepper.

Once cooked, stir in the lime juice, season to taste (adding sugar and salt as desired) and add most of the coriander leaves, reserving some for scattering over the plated (or bowled) curry.

Serve with rice and the remaining coriander.