Lemon biscuits with added currants?
APRICT, CORIANDER AND CHILLI CHICKEN
You can ask your butcher to spatchcock the chicken. Alternatively, cut down either side of the chicken’s backbone with a pair of sharp scissors and discard it. Then lay the chicken out flat like a book, skin side up. Press firmly on the breast bone with the palm of your hand to really flatten it out.
Serves 6
chicken 1.8kg, spatchcocked
unsalted butter 60g, melted
olive oil 4 tbsp
garlic 3 cloves, peeled
cumin seeds 1 tsp
ground coriander 1 tsp
dried chilli flakes 1 tsp
dried apricots 50g, roughly chopped
lemon ½
coriander ½ x 20g bunch
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
onions 4, peeled
chicken stock 300ml, hot
Take your chicken out of the fridge 20 minutes before cooking it. Place the melted butter in a blender or mini food processor along with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, the peeled garlic, cumin seeds, ground coriander, dried chilli flakes, dried apricots and the juice of the lemon half. Add all the coriander stalks and half the leaves. Season generously with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and blitz to a paste. Slash the skin on the chicken thighs and rub the spiced apricot butter all over the chicken. Cut the onions into 2.5cm wedges and place in the bottom of a large roasting tray to create a trivet. Drizzle the onions with the remaining olive oil, then place the chicken on top.
When you are ready to cook your chicken, preheat your oven to 180C fan/gas mark 6. Pour the hot stock into the base of the tray and pop in the oven. Cook for 1 hour, then turn the oven up to 200C/gas mark 7 for a further 10 minutes, to get a lovely char on the skin, until just cooked through (pierce the meat in the thigh, and check that the juices run clear. There shouldn’t be any blood). Remove the tray from the oven, and you can leave it to rest as is. But I like to pop the tray directly on the hob for a few more minutes, just enough to reduce the stock a little more until slightly thickened. Spoon the juices and onions onto a large serving platter and top with the charred chicken. Finish by roughly chopping and scattering over the remaining coriander.
Georgina Hayden is a cook and author of Nistisima (Bloomsbury, £26)
WEATHER FORECAST – GARDEN – KITCHEN
Temperatures beginning to fall with possibility of snow at lower levels in South-West! So I think it is steady as it goes in the garden. No more planting for 2 weeks. Sunflowers are racing ahead. I need to get the ‘different’ vegetables in pots ninth greenhouse, but have no space until I can give some tomato plants away, and plant some up – 8 in greenhouse, maybe 10, and 4 in front by kitchen window.
Then put sunflowers in pots next to them. I need another grow bag for repotting flowers in troughs and bigger pots. Then herbs to kitchen windowsill, and maybe bedrooms. Maybe buy a couple of plants for hanging baskets.
Then out to Draycott towards end of week for strawberries and jam making.
Making rum garibaldis later.
RECIPES – SCONES AND OAT CAKES
HOT STUFFED AVOCADO
4 avocado halves, 100g cream or curd cheese, 75g grated cheddar and 75g chopped nuts. Salt and pepper and a little mustard and 2tbs single cream. Top with bread crumbs. 10mins at 200C. I am thinking olive oil instead of cream? And possibly smoked paprika. Cheese can be replaced with crab meat and onion and lemon,
Chicken dish and boozy cakes
From Jamie ‘Hit and run tray baked chicken’
From Olive Magazine ‘Proseco cake’. Boozy cakes
HOLLANDAISE SAUCE – NO BUTTER
Recipes for quick. diners
From the guardian – chicken, paella and others
CROWD-FARMING
I am singing the praises of this organisation. Fresh organic fruit and produce straight from the farmer. Crowd-farming. I have bought avocado, lemons, clementines, olive oil, fruit juice, onions – all have been wonderful.
AVOCADO RECIPES
Ok – toast is easy option. I am trying something different here
2 chopped avocado, chopped tomatoes, chopped cucumber, chopped red onion, dried tomatoes, crushed garlic, sweet corn, shellfish, all in a olive oil and basalmic vinegar dressing then maybe a flat bread. Then maybe a touch of chilli or smoked paprika?