Lemon spiced chicken with chickpeas
Ingredients
- Good glug of olive oil
- 1 onion, peeled and diced
- 4 skinless chicken breasts, diced into bite sized chunks
- Salt & pepper
- ½ cinnamon stick (approx 8 cm)
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- Zest & juice of 2 lemons
- 2 tins chickpeas (approx 400 g) drained and rinsed
- 350 ml chicken stock
- 1 x 250 g bag baby spinach (approx)
Method
In a large saucepan with a lid, heat up the olive oil and sauté the onion until soft.
Add in the chicken and turn up the heat and season well.
When you're starting to get good colour on the chicken, then add in the spices and continue to cook and get even more colour on the chicken.
After another few minutes, add the lemon juice and zest.
Then add in the chickpeas and stock.
Mix well, put the lid on and simmer for about 12-15 minutes very gently.
Taste and adjust seasoning and then add in the spinach just before serving and let it just wilt.
You can add or stock if you would like it to be a bit more soup or stew like.
Likewise you can simmer without a lid if you prefer something dryer.
Remove and discard the cinnamon stick before serving.
Pasta with Pecorino, lemon & basil
This recipe is courtesy of the much loved River Cafe in London. I always allow 100g pasta for each person but always have leftovers and most packs are 500g, so I did it with 500g, fed three of us very generously and had lots left over. For the record, 2-3 lemons yield 150 ml juice, which is what you need. I also used 300g Pecorino and 100g Parmesan, but use whatever combo suits.
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
- 500g pasta
- 300g Pecorino
- 100g Parmesan
- Salt & black pepper
- 2-3 lemons
- ½ tsp sugar
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- Few cloves garlic
- Bunch basil
Method
Cook the pasta in plenty of boiling water.
Grate the cheeses on the finest side of the grater.
Heat the lemon juice very gently in a saucepan.
You’re really just warming it through.
Add the sugar, and stir until it’s dissolved.
Gradually add the cheese which will just melt into the lemon juice.
It will look a bit like a lumpy roux.
Give it some time, stir and heat gently.
Then gradually add the tablespoons of olive oil, and keep mixing.
Add in the crushed garlic.
Then just keep it warm and give the occasional stir.
When the pasta is ready, add a couple of ladles of the pasta water into the cheese sauce the drain the pasta and then add the sauce and mix well.
Rip up the basil and mix through it.
Check the seasoning, because the Pecorino is quite salty, so it’s up to you how you need to adjust the seasoning.
Purple sprouting broccoli with lemon & hazelnuts
Serves 2 as a side dish
Ingredients
- 50g butter
- 1 tbsp hazelnuts, chopped
- Juice & zest of 1 lemon
- Salt & pepper
- 250g purple sprouting broccoli
Method
Melt the butter over gentle heat, add the hazelnuts, turn up the heat and when just starting to brown add the zest, juice and season well.
Beware of slashes of hot fat.
Keep warm.
Trim any stalky bits off the broccoli.
Blanch in boiling water for a minute, drain and serve immediately with the hazelnut butter spooned over.
Chicken with Lemon & Green Olives
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 4-8 pieces of chicken (depending on size) with the skin on
- 1 tbsp butter
- salt & pepper
- 2 white onions, peeled and sliced
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- pinch saffron
- good pinch turmeric
- 300ml chicken stock
- 2 lemons, fresh or preserved, sliced
- 100g green olives, stoned
- large bunch flat-leaf parsley, chopped
- large bunch coriander, chopped
Preheat the oven to 180C
Method
You’ll need a pot with a lid that will go from hob to oven for this.
Start by browning the chicken pieces, skin-side down, in the butter. When they’ve got good colour, set them aside.
Add the onions to the pot, turn the heat down to medium, put the lid on and sweat for five minutes.
Add the spices, stirring well so all the flavours start coming together.
Then return the chicken legs to the pot, and add the stock, olives and lemons.
Bring to a simmer before transferring to the oven, lid on, for a further 40 minutes.
If you want to be fancy when serving it, lay the chicken pieces on a platter, then reduce the sauce to thicken it.
Add the fresh herbs to the sauce and spoon over the chicken.
Anchovy Vinaigrette
Ingredients
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 tbsp dijon mustard
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
- 5 anchovy fillets, mushed with the back of a spoon
- Juice of 2 lemons
- 150ml olive oil
- salt and pepper
Method
Some parmesan/manchego shavings plus a selection of bitter leaves – chicory, endive, frisee – washed and torn – are perfect with this strong and robust dressing.
I like to make this by hand, rather than in a blender.
In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks, mustard and garlic before adding in the mushed up anchovies.
Steadily but occasionally pour in the olive oil, whisking all the time.
Add about half the olive oil, then loosen up with the lemon juice and then go back to whisking in the olive oil again. Season well.