Moroccan Lemon Chicken Casserole

Mothering Sunday was this last Sunday in the UK - it falls on the fourth Sunday of Lent. I asked my Mummy to come over for lunch a while ago and was excited to cook for her. Food is a big thing in our family. And that's GOOD food. We talk about it constantly and love cooking for each other. But not just any old thing. I think we all like to impress the others and enjoy looking at satisfied faces at the end of a meal. My boyfriend and I are obsessed with food. We don't eat out that often simply because we think (quite big-headed of us!) that we can cook it better than your average restaurant. Usually I do the baking, he does the main courses. Team work but it also means we can't interfere with what's being prepared. At the moment said boy is away - STILL - so the main course was down to me for Mothering Sunday. Quite by accident the entire meal had a Middle Eastern feel - we had nibbles first which included my Courgette and Avocado Houmous, then this deliciously wonderful casserole and finished with my Pistachio, Almond and Carrot cake. Yum yum yum. Packed full of flavours and warmth, which was just as well because it was freezing on Sunday. So much for Spring. I promptly lit the fire and soon the house was cosy and the dogs were happy. Thank goodness for that! 

This dish is definitely better if you can marinade the chicken AT LEAST 6 hours beforehand. I marinaded mine the night before and popped it in the fridge for the flavours to develop. I serve it with cauliflower purée with masses of olive oil, cumin and coriander whizzed up with it. Serves 3-6 depending on how much cake you want afterwards. 

You will need:

6 large free range and organic chicken thighs -skin on and bone in.

2 large red onions

1 unwaxed lemon

handful of pitted green olives - drain and rinse thoroughly

handful of fresh coriander

500 ml good chicken stock

1 tsp turmeric

1 heaped tsp smoked paprika

1 heaped tsp cumin seed

2 large garlic cloves, roughly chopped

good olive oil

For the cauliflower purée:

1 large cauliflower

1-2 tsp heaped ground cumin

fruity olive oil

salt

pepper

small handful fresh coriander

The night before you want to make this, prepare the marinade. Crush the garlic with a pestle and mortar. Add the smoked paprika, turmeric and cumin seeds and grind to a paste. Add enough olive oil to make it runny enough to coat the chicken.

In a dish place the chicken and rub the marinade all over, making sure it is fully coated. Cover with  lid or cling film and leave in the fridge for at least 6 hours, preferably overnight. 

When you are ready to cook, pre-heat your oven to 150 degrees centigrade and heat a little olive oil in an oven proof dish and fry off the onions until they are soft. Add the chicken thighs skin side down and brown off. Turn over and brown the other side. Add the sliced lemon slices on top and some salt and pepper and enough chicken stock to just cover the meat. Cover with the lid and bring to a boil for about 1 minute. Place into the oven for 40 minutes until the meat is tender and almost falling off the bone. Whilst the casserole is cooking, make your cauliflower purée. Remove the centre of the cauliflower and roughly chop up the remainder. Boil for 3-4 minutes until tender. Transfer to a food processor and add a good glug of olive oil, salt and pepper. Whizz for about 30 seconds then add your ground cumin and more oil if necessary. Scrape down the sides and then finally add the coriander. Whizz again until smooth. Transfer to a dish and keep warm until you are ready to serve. 

When the chicken is done, add the coriander and olives and return to the oven for 5 minutes to warm the olives through. 

To serve I used a round cutter to plate up the purée and added a little extra coriander to garnish. Spoon out 1-2 thighs per person and a couple of olives and plenty of the fragrant onion and juices. 

Paleo Courgette and Avocado Houmous

I used to be a houmous junkie. Just couldn't get enough of it. Since turning to the paleo way of eating - 80% of the time - I have seriously cut down and have only had it a few times since Christmas. I do miss it and so this is how this little gem of a recipe came to be born. It satisfies the cravings for the real thing without laving me bloated and without a 'heavy' feeling. This is quite garlic-y so if you don't like a strong garlic taste, just use half the amount. I used half lemon and half lime juice but you could just use all lemon if you prefer. Try adding coriander for an added note of flavour. It goes very well with a toasted piece of my caveman bread or some vegetable batons.,,,and a glass of bubbles.

You will need:

a food processor with blade attachment 

1 medium courgette - about 200g peeled and chopped

1 small OR half of a medium avocado

2 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped

juice of 1 lemon

juice of 1 1/2 limes

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tbsp olive oil

1/4 cup tahini

salt and pepper to taste

paprika to serve

pumpkin seeds to serve

extra oil to serve

Place the juice of the lemons and limes - should make about 1/4 cup - into the whizzer along with the tahini. Blend for about 30 seconds until smooth. 

Add in the chopped courgette, avocado, oil, cumin, garlic and salt and pepper. Blend until smooth. You may need to stop and scrape the sides then blend again. Taste and add more salt and pepper if desired.

Pour into a bowl and garnish with paprika, pumpkin seeds and a little more olive oil. Cover and place in the fridge for an hour until ready to serve. This will keep for a couple of days if kept covered and refrigerated. 

Mary Berry's lemon cake tray bake with a lemon cream cheese frosting

Recently I worked in a school for a few weeks to cover a teacher who was on paternity leave. Year 5 was my assigned class and they were a boy heavy, smaller than average class.....little did I know they had a higher than average talent for talking! Having said that they were a really fun class and helped reignite my passion for teaching. To thank them, I decided to have a little party at the end of my time with them. One girl in the class is allergic to chocolate (poor thing!) so I did one chocolate tray bake with vanilla frosting (see blog for recipe) and one lemon tray bake, using a cream cheese topping. These cakes were extremely easy to make and deliciously moist. There was some left over (miraculously) which I put in the staff room. Not 10 minutes later I went back in and it had all vanished! Obviously a hit with both children and grown-ups.

For the cake:
One roasting tin measuring 30cm x 23cm
275g self-raising flour
225g softened butter
2 level teaspoons baking powder
225g caster sugar
grated rind of 2 lemons
4 large eggs
4 tablespoons milk

For the topping:
400-500g cream cheese
4 teaspoons clear honey
2 teaspoons lemon juice
sprinkles!
chopped pecans

Grease and line your tin and pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C.
Measure all the cake ingredients into the large bowl and beat until well blended. Turn the mixture into the prepared tin and level out. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes until the sponge springs back when gently pressed and the sides have shrunken back from the tin. Leave to cool slightly in the tin then turn onto a wire rack.

To make the topping, mix together the cheese, honey and lemon juice, adding if necessary more lemon juice and honey. Spread evenly over the cake and sprinkle over your chosen decoration. Cut the cake into squares and watch it vanish! 


 

Slow roast chicken cooked with lemons and thyme butter

This is the most deliciously scrumptious way to cook a roast chicken. Really. It may sound a lot of effort for just roast chicken but it does make something quite average into a real treat. You will need to overcome a fear of touching raw meat (if you have one) and be prepared to get your hands mucky. The butter is mashed up with the thyme and salt and pepper and slipped under the skin of the chicken breasts, and some is put inside along with two lemon halves. Any remaining butter can be smeared on the skin all over the chicken to give it a lovely crispy skin. The chicken will slow cook for about 1 and half hours to 2, depending on the size. The high temperature at the start ensures the skin is crispy at the end. Cooking it in a little wine and some chicken stock means the meat stays moist and you can baste it occassionally throughout the cooking time. I usually make some dauphinoise potatoes (see blog for a how-to), roasted veg and something like brocolli. You can make a sumptuous lemony gravy with the juices at the end whilst the chicken is resting.

You will need:
1 chicken
50g softened butter
as many thyme leaves as you like!
salt
pepper
1 glass of white wine
1 pint chicken stock (I use Knorr stock pots)
1 lemon, cut in half
2 teaspoons of cornflour for the gravy

Pre-heat your oven to 220 degrees C. Place your chicken into a large roasting tin. Make 2 small inscisions at the base of the breasts. Mash the butter in a boal with some salt and pepper and the thyme leaves. It doesn't matter if some stalks get thrown in too. Take some small amounts of the butter and gently place under the skin of the chicken breasts. Smooth it along to the end and carry on until there is a good layer of the thyme butter under the skin. Put a small amount in the cavity of the chicken along with the two halves of the lemon. Rub any remaining butter over the skin. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Heat up any stock you have or, make up your stock with a cube or jelly. You'll need about a pint, maybe a bit more or less. Pour this into the roasting tin along with a glass of wine.
Put into the hot oven for 15 minutes at this temperature then turn right down to 160 for a further 1 hour and a half. This is for a fan assisted oven so increase temperatures by 20 degrees if you have a non fan assisted oven.
Ever half hour or so spoon the juices over the chicken and into the cavity. When done the chicken can be placed onto a board for carving in about 10 minutes. The juices from the chicken MUST run clear. Put it bake in if you think it needs more time. The meat should be falling off the bone and the skin will be crispy.

To make the gravy juice, first pour off any excess fat by gently tipping the pan and pouring the top layer of fat off into a bowl. You can through this away when it is cool or use a little to dress the greens. Squeeze the lemon halves into the roasting dish (careful, they will be very hot!). Strain into a pan and set over the hob to heat to boiling. Add 2 teaspoons of cornflour or plain flour and quickly stir in until the juice thickens up. If it goes a bit lumpy, strain again. Pour into a jug, it is now ready!

Carve your chicken and add whatever accompaying veg you like and trickle over your lemon gravy. Dig in!

Drizzle your heart out

Yesterday was Mothering Sunday. I hope you remembered to pamper your mothers/grandmothers/care givers. My own Mama came over for tea and cake, flowers and chocolates. Little did she know that a little more than my love went into the making of the cake...more on that later. 

It was absolutley freezing, was it not? Even in Devon it was awfully chilly and the wind was biting at fingers, toes and noses. Having just got my old, trusty steed back form her visit 'up north', it was on this horrid afternoon that I dragged Mummy round the yard, before the fortitude of tea and cake. I have never been so quick at bringing in a couple of horses, changing rugs etc in my life! Brr...spring, where have you gone?

It was great haste that we rushed home to hot tea and rather large slices of a heavenly (if I say so myself) lemon drizzle cake. As I mentioned before, rather a little too much of me went into the cake and it was not made without some stress and hair pulling. I grated a chunk of flesh off when grating the lemon zest which caused quite a lot of blood to gush everywhere (and may have gone into the cake mixture..). The electric handwhisk blew up just as I was trying to make the frosting - cue expletives and a sore shoulder today. And finally the cake itself took far longer to cook than I had anticipated, which made for a lot of 'Bake Off' poses staring at the oven to see if it was done. 

It turned out well in the end but I was concerned that Mothering Sunday was going to turn into a horrific comedy sketch.

This cake is made with a lot of ground almonds which gives it a delicious taste and a moist texture. I add raspberries but you could leave them out or substitute with other berries. The drizzle and frosting are both from Peggy Porschen's Boutique Baking book. 

Best served in large slices.

For the cake you will need:

Line and grease an 8 inch sandwich tin

Oven at 180 degress C but check cake after 25/30 minutes. If it is browning too much, cover loosely with foil.

200g softened butter

200g golden caster sugar

3 large eggs

50g plain flour

1tsp baking powder

125g ground almonds

finely grated zest of 2 lemons (minus a chunk of your thumb/fingers)

1 punnet of raspberries

For the syrup:

150ml of fresh lemon juice

150g caster sugar

For the frosting:

zest of 2 lemons

500g icing sugar

200g cream cheese

200g softened butter

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy with an electric hand whisk. Slowly add the eggs, beating well after each one. Fold in the flour, baking powder and almonds, then the lemon zest.

Scrape the mixture into the prepared tin. Poke in some raspberries, about 10, then bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes. Test with a skewer or chopstick to see if it is done. It will be quite moist but make sure no crumbs come onto the skewer.

Whilst the cake is baking you can make the syrup. Simply place the lemon juice and sugar into a pan and gently bring to a simmer until the sugar has dissolved. Put aside unil ready. When you have baked the cake, poke it all over with holes and brush the syrup over it. Do this whilst the cake is still warm as it will absorb the syrup better this way. Leave to cool in the tin over a wire rack.

To make the frosting, cream the butter and sugar together. In a different bowl, whisk the cream cheese util it is fluffy, then gradually add this to the butter and sugar. Whisk until well combined and add the zest. Cover the cake in frosting, smoothing it out with a knife. You may have some left over, you can keep it covered in the fridge for a few days. To decorate, scatter more raspberries on top and sprinkle with icing sugar. Enjoy!