Tips

Leftover roast chicken can easily be transformed into a delicious meal. My favourite recipe suggestions – Chicken Caesar Salad and Creamy Chicken Pesto Tagliatelle.

Ingredients

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C.
2. Remove any string and giblets from the chicken, then wipe the cavity clean with paper towels and season inside with a large pinch of salt and a few twists of pepper. Put the onions, carrots, garlic, parsnip in a roasting pan, season with salt and pepper, and stir in half the olive oil.
3. Sit the chicken breast-side up on top of the vegetables. Add the dry herbs (dried thyme, dried onion, dried parsley and the red paprika) to the remaining olive oil and mix well. Drizzle with the spiced olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 1 hour 20 minutes, turning the bird regularly and basting with the cooking juices.
4. For juicy, melt-in-the-mouth chicken, you need to turn the bird over several times and baste it well during roasting. This helps the heat penetrate evenly and makes the meat moist. After the chicken has been roasting for half an hour, and the skin on the breast is nicely colored and crisp, turn the bird onto one of its sides and baste well. Roast for 10 minutes, then turn the bird onto its other side. Baste and return to the oven to roast for another 10 minutes.
5. Now turn the chicken over onto its breast, so the back is facing up, and baste well. Return to the oven to roast for another 10 minutes. Finally, sit the bird breast-side up and roast for the remainder of the time.
6. To check if the chicken is done, insert a skewer or the tip of a sharp, narrow-bladed knife deep into the thick end of a thigh. The bird is cooked if the juices run clear; if there are any traces of blood you will need to carry on cooking until they are gone.
7. When the chicken is cooked, transfer it to a carving board and cover loosely with foil. Let stand in a warm place for 10–15 minutes. Remove the garlic from the vegetables, then transfer the vegetables to a bowl with a slotted spoon and stir the sage leaves through them. Keep warm.
8. Carve the chicken and serve with the vegetables, potatoes pure and apple compote.

Ingredients

Method

1. Preheat oven to 175C degrees. Line a 12-cavity muffin pan with cupcake liners and set aside. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. Set aside.
2. In a separate large mixing bowl, using hand mixers, beat together the brown sugar, white sugar, and eggs until combined. Mix in applesauce and vanilla extract. With mixer running on low speed, slowly pour in vegetable oil and mix until combined. Finely shred the carrots (on the small side of your grater (picture above) and measure to ensure you have 1 and 1/2 cups. Add the dry ingredients right on top of the wet ingredients and the shredded carrots right on top of that. Add raisins and walnuts. Stir until just combined being careful to not overmix.
3. Pour batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling each cup about 3/4 full. You should use all of the batter between the 12 cavities. Bake in preheated oven about 20 – 25 minutes or until a toothpick when inserted into center of cupcake comes out clean. Cool in muffin tin several minutes then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.
For the frosting:
4. Meanwhile, prepare the frosting. Using a hand mixer, cream together the room temperature butter and cream cheese on medium-high speed until completely smooth. Mix in vanilla extract, sea salt and cinnamon. With mixer running on low speed, slowly add powdered sugar and beat until well blended and smooth. Chill the frosting while the cupcakes finish cooling.
5. Frost completely cooled cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

Ingredients

• 4 medium size boiled potatoes
• 4 medium size boiled red beets
• 1 carrot
• 1 apple
• 4 pickled cucumbers
• 1/2 cup of light mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup of yogurt (or sour cream)
• salt
• ground black pepper
• parsley

Method

1. Peel and cut in cubes the potatoes. Place them in an micro golf oven proof dish together with some water, cover with a lid and let them boil on 750W for 12-14 minutes. Once ready, drain the remaining water and let them cool completely.
2. I prefer to buy pre-boiled red beetroot, but if not available in your area you may always boil or roast your own red beets. If you are doing so, remove the skin, let them cool completely and then cut them into cubes.
3. Peel and dice the carrot into small cubes.
4. Peel, core and finely chop the apple into small cubes.
5. Cut the pickled cucumber into small cubes as well.
6. Mix all into a big salad bawl and season with salt and ground black pepper.
7. Add the mayonnaise and the yogurt (I prefer to use sour cream instead) and mix well.
8. Garnish with fresh parsley.

Ingredients

Serves 4 people

• 12 hash brown potatoes
• 2 tsp ras el hanout
• 8 tbsp olive oil
• 2 racks of lamb, French trimmed
• 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
• purple chicory
• 2 handfuls of small green asparagus
• purple radish sprouts
• 1 tbsp butter
• salt
• black pepper

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 200C. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a frying pan and, one at a time, fry the fat side of the lamb well until dark brown, then remove from the pan. Season the lamb fat with salt, black pepper and ras el hanout, then drizzle or brush over the pomegranate molasses. Put the lamb, fat-side up in the oven. Cook for 20 mins for rare, 25 mins for pink and 30 mins for well done. Remove and leave to rest for 10 mins.
2. In the meantime, in a large frying pan, heat 1 tbsp of oil and add the hash brown potatoes. Cook for 15 min, turning several times until both sides are golden brown.
3. In another frying pan melt and heat the butter. Trim the dry ends of the green asparagus and add them to the butter. Cook turning them around for about 10 minutes until they become slightly soft. Season with salt and black pepper.
4. Cut the lamb racks in pieces. Plate by arranging lamb, hash brown potatoes, purple chicory, green asparagus and purple radish sprouts and drizzle over a table spoon of pomegranate molasses.

Ingredients

Classic Hummus

• 1 can (325 g) chickpeas, rinsed
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 tablespoons tahini sauce
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin.
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Roasted Paprika & Dry Tomato Hummus

• 2 canned roasted bell peppers, seeded and quartered
• 50g dry tomatoes
• 1/2 can (150 g) chickpeas, rinsed
• 1 clove garlic
• 3 tablespoons tahini sauce
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Method

1. For the Classic Hummus: Add canned chickpeas, garlic, tahini, lemon juice, smoked paprika, salt, ground cumin and smoked pepper to the bowl of a food processor. Blend until smooth. While blending, slowly add in the olive oil until hummus is creamy and smooth.
2. For the Paprika Hummus: Add canned roasted peppers, dry tomatoes, chickpeas, garlic, tahini, lemon juice, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper to the bowl of a food processor. Blend until smooth. While blending, slowly add in the olive oil until hummus is creamy and smooth.

Ingredients

For the Pasta

• 300g plain flour
• 2 free-range eggs
• pinch salt
• 75g well-drained, puréed cooked spinach

For the ravioli filling

• 600g burrata mozzarella cheese
• 50g parmesan, freshly grated
• 50g dry tomatoes
• salt
• black pepper

For the Basil Pesto

• 2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed (can sub half the basil leaves with baby spinach)
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/3 cup pine nuts
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon salt, more to taste
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, more to taste

For the Crème Fraîche Sauce

• 200g Creme Fraiche
• 50g Parmesan

To Serve

• Rocket salad
• Fresh basil leaves
• Grated Parmesan Cheese

Method

1. To make the pasta, sift the flour onto a work surface, forming a volcano-shaped mound with a well in the centre. Break the eggs into the well and add the salt and spinach. Incorporate the eggs and spinach into the flour with a fork and your hands, gradually drawing the flour into the egg mixture until it forms a coarse paste.
2. Add a little more flour if the mixture is too soft or sticky, or a little water if the mixture is too dry. Using a knife (or a spatula), scrape up any stray pieces of dough.
3. Before kneading the dough, clean your hands and the work surface. Lightly flour the work surface, and start to knead the dough with the heel of one hand as you might break the dough. Work the dough for 10-15 minutes until the consistency is smooth and elastic. If the dough sticks to your fingers, rub your hands with some flour. Wrap the dough in cling film or aluminium foil and leave it to rest for at least half an hour.
4. Roll out the pasta, by machine or using a rolling pin, into two long sheets, roughly 15-20cm wide, and 2mm thick. Blend the burrata mozzarella with the dry tomatoes, salt and pepper until smooth paste.
5. Place one sheet of pasta on the work surface. Put one full tea spoon of mozzarella filling.
6. Brush around the filling with water and fold over the other side of the pasta sheet. Cover the fillings by pressing the dough all around each to expel the air. Cut into rectangles with a pasta wheel or a sharp knife to make six large ravioli. Cover with a tea towel while you make the remaining ravioli.
7. Repeat with the other pasta sheet, using the rest of the burrata filling.
8. Cook the ravioli gently in plenty of boiling salted water for 2-3 minutes or until al dente.
9. To make the Basil Pesto blend together the basil leaves, parmesan, pine nuts, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper until smooth.
10. In a separate saucepan melt the Creme Fraiche and the grated Parmesan.
11. Serve the pasta on warmed plates, drizzle Basil Pesto and Creme Fraiche sauce, sprinkled with more parmesan and add rocket salad and fresh basil leaves.