Roast duck with potatoes

From Nigella Kitchen
Serves 2

Ingredients
2 duck legs
2 baking potatoes or 1 pound other large white-skinned potatoes
Few sprigs of fresh thyme
Salt and pepper
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

On the stove, heat a small roasting pan (I use one like a slightly oversized tarte tatin pan) and sear the duck legs, skin-side down over medium heat until the skin turns golden and gives out some oil.

Turn the legs over, and take the pan off the heat while you cut the potatoes into 1-inch slices across, then cut each slice into 4. Arrange these potato pieces around the duck legs, then let a few sprigs of thyme fall over the duck and potatoes, and season with salt and pepper, before putting into the preheated oven.

Cook for two hours, occasionally turning the potatoes, for optimal outcome, which is tender duck legs and crispy potatoes, though both will be ready to eat after 1 1/2 hours.

This is so ridiculously easy! I wouldn’t go for 2 hours as I think the duck will be too dry. I bought two duck legs from Waitrose and simply followed the instructions which is to cook it for 2 hours at 180 degrees. I added the tomatoes for the final five minutes just to make it a balanced meal

Pot-roasted chicken with apples and cider

Smoked mackerel pate

From Jamie’s Ministry of Food
Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients

200g smoked mackerel fillets
2 spring onions
1 lemon
100g light Philadelphia cream cheese
1 tablespoon creamed horseradish
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 small loaf of good-quality bread
1 punnet of cress

To prepare your pâté

• If you want to pull the skin off each piece of mackerel, do this now and discard it
• Trim and finely slice the spring onions
• Break the mackerel into chunks
To prepare your pâté

• Finely grate over the zest of one of your lemons, then cut it in half
• Put the cream cheese into a large bowl with the creamed horseradish
• Chop up the mackerel, spring onions and lemon zest on a chopping board, mixing everything together as you chop until you have a coarse paste

• Add this to the bowl with the cream cheese and horseradish
• Season to taste with salt and pepper
• Squeeze in the juice of your zested lemon, and mix again

Cream of asparagus soup

From The Great British Farmhouse Cookbook
Serves 4
Ingredients

6 bunches fine asparagus (total weight of approx. 1.2kg)
2 litres vegetable or light homemade chicken stock
300g trimmed and cleaned leeks
100g unsalted butter, plus 25g extra for drizzling
3 sticks celery, thinly sliced
65g plain flour
3 tbsp double cream
1 tsp white wine vinegar, for poaching
8 large, really fresh free-range eggs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

METHOD:
Rinse the asparagus is cold water to rid it of any sand, then snap off the woody ends and roughly chop them. Put them into a pan with the stock, bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 15 minutes, then strain and set aside.

Meanwhile, cut the 4cm-long tips from half the asparagus spears. Roughly chop the remaining stalks.

Bring 2 small pans of water to the boil. Add some salt to one pan, drop in the asparagus tips and cook for 2 minutes until just tender. Drain, refresh under cold water and set aside. Add the vinegar and pinch of salt to the second pan and reduce the heat to low. Break one of the eggs into a teacup. Swirl the water with a spoon to create a whirlpool, drop in the egg and leave it to poach for 3 minutes, then carefully remove with a slotted spoon to a plate. Repeat with the remaining eggs, bringing the water back to the boil and then lowering again each time. Leave the poaching water over a low heat.

Cut off the really dark green leaves from the leeks (and discard or save for stock) and thinly slice the remainder. Melt 100g of the butter in a large pan, add the asparagus stalks, sliced leeks and celery, cover and cook over a low heat for 10 minutes until soft but not browned.

Uncover, stir in the flour and cook for 1 more minute. Stir in the asparagus-flavoured stock, cover again and simmer for 10 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Remove from the heat, cool slightly and then liquidise the soup in batches until very smooth. Pass through a sieve back into a clean pan, bring back to a simmer and stir in the cream and some seasoning to taste.

Melt the remaining butter. Lower the poached eggs back into the simmering water and leave for 30 seconds, then remove and drain briefly on kitchen paper. Ladle the soup into warmed bowls and scatter over the asparagus tips. Place a poached egg into the centre of each bowl, season the top of each one with a little salt and pepper then drizzle over the melted butter and serve.

Pasta with prawns

From Knorr Recipes
Ingredients

2 Knorr Chicken Stock Pots
250g spaghetti
4tbsp olive oil
3tbsp chopped shallot
1 garlic clove, chopped
Tip of 1 chilli, very finely chopped (optional)
70ml dry white wine
30ml Knorr Chicken Stock, made from a diluted Knorr Chicken Stock Pot
4tbsp very finely chopped parsley
10-12 raw tiger prawns, shelled and de-veined

Method

1. Bring a large pan of water to the boil. I season my pasta water with Knorr Chicken Stock Pots; the delicate chicken flavour goes well with seafood. Add in the Knorr Chicken Stock Pots, stir until dissolved and bring back to the boil. Add in the spaghetti, bring to the boil, cover and cook until cooked to taste. I like mine al-dente, so I allow around 9 minutes. Stir the spaghetti now and then to prevent it sticking.

2. After the spaghetti had been cooking for 7 minutes, pre-heat a large, heavy-based frying pan to make it nice and hot. Add the olive oil to the frying pan, heat through briefly then add in the tiger prawns.

3. Let the tiger prawns cook briefly, then turn them over so that they cook evenly on each side. As they cook, the prawns will turn opaque and pink. It’s important not to overcook them, so keep a close eye on them. It’s attention to details like this that makes all the difference.

4. Add in the chopped shallot, then the garlic and chilli and fry briefly. Add in the white wine and cook, stirring. Add in the Knorr Chicken Stock and 2 tbsp of the chopped parsley to the prawns. Mix well as you want the olive oil, white wine and stock to blend together to form the sauce.

5. Once the spaghetti is cooked to your taste, turn off the heat under the spaghetti. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the spaghetti from its cooking water to the frying pan. This is the way my mother used to do it. Toss the frying pan, coating the spaghetti in the prawn mixture. Serve at once in two bowls, garnished with the remaining parsley. I’ve used raw prawns here, but, if you prefer, you can substitute cooked peeled prawns or a packet of seafood mix. It’s your choice.

6. Don’t waste your pasta water. It’s got the flavour from the Knorr Chicken Stock Pot in it and starch from the pasta in it, which is a natural thickener. Use it in a gravy, a soup or a stew.

Roasted (flattened) chicken with artichokes, lemon and thyme recipe

From the Telegraph
Serves 4

Ingredients
Serves four
4 artichokes or 8 tinned artichoke halves
2 lemons, halved
2 onions, thickly sliced into rings
1 whole head of garlic, unpeeled, halved horizontally
½ bunch lemon or normal thyme
½ bunch sage leaves
2 handfuls of black olives,
destoned
1 x approx 2kg/4.4lb chicken, deboned
Olive oil
300ml/10fl oz white wine
A handful of parsley leaves, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas 6. If using fresh artichokes, prepare them first. Have a bowl of water ready with half a lemon squeezed into it. Remove the tough outer leaves of the artichoke, then slice away the top third and lightly peel the artichoke stem. Slice in half lengthways before scooping out the hairy core. Place them in the acidulated water until ready to use.

In a large roasting tin, spread out the onions in a single layer, then dot the garlic and lemon halves around. Scatter the thyme sprigs, sage and olives over the top. Season the chicken on both sides, then place it, skin-side up, on the onions. If using fresh artichokes, distribute them around the chicken, tucking some underneath. Season them a little. Drizzle the chicken and fresh artichokes generously with olive oil and place in the oven for 25 minutes, adding the tinned artichokes (if using them instead) and pouring over the white wine for the final 10 minutes.

When the skin is golden and crisp and the juices run clear, remove the chicken from the oven. Cover and leave to rest. Remove the chicken from the pan, slice it up roughly, then return it to the roasting tin to serve it with all the other lovely ingredients and the cooking juices. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Festive fish pie

From 101 Fish & Seafood Dishes – Tried and Tested Recipes
Serves 6
Ingredients

200g smoked salmon
4 plum tomatoes, skinned, seeded
400g raw king prawns
500g cod fillet cut into 2.5cm chunks
2.5cm piece of fresh root ginger
50g butter
50g plain flour
425ml milk
150ml dry vermouth
142ml carton single cream
3 tbsp chopped fresh dill
juice of 1/2 lime

For the topping
700g potatoes peeled,
good pinch of saffron strands
25g butter

Cut the salmon into strips and chop the tomatoes. Mix these with the prawns and cod in a buttered overproof dish

Chop the ginger. Bring the butter, ginger, flour milk and vermouth to the boil in a non stick pan, whisking all the time until until thickened and smooth. Reduce the heat and simmer for 2 minutes, then season and leave to cool, stirring occasionally. When cooled to room temperature, stir in the cream, dill and lime juice. Taste and season. pour over the fish.

Slice the potatoes and boil in a pan of water with the saffron and some salt until just tender, thend rain. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

Arrange the potatoes, overlapping, over the pie mixture. Melt the butter and brush over. Bake for 30-40 minutes until golden.

Portugese Cabbage Soup

From The Hairy Bikers

Ingredients
2 fat onions, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed
60ml/2¼fl oz olive oil
1 chorizo sausage
6 large potatoes
1.5 litres/2 pints 13fl oz good vegetable or chicken stock
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 bay leaves
large bunch of greens or cabbage
smoked paprika and olive oil, for dressing
Preparation method
Gently fry the onions and garlic in the olive oil until softened and translucent.
Chop the chorizo into small chunks and add to the pan with the onion.
Fry the onions and sausage for a few more minutes and then add the diced potatoes. They will absorb all the flavour from the sausage.
Transfer the mixture to a large pan, add the stock, seasoning and bay leaves, and cook until the potatoes are soft.
Meanwhile, very finely chop the cabbage (alternatively, buy a cabbage-shredding machine from the market as we did).
When the potatoes are ready, mash them into the broth to make a thick base. Blanch the greens in boiling water for one minute to take off any bitterness, drain, then add to the simmering broth.
Add as much cabbage as the broth will support – if you want heavy soup add loads of greens, if lighter, add less.
Simmer for a few minutes. The soup will go the colour of jade.
Mix the smoked paprika with some olive oil to make a dressing, and swirl this red magic into the vibrant green soup. Serve with some rustic country bread.

Chicken cous cous one-pot

From BBC GoodFood, More one-pot recipes
Serves 4
Ingredients
8 skin on, bone-in chicken thighs
2 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp garam masala
2 tbsp sunflower oil
2 onions , finely sliced
3 garlic cloves , sliced
500ml chicken stock (from a cube is fine)
large handful whole green olives
zest and juice 1 lemon
250g couscous
small bunch flat-leaf parsley , chopped

Toss the chicken thighs in half the spices and a pinch of salt until completely coated. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large sauté pan with a lid. Fry chicken, skin-side down, for 10 mins until golden brown, turn over, then cook for 2 mins before removing from the pan. Pour the rest of the oil into the pan, then fry the onions and garlic for 8 mins until golden. Stir in the rest of the spices, then cook for 1 min longer. Pour over the chicken stock and scatter in the olives. Bring everything to the boil, turn down the heat, then sit the chicken, skinside up, in the stock.
Cover the pan with a lid, then simmer gently for 35-40 mins until the chicken is tender. Put the kettle on, then lift the chicken onto a plate and keep warm. Take the pan off the heat. Stir the lemon juice and couscous into the saucy onions in the pan and top up with enough boiling water just to cover the couscous if you need to. Place the lid back on the pan, then leave to stand for 5 mins until the couscous is cooked through. Fluff through half the parsley and the lemon zest, then sit the chicken on top. Scatter with the rest of the parsley and zest before serving.

Spaghetti tetrazzini

From Jamie’s Italy
Serves 6
Ingredients

20 g dried porcini mushrooms
olive oil
4 higher-welfare chicken thighs, boned, skinned and cut into bite-sized pieces
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
350 g mixed fresh mushrooms, cleaned and torn
200 ml white wine
320 g dried spaghetti
300 ml single cream
150 g Parmesan cheese, grated
1 sprig of fresh basil, leaves picked

Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas 6. Put your porcini mushrooms in a bowl and pour over just enough boiling water to cover them (approx. 150ml/5½fl oz). Put to one side to soak for a few minutes. Heat a saucepan big enough to hold all the ingredients, and pour in a splash of olive oil. Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper and brown them gently in the oil. Strain the porcini, reserving the soaking water, and add them to the pan with the garlic and fresh mushrooms. Add the wine, with the strained porcini soaking water, and turn the heat down. Simmer gently until the chicken pieces are cooked through and the wine has reduced a little.

Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in plenty of boiling salted water according to the packet instructions and drain well. Add the cream to the pan of chicken, then bring to the boil and turn the heat off. Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add the drained spaghetti to the creamy chicken sauce and toss well. Add three-quarters of the Parmesan and all of the basil and stir well. Transfer to an ovenproof baking dish or non-stick pan, sprinkle with half the remaining cheese and bake in the oven until golden brown, bubbling and crisp. Divide between your plates, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with the rest of the cheese before serving.

After one month of spending weekends in the office, and not having much energy left to do proper cooking, things have quietened down a bit (fingers crossed) and I have managed to get myself back into my cooking routine. What better way to do that than a simple pasta bake.

Recipe uses chicken but I had turkey from Tesco and so I decided to use that instead. If I am not wrong, the tacky version of this uses turkey!