rosemary |

Sometimes, you just know how a dish is supposed to be put together and you nail it the first time. That might have happened this evening – though I can’t rule out the possibility that smoked chicken would make day-old porridge into a culinary delight as well.

Either way, this is a pleasing, colourful dish wish lots of texture and a nice balance of flavours. I’ll definitely be making it again.

Ingredients

1 breast smoked chicken, cut into cubes

180g wild rice

2 small onions/1 large onion, sliced

2 sprigs rosemary

100g walnuts, broken into pieces

80g pomegranate seeds

50g pecorino romano, grated

olive oil

Serves 3

Method

Step 1: rinse rice and cook with about 350ml on a medium to low heat. Bring through the boil, allow it to simmer for 3-5 minutes and turn off. Set aside to let it steam through to completion.

Step 2: in a large frying pan or wok, over a low to medium heat, fry onion, walnuts and rosemary leaves, stripped from their stalks.

Step 3: once the onion is starting to soften, add the chicken and stir for another 3-4 minutes until the chicken is warmed through. Turn off the heat, add the pecorino and pomegranate seeds and stir through. Set aside until the rice is done.

Step 4: Once the rice is done, add it to the rest of the ingredients and stir gently, but thoroughly. You don’t want to break the structure of any of your ingredients.

And there it is: a relatively quick and extremely more-ish dinner.

Who doesn’t love a Sunday roast? Crazy people, that’s who. I grew up in a household where the Sunday roast was the single most important (if perhaps only) ritual there was. Whether it was rare roast beef with yorkshire puds, leg of lamb with mint sauce, or good ol’ roast chicken, it was most definitely the highlight of the week.

Ah, those were the days, when precocious banter would descend into personal insults, culminating in “words” and one of the siblings storming off to his or her bedroom.

It is with these genuinely fond memories that I have continued the tradition in my current household, which I share with this blog’s photographer. He eats whatever I cook, takes the pictures and does the washing up. Win.

This is my version, or rather one of my versions, of roast lamb, accompanied by roast potatoes, haricot beans and whatever else takes your fancy. It is delicious. Quick tip: make sure you’ve got at least 5 hours on your hands before you set out.

Ingredients

400g boneless shoulder of lamb

6 cloves garlic

6 sprigs rosemary

4-5 potatoes, peeled and quartered

400g tin of haricot beans, drained and rinsed

sunflower oil and salt

Serves 2-3

Method

Step 1: pre-heat oven to 200c. Remove lamb from packing and arrange in baking tin with rosemary and garlic tucked in all around. Stick the lamb in the oven at 200c for about 10 minutes; remove, cover with tinfoil and then return to oven at 150c. Ideally it should get about 5 hours from this point, with occasional basting. You’ll also want to flip the meat once about halfway through.

Step 2: After about 3 hrs 30 mins, get your potatoes and beans ready. Peel, quarter and par-boil the potatoes (this takes about 10 minutes from the boil). Drain and rinse beans under some cold water. At this stage, I like to put the potatoes and beans in a big bowl with some sunflower oil and a pinch of salt and bash them around a bit. It makes them a bit more absorbent and, ultimately, tasty.

Step 3: About 3 hrs 45 mins – 4 hours in, remove lamb from oven and arrange potatoes and beans around the meat, basting them with any additional lamb fat from the bottom of the oven.

Step 4: Return to oven and cook for another hour to 1hr 15mins, turning the potatoes once, halfway through. You’ll know it’s ready when the potatoes are starting to crisp up and frankly, you can’t wait any longer for food. Once you cut the string, the meat should be falling away at the touch of a fork. If – and only if – your dining companions can be trusted to share, simply place the pan on the table and let them dig in. I serve it with a green salad and citrus dressing on the side, which to my tastebuds is a nice counterbalance to the main event.

rosemary

Wild rice and smoked chicken salad

Roast lamb with potatoes and beans