Chicken, corn and potato soup with spicy avocado and lime salsa
A real meal in a bowl and a good way to use home-made stock and leftover chicken. If you have more chicken than suggested in the recipe just bung it all in, though you do need to use more stock or you’ll have a very thick potful.
If you don’t want to go to the trouble of making the salsa, serve with a splash of chilli sauce, a squeeze of lime and a handful of chopped coriander.
Chicken, leek and cider pie with mature cheddar and hazelnut crumble
The most old-fashioned dish in the book and one of my family’s favourites. I can turn out meals that come from the Lebanon, Turkey and Brazil – full of interesting ingredients and exotic flavours – but they still ask for this. It needs good seasoning, so pay attention to that bit.
125g4½oz cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
35g1¼oz hazelnuts, roughly chopped
60g2oz mature Cheddar, grated
30g1oz Parmesan, grated
1tbspfinely chopped parsley leave
Instructies
Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5.
Remove the discoloured outer leaves from the leeks and trim the dark tops and bases.
Cut the leeks into 2.
5cm (1in) lengths and wash thoroughly under running water; you need to remove any trapped soil.
Melt 15g (½oz) of the butter in heavy-based saucepan and add the leeks.
Cook over a medium heat for about five minutes, they shouldn’t become coloured.
Add 2 tbsp of the cider and cover the pan.
Cook on a low heat for another five to seven minutes.
The leeks should become soft, but retain their shape.
Meanwhile, melt the rest of the butter in a separate saucepan and add the flour.
Stir the flour into the butter and cook it over a medium heat for about a minute.
Take the pan off the heat and add the milk a little at a time, stirring well after each addition to incorporate the liquid into the roux and keep the mixture smooth.
After you’ve added all the milk add the remaining cider, too.
Return the saucepan to the heat and bring to the boil, stirring all the time, to form a thick sauce.
Reduce the heat and simmer for three minutes to ‘cook out’ the flour.
Season, add the mustard, then stir in the leeks (with their cooking juices) and the chicken.
Heat all this through thoroughly, add the cream if you’re using it (it brings a touch of luxury but isn’t necessary) and taste for seasoning.
Pour the mixture into an ovenproof pie dish.
To make the crumble, put the flour, breadcrumbs and butter into a bowl and rub the mixture between your fingers until little lumps have formed.
Add the rest of the crumble ingredients and season well.
Spread this over the top of the filling and cook in the hot oven for 30 minutes, until the top is golden brown.
Serve immediately.
I like a watercress salad on the side and a few boiled waxy potatoes.
There’s nothing like a pie. It might look as though this is a very thick white sauce. It is. The leeks, once they’re added, can make the filling quite liquid as they continue to cook and you’re also adding lemon juice and cream, so the base sauce needs to be thick.
One of the easiest things you can do with cold roast chicken. If you have a few spoonfuls of gravy then put that in, too, with the cream. It will make the dish rather beige in colour but is gorgeously enriching.
You can use any pasta shape for this, I just particularly like cavatelli, (trofie are good, too). This is a brilliant Sunday or Monday night supper.
leavesfrom 6 sprigs of mintroughly torn, or 1 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
freshly grated Parmesanto serve
Instructies
Boil the pasta in plenty of water until al dente.
Make the sauce while the pasta is cooking.
Melt the butter in a frying pan and gently sauté the onion and pancetta until they are soft and golden.
Add the garlic and cook for another two minutes, then add the chicken, peas, cream and lemon zest.
Season and bring just to the boil, then reduce the heat, add the herbs and allow everything to meld for a minute or so (the herbs flavour the cream during this time).
Drain the pasta and return it to the saucepan in which it was cooked, adding the sauce.
Taste the whole thing and adjust the seasoning.
Pour into a warmed serving dish and serve with some Parmesan thrown over the top.
There are two ways you can go when it comes to leftovers. You can be frugal and restrained – the freekeh with roast vegetable recipe uses this approach – or you can go luxurious. This speltotto is such a dish. It takes very humble ingredients and enriches them with a bit of cream and a slosh of vermouth. (You can leave the cream out if you are watching your fat intake. It will be less luxurious, but still good.)
Using spelt – which is a healthy alternative – produces a less creamy risotto than arborio rice, but on the up side, it doesn’t need to be stirred constantly.
¼tbspfinely chopped parsley leavesor a bit more if you don’t have any tarragon
grated Parmesan or pecorinoto serve
Instructies
Cut the leeks into rings about 5cm (2in) thick and wash really well.
Drain.
Heat the butter and olive oil in a saucepan, add the leeks and shallots and cook over a medium heat for about four minutes.
Tip in the spelt and stir it round so that it gets coated in all the cooking juices.
Add the vermouth and let it simmer away until you only have a few spoonfuls left.
Meanwhile, heat the chicken stock and leave it simmering on a low heat.
Add this to the risotto in ladelfuls, only adding new stuff when the previous lot has been absorbed.
You need to keep adding stock and stirring (not constantly, but fairly frequently) until all the stock is used up and the spelt is tender (there will still be a little ‘bite’ in the centre of each grain).
Add more stock or boiling water if you run out of liquid.
It will take about 25 minutes for the spelt to become tender.
Stir in the frozen peas five minutes before the end of cooking time.
Add the chicken and crème fraîche and cook until it has heated right through.
Add the herbs, cook for another minute, check the seasoning, then serve with the grated Parmesan or pecorino.
Chicken, date and lentil brown rice pilaf with saffron butter
I can’t tell you how often I make a pilaf using this recipe as a blueprint. When I don’t have that much chicken, I sauté an aubergine to extend the ‘meatiness’. If I’m being careful about carbs, I leave out the dates. If I don’t feel like saffron, I add shredded bits of preserved lemon to the pilaf and eat it with plain yogurt. Whatever you do, it always ends up greater than the sum of its parts. Pretty luxurious for a dish based on leftovers.
15g½oz unsalted butter, plus 30g (1oz) more for the saffron butter
1onionfinely chopped
2garlic clovesfinely chopped
300g10½oz brown basmati rice, washed until the water runs clear
700ml1¼ pints chicken stock
12datespitted and cut into thin slices, lengthways
finely grated zest of 1 orange and juice of ½
200g7oz Puy lentils, rinsed
salt and pepper
good squeeze of lemon juice
1tbspolive oil
350g12oz cooked chicken, torn into pieces
25gscant 1oz chopped, unsalted pistachios or toasted flaked almonds
4tbsproughly chopped coriander leaves
generous pinch of saffron strands
300g10½oz Greek yogurt
Instructies
Heat the 15g (½oz) of butter in a heavy-based saucepan and sauté the onion until soft and pale gold.
Add the garlic and cook for another couple of minutes.
Now add the rice and stir it around until it is well coated in the butter and just beginning to toast.
Add the chicken stock, dates and orange zest and bring to the boil.
Reduce the heat, cover the pan and cook for about 30 minutes.
The stock will become absorbed in this time; if the rice gets too dry, add a little boiling water.
At the same time, cook the lentils in plenty of boiling water until tender (the lentils are cooked separately because the cooking time can be different from that of the rice, also the lentils make their cooking liquid murky, which doesn’t look so good).
The lentils can take anything from 15–30 minutes to become tender, depending on their age, but be very careful not to overcook them.
They need to retain their shape and can very quickly turn to mush.
Once the lentils are cooked, drain, rinse in hot water and add to the rice.
Fork through, season with salt and pepper and add a good squeeze of lemon juice.
Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and quickly reheat the cooked chicken.
Season.
Gently fork the chicken into the cooked rice and lentils along with the nuts, coriander and orange juice.
The dish should be moist but not ‘wet’.
Taste the dish for seasoning.
Quickly make the saffron butter: melt the 30g (1oz) butter in a pan, add the saffron and stir to help it colour the butter.
Put the rice into a broad shallow bowl, spoon on some yogurt (serve the rest on the side) then pour on the saffron butter.
Serve immediately.
You don’t want anything complicated on the side (there’s enough going on in this dish).
A spinach or watercress salad (add cucumber for crunch) would be perfect.
Okay, I am not reinventing the wheel here. In terms of using leftovers this is about as simple and old-fashioned as you can get, but it’s easy and satisfying. Make sure you season the sauce properly, that’s key; you might need to add a little bit more mustard than stipulated. It’s very easy to adapt this recipe too: replace the fennel with blanched broccoli or leeks, or add a layer of spinach.
75g2¾oz pancetta, cut into chunks, or bacon lardons
15g½oz unsalted butter
3tbspplain flour
100ml3½fl oz dry white wine
250ml9fl oz whole milk
½tspEnglish mustardor to taste
salt and pepper
85g3oz grated Parmesan
2tbspdouble creamoptional
375g13oz cooked chicken, torn into pieces
Instructies
Trim the fennel bulbs (reserve any little feathery fronds) and remove any tough outer leaves.
Quarter and remove the core in each piece.
Cook the fennel – microwave, steam or boil in a little water – until it has lost its hardness but is not tender all the way through.
Drain really well.
Sauté the pancetta or bacon in its own fat.
Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5.
Make a white sauce by melting the butter and stirring in the flour to form a roux.
Cook over a low heat for a couple of minutes, then take off the heat and start adding the wine a little drop at a time, stirring well after each addition to make sure the liquid is well incorporated and the mixture is lump free.
Gradually add the milk in the same way.
Return to the heat and bring to the boil, stirring all the time.
The sauce will thicken.
Once it is boiling, reduce the heat and let it simmer for about four minutes to cook the flour.
Add the mustard, seasoning and Parmesan and, once the cheese has melted, the cream (if using).
Lay the fennel in a gratin dish, season, then top with the chicken, bacon and any little fennel fronds you collected.
Pour the sauce over the top and bake in the hot oven for 20 minutes, or until bubbling and golden.
There are many different kinds of laksa – essentially a thick noodle soup – and it varies from country to country (it’s found in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Cambodia). This is a simple version, perfect for cooking midweek (it’s pretty quick, despite having to do a bit of pounding to make the paste) and a great vehicle for leftover chicken. You can add other ingredients (beansprouts, beans, peppers), it depends on what you have. I’m usually quite purist about dishes (I don’t like mucking about with classics) but on a Wednesday night, when you’re hungry and short of time, I think anything goes. You can use wide rice noodles or, if it’s all you have, rice vermicelli.
Chicken, spinach and cauliflower risotto with melting fontina
This is a bit like the Sunday lunch I used to enjoy as a child – roast chicken, cauliflower cheese and greens – but all mixed together in a soft bowlful. If you can’t find fontina, use Gruyère instead. It’s different – it doesn’t melt in the same way and fontina is richer – but it’s not a bad substitute.
Heat the olive oil and butter in a heavy-based saucepan and gently sauté the onion until it is soft but not coloured.
Heat the chicken stock separately, so it is gently simmering.
Add the rice to the onion and stir it around in the butter.
Cook for a couple of minutes over a medium heat, then add the wine or vermouth.
Let this bubble until it has almost disappeared, stirring all the time.
Now add the stock, a ladleful at a time, again stirring the rice constantly.
Only add a new ladleful of stock when the previous one has been absorbed.
It will take about 25 minutes for the rice to cook; it should end up soft but with a little bite still in the centre of each grain.
Before the cooking time is up – when there’s about 10 minutes left – boil or microwave the cauliflower (I microwave both cauliflower and broccoli, I think it’s a great method for them) until only just tender.
Add this to the risotto and keep stirring, being careful not to crush the cauliflower.
When there are about three minutes left to go, add the spinach, chicken and nutmeg.
Stir in the cheese right at the end (it will melt in the heat) and add salt and pepper to taste (you probably won’t need much salt as reduced stock makes risotto salty).
Serve immediately.
You can offer some grated Parmesan on the side if you want, but it is pretty strong already.