This is a really useful recipe. You can serve these little chicken meatballs with home-made tomato sauce (though leave out the cinnamon) and spaghetti, or with plain (unsauced) spaghetti moistened with olive oil, or in bowls of chicken broth (cook small pasta such as orzo, or long-grain rice, in the broth before adding the polpette). And of course you can just stuff them into wraps with lettuce, tomato and mayo, or serve them with some kind of dip. This mixture makes about 50 polpette and I reckon on serving each person eight if I serve them with pasta (they’re really not very big); more if I’m just serving them with a dip.
In principle I don’t agree with the idea of ‘childrens’ food’, but it’s hard to stick to that if you end up with a picky eater in the family. I am always looking for dishes that my nine-year-old will enjoy. And these get the thumbs up. Grown-ups (thankfully) like them just as much.
Put the minced chicken in a bowl with the breadcrumbs and the cheeses.
Heat 1 tbsp of the olive oil in a frying pan and sauté the onion over a medium to low heat until soft but not coloured.
Add the garlic and cook for another two minutes.
Leave to cool.
Put the spinach in a pan with a couple of tbsp of water and cover.
Set over a low heat and allow to wilt, turning the leaves over a couple of times.
It will take about four minutes.
Drain and leave to cool.
Add the cooled onion to the chicken with the thyme, nutmeg, lemon zest and plenty of salt and pepper.
Squeeze the excess water from the spinach and chop it finely.
Add to the rest of the ingredients and mix everything with your hands.
It’s really important that the mixture is well seasoned.
Wet your hands – it makes it easier to shape the polpette – and form the mixture into little balls, about the size of a walnut in its shell.
Put them on a tray or baking sheet as you prepare them.
If you have time, cover them and chill – it helps them stay firmer – but I often just cook them straight off.
Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a frying pan and cook the polpette in batches over a medium heat, so the outsides get a good colour, allowing each to form a crust before turning it over.
You need to cook and turn the polpette until brown and crusty all over – about three minutes for each batch – then reduce the heat and continue to cook, again turning from time to time, until the polpette are cooked through, roughly another seven minutes (cut into one to check how they’re doing; there should be no trace of pink).
This dish is a duvet, a hug, a totally yielding mixture of soft pumpkin, chicken and melting cheese. And sometimes you need that. It is very rich; small portions are advisable.
1kg2lb 4oz pumpkin or butternut squash (unprepared weight)
3tbspolive oil
salt and pepper
8skinless boneless chicken thighs or breasts
400ml14fl oz double cream
1garlic clovecrushed
25gscant 1oz grated Gruyère
25gscant 1oz grated Parmesan
Instructies
Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6.
Peel and deseed the pumpkin and cut it into wedges.
Put the wedges into a roasting tin, brush with olive oil, season and roast in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until completely tender (and even slightly caramelized).
Now put the squash into a gratin or other ovenproof dish, one that is big enough to accommodate the chicken too.
Meanwhile, cook the chicken.
Simply season it all over, heat 1½ tbsp olive oil in a frying pan and sauté the chicken on both sides until golden and cooked through, eight to 10 minutes.
Cut each piece into three.
Add the chicken to the pumpkin.
Heat the cream with the garlic until it’s boiling, take off the heat, season and pour over the chicken and pumpkin.
Sprinkle on both cheeses and bake for 20–25 minutes.
The dish should be bubbling and golden.
Serve.
You need something to cut the richness, so a salad of bitter leaves is good.
Children like it with pasta, but I prefer brown rice or another nutty whole grain.
You might think this recipe comes from Scandinavia – land of dill lovers – but in fact it was inspired by a fish dish I had in Turkey, where whole fish were cooked on a bed of potatoes and dill (and a little raki). You can go the raki route if you prefer. This is a very comforting dish, but light and spring-like at the same time. You need a bit of colour, so serve it with roast tomatoes or a carrot purée. If you’re not a dill enthusiast then make this dish with parsley; it’s different, but just as good.
Remove the coarser stems from the dill and set them aside.
Take the rest of the dill – the light, leafy part – and roughly chop it.
Mash the butter with half the chopped dill.
Carefully lift the skin of the breast and legs and push under about half the butter (see technique for Roast chicken with mushrooms and sage butter under the skin).
Spread the remaining butter over the bird as well and season with salt and pepper.
Put in a roasting tin or a flame-and ovenproof dish from which you can serve the bird.
Squeeze the lemon over, then put the shells into the cavity of the bird with the stems of the dill.
Truss the chicken, if you like.
Cook in the hot oven for 20 minutes.
Slice the potatoes to about the thickness of a pound coin.
Wash the leeks, cut off and discard most of the dark green tops and the bases.
Chop them into 4cm (1½in) lengths.
Wash the chunks of leek thoroughly to ensure you get rid of any soil.
Take the chicken out of the oven and put the potatoes and leeks around it, turning to coat in the juices.
Season.
Heat the stock to boiling and pour it on to the vegetables with the vermouth.
Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4 and return the bird to the oven for one hour.
The potatoes will become tender and the cooking liquid reduce significantly.
If the vegetables haven’t absorbed all the liquid, remove the chicken to a warmed platter and insulate with foil to keep it warm.
Set the roasting tin on the hob and boil until the liquid mostly disappears.
You can, at this stage, add the crème fraîche (it’s entirely a matter of taste, sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t).
Heat this through – it doesn’t have to be completely mixed into the vegetables, there is a rough edge to this dish that makes it all the more satisfying.
Check the vegetables for seasoning.
Put the bird back on top of the vegetables, throw on the rest of the chopped dill and serve.
This is a popular Japanese yakitori dish. There it is made with a vegetable called negi, a kind of Japanese long onion. Here, fat spring onions are the things to use. Togarashi is a hot, citrussy Japanese spice blend. Waitrose now sell an own-label version, or you can easily get it online.
If you’re using wooden skewers, soak them in water for 30 minutes so that they don’t burn.
Put all the ingredients for the sauce into a saucepan and gently bring to the boil, stirring a little to help the sugar dissolve.
Reduce the heat and simmer for eight to 10 minutes.
The mixture should look syrupy and will thicken more as it cools.
Leave to cool.
Cut the chicken with the grain into 5 x 2cm (2 x ¾in) slices.
Remove the softer green bits from the spring onions and trim the tufty base.
You need the small bulb and the firmer bits of green for this.
Cut the spring onions into 6cm (2½in) lengths.
Fold each piece of chicken in half and thread on to wooden or metal skewers, alternating with a piece of spring onion.
When they are ready, gently press with the heel of your hand to compact the chicken and neaten the whole skewer.
If cooking on a barbecue, just season the skewers.
If cooking on a griddle pan, heat until it’s really hot, brush the skewers with oil, then sprinkle with salt.
Cook, turning every minute or so, for about seven minutes.
Move them around so they cook evenly and adjust the heat as needed.
Now brush the skewers with the sauce and cook for another two or three minutes, turning the skewers every 30 seconds or so and brushing them with sauce.
You need to control the heat so the sauce doesn’t burn (though a bit of caramelization is good) and the chicken cooks through (check for doneness by cutting into a larger piece).
When the chicken is cooked, brush with more teriyaki and sprinkle with togarashi and sesame seeds.
Serve with boiled rice, or just salad (the vegetable bit of the Japanese salad is good).
Koriander-seared chicken with hot-and-cold cucumber relish
I cannot resist the combination of cold ingredients with hot, both in temperature and in spiciness. In my previous book, A Change of Appetite, there was a dish of chilled cucumber with chilli and pickled ginger that everyone loved, so I’m revisiting the idea. The salad here is adapted from a recipe in Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid; they came across the dish in Yunnan. You can serve a chilli sauce on the side as well, but there is something pure and simple about just having chicken and cucumber.
Put the garlic and peppercorns into a mortar and crush them, then add the coriander and continue until you have a rough paste.
Add the fish sauce and lime juice.
Put the chicken thighs in a dish and pour over the paste.
Turn the chicken over with your hands, to coat.
Cover loosely with cling film and put in the fridge for about four hours.
Bring to room temperature before cooking.
Now for the cucumber.
Peel it and halve lengthways.
Cut into four lengths and scoop out the seeds using a teaspoon (discard them).
Bash the cucumber with a rolling pin, then break it into pieces with your hands.
This might seem odd, but it helps the flesh to absorb other flavours.
Put the rice vinegar and sugar into a bowl and stir to dissolve the sugar.
Add the cucumber and put in the coldest bit of the fridge (you can even stick it in the freezer for the time it takes you to griddle the chicken).
Heat the griddle pan, brush some oil over the chicken pieces and throw them on the griddle.
Cook over a high heat to get a good colour on both sides, then reduce the heat until cooked right through (it will take seven or eight minutes in all, though thighs vary greatly in size, even when from the same packet; very annoying).
The coriander and garlic from the marinade that sticks to the chicken will turn dark and charred, but it’s delicious so don’t panic about that (but don’t burn the garlic!
).
Heat the oil for the cucumber in a frying pan or wok until it is really hot and stir-fry the fresh chillies, dried chillies and peppercorns for about 30 seconds.
Pour this over the cucumber, sprinkle on the coriander and salt and serve with the chicken.
Brown rice is good on the side, if you want something starchy.
Buttermilk does amazing things to chicken, tenderizing and flavouring the flesh right to the bone. It’s a favourite treatment among American cooks and has become one of mine (I had previously only used buttermilk for making cakes and soda bread). The slaw is from the boys at Pitt Cue, the London gaff (I’m not sure it can really be called a restaurant as most people leave with food splashed down their fronts) that has put barbecue (and all things connected to it) firmly on the hipster map. Richard Turner, chef in them there parts, has allowed me to use it (I’ve changed it only slightly). He’s a doll who, despite being a worshipper of all things porcine, makes bloody good salads.
You can cook this in the oven as well as on the barbecue, so I’ve given instructions for both.
finely grated zest of 1 limeplus juice of 2, or more to taste
1garlic clovegrated
150g5½oz mayonnaise
25gscant 1oz canned chipotles in adobo, puréed, or 2 tbsp chipotle paste, or to taste
2big tbsp soured cream
leavesfrom 1 bunch of corianderchopped
a little extra virgin olive oilif needed
Instructies
Mix together the buttermilk, garlic and cayenne with plenty of salt and pepper.
Using a small sharp knife, cut slits in the fleshy bits of the chicken thighs without piercing the skin.
Put it in a dish and pour over the marinade.
Turn the pieces, cover and refrigerate for 24 hours, turning every so often.
Bring to room temperature before cooking.
To cook on the barbecue: prepare the barbecue and get it to the stage where the coals are hot but no longer flaming.
Shake off the excess marinade then gently wipe the chicken with kitchen paper so that no buttermilk will drip on to the coals (or it creates flames that burn the chicken).
Set on the rack, cover with a lid and cook for 40–45 minutes, turning halfway.
Check for doneness: the juice that runs when you pierce the flesh near the bone should be clear with no trace of pink.
Or preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5.
Gently shake off the excess marinade (but don’t wipe the chicken).
Put the joints into a roasting tin.
Roast for 40 minutes, or until cooked through.
Cover with foil if the surface is getting too dark.
Meanwhile, make the slaw.
Put both cabbages into a bowl and toss in the lime zest and juice, the garlic and salt and pepper.
Mix the mayonnaise with the chipotles.
Add the soured cream and carefully stir this into the cabbage with the coriander.
You might want to adjust now according to both taste and texture.
If the mixture is too thick I sometimes add 1–2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil.
Flavour wise you might want a little more chipotle or lime juice.
Notes / Tips / Wine Advice:
Serve the chicken thighs on a platter with the slaw on the side.
Good for a midweek supper, or equally enjoyable cooked on the barbecue in summer. The chicken becomes lovely and smoky. Make sure you leave it to marinate properly, it really makes a difference. A tomato marinade might seem extravagant, so cook it when they are cheap and abundant, or when you have a glut of tomatoes that are past their best (a bit soft).
Put everything for the chicken – except the chicken itself and the oil – into a food processor with the coriander stalks (from the chutney ingredients list).
Whizz to a rough purée.
If the chicken breasts are very thick, cut them in half horizontally.
Whether you’re using breasts or thighs, pierce them all over with the point of a sharp knife.
Put the chicken into a dish and pour the puréed tomato mixture all over them.
Turn them over in the marinade, cover with cling film and put in the fridge for two hours (or overnight).
Turn the chicken pieces over every so often.
Bring to room temperature before cooking.
To make the chutney, put the coriander leaves into a food processor with all the other ingredients and whizz.
Taste.
You might need more lime juice.
Scrape into a bowl.
Heat a griddle until it’s very hot.
Lift the chicken out of its marinade and brush the pieces on each side with the oil.
Cook on a high heat for about three minutes, turning once (and moving the chicken round the griddle so that no pieces are cooking in the less-hot patches).
Season.
Reduce the heat and cook for about two minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through (but not overcooked, it should still be moist).
Thighs will take longer than breasts.
Serve the chicken with the coriander chutney, a bowl of cucumber raita and some rice.
(I must say I also love a mango and watercress salad with it, but I always love a mango and watercress salad…)
These look very pretty. They make good picnic food, too. If I’m taking them on a picnic I usually make a little fresh marinade (don’t use the marinade in which the chicken has already been steeping; you must make fresh stuff) and brush the chicken skewers with it before packing them. It helps keep them moist. Don’t forget that wooden skewers need to be soaked in water in advance for about 30 minutes; this stops them burning on the griddle.
This is honestly a basic guide from which you can spin off in all sorts of directions. First of all you can use different beers (I have even used honey porter in the past), or a mixture of beers. Make it spicier, use different herbs, add mustard, citrus juice, whatever. Play around. The only thing that’s important is the beer and the technique of cooking. A few have complained that the method doesn’t actually work, that you don’t need to put the open beer can inside the bird, but part of the fun – in my house anyway – is in getting the bird on and off the barbecue with the can in it. And it’s always damned delicious, moist and smoky.
You do need tomato sauce, not ketchup. Use regular beer if you prefer, but my kids love this version.
400ml14fl oz ginger beer, plus 300ml can of ginger beer
125ml4fl oz good-quality tomato sauce, preferably home-made
40g1½oz root ginger, peeled and grated
6garlic clovesgrated
4red chilliesstalks removed, finely chopped (I leave the seeds in)
¾tbspsmoked paprika
leavesfrom 8 sprigs of thyme
3tbspsoft dark brown sugar
Instructies
To make the tomato sauce, heat the olive oil in a saucepan and gently sauté the onion until soft but not coloured.
Add the garlic and cook for another minute.
Stir in the tomatoes, 125ml (4fl oz) of water, the seasoning and sugar.
Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes, making sure it doesn’t become too dry.
Leave to cool, then purée.
Mix 100ml of the beer in a large bowl, big enough to contain the chicken, with all the other marinade ingredients.
Put the chicken in the bowl, too, and rub the marinade all over it inside and out.
Cover loosely with foil or cling film and put in the fridge for eight hours.
Then remove from the fridge and pour over the remaining 300ml (½ pint) of ginger beer plus 100ml of the canned stuff (keep the rest in the can).
Cover, return to the fridge and marinate for 24 hours, turning every so often.
Prepare a lidded barbecue to the stage where the coals are hot but no longer flaming.
Shake the marinade off the chicken and pat dry with kitchen paper.
Season.
Place the chicken on the opened ginger beer can so the can is in the cavity.
Place the can and chicken on to a rack off the barbecue, then put the rack on to the barbecue so that the base of the can is on the rack and the chicken is sitting upright.
Be careful.
It’s a little tricky to balance everything as you put the rack down on to the barbecue (because it’s hot) but persevere and get help!
Close the lid and cook for 40–45 minutes, then pierce the chicken between the leg and the body: the juices should have no trace of pink.
If it’s not finished, continue to cook.
Carefully take the chicken off the can, carve and serve.
