Pickled Lemon Roast Chicken

This recipe is one of our personal favourites.

If you've never cooked with pickled lemons, now's the time to give them a try.

Ingredients

This should be enough to serve 4 people.

• 1.5kg chicken cut into 8 pieces
• 6 garlic cloves
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 4 (or more) small pickled lemons, halved
• 15g butter

Method

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Tuck the chicken pieces, garlic, thyme and lemons snugly into a roasting tin. Season generously with salt and pepper, then dot over the butter.

Roast for 40 minutes until golden brown and cooked through.

Divide the chicken between plates, making sure everyone gets some garlic and pickled lemon.

Serve with sweet potato mash.

Coley's Coley Fish Cakes

Here's a recipe from an old school friend, Andy. We enjoyed these fishcakes on our most recent trip to Cleethorpes. Thanks, Andy!

Method

Bang a couple of pounds of spuds peeled and chunked into an inch of boiling water in large pan with lid. Bring back to the boil, turn low with the  lid on, overcook - say 25 minutes or more.

Meanwhile skin a pound or more of coley or other fishy fish and cut into chunks - add to the spuds when the latter start collapsing with a big slug of olive oil.

Chop a fistful of parsley and grind plenty of pepper and add to the mixture. Stir together (to stop it sticking and burning) and switch off the heat.

Heat the oven on full power. When up to temperature ham fistedly stir the fishcake mixture until evenly distributed. Olive oil a couple of oven trays and make fish cakes by spooning mixture, repeatedly, into a pastry cutter.

Sprinkle with olive oil and slam in the oven 'til crispy.

Mr Benson's Burgers

After we moaned that home-made burgers never taste right, Malcolm shared his secret recipe.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

This is enough for 4 x ¼ pounders or 2 x ½ pounders.

• 1lb of chuck steak, about 80% lean meat and 20% fat
• 2 level teaspoons salt
• coarsely ground black pepper
• a little oil

Method

Put meat through fine blade of mincer twice (which tenderises it).  Ask butcher to do it or grind meat finely in a food processor.

Place meat in bowl and sprinkle in the salt and a good seasoning of coarsely ground black pepper.

Mix thoroughly and divide into four portions.  Take each portion in your hands and shape it into a ball, then place the ball on a flat surface and press to flatten it into a hamburger shape about 3/4 inch thick.

Brush each hamburger with very little oil and grill over hot charcoal, giving them 4-6 minutes on each side depending on how you like them.

Laura's Chicken & Broccoli

This recipe combines chicken and broccoli with a cheesy sauce that's a hit with everyone.

The technique of using the cheese sauce helps fussy eaters to try different vegetables.

Ingredients

Bizarrely this is a recipe that serves 3 people.

• 3 chicken breasts
• 9 stalks of broccoli
• 2oz margarine
• 2oz plain flour
• ½ pint milk
• 3oz grated cheese

Method

Pre-heat oven to 190°C.

Bring a pan of water to the boil. Place chicken breasts in boiling water, reduce to simmer, cover and cook for about 15 minutes or until chicken is cooked.

Meanwhile cook the broccoli.

Place cooked broccoli in baking dish, place cooked chicken on top

Melt margarine in glass bowl in microwave for 40 secs. Stir in the flour to make a paste. Stir in a little milk to make a thicker paste, then add rest of milk and stir well.

Cook in microwave for 3½ - 5 minutes until thickened and bubbling. Stirring with whisk about every minute to make sure all ingredients are blended and there are no lumps.

Pour sauce over chicken and broccoli and top with grated cheese.

Cook for 30 minutes in pre-heated oven and serve.

Mike's Sausage Surprise

This recipe went down very well (literally, as we dropped half of it on the floor) at a recent workshop. Fortunately, the surviving bit was a hit.

Thanks to Mike and Louise for some excellent eating escapades. To find out what other fascinating things Mike can do with a sausage be sure to visit the People Change Matters website.

Ingredients

Serves 4.

• 750 g baby new potatoes
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 12-16 plump sausages
• 3 rounded tbsp orange marmalade
• 2 tbsp wholegrain mustard
• 150 ml cider
• Rosemary sprigs

Method

1. Roast the potatoes. Preheat the oven to fan 180°C / conventional 200°C / gas mark 6. Cut the potatoes into halves or quarters depending on the size and put them into a large roasting tin. Drizzle with the olive oil and roast for 10 mins.

2. Add the sausages. Take the tin out of the oven and snuggle the sausages in between the potatoes so that they sit on the bottom of the tin. Now roast for another 20 mins turning the sausages over at half time so that they brown all over.

3. Make the sauce. While you're waiting for the sausages to cook, gently heat the marmalade, mustard and cider in a small pan, stirring all the time until the marmalade has melted. Increase the heat and boil for a few minutes until reduced by half.

4. Finish the cooking. Pour the sauce over the sausages and potatoes and toss gently together. Scatter the rosemary sprigs on top, return to the oven and cook for a further 10 minutes until golden brown and sticky with the glaze. Sprinkle with salt and coarsely ground black pepper before serving.