SO SIMPLE ROAST CHICKEN

1 large, free range chicken
Bag of potatoes
Bag of carrots
2 onions
1 garlic head
Butter
Half a lemon
Greens
Green beans
Small glass of white wine
Large glass of chicken stock

Turn the oven up to the highest it  can go. Take the chicken out of the fridge.

Roughly chop a couple of potatoes, the bag of carrots, and the of onions. Place in the bottom of a roasting tin with a glug of olive oil and all of the garlic cloves. Smother some butter over the chicken, put half a lemon in the chicken's cavity and place on top of the veggies. Loosely cover the chicken with foil. Reduce the oven to 210C and put the chicken in.

Boil a bag of potatoes. Remove the potatoes from the water 5 minutes after it's started boiling, drain and scatter on a pre-heated roasting tray of oil. Put in the oven.


After 40 minutes baste the chicken with it's oils and juices and take the tin foil off.

After 1hr 15mins, get the chicken out of the oven. Drain it's juices into the roasting pan, move onto a wooden board and cover with tin foil and a dishcloth. Leave the chicken to rest for 10-15 minutes. During this time move the potatoes up to the top rack in the oven, give them a shake, and turn it up as far as it goes.

Steam some greens, chard and/or beans for 4 mins.

Remove the carrots, onions and garlic cloves from the roasting tray for serving later. Add a splash of white wine and a generous amount of chicken stock to the gravy and bubble down. Drain the fat off the top before serving.

When the chicken has rested, carve and serve with the roast potatoes, carrots and onions, and greens.

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FENTIMAN FISH PIE

This recipe is my attempt at the most delicious fish pie from The Fentiman Arms. It didn't quite come out the same, but it's still equally as good.

For 6 people

400g salmon
400g coley
400ml creme fraiche
Half a bottle of mushroom ketchup
1 tbsp fish sauce
2 leeks
Bag of potatoes
4-6 eggs (1 per person)
Gruyere cheese

Preheat to oven to 220C and put a large pan of salted water on to boil.

Chop fillets of skinless salmon and coley into inch square cubes. Mix the creme fraiche with half a bottle of mushroom ketchup and a splash of fish sauce. Put the sauce in a dish and add the cubed fish and leeks, chopped into inch slices. Make sure all the fish is coated with the sauce, cover the dish loosely with tin foil and put in the oven for 30 minutes.

Peel a bag of potatoes, chop, and add to the boiling water. Boil until soft for mashing.

Put another pan of water onto boil, and 5 minutes before the fish is ready, add one egg per person to boil for 5 minutes 30 seconds.

Drain and mash the potatoes. Take the fish out of the oven and spoon a serving of fish and sauce into each bowl. Put a spoonful of mashed potato on top of the fish, and a boiled egg on top of this. Grate some Gruyere cheese onto the 'pie' and put under the grill until the cheese turns golden and bubbly.

Serve with the bowl on a plate so people don't burn their fingers on the bowls!

The picture doesn't really do it justice!

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ASIAN STYLE OILY FISH

You can use either salmon or mackerel for this recipe, both work really well.

Serves 2

Olive oil
2 mackerel or 2 fillets of salmon
Thumb size piece of ginger
1/2 red chilli, chopped
2 sticks of lemongrass
Juice of 1 lime
Handful of coriander
Mange tout
1/2 cabbage
1 tbsp soy sauce

Take a large piece of tin foil and place on a baking tray. Drizzle a small amount of oil on the foil. Place the fish on the foil (salmon skin side down, or a whole mackerel with slits in the flesh). Chop the ginger into small slices and add to the fish. Add the chilli, lemongrass (bash these first with the handle of a knife or something similar), half of the lime juice and some coriander. Seal the foil into a puffed up envelope around the fish. Make sure there are no gaps. Cook at 220C for 12-15 mins. Remove from the oven and leave to sit for 3-4 minutes with the foil still sealed.

While the fish is cooking, steam some mange tout and chopped cabbage for 2 mins. Make a sauce for the veg from the soy sauce, the rest of the lime juice and a handful of chopped coriander. Toss the warm veg in this sauce.

Take the fish out of the foil, and remove the sticks of lemongrass and lumps of ginger. Serve with the veggies, and rice noodles or boiled potatoes.

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