Well now: when you buy a new cooker -- here it is, except mine's cream coloured-- I suggest you have a cook in. What would I do? Try this.
1. A roast chicken. I know, I know. I am forever roasting chickens.
2. Some roast spiced potatoes. I'll call them masala potatoes.
3. Some proper cakes. Or one substantial number. With a bit of spice for the time of year.
4. A casserole or two.
Are you terribly impressed? I did a cookathon in between teaching lessons at home, making a 'Medieval Day' costume for a five year old (tip: pillow case, red and gold paint; giant sequins and curtain tieback...) and writing an article and it felt like a triumph. I am not, may I say, competitive mummy, but I do like to feel I am at home. Less of the blather and back to the recipes.
1. The chicken. Free ranger; roast upside down for the first 40 minutes or so and allow about 20 minutes for each 500g and then another 20-30 minutes But do I ever time thus? No I don't. Give yourself time and you'll just know when it's done. It's instinct. The juices should run clear where the thigh meets the breast.
Variations thereon: try smearing the breast with buter between skin and chicken, rubbing it all over with a mix of best unsalted butter and good green pesro or rubbbing in a mixture of butter, ground cumin and coriander, salt and pepper. You could stuff the cavity with a stack of unpeeled garlic cloves and add sprigs of robust herbs such as rosemary branches plus a little sage. Tarragon is great with chicken: stuff the cavity with it, or strew it over the bird twenty minutes or so before coing time is up. Ditto thymes of all sorts. Great hot with the usual suspects, warm or cold. Remember to give yourself first dibbs at prising away the little stucky bits that have stuck to the roasting tin.
2. The masala potatoes. I've prepped these (just to the coating in spice stage) but will cook them later. Just peel or not, as you can be bothered, and then cut in half. Floury potatoes are what you want, not waxy ones. So, get a dish with a thin layer of sunflower oil piping hot and shimmering in the oven. Meanwhile, coat your potatoes in black pepper, flakes of sea salt, red chilli flakes and a heaped tablespoon or a garam masala mix. I like the Rajah or Bolst brands. Now, chuck the lot in the hot oil and roast until they are soft on the inside and crisp on the outside and sticking to the dish here and there. Cook them in a hot oven and possibly turn up the heat later to blitz them so they get really crisp. You will know your oven best.
3. The cake. I got all nostalgic here. So here, in honour of my late mum, is something she would have liked. It's based on one from a book she used: Been Nilson's The Penguin Cookery Book. It is an almond fruit cake. To me, anything with almond in it feels like a celebration. You need a moderate oven and an 8'' tin then...
MAKE A SPICED ALMOND AND FRUIT CAKE
Cream 200gm of unsalted butter with the same volume of caster sugar. Then add 4 large eggs, 200g of ground almonds and 100g of plain flour. Mix all in well as you go. To this you add 150g of sultanas and the same of raisins and then 75g of mixed peel. Again, mix it in well. Now you have a choice: either 25 of preserved ginger or a tablespoon of ground ginger and then, finally, the grated rind of half an orange and the grated rind of half a lemon. Stick the lot into a tin which you have lined with greaseproof paper and cook for about 3 hours. At this point, if you put a skewer into the centre of the cake, it should come out clean. Turn it out of the tin when it's cool.
4. Right: a chicken casserole. Would you be horrified to know that, a while ago, I had in front of me almost 6 kg of skinned chicken drumsticks? That's the cooking ahead thing; if I don't do it, it'll be tits up round here by Wednesday. But say you had 3 kg, which would be more than enough for 4. Try this
First, brown your chicken pieces in a large pan. You may need to do this in batches. Or, hey: just skip this stage altogether. Put to one side. In the same pan, add a little sunflower oil and then add 2 finely chopped celery sticks or hearts, 3 chopped carrots, four finely chopped garlic cloves and a finely chopped onion, much in the manner of an Italian soffrito. Cook gently until all are softened. Now, add the chicken and toss it all about. At this point --because we are going for an all in one so that all you have to do is dole everything out at the table (or wherever) with no extra fuss-- add five peeled and roughly chopped potatoes. You want these to be in substantial pieces so that they do not disentegrate into the casserole, though. So maybe better in half or whole if they are small. Stir carefully, add a big fat pinch of sea salt, lots of freshly ground black pepper, a couple of bay leaves and then cover the mixture either with a decent white wine or half and half water and white wine. Something dry, I think. Alternatively, cover with water, but add a couple of teaspoons of Marigold bouillion powder and stir carefully. Bring the pan to a high heat and then either turn it right down, simmering for an hour on the hob or a little more if you transfer it to a casserole dish, as I would, for the oven. Making it a proper casserole, then. Because it's the acts of baking and roasting that make me feel better, most of all.
