I’ve written before about the fact that as a nation we’re not massive turkey eaters. Christmas, yes, but the rest of the year? I’ll be honest, when I was given this challenge and popped to the shop, I was surprised to find packs of turkey breast there on the shelves – right next to the chicken. Have you ever seen them? Thought not.

So anyhoo, the lovely chaps at Lean on Turkey, supporting our fantastic British turkey farmers, set me a little challenge: create a turkey dish for a family of four,  NOT a roast dinner, for under a tenner.  I thought instantly of my new best friend, Ras el Hanout.

About Ras el Hanout

Ras el Hanout is a North African spice blend that I first came across in Morocco, where it was being made into a paste with oil and lemon juice and rubbed onto fish before it  was grilled.  It has a a wonderful warmth and rich flavour and is a blend of all sorts of spices: black pepper, cumin, coriander, clove, cinnamon, turmeric.. all sorts of lovely stuff. There’s  a hint of chilli in there but nothing too fiery.

For the Moroccan style turkey

You will need:

1 large red onion

1 pack turkey breast fillets

Ras el Hanout spice blend

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 tsp sugar

Salt and pepper to taste

For the couscous:

300g couscous

300ml chicken or turkey stock (cube is fine)

Large handful of chopped herbs

1 lemon

Firstly, slice the red onion and fry in a couple of tablespoons of rapeseed oil until starting to soften.

Slice the turkey, place it in a bowl and sprinkle over 2 tablespoons of the Ras el Hanout spice blend. Mix well.

Add the turkey breast to the pan and fry until the meat is opaque.

Then, add in the chopped tomatoes, plus another half tin of water.  Sprinkle over 1 teaspoon of sugar, stir, then turn down the heat and allow to just simmer for about 15 minutes.  Season to taste.

While the turkey is simmering, make your couscous:

Place the couscous in a bowl and add in a couple of slices of lemon peel (I just peeled it off with a vegetable peeler).

Pour over the boiling stock and cover the bowl with a plate.

When you’re ready to serve, fluff up the couscous with a fork, squeeze over half the lemon and stir in a big handful of chopped herbs (we used coriander and mint).

Serve with steamed Tenderstem broccoli.

For more information on the Lean on Turkey campaign, head to leanonturkey.co.uk

So, starting the year as we mean to go on, then, my next recipe is a little belter.  Brisket is a firm favourite in our house.  I love it because it’s a ‘bung it in and forget about it’ type of recipe, and the brevren and Hubby like the meltingly tender meat and rich sauce.  We have it with mashed potato usually (not really your diet option, so substitute with mashed sweet potato or maybe puréed parsnip, if you’re watching the poundage) and it always does at least two meals.  Our lovely local butcher does a great brisket joint (I’ve not weighed it, unfortunately – I’ll remember next time) quite reasonably and it does two meals for the four of us easily.

The anatomy lesson

First, then, the cut.  Don’t let the look of it put you off: it’s kind of a rolled up bit of meat with a covering of fat.  And yes, it’s possibly one of the cheaper cuts, but slow-roasted, well, braised, technically, it’s delicious.  If you imagine a cow (come on, join in), imagine where its breast would be, kind of between its front legs, and that’s where the brisket is (thanks as always to Jimmy’s Farm for my rather dodgy butchery knowledge – ‘first, take your cow…’), so it does a bit of work and therefore has its fair share of connective tissue.  A long, slow cook is what’s needed here, then, and you’ll be rewarded by a luscious, tender result.

Recipe

It’s a bit of a laugh to even CALL this a recipe, frankly.  All you’ll need is onions and stock.  If, like me, you occasionally snaffle leftover bits and bobs of soup and gravy and bag them in the freezer, this is the time to get them all out.  A little leftover tomato sauce (as I’ve used here) and a little leftover beef gravy will all go towards making this sauce even more delicious.  Still, if all you have is a couple of stock cubes that’s fine too.

It’s difficult to give an exact estimate because you’ll need enough liquid to cover the beef and this will depend on the size of your casserole, but you might need a couple of litres, give or take.

You’ll also need a good, sturdy ovenproof casserole with a lid.

Method

Preheat the oven to gas 4/180.

Heat up a tablespoon of oil in your heavy pot and chuck in one or two sliced onions.  Heat gently until they’re translucent, then reserve them while you crank up the heat and pop in your brisket.  Give it a good browning on all sides (this all adds to the flavour), then add back the onions.  Pour in the stock (adding in any leftover bits of sauces or gravies you’ve previously frozen), making sure it’s well covered.  Don’t season it at this stage, as stock (and leftover gravy) can be a bit salty, plus you’re going to concentrate it.

Pop on the lid and put it into the oven for a couple of hours.  You can just leave it the full four hours, but I like to give it a little twiddle after two:

Carefully lift out the meat onto a board, snip the strings holding the meat in a roll and discard them.  This will ‘uncurl’ your brisket and allow you to cut it up into two or three manageable chunks. Once you’ve done this, you can see where the extra fat is and trim it all off (this obviously makes it a lot more healthy too).  Pop it back into the stock, topping up if it’s looking a bit low, and sprinkle over a tablespoon of plain flour.  This will give the finished sauce a bit of ‘oomph’ – again, not compulsory.  Put the lid back on and leave it for another couple of hours.

The finished result will be melty, soft meat and a rich, gorgeous sauce.  Taste to check the seasoning, then serve, as above, with mashed sweet potato, or even rice an plenty of veggies.

The leftover meat can be sliced and used in sandwiches or whatever, but I like to take two forks and shred it into the sauce.  I either freeze it, or use it the next day, maybe with a little extra squirt of tomato purée, spooned over pasta.

Twiddles

As you know, I love a twiddle, and this is MADE for twiddling.  I’ve made a spicy version for friends, with lots of spices added and fried off with the onions at the beginning, and some of the stock replaced with tomato passata, and I’ve also done a vegetable-enhanced one with chopped leek, carrots and potatoes popped in when the meat has about an hour to go.  Delicious.

Buying online

The success of this dish will be dictated by the quality of the meat used.  If  you don’t have a local butcher, or yours isn’t able to supply you with the cut or breed you need, you can order from new online butchers, Farmison.

To skip all the waffle and just get to the recipe, feel free to scroll down.

It will be no surprise to you when you hear me say that I love Christmas. LOVELOVELOVE Christmas! But often I find that Christmas recipes involve huge amounts of food. There’s generally only the four of us for Christmas lunch, plus maybe my Mum, so to turn to Nigella’s Christmas book and find her recipe for Christmas ham starts with a 6.5kg  joint is a bit of a shocker – and frankly my maths isn’t fantastic, so downsizing a recipe generally involves taking off my shoes and socks and borrowing the kids’ fingers and toes too.  Far too much like hard work.

This recipe, therefore – and I’ve tested it – my family have been eating christmas glazed ham since September – works with ANY sized joint.  Multiply it up and down as you see fit and as suits you.

I think ham makes a wonderful Boxing Day (or St Stephen’s Day if you’re across the Irish Sea) feast.  It’s wonderful hot with creamy mashed potatoes, or cold with chutneys and cheeses and a hunk of crusty bread.

Choosing your ham (or gammon, to be precise)

What’s the difference? Well essentially, gammon is what ham is before it’s cooked – it’s generally wet cured in brine, however dry curing is thought to give a better result. Again, it’s up to you.

When choosing a Christmas gammon joint I’d recommend going to a good butcher. I know supermarkets have them in, but butchers get really good quality meat, and you know how I feel about poor intensively farmed piggies. Be vocal. Ask where the meat has come from. This is not the time of year to have every bite sticking in your throat with guilt. Choose a pig that lived a happy life and had a humane ending. You’ll feel better for it.  If you’re choosing in a supermarket, though, look out for the Red Tractor logo – a sure sign of decent quality meat.

I prefer smoked gammon, which has a more intense flavour, but go with what you fancy.

Spicing and poaching

Spicing your gammon as you simmer it infuses wonderful flavour into the meat.  It also makes the kitchen (and the whole house) smell fantastic – a big part of Christmas cooking as far as I’m concerned.

You can also poach your gammon in all sorts of different liquids.  Cider works really well, and Coca Cola imbues a really gorgeous depth and sweetness.

For this recipe, I’ve used plain old water.

With the spices, just think Christmas.  Again, this bit is personal preference.  Leave things out if you don’t have them, or add something a bit different if you like.

Glazing and roasting

Glazing adds a gorgeous, sticky finish and an incredible amount of flavour.  Again, the glaze can be as simple or as complicated as you like.  Personally, I think you need the following elements:

1. Sticky: Marmalade works really well, as does honey,  Hoi Sin sauce (thanks, Erica, for that one) or even golden syrup or mango chutney.

2. Boozy: I’ve used Pedro Ximenez sherry (it’s got a scrummy, raisiny flavour which is basically Christmas in a bottle), but dark rum will do the trick – if you don’t want to use alcohol, try Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce. Or add both.

3. Sweet: dark brown sugar is perfect here

4. Spicy: 1 or 2 tsp of mustard will do, but you could add chilli sauce, or grated fresh ginger

Something fresh is nice too – maybe some orange juice or a squeeze of lime.

Keep the basic quantities the same and you’ll have roughly the right amount.

But frankly, you could just spoon over a couple of tablespoons of honey and it would still be lush.

The final roasting allows the meat to suck up all those gorgeous flavours.  If you stick a pan with some water in the bottom of the oven, it shouldn’t dry out too much.  Whatever sized joint, it should only need about 3o mins – after all, it’s already cooked.

Anyhoo, here’s my version:

Christmas glazed ham

1 smoked gammon joint – anywhere from 800g to 8kg

1 large onion

1 cinnamon stick, snapped

1 tsp Szechuan peppercorns (or black peppercorns if you don’t have them)

2 or 3 star anise

1 tsp cumin seeds

3 or 4 cardamom pods

4 or 5 cloves

Small piece of dried ginger (or fresh)

2 bay leaves

For the glaze:

4 tbsp maple syrup

2 tbsp Pedro Ximenez sherry (or dark rum, or whatever you’ve got)

1 tbsp dark brown sugar

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Squeeze of lime

Pop the gammon joint into a nice, big saucepan (make sure you have a lid to fit), add in enough cold water to cover and pop in all the spices, plus a large onion, and maybe some carrots or celery too.

Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer gently  (JUST bubbling) for 30 minutes per 500g.  This one here is quite small, only 800g, so I did it for just under an hour – you don’t have to be too precise.

When the time’s up, allow to cool (you need to handle it and frankly, we could all do without third degree burns at Christmas), then remove the rind.  Leave on the fat.  If you want to, you can do the traditional diamond shaped scoring, dotting each intersection with a clove.

Preheat the oven to 180/gas 4.

Place all your glaze ingredients in a saucepan and stir until just combined.  Place the joint on a baking tray and pour over about a third of the glaze.  Spread it around with a pastry brush.  If you don’t want to mess about with a glaze, just spoon over a couple of tablespoons of runny honey.

Bake for about ten minutes, then remove and glaze again.

Bake for another ten minutes, then remove and cover with the rest of the glaze.  Give it ten more minutes and you’re done.

This ham will keep for up to a week wrapped well in the fridge, but I doubt it will last that long!

I’m not completely sure where I first saw this recipe.  Rest assured it wasn’t my idea – I’m thinking maybe Martha Stewart or somewhere like that?

Anyhoo, if you’re entertaining on bonfire night, these little beauties are a great talking point.  If you don’t fancy chicken, just fill them with your usual minced beef recipe, or even just squeeze sausagemeat out of the casing to fill them.

The teenagers, you’ll  be delighted to know, took me to task over my original ‘scary’ description in the title, and said that it should be ‘grumpy’ or maybe ‘ugly’, so ugly it is, but if you want to make smiley ones go for it – they’re your pies, after all.

You will need:

3 chicken breasts, cut into small chunks

1 onion, finely chopped

Ham, cut into small chunks

1 tbsp flour

Chicken stock (about 200ml)

Seasoning

Making the filling:

So sauté the onions in a couple of tablespoons of rapeseed oil.  Add in the chicken and fry until it’s lightly browned.  Bung in the ham, then add in a tablespoon of flour, salt and pepper, and about 200ml chicken stock.  Stir well and cook gently for a while, just until the ‘rawness’ of the flour disappears and the sauce looks creamy.  Add in some thyme here if you like. It’s my favourite flavour with chicken.

The pastry:

If you want to make your own pastry, rub 200g of cold butter into 400g of plain flour, then add in 3 or 4 tablespoons of cold water until it just comes together.  If you’d rather buy it, that’s fine too.

Preheat your oven to gas 4/180 degrees.  Roll out your pastry and line a 6 hole yorkshire pudding tin (or individual little pie dishes) with pastry.

Baking blind:

You don’t have to blind bake these, but the bottoms will be crisper and they’ll hold together better.  Up to you.  Scrunch up some squares of greaseproof paper, then smooth out and pop on top of each pastry base – pour in baking beans (I use some old dried haricot beans that I keep especially for blind baking) and bake for about ten minutes.  Then remove the beans and give them another 5 minutes.

Making the pies:

Now roll out the rest of the pastry and cut out your scary faces (I cut round a saucer, then used a piping nozzle for the holes).  Fill generously with the chicken mixture then top with the pies.  A quick pass through the eggy wash department and your ugly faces are ready for the oven.

Bake for about 15/20 minutes until golden.  Pair with mini baked potatoes and maybe some roasted butternut squash soup and you’re good to go.  Have a great bonfire night.  Oh and be careful out there!

So first of all, I have to be honest, I’ve said no to coming on this show A LOT.  Luckily for me, I think Nick could see through my thin veneer of nonchalance to the terrified wobbling jelly within and just kept on asking until I said yes.

Originally I was going to do the Christmas show, but then it was all change and suddenly it was this Saturday.  I was overcome with a mixture of excitement, nerves and a bustling, Womble-like determination to get everything perfect.  It didn’t help when Nick mentioned that I was going to be the main guest on the show (oh, no pressure then…) and needed to devise a three course menu to bring into the studio for us all to eat.  We chatted around different themes… three courses for under a tenner?  Versatile family dishes?  But then got lost in a conversation about how the sauce for one of the dishes I’d planned to do (a spicy lamb meatball dish) could be used for lamb shanks, bolognese, soup… and the theme was there before us: frugal food.  Luckily, I would be joined by fellow food enthusiast Christian Carden-Maund, who would be bringing a main course and a dessert, and the amazingly clever Charles Bennett from Hanslope wines in Buckinghamshire who would be matching wines to our dishes.

I cooked everything on the Friday (dishes are warmed up in the kitchen at the studio so it was fine to bring everything cold) and arrived, stupidly early at the BBC Three Counties studio in Luton on Saturday morning.

Nick was, as ever, cool as a cucumber (I’ve known him for ages through his food blog/vlog, My Daddy Cooks) and very reassuring, as was the lovely producer, Emma.  When Christian and Charles arrived I felt even better as they were lovely – really friendly and chatty, and before I knew it, we were live!

Although I think my first couple of sentences were a bit nervous-sounding, actually I soon forgot I was in the studio as the wine flowed and we tasted and chatted about the various dishes.  Weirdly, all that kept popping up in my head was that my Mum was listening and that I mustn’t let her down by burping or swearing or anything.  It’s fascinating to see behind the scenes, and actually was quite hilarious during the news or a song to have to sprint up the stairs to the kitchen Benny Hill stylee to warm up the dishes, plate them up and bring them back to the studio, then settle into your chair and joining in the chat again as though you’d never left!.

Christian was a brilliant choice to talk about leftovers as he’s something of a leftover guru.  The dish he bought was a fabulous chicken in a sherry cream sauce with mushrooms, which was accompanied by a gorgeous caramelised onion mash – made with potato skins!:

Christian’s dessert was just fabulous – and his own creation – I’m going to ask him to guest blog about the dessert for us because it really is a perfect centrepiece for Christmas: a zesty, light creamy citrus take on a classic tiramisu.  Check out the fabulous caramel basket:

Charles’ wine matches were clever and perfect.  He chose a beautiful organic Argentinian Torrontés wine called Cuma (Michel Torino) to go with my spiced butternut squash soup (inspired by my homie Laura’s gorgeous butternut squash soup).  The generous amount of chilli that I’d added had initially worried me, but matched with the sweetness of the squash and this amazingly rounded white wine, the whole thing was perfect.

For the spicy lamb meatballs, Charles chose this lovely Carmenere (I love Carmenere anyway – Tesco Finest do a great one):

and to match my fudgy chocolate brownie, he went with an amazing dessert wine, which, incidentally he would recommend as a perfect accompaniment to Christmas pudding:

We were also joined by my fellow foodie blogger and online friend, Ren Behan, who does a segment on the show every week. It was lovely to finally meet her in person (plus her apple cake was to die for – I snaffled a couple of slices).

For all the recipes from the show, you can download the factsheet here

Nick Coffer’s Weekend Kitchen is live every Saturday on BBC Three Counties Radio. Thanks so much to Nick for inviting me and to Emma for being so lovely xx

If you want to listen to the show on BBC iPlayer, here’s the link 

So we’ve trifled with titles: roast lemon chicken, poulet au citron… whatever.  In our house it always comes back to ‘roast chicken with a lemon up its bum’.   Anatomically correct? Probably not, but it’s kind of stuck.

Roast chicken is the easiest of meals.  A quick fiddle, bung it in the oven and your work is done.  First things first, though, you must choose your chicken wisely.  ’Oh bloody hell’, I hear you cry, ‘here she goes with that free range guff again’, but I won’t be budged: anything other than free range chicken is not an option in my book.  I’d rather have chicken less often and have a clear conscience than buy into the terrible cruelty that is intensive farming.  There, I’ve said it.  This free-range whopper (2.2kg) set me back £10.00 in Tesco.  I don’t think that’s bad at all as it’ll probably feed the four of us for two, maybe even three meals.  It’s all about using it wisely.  In our house a roast chicken will go on to be stock and then soup, and maybe risotto or pilaff too.  There are plenty of farmers markets, farm shops and other places doing really great chickens.  Shop around and vote with your money and your feet.  Right, moving on, then…

Preparation:

Firstly, as with your Christmas turkey, don’t be tempted to rinse it under the tap.  The oven temperatures will kill any nasties and you’ll just splash a load of germs around your sink.

The easiest way then is to do nothing.  Shove a good quality chicken in the oven on a baking tray with absolutely no adornment and it will still taste delicious.  However, anoint it a bit and twiddle with some flavours and it will taste spectacular.  As you know, I favour the ‘lemon up the bum’ technique: slice a lemon in half and pop it inside the cavity.  The scent of lemon will infuse into the meat beautifully as it steams inside the bird.  Dribble a little rapeseed oil on top (or rub with butter) and sprinkle with salt and pepper and you will moisten the breast and flavour the skin too.

There are all sorts of amazing rubs and sprinkles available too: this time I tried this clever little pot from Marks and Spencer.  You just spread it over the chicken 15 minutes before it’s done and it tastes gorgeous (by the way, if I used this again, I’d slash the chicken breast a couple of times so the flavour permeated the meat a bit more).

Go wild.  Be inventive.  Cover your chicken with maple syrup… sprinkle with chilli flakes, or rub it with tandoori paste.  Stuff it with handfuls of herbs and a couple of onions… the possibilities are endless.

Oven temperature:

Ah the interwebz – a delectable tangle of information.  Generally, too much information.  If you search ‘how to roast a chicken’ you’ll get a thousand people (a thousand and one, now) telling you a thousand different ways: 45 minutes per kg and then 30 minutes, or maybe 20 minutes for 500g and then 20 minutes…  Gas mark 4… gas mark 5…  You get the picture.

I’m not one for faffing, so I keep it simple: I set the oven at 190/gas 5  and then if it’s a 1kg chicken, I cook it for an hour.  If it’s 1.5kg I cook it for an hour and a half, and so on.  If you check it ten minutes before and it’s done, then just whip it out.  Not quite there? Leave it another ten.

Checking to see if the chicken is cooked:

The easiest way is to undo a leg (if it’s tied to the other one) and give it a wobble.  If it’s very easy to move, then it’s done.  You can also stab it in the thickest part of the thigh, catch the juices in a spoon, and make sure they’re clear.  If there’s any blood, pop it back in for a while.

Resting:

If you carve a bird straight out of the oven, the flesh just ‘fluffs’ up and you can’t get a decent slice.  Cover your bird with foil and a teatowel and leave it to ‘chillada’ for ten or fifteen minutes and everything will have calmed down a bit.  Now you can carve it easily.

Accompaniments:

Again, the world’s your oyster.  Serve the chicken traditional-style with gravy, roast potatoes and vegetables, or in summer try some lovely roasted veg and some minted new potatoes.  It’s lovely with couscous and wonderful just picked at with a massive salad and loads of fresh crusty bread.

In Dubai, they served roasted meat with a glorious spicy mixture of cabbage cooked in cream with sultanas.  It tasted divine.

Leftovers:

Yes, picking over a roast chicken is a pain, but stuff it in the fridge overnight and the next day it will be much easier to pick.  Don’t forget to turn it over and get all those lovely bits from underneath – perfect for sandwiches, salads, risotto and curry.  Finally, use the carcass to make stock and you’ve really done it justice.

For the wine:

… it’s over to the gorgeous Helen – a fabulous bundle of loveliness, a dear friend and… coincidentally, a wine expert (check out how fantastic wine blog, Knackered Mothers’ Wine Club):

”So, for roast chicken, a fuller-bodied Chardonnay often does the trick. However, EM has cleverly added lemon, garlic and rosemary flavours to the mix so this dish needs something with a bit more weight and flavour to it. If you want to stick with white, go for a rich style of Chardonnay with a bit of oak but – honestly – red will work better. Chianti is the answer: great flavours to match the garlic and rosemary but not too overpowering to cover the flavour of the chicken.”

Off you go, then.  And if anyone can think of a better title for the ‘lemon up the bum’ bit – feel free to let me know.

Fellow guest at Jimmy’s Farm, the lovely Marie from food blog The English Kitchen, suggested over dinner that I try pork with apricots.  It sounded such a lovely combo that I thought I’d give it a try with the large loin of beautiful free range rare breed pork I was given at the farm:

4 pork loin steaks

3 apricots

4 or 5 sage leaves

1 glass cider or apple juice

Double cream

Heat up a heavy based saucepan and drop in a lump of butter and a drizzle of oil.  When it’s hot, fry the pork on both sides until it’s taken on a bit of golden colour.

Remove from the heat and arrange in an ovenproof dish along with the halved apricots and sprinkle over the chopped sage:

Deglaze the pan with a glass of cider or apple juice, and pour all the juices over the meat.  Pop into the oven (gas 5/190 degrees) for about 15-20 minutes depending on the thickness of your pork steaks.

Remove the steaks and set aside to rest, along with the apricots, covered in foil.  Bubble the remaining liquid down until it’s reduced by half, then splosh in a big glug of double cream and season to taste.

Serve the steaks with the apricots and drizzle with some of the gorgeous sauce.

And yes, my photos are pants.  But in my defence I was a bit hungry.

Lemon and mint cocktail

On our amazing trip to Dubai, we were served a refreshing drink made of lemon and mint.  I got quite addicted and since coming home have found myself drinking it a lot, with the addition of a slightly less traditional little ‘freshener’ of gin.  Oh it makes all the difference.  Those little minxes at British Mummy Bloggers challenged me to vlog a summer recipe, so I cheated and did this cocktail instead.  Here’s a still from our ‘shoot’:

To whip up the cocktail, you’ll need

2 lemons

1 large bunch of mint

1 tablespoon sugar

Large jug of ice

Large slug of gin

So first, squeeze the lemons into the blender.  Try to get as much pulp in there as possible.  Then add in the mint, removing the stalks so you don’t get any woody bits in there.  Add in the sugar and the ice.  Whizz for a LONG time.  Until your ears are ringing and you can’t bear it any more should just about do it.  Finally throw in the gin.  Whizz again just to mix.  Serve immediately.  But hey, just sip okay?  This one’s a bit of a killer.

Of course, if you serve it in one of these luscious Urban Bar glasses, it’ll taste much better:

Quick and easy home made hummus

Obviously to complement your zingy cocktail, you’ll need yummy nibbles.  Hummus is quick and easy and served everywhere in Dubai.  You can keep a tin of chickpeas in the cupboard for when you want to whip up a quick bowl of dippy doo.  Add in a handful of chopped mint or coriander for freshness:

1 tin chickpeas, drained

1 clove garlic (I sometimes cut out the garlic and just use a good quality garlic oil instead)

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Pinch of salt

2-3 tbsp olive oil or rapeseed oil

Handful of chopped mint or coriander

Paprika to garnish

So just whizz the chickpeas, garlic, lemon juice and salt up with a stick blender, glugging in enough oil to loosen the mixture.  If you like it a bit runnier, feel free to add a couple of tbsp water.  Stir in the herbs and serve sprinkled with paprika and maybe a swirl of oil, with crispy toasted pitta breads, breadsticks or some crunchy veg for dipping.

On our trip, we visited the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding for a talk and lunch.  Our food was amazing:

For an easy main course, look no further than this Arabic staple, Machboos.  It’s made everywhere in the UAE and is very similar to a chicken biryani or paella  (most people think this dish originates from India, but our generous hosts in Dubai claimed it as their own!).  The original is made with chicken pieces and dried limes, or loomi, which are difficult to get here so I’ve left them out  (if you find them, add two and make sure you pierce them first – apparently they explode).   Here they are at the spice market (front right):

Here’s my very simple version that makes for easy entertaining:

Arabic Chicken Machboos (or biryani)*

Serves 4

2 tbsp rapeseed oil

1 onion, finely chopped

Generous couple of pinches of salt

1 squeeze (say 2 tsp) tomato purée

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Pinch nutmeg

1 or 2 bay leaves

4 chicken breasts,sliced into thin slivers, or leftover roast chicken, shredded

1 litre chicken stock

400g Basmati rice, well rinsed

Pinch of saffron

To garnish: fried onions, handful cashew nuts, handful sultanas and a handful of fresh coriander

So heat your oil in a heavy-based pan and gently fry the onion until translucent, adding in the salt at this stage.  Add in the spices (not the saffron) and cook gently until they give off  their lovely aromas.  Throw in the chicken and fry gently (you might have to add a bit more oil here) until it begins to brown.

Take out the bay leaves and add in the chicken stock, rice, saffron and dried limes (if using).  Stir well and cover.  Turn the heat right down and leave to cook for about 20 minutes or until all the water has been absorbed and the rice is tender.  Try not to keep lifting the lid as you want to keep all the steam inside.  I know it sounds funny but you can tell when the rice is done as it starts to make a kind of ‘crackling’ noise!  Fork it through and then keep it covered until you’re ready to serve.

In Dubai, our gorgeous biryani was served with a garnish of onions, fried to the point where they were almost crispy, cooked with some cashew nuts and a handful of raisins.  Delicious.  We also ate from enormous platters of grilled fish called Safi, a really memorable meal.  To the right is the Machboos and to the left is a really interesting spicy chicken ‘mousse’ called Madrouba :

Mint tea

I’m currently lusting after Denby’s newest collaboration with Monsoon: ‘Cosmic’ – a paisley print in ‘deep blue, teal, mauve and lime’.  I want it all.  I keep smashing my Denby Reflex, so I’m trying to persuade the hubster into a new collection.  This is classic Denby quality with beautiful embellishment. What’s not to love?  This teapot would be perfect for serving some refreshing mint tea in the garden after your deliciously scented Arabic meal:

And finally, for your entertainment, here’s me getting into the spirit of things and trying on the national dress (I’m on the right *cough*).  Yeah, go on, laugh it up.

*Thanks to Nick Coffer for help with this recipe adaptation.

I know, sorry.  No more puns, I promise.

Have you seen the new advert for this campaign, though?  It’s Marco Pierre White and Martin Kemp eating in a restaurant together.  The interesting thing is that their conversation was unscripted (as you can tell when Martin starts to squirm slightly after describing his wife’s turkey as ‘a bit dry’!) and although it’s a bit funny, it does show you that most of us think of turkey as just a Christmas bird.

The slightly scary chef and Hell’s Kitchen shouty-person is the new ‘face’ of turkey (sorry, the mental image is just too much not to have a tiny bit of a snigger) and this is a fabulous campaign as it really gets everyone considering turkey as an ‘everyday’ meat, and that’s good for turkey farmers everywhere.  I’m quite a fan of turkey meat anyway, actually, although I usually buy it already minced to use in burgers.  This campaign has made me consider using other cuts too.

Bernard Matthews Farms have launched a new website called changeyourmeatnotyourmenu.co.uk and it’s got tons of stuff about using turkey, from nutrition and health tips (turkey is low in fat and high in protein) to some really great recipes including stir fried turkey with ginger, and the turkey breast recipe from the advert (you can check out the video here.)  And just as important, there’s also information about farming and welfare standards, including facts about The Red Tractor, an independent mark of quality that guarantees high standards of food safety and hygiene, animal welfare and environmental protection.

So, anyone got any good turkey recipes for me to try out?

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Fellow blogger and tweeter, Ben, from Mutterings of a Fool was telling me all about the fabulous slow-roasted pork he was going to cook for his family over Christmas, so of course I persuaded him to give us the recipe (and take photos).  Over to Ben, then.  And no dribbling on the keyboard, now.

When cooking for a large number of people or just for a stress free Sunday lunch I often make use of either the slow cooker or slow roasting. It means you don’t have to worry about the meat being cooked and you can stretch the cooking time if needed without it resulting in a dried out joint.

One of my very favourite recipes is 24 hour slow roast pork, I think the recipe that this is based on originally came from a Waitrose magazine 7 or 8 years ago and it has been a staple of our cooking ever since. The great thing about it is that you prepare well in advance of the meal and it takes minimal effort during the cooking time. Be warned though, your house will be filled with the smell of pork cooking for 24 hours making you almost permanently hungry!

You can adapt this recipe as you see fit with other herbs etc, it’s also good with red chillies deseeded and thinly sliced; a lovely warm heat after being roasted. I would imagine it would also work well with a lamb joint.

Ingredients (serves ~8 people)

3kg shoulder of pork

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

Zest of 1 lemon, cut into thin slivers

Fresh rosemary

Olive Oil

You’ll need a joint of either shoulder or leg of pork which has been boned and rolled, I used a 3kg shoulder joint and it served 7 adults with leftovers for sandwiches etc. Using anything smaller than 2kg won’t work as well as it will most likely begin to dry out. Ask the butcher to score the fat.  If he hasn’t already done so, you can do this yourself but much easier if he does it before tying the joint up.

24 hours before you want to eat (or thereabouts it doesn’t need to be exact, a few hours less is fine also) pre heat the oven to 200 degrees C and place the joint of pork in a large baking tray.

Dry the rind with kitchen roll, this helps to get nice crunchy crackling. Once dry rub in some olive oil to cover it all over and season with salt and pepper.

Slice up the lemon and garlic and break the rosemary into smaller pieces.

Score the meaty side of the pork and push in some of the lemon, garlic and rosemary. Try to get some under the rind also as this will help get the flavour into the meat. Also push some into the cuts in the fat, try to get some into all areas of the meat, but it really doesn’t need to be precise.

Put the joint into the preheated oven with the fat side up and roast for 30 minutes, then turn the heat down to 110 degrees C and be brave and leave it for 24 hours!

Basting every few hours will help; you’ll be amazed how much fat comes out. These juices can be later added to your gravy or to roast your potatoes.

After 24 hours take the meat out of the oven and rest for 30-40 minutes covered in foil, the meat will stay plenty hot enough. This is the ideal time to turn the oven up and cook your roast potatoes.

Once you’re ready to serve pull the crackling off and break into smaller pieces, I normally put this in a small pile in the corner of the serving dish for the meat. The meat wont carve into slices, but rather should fall apart into strips/chunks and you can just tease it apart with a knife and fork.

Serve with whatever vegetables you wish; my favourites are celeriac and potato mash, cabbage, cumin and orange carrots (Hugh double barreled recipe) and creamed parsnip. The good lady always insists on Yorkshire puddings as well!