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all the ingredients for dinner .... an easy Saturday night menu

Serves 8

Pan toasted almonds


These must be the quickest things in the world to make. Believe me, there's nothing more scrumptious with any cold drink and good company than a plate of hot, toasted, tasty almonds. Try throwing them into salads too -- nothing better.

Ingredients  
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
255 g / 9 oz shelled and peeled almonds
1-3 small dried red chillies
2 generous pinches of Maldon sea salt

Method


Add the olive oil and almonds to a hot frying pan. Fry and kinda toast the almonds until golden brown, shaking the pan regularly to colour them evenly and accentuate their nutty flavour. Crumble in the chilli to taste and add the sea salt. Toss over and serve hot on a large plate. Bloomin' gorgeous.



Ingredients
4 large red peppers (green are not suitable)
8 cherry vine tomatoes
8 tinned anchovy fillets, drained
2 cloves garlic
8 dessertspoons Italian extra virgin olive oil
Freshly milled black pepper

To serve:

Small bunch fresh basil leaves
mozarella

Method

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4, 350°F (180°C).

For this it is essential to use a good, solid, shallow roasting tray, 16 x 12 inches (40 x 30 cm). If the sides are too deep, the roasted vegetables won't get nice brown edges.

Begin by cutting the peppers in half and removing the seeds but leaving the stalks intact (they're not edible but they look quite good and they help the pepper halves to keep their shape). Lay the pepper halves in the lightly oiled roasting tray. Now put the tomatoes in a bowl and pour boiling water over them. Leave them for 1 minute, then drain them and slip the skins off. Then cut the tomatoes into quarters and place two quarters in each pepper half.

After that, cut one anchovy fillet per pepper half into rough pieces and add to the tomatoes. Peel the garlic cloves, slice them thinly and divide the slices equally among the tomatoes and anchovies. Now spoon 1 dessertspoon of olive oil into each pepper, season with freshly milled pepper (but no salt because of the anchovies) and place the tray on a high shelf in the oven for the peppers to roast for 50 minutes to 1 hour.

Then transfer the cooked peppers to a serving dish, with all the precious juices poured over, and garnish with a few scattered basil leaves. These do need good bread to go with them for soaking up the

option ... crumble over some freshly torn mozarella and a drizzle of olive oil


Flattened chicken

Important note. Do not do this unless you have a butcher that will bone a chicken for you ... or indeed you can do it yourself

Ingredients

Organic Chicken 1.5 kg

4 garlic cloves
3 tbs Thyme leaves
Ex virgin olive oil
1 1/2 lemons




Method

pre heat oven to 200 degrees
wipe the inside of your flattened chicken and trim off any fat. Lay chicken out on a board. Using your finger gently prise the skin away from the meat creating pockets
Peel the garlic and finely chop with the thyme, adding 1 tbs maldon salt. Push this mixture into the pockets and scatter the remainder over the surface. and on the inside. Don't let any go to waste.
Drizzle an oven tray with olive oil. Laythe chicken breast side up. Squeeze over the juice of half a lemon, and drizzle with olive oil. Roast for 45 mins to an hour depending on the exact size of your bird. Baste occasionally with the juices from the pan and the remaning lemon juice.
Carve by cutting across in thick slices.

Roasted parsnips and sweet potatoes

Treat this recipe as a blueprint for an infinite number of roast vegetable dishes. The point here is to balance slow-cooked veggies with something crisp and fresh.

Ingredients

2 large fennel
4 parsnips 
4 medium red onions
4 thyme sprigs
2 rosemary sprigs
1 head garlic, halved horizontally
2 medium sweet potatoes (600g in total)
30 cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tbsp lemon juice
4 tbsp small capers (roughly chopped if large)
1 tsp runny honey
½ tsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds (optional)
Salt and black pepper

Method

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 5/190°C/375°F. Peel the parsnips and cut into two or three segments, depending on their length. Then cut each piece lengthways into two or four. You want pieces roughly 5cm long and 1.5cm wide. Peel the onions, potatoes and fennel and cut each into six wedges (you want them to be similar sizes)
2. Place the parsnips and onions in a large mixing bowl and add 120ml of the olive oil, the thyme, rosemary, garlic, 1 tsp of salt and some pepper. Mix well and spread out in a large roasting tin. Roast for 20 minutes.
3. While the parsnips are cooking, top and tail the sweet potatoes. Cut them (with their skins on) widthways in half, then each half into six wedges. Add the potatoes to the tin and stir well. Roast for a further 40-50 minutes.
4. When all the vegetables are cooked through and have taken on a golden colour, stir in the tomatoes. Roast for 10 more minutes. Meanwhile, whisk together the lemon juice, capers, maple syrup, mustard, remaining oil and ½ tsp salt.
5. Pour the dressing over the roasted vegetables as soon as you take them out of the oven. Stir well, then taste and adjust the seasoning. Scatter the sesame seeds over the vegetables if using and serve at the table in the roasting tin.














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