A bank holiday feast
SPRING ROAST CHICKEN WITH WILD GARLIC, HERBS AND TARRAGON MAYO
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 medium free-range chicken
a few sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves picked 100 g (31/2 oz) unsalted butter, softened (keep the paper the butter is wrapped in) olive oil, for drizzling
1 lemon, halved
4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
a handful of wild garlic (foraged)
Cornish sea salt and freshly ground black pepper Tarragon Mayo, to serve
Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan/400°F/Gas 6)
Wash and pat the chicken dry, then season with sea salt and black pepper. Mix the thyme and butter together. Ease the chicken skin away from the breasts with your hands to make a pocket and stuff with half of the thyme butter, easing it to sit under the skin. Then rub the ouside of the skin with the remaining thyme butter and a splash of olive oil. Add another sprinkling of sea salt and black pepper. Next, push the two lemon halves into the cavity along with the garlic cloves and the wild garlic leaves (reserving the wild garlic flowers for decoration).
Use the butter wrapper (or a piece of baking parchment) to cover the breasts for the first part of cooking.Place the chicken in a roasting tin (pan) and roast in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove the butter paper and baste the chicken with its juices, then return to the oven to roast for a further 1 hour.
Meanwhile, roast the new potatoes (see below). Just before the end of the cooking time, add the potatoes around the chicken so that they can absorb all the flavours. Remove from the oven and set aside to rest for 15–20 minutes before serving. Serve with Tarragon Mayo.
TARRAGON MAYO
Serves 6
Ingredients
3 egg yolks
juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
250ml (8 1/2 fl oz/1 cup) sunflower oil
a handful of fresh tarragon
Cornish sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Place the egg yolks in a food processor and add the lemon juice, mustard and a good pinch of sea salt. Whiz until just combined. With the motor still running, slowly pour the oil through the funnel in a fine, slow stream until all the oil is incorporated and it has emulsified. Remove the tarragon leaves from the stalks and roughly chop. As you chop, the delicious fragrance will be released. Fold through the mayo, taste and season as needed.
PAVLOVA WITH WHIPPED CREAM, POACHED RHUBARB AND PISTACHIOS
Serves 6
Ingredients
6 large egg whites
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon cornflour
340g caster (superfine) sugar
To serve
300 ml 10 fl oz double cream, whipped
1 x recipe quantity Candy Pink Rhubarb Compote
150g, 5 oz shelled pistachios, skins on, roasted and chopped
Method
Preheat the oven to 130°C (110°C fan/250°F/Gas 1/4). Line a baking sheet with baking parchment.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks. Add the white wine vinegar and cornflour, and whisk in. Gradually add the caster sugar very slowly while continuing to whisk, until the meringue is very stiff and shiny. To test if it is ready, carefully turn the bowl over on top of your head – it should stay firmly in the bowl.
On your parchment-lined baking sheet, draw a circle around a 20 cm (8 in) cake tin, then turn the parchment over. Put a dab of meringue in each corner of the baking sheet to secure the parchment to the sheet. Spoon the meringue into the middle of the circle and spread it out to fill the drawn shape, leaving about a 1 cm (1/2 in) gap inside to allow the meringue to spread when cooking. Build up the sides of the meringue, leaving a dip in the middle for filling later.
Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes until the edges feel firm. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on the baking sheet.
Carefully transfer your meringue to a serving plate and fill with whipped double cream, top with rhubarb compote, sprinkle with the pistachios, and eat.
CANDY PINK RHUBARB COMPOTE
Makes 500 g (1 lb 2 oz)
1 kg (2 lb 4 oz) rhubarb
zest and juice of 2 oranges
1 vanilla pod, split lengthways 125 g (4 oz caster sugar
Method
Preheat the oven to 120°C (100°C fan/225°F/Gas 1/4)
Wash the rhubarb and cut into uniformly sized pieces and arrange in a baking dish. Sprinkle the orange zest and juice over the rhubarb and add the vanilla pod. Sprinkle over the rhubarb.
Gently cook in the oven for 1 hour until the rhubarb is tender but still holding its shape. Allow to cool before serving.
