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6 hours ago
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Spring is here in all its glory, as the birds testify with their ebullient chitter-chat. But the weather is wilful and the air can turn chilly in a flash, and it’s this in-between time when soothing braises made with lighter ingredients are just what’s needed. I recently found a recipe for an Iranian chicken stew recipe that paired carrots and yoghurt, and its sunniness really appealed to me; I added cardamom for its evocative scent and chickpeas for body, and it was demolished by the troops. Pudding had to be simple, and both the biscuits and poached apricots can be made a few days ahead, so it is also blissfully easy. A lovely spring lunch for a lazy, sun-soaked day.
Cardamom chicken braised with sweet onions, chickpeas and saffron yoghurt (pictured top)
Beautifully scented, yellow-stained chicken that is as lovely served at room temperature as it is warm.
Prep 20 min
Cook 1 hr 15 min
Serves 6
Sea salt and black pepper
1 medium chicken, jointed, or use 8 chicken thighs, if you prefer
3 tbsp olive oil
30g butter
2 large onions, peeled and thinly sliced
4 celery stalks, finely chopped
4 large carrots, cut at an angle into chunks
4 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
2 tsp green cardamom seeds
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tsp black peppercorns
500g drained jarred or tinned chickpeas
1 small bunch fresh thyme, leaves picked
300ml chicken stock
2 large pinches saffron threads, toasted, crushed and steeped in 3 tbsp boiling water
200ml yoghurt
½ lemon
1 small bunch fresh parsley, leaves picked and roughly chopped
Couscous or rice, to serve
Season the chicken all over, and put a large casserole pan on a high heat. Once it’s good and hot, add half the oil, then brown the chicken pieces, in batches, if need be, until golden all over. Transfer the browned chicken to a large bowl.
Turn down the heat, add the remaining oil and all the butter, then gently fry the onion and celery for 10-12 minutes. Season with salt, then stir in the carrots and garlic.
Meanwhile, toast the cardamom, cumin and peppercorns in a small frying pan until fragrant. Crush the spices, then stir them into the vegetables and cook for five minutes more.
Return the browned chicken legs, thighs and wings (or all the thighs, if using those) to the pan, add the chickpeas and thyme, pour in the stock and two-thirds of the saffron liquid, and bring to a boil. Turn the heat right down to a very gentle simmer, then leave to cook for 12-14 minutes.
Stir in the chicken breasts and cook for a further 12-14 minutes, or until the thighs are cooked through.
Mix the remaining saffron water with the yoghurt and season with a little salt and pepper. Squeeze the lemon juice into the chicken, taste and adjust the seasoning, and serve with the yoghurt, parsley and some couscous (large, for preference) or rice.
Rosewater apricots with pistachio butter biscuits
Ludicrously simple, but nonetheless delicious. Try serving the apricots with different ice-creams: pistachio, hazelnut, and vanilla are all great.
Prep 5 min
Chill 1 hr
Cook 1 hr
Serves 6
60g golden caster sugar
250g dried apricots
2 drops rosewater
Zest of 1 lemon, pared off in wide strips (use a vegetable peeler), plus the juice of ½ lemon
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
For the biscuits
80g pistachios, plus a few extra, roughly chopped, to finish
125g softened unsalted butter
70g caster sugar
175g plain flour
2 tsp fennel seeds
½ tsp sea salt
To serve
Whipped cream, greek yoghurt or ice-cream
Roughly chopped pistachios
Put 350ml cold water and the sugar in a small pan on a medium heat and, once the sugar has dissolved, add the apricots, rosewater, pared lemon skin and vanilla, and simmer for 25 minutes. Off the heat, stir in the juice of half the lemon, then leave to cool in the pan.
To make the biscuits, blitz the pistachios in a food processor to light crumbs – this should only take a few pulses; you want a mostly ground texture, but with some chunks. Using an electric whisk (or a hand whisk), cream the butter and sugar, then add the flour, fennel seeds and salt, and gently bring the dough together. Add the blitzed pistachios, shape the dough into a sausage, then wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
Heat the oven to 190C (170C fan)/375F/gas 5, and line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper. Take the biscuit dough out of the fridge and cut it into 5mm-thick rounds – you should have 16-18. Arrange on the tray spaced slightly apart, bake for 15 minutes, or until the biscuits are very slightly starting to turn golden, then remove and leave to cool.
Serve the apricots with some lightly whipped cream, ice-cream or thick yoghurt, and topped with some roughly chopped pistachios and the biscuits alongside for some welcome crunch. The apricots can be kept in their poaching liquid in the fridge for up to a week – I love them for breakfast.
