Spicy spatchcocked spring chicken (check that out for alliteration)

Spicy spatchcocked chicken

Food for me is never just food - it's the memories, the people I ate it with, the time of year, the weather, the beautiful ingredients, the story behind them and their producers.... Last night was a night of fun with food. We pretended to be cavemen and woman and ate whole spring chickens straight off the bones. The spicy sauce smeared round our faces like toddlers, hands all sticky.


Late afternoon on Saturday I went wedding dress shopping with E. She looked so beautiful. Dress shopping then turned into a full on confab over pear cider and chocolate truffles around the kitchen table which then turned into a quick trip to Waitrose to pick up a few things. By the time we sat down to eat it was 9.45pm. It was one of those dinners that just got later and later, we ate just at that point between dusk and night. I lit a few candles unwittingly adding to that caveman vibe.


Warning - this is not first date food. Very messy, very fun.

spring chicken or poussin if you are being posh

spatchcocked spring chicken

marinating chicken

Serves 2 - Spicy spatchcocked spring chicken
grill medium heat


2 spring chicken spatchcocked (see Marco Pierre "sellout" White spatchcock a chicken at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjIAWjsJPsc)
Marinade - good glug of olive oil
                 zest and juice of 1 lemon
                 1tsp chilli powder
                 1tsp paprika (smoked or otherwise)
                 4 fat cloves of garlic, smeared to a paste
                 an assaulting of black pepper (maybe 20-30 grinds)
                 salt to taste


Mix the marinade together and rub it into both sides of the chicken.
Leave it for a few hours ideally, I however was not waiting till midnight, it only got 10 minutes.
Grill the chicken for 25-30 minutes, turning once.
Maybe baste the chicken with the juices collecting at the bottom of the grill pan.
Once the chicken has cooked leave it to rest for a few minutes.
Scrape the sticky juicy bits form the bottom of the pan over the chicken and serve.


Enjoy.

Spicy spatchcocked spring chicken with a simple green salad

Matzo Ball Soup/Jewish Penicillin

Today I have faced one of my many fears and after 6 years I finally went to the dentist.  I need 3 fillings. I need Grandma's matzo ball soup. 

My grandpa's family was Jewish, he came over the UK just before the war broke out. He married my Scottish Grandma and they lived happily ever after.

Despite the slightly tenuous link to my Jewish ancestry this soup was genuinely given more reverence than the doctor in times of illness when I was growing up. Although this was traditionally eaten at Passover, we had it whenever a roast chicken was made. From the little research I have done I don't think this recipe is remotely traditional but maybe if I use lots of Yiddish words that could be over looked? Except I don't really know any apart from...

Klutz - noun (slang) a clumsy person

Schlep - noun (slang) 1. A difficult journey 

                                  2. A clumsy person

Bubbe - noun grandmother

(I'm guessing I was a clumsy child?)

From what I understand this soup is traditionally quite thin with larger chunks of vegetables. This is a bit more gelatinous with lots of small chopped up vegetables and dense mid sized dumplings. I’m not going to be an autocrat and tell you exactly how to have your soup... I’m going to tell you how to make the Dallmann version. 

                                                                               Matzo ball soup

Serves 4 ish

2 large onions, fine cubes

3 fat cloves of garlic, very, very thinly sliced

2 carrots grated

3 sticks of celery, thinly sliced

small leek, very thinly sliced

chicken (whatever is left from the roast)

chicken stock

bay leaf

Gently fry off the onions and leek for a few minutes, try not to let them brown. 

Add the garlic and fry for another minute of two. 

Add the stock and the other vegetables and simmer for 20 minutes or so.

Whilst you are waiting you can get started in on the matzo balls.

4 matzos

4 tbps chicken fat/vegetable oil

6 tbps stock

3 eggs

Beat the matzos to small flakes (as small as you can be bothered), add the wet ingredients and mix. Leave to stand for 20 minutes or so, make it into the balls and pop into the soup. The dumplings will take about 15 minutes to cook. It made me so happy to see them bobbing around in the broth. It’s amazing how that simple image took me back almost 20 years to Bubbe's kitchen.

Wonderful soups must be a granny thing as my grandmother-in-law-to-be is a bit of a dab hand as well. The secret to her soup is "don't scrimp on stock and have a third of the vegetables as onions". Following this advice I've never made a dud soup.  However, this principle may be stretched to its limit if you try out my little Brother’s soup combination of mushroom, turnip and aubergine. NOT RECOMMENDED.