Tonight, I felt like having a proper family dinner which for anyone who knows me usually means that I wait for my other half to get home and then he cooks! Not today though…

This is roast chicken with garlic butter and a lemon gravy, with roast potatoes and garden peas. And a chunk of burnt garlic bread (oops!). This was my first time making roast chicken, and for an ex-vegetarian it was quite an experience! It was gorgeous too, really tender and the lemon was a stunning addition.

In other firsts, I made a steamed syrup sponge pudding this afternoon. This was my first attempt at a steamed pudding and I was so impressed. It was surprisingly easy and everyone ate it which is really the benchmark for success!

Anyway – I apologise for the lack of detail in the photos but it was a long day for the family today and those are the best we could do!

To make it yourself:-

Roast Chicken

Medium sized chicken (mine weighed 1.4kg, approx 3lbs) with all strings cut
1 lemon
10g butter
2 cloves garlic
olive oil
salt and pepper
125ml dry white wine

Soften your butter and add the garlic, crushed. Using half your lemon, slice it and stuff both the lemon slices and the butter into the chicken cavity. Put your chicken into a roasting dish and rub with the olive oil, season and cover with foil. Place in a preheated oven at gas mark 8 (230C/450F). When you’re calculating your cooking time, you want 20 minutes per pound of chicken plus 20 minutes extra, so mine took 1h20m and I removed the foil after an hour to let the chicken brown.

Remove your chicken from the oven, and tip it up in the dish to remove the lemon slices from the cavity and the cooking juices. Pop the chicken on a large plate or carving block and cover with foil to rest. Pour the juices from the roasting tin with the lemon slices into a pan. Add the juice from your remaining lemon half, and 125ml dry white wine. Bring to the boil and simmer until it has reduced by half. Sieve to remove the lemon and you have a tangy gravy ready.

Steamed syrup sponge

1 tablespoon black treacle
3 tablespoons golden syrup
175 g self-raising flour
1 rounded teaspoon baking powder
175 g butter, softened
3 eggs
175 g soft light brown sugar

Tinfoil
Greaseproof paper
String

Butter the basin, then measure 3 tablespoons of golden syrup into it. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl and add the softened butter, eggs, sugar and black treacle. Next, beat the mixture for about 2 minutes until it’s all blended and changing to a light golden colour (an electric whisk is amazing for this if you have one). Tip it into the basin and level the top.

Place the sheet of foil over the greaseproof paper, make a pleat in the centre to allow the pudding to expand and place this foil-side up on top of the pudding. Pull it down the sides and tie the string around it, taking it over the top and tying it on the other side. This gives you a wee handle which makes removing the pudding much easier. Trim off the extra paper and roll the foil up to cover the string. Stick your pudding into a big pan and add boiling water up to roughly the halfway line on your dish, and leave it on a medium heat for at least two hours. Remember to check on the water and don’t let the pan run dry.

Try it yourself!

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Posted under baking, cooking, recipes