Festive lunch for a crowd
Bring the family together for an easy and flavourful lunch over the Christmas period.
At Christmas, there are always so many people to catch up with – whether for an early Christmas or Christmas Eve, small and intimate or massive gatherings, rowdily casual or elegant and formal ones. This gorgeous lunch serves six but can easily be doubled to serve more. It is packed with flavour and indulgently rich, so the serving sizes aren’t huge (particularly if you’re anticipating dessert).
If you have big eaters you might want to add another chicken breast to the fennel to be on the safe side.
I absolutely love this combination of flavours – first you have the chicken flavoured with pungent blue cheese, wrapped in salty pancetta and with a fragrant hit of sage all tucked into a bed of sweet fennel. Then you have the earthy little red potatoes roasted with garlic paired with bitter rocket, sweet ripe tomatoes and roasted asparagus, finished with the sharp crunch of red onion.
Together they work like magic – but if you want more sides, a kumara gratin would be brilliant.
As we approach the main event, I hope that you are all managing with a minimum of stress and maximum of joy – wishing you a merry Christmas.
Pancetta-wrapped chicken with blue cheese, sage and fennel
Serves 6 for lunch Preparation time: 20 minutes Cooking time: 45 minutes
❚ 1 tablespoon olive oil
❚ 25g butter
❚ 3 large fennel bulbs
❚ Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
❚ 1⁄ cup cream
32 large single chicken breasts
❚
❚ 80g firm blue cheese, cut into 6 slices
❚ 6 large sage leaves
❚ 200g pancetta
Heat the oil and butter in a large heavy based pot.
Trim the outer leaves from the fennel bulbs, halve, core and slice into 1⁄2 cm pieces. Add to the pot, season well with salt and pepper and cook over a gentle heat for 15 minutes. Add the cream and cook a further 10 minutes.
Place into a baking dish and refrigerate while you prepare the chicken. Cut each chicken breast in half, and if thick, cover with baking paper and pound gently with a rolling pin. Cut a pocket into the side of each piece of chicken and fill with cheese. Lay out two pieces of pancetta at a time and roll chicken pieces in them, wedging in a sage leaf as you go. Refrigerate the chicken pieces for half an hour before cooking to help hold their shape.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Nestle the chicken into the fennel and season again with sea salt and pepper. Bake for 40 minutes then increase to 200C and finish with a further five minutes’ cooking. Rest for five minutes before serving with the baby red potato salad with asparagus.
Baby red potato salad with asparagus
Serves: 6 Preparation time: 10 minutes Cooking time: 40 minutes
❚ 12 baby red potatoes
❚ 2 tablespoons olive oil
❚ 5 cloves peeled garlic
❚ 12-18 asparagus spears (or green beans if preferred), ends trimmed
❚ 12 small red tomatoes, thickly sliced or halved
❚ 5 cups wild rocket
❚ 1⁄4 small red onion, finely sliced
Dressing:
❚ 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
❚ 1 tablespoon cider or white balsamic vinegar
❚ 1 teaspoon caster sugar
❚ 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
❚ Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the dressing whisk all of the ingredients together, season to taste with sea salt and black pepper and store in a sealed container until ready to use.
Preheat the oven to 180C. Halve the bigger potatoes and leave the tiny ones whole. Put them in a roasting dish and drizzle with olive oil, and season well with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Lightly squash the garlic cloves with the heel of your palm and tuck around the potatoes. Cook for 25 minutes then increase the temperature to 200C and cook a further five minutes. Add the asparagus to the potatoes and swirl around a bit with some tongs so that the asparagus becomes coated lightly with oil, then roast together for a further five minutes. Layer the rocket on to a serving plate with the potatoes, asparagus, garlic and tomatoes. Drizzle with dressing and top with a little finely sliced red onion to serve.
❚ Recipes, food styling and photography by Sarah Tuck.