TODAY: FAMILY DAY: FAVOURITES
IN OUR fabulous 16-page pullout in Weekend on Saturday, Prue Leith shared a mouthwatering collection of recipes from her new book, Prue. Her first cookery book in 25 years, it features her all-time favourite dishes, from childhood through to the present day. Here, she brings you some of her best-loved family treats, from peri-peri chicken to a monster sausage roll!
MOST of the recipes in my new book don’t assume butchery skills, but it’s really worth learning to spatchcock a chicken, which means opening it out flat. The bird will cook in half the time, and you get the legs crisp and brown as well as the breast. This sauce is easy to make, but here’s a confession: I often use Nando’s Mild Peri Peri Sauce — and everyone loves it.
SERVES 6 For the peri-peri sauce
● 1 small red onion, roughly chopped
● 2 garlic cloves, chopped
● 1 large red chilli, stalk removed, roughly chopped
● 1 red pepper, cored, deseeded, and roughly chopped
● ½ tsp mild chilli powder
● 2 tsp sugar
● ½ tsp paprika
● 1½ tbsp white wine vinegar
● Juice of 1 lemon
● 75ml olive oil
● ½ tsp salt
● ½ tsp black pepper
For the chicken
● 1 x 1.75kg chicken
● 1kg roasting potatoes, peeled and cut in half
● 1 tbsp olive oil
PUT all the sauce ingredients into a food processor and blitz. Sit the bird, breast-side down, on a board. Using kitchen scissors, cut down one side of the backbone, cutting through the rib bones as you go. Cut down the other side of the backbone to remove it. Turn the bird over so the breast faces up and, using the heel of your hand, press down hard on the breastbone to flatten the bird. Trim off any fatty pieces around the tail. Use a cleaver or heavy knife to chop off the ends of the drumsticks and wing tips, if you like. Now put a couple of skewers through the bird — one through the legs, one through the breast — to hold it flat. Put the chicken in a shallow dish and add half the sauce. Spread over both sides of the chicken and leave in the fridge to marinate for as little as an hour, but preferably overnight. Heat the oven to 200c/fan 180c/gas 6. In a large roasting tin, toss the potatoes in the olive oil and sprinkle lightly with the salt and pepper. Set a greased wire rack over the roasting tin. Lift the chicken from the marinade and put it, skin-side down, onto the rack. Pour over any peri-peri sauce left behind in the dish and place the whole thing in the middle of the oven. Roast for 20 minutes. Lift the chicken and its rack off the tin for a minute and set aside while you turn the potatoes to distribute the juices evenly. Turn the chicken over, so it’s skin side up. Sprinkle with salt. Put everything back as before and roast for another 20-25 minutes, until the juices run clear when the thigh flesh is pierced with a skewer, and the skin is crispy and dark brown. Serve with the potatoes and the rest of the peri-peri sauce.