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This is a recipe I have used for just over a year and it all began with the Christmas Turkey and then it continued to perk up Sunday Roast Chickens. My small family love a roasted chicken but sometimes your soul craves a little something extra , a bit of Va-va-voom.The aroma this makes around the house as it roasts is a mouth watering tease and the taste is so yummy!!  I have made jars of this marinade and passed it around to friends, neighbours and work mates and they all come back with raving reports and want the recipe. So without further a do...

1 whole chicken

3 large garlic cloves

2 tsps dry mustard

1 tbsp fresh rosemary leaves

1 tbsp fresh sage leaves

1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves

2 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

2 tbsp olive oli

2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 cup of water

1 cup dry white wine (or water)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees centigrade.

Place chicken in a deep roasting tin.

Combine the garlic, oil, herbs, mustard, salt, pepper, oil and lemon juice and blitz in your food blender or with a stick blender attachments until herbs and garlic and chopped finely.

Loosen the breast skin from chicken by gently using your index and middle fingers. Balance the chicken on its rear end while you lift the skin off each breast and pour in some of the mixture. Reserve some of the baste to rub all over the outside of the chicken skin. Pour water and wine into the bottom of the oven dish.

Roast the chicken for 2 hours until skin is golden and crisp. Ensure juices are running clear by piercing between chicken leg and breast meat. If the chicken is still not done but is browned then return to the oven covered with kitchen foil. When your chicken is cooked let it rest for a while under foil.

I like to serve this chicken with crispy potato wedges, carrots, green beans and baby sweetcorn.

As I said at the beginning this is also a recipe to use for your Christmas Turkey Crown and makes a wonderful gravy.

Any leaftover juices makes lovely soup so, you don't have to worry about waste. I've made my potato and tomato soups on the juices and boiled bones of this chicken and it gives your stock a little something different.

Leftover chicken meat is good in salad, mixed with Mayo and smeared over some Crimbles Crackers, rocket leaves and cucuber makes a lovely lunch or simply add it to your soup and make a meal of it.

Baked Berry Cheesecake

1 packet gluten free digestives

50g butter

600g low fat cream cheese

142ml sour cream

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

3tbsp rice flour

175g caster sugar

 vanilla extract

1 punnet raspberries

1 punnet blackberries

1. Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Melt butter in pan or microwave. Crush the biscuits in a food processor (or put in a plastic bag and bash with a rolling pin). Mix with the butter. Press into a 20cm springform tin and bake for 5 minutes, then cool.
2. Beat the cream cheese with the flour, sugar, a few drops of vanilla, eggs, the yolk and soured cream until light and fluffy. Stir in berries and pour into the tin. Bake for 40 minutes and then check, it should be set but slightly wobbly in the centre.
3. Serve warm or cold with cream

I make this on Xmas Eve for pudding on Xmas day and it is one of the family favourites, even better the second day. 

This is my favourite soup!! But for years I struggled to make it to the right consistency. I either made it too thick or the rice refused to cook. I made it one day using leftover boiled rice and never looked back. This shall make a big pot - so plenty for the days ahead for lunch or for the freezer xxx

Rice Soup

1 onion

3 carrots

2 tbsp chicken fat or vegetable oil

1.5L chicken stock

1 chicken stock cube

1 beef stock cube

1 mug rice

2 mugs cold water

1/2 lemon juice (optional)

salt and pepper

The best rice soup begins with good stock!! And no, no other kind of stock shall do for this hearty soup. Shop bought stock makes this soup taste briney and synthetic but if you must use shop bought or cubes then use the juice of 1/2 a lemon to life the flavour at the end of cooking. 

to make good stock you need time so, take my advice and start the night before.

If you are having a Sunday roast chicken then save all the juices from around the bird.

(Roast chicken thighs makes a lovely stock too.)

Reserve the bones and skin, add both stock cubes, a couple of spoons of left over gravy, throw in a pot, cover with boiling water, bring to the boil and then turn it down to the lowest setting you can and let it snooze for a couple of hours. 

Once cooled pour stock into containers and stick it in the fridge overnight.

In the morning you will find that a layer of fat has formed on the top of stock so take a spoon and remove this fat, place it in a cup and set aside.

I shall warn you now  that you will need two pans for this soup as I think it is always best to boil the rice before you add it to the soup. My reasons for this is that it allows you to control the quantity of rice in the soup and therefore also the thickness and quantity of the end result. But my main reason for boiling the rice seperatly has come from my experiences of being faced with a  gloopy pot of stodge that vaguely resembles oatmeal porridge but with much less texture and even less appeal!!

Place a large pot and medium sized pot on your cooker and turn both rings to a medium heat.

Immediately put one mug of rice in the medium sized pan and then add two cups of cold water, place a lid tightly over this pan and leave it to come to the boil.

In the large pot add two tablespons of the chicken fat you reserved earlier and let this melt while you chop your onion. Add the onion to the pot and then grate your carrots. The remaining fat shall happily sit in the fridge for any other cooking or can also be frozen for future use.

Keep a beady eye on the rice at this stage as it will be coming up to the boil. Once bubbles start to rise to the surface of the pan then take the lid off, give the rice a really good stir, turn the heat down to 1 and replace the lid. The rice may boil over again so keep an eye on it for another couple of minutes.

By this point your onions will be a bit softer than they were so you can now add the grated carrot and give it a good stir to make sure all the carrot is coated in fat. Add some salt and black pepper at this stage.