Thai green chicken curry

Ingredients to serve 4:
1 tbsp peanut oil or similar
75g green thai curry paste
3 long green chillies, finely chopped
1kg chicken thigh fillets, cut into 1.5" pieces
2x400ml cans coconut milk (can also be made by soaking dessicated coconut in water then passing through a sieve)
2 tbsp fish sauce
zest and juice of one lime or 2 tbsp lime juice
1-2 stalks lemongrass - I think you're supposed to bash the ends
1 tbsp sugar
75g frozen peas
1 aubergine, diced quite finely - optional
1 large courgette, thinly sliced
fresh basil leaves
fresh coriander leaves
2 spring onions coarsely chopped

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan. Cook the paste and two thirds of the chilli, stirring continuously, for 2 minutes. Add the chicken and lime zest and cook until browned, stirring continuously.
2. Add the coconut milk, fish sauce, lime juice, sugar and aubergine if using. Simmer for 10 mins until aubergine is just tender.
3. Add courgettes, peas and herbs. Simmer until courgettes are tender.
4. Serve sprinkled with with rest of the chilli and the spring onion.

Chicken Brick recipes / instructions

The whole brick should be soaked in cold water for about 15 minutes. Give it a good scrub. To cook your chicken you will require no fats, but brushing with olive oil before seasoning is recommended. According to taste, the inside of the brick can be rubbed with a clove of garlic before cooking each time to improve the flavour of the bird or meat being cooked. This is of course optional.

The brick containing the bird or meat should be placed in a cold oven which is then set at a high temperature (250C, 500F, Gas Mark 9). The time for cooking 1.5 hours for a 3lbs. bird or meat and pro rata - your brick size will determine weight limits. The bird will brown without basting during its cooking period. The juices obtained can of course be used to advantage.

To clean the brick after use, a solution of hot water with two teaspoons of salt or vinegar, and then a thorough washing with hot water, is all that is needed. Do not use detergents as the taste will remain in the clay.

Chickens:
The chicken should be cooked as described. Stuffing of herbs, herbs, and a few mushrooms are useful additions [double herbs as per the original leaflet! - ed.]

Pigeons:
Cook the same as chickens but additionally wrap each bird in a bacon rasher and season with thyme. Serve with potatoes or rice and salad or vegetables.

Pork:
Prepare brick. Incise the pork skin and stick with lemon rind and pieces of garlic. Season with rosemary or thyme. Remove the juice and place meat on serving dish (warmed). Remove fat from the juice, add half a glass white wine or cider and boil for 2 minutes. Pour over meat and serve.

Beef, lamb and other joints can be similarly treated - varying or omitting the seasoning as required.

Ham: 3lbs.
Soak ham overnight. Place in a saucepan with 2 onions, 2 carrots, 2 sticks celery, 4 allspice and 6 black peppercorns. Bring to the boil very gently and simmer for 45-60 mins, depending on the weight of the ham. Prepare the brick. A crust for the ham now has to be made. A breakfast-cup of fresh breadcrumbs and a dessertspoon of mustard (ideally Dijon) together with a little cider should be mixed to a paste. The ham should now be peeled, the fat should be stuck with 10 cloves and the breadcrumb mixture spread over it. Place ham in the brick and ook for about 1.5 hours. Pour off excess fat and replace with cider or fruit juice and serve.

Turkey:
Large brick needed. Treated the same way as chickens but taking a lot longer to cook. Ideally stuffed with chestnuts, sausage meat and gammon.

Duck:
As chicken. A goose of small size could be cooked in the large brick.

Experiments can be very rewarding and the suggestions above can of course be varied accordingly.

Annie's chickeny pumpkin soup

One chicken carcass with almost all meat taken off already
One small/medium pumpkin
Four carrots
1/4 pint double cream
Spices

1. Put chicken carcass in a pan with approx. 2 pints water, salt and a few herbs. Boil for 45 mins or 1 hour. Remove bones and assist any remaining bits of meat to fall off into the water.

2. Peel pumpkin, remove seeds and chop into small pieces. Peel and grate carrots. Place pumpkin and carrots in the chickeny water, and add salt, pepper and "steak spices" (something reasonably hot and pungent) to taste.

3. Boil until pumpkin turns entirely mushy. Add cream, and simmer for a further 5 minutes.

4. Serve with crusty brown bread.

Kota Kapama

To serve 5

One chicken cut into serving pieces or five chicken pieces
Juice of one lemon
Some chicken fat, oil or butter, about 3 tablespoons
a glass of dry white wine (optional)
a can of plum tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato paste diluted in 4 fl oz of water
1 large stick of cinnamon
3 whole cloves
salt and freshly ground black pepper
fresh parsley or watercress for garnish

1. Rub the chicken pieces with the lemon juice. Allow to stand for a bit.
2. Heat the fat in a heavy braising pot.
3. Sauté the chicken till it's a light chestnut colour, turning with tongs.
4. Warm the wine and pour it into the pan.
5. Stir in the tomatoes and tomato paste.
6. Bury the cinnamon stick and cloves among the chicken pieces.
7. Season with salt and pepper.
8. Simmer over the lowest possible heat for 1 1/2 hours or more (or transfer to a medium slow oven to finish the cooking).

Serve warm with rice or mashed potatoes, garnished with parsley or watercress, and with a side dish of vegetables or salad.

Heather's Teriyake Chicken

5 floz soy sauce
6 tbsp white sugar
5 floz Sidney Sussex Fino sherry or other cheap dry sherry

approz 6 chicken pieces (thighs are best)

Mix soy sauce, sherry and sugar in saucepan, heating until sugar is dissolved. Either thicken to use as a glaze, or use as a marinade, or just pour over chicken in a large casserole dish and place in oven 180C/Gas 4 for 45 mins until chicken is cooked.

Serve with rice and green veg.

Thicken left-over sauce as a glaze for another meal, or use to flavour other dishes.

Roast Chicken

1. Weigh the chicken, after removing any bag of giblets from the cavity.
2. Calculate the cooking time on the basis of 20 minutes per lb plus 20 minutes. Allow extra time if it is to be stuffed.
   
3. Pre-heat the oven to 375º F, 190º C, Gas mark 5, or Fan oven 170º C
4. Wash out the inside of the chicken under running water. Stuff it if desired, or rub it with garlic, and sprinkle it with thyme and lemon juice.
5. Place in an enamel roasting pan, and cover with the lid. Roast in the oven for the specified time.
6. Towards the end of the cooking drain off some or all of the liquid from the pan and separate the fat from the meat juices to make gravy ad lib.
7. Serve with roast or boiled potatoes and some colourful vegetables, such as carrots, peas or swede.
   

Boiled chicken and vegetables for church lunches

Two large chickens, about 4lbs each
a bunch of carrots
four onions
two cloves of garlic
bay leaf and other fresh herbs
about six pints of water
salt and pepper

7 lbs courgettes

22 baking potatoes, and butter to serve.

Use the largest stock pot available.
Wash the carrots and cut into pieces if they are large (otherwise leave them whole).
Peel and slice the onions.
Put the onions, garlic, carrots, water, salt, pepper and herbs and seasoning into the stock pot and turn up the heat to maximum. Add the two chickens. Bring to the boil before the service starts.

Turn down the heat and simmer for two hours.

Put the baking potatoes on trays in the oven and turn on the oven (190-200ºC) about an hour and a half before serving.

About fifteen minutes before serving add the sliced courgettes to the top of the stew. Test the seasoning, and add more salt if necessary.

To serve, remove the potatoes from the oven and serve on trays, with the butter served separately. Lift out the courgettes and serve in a serving dish. Lift out the chickens onto a large plate and dismember them, removing the bones. While one person is doing this, another should take two pints of the stock or so, and thicken it with three tablespoons of plain flour, and heat to boiling in a saucepan on the stove.

Keep the rest of the broth for soup on a later day (or if a three course meal is required, keep the chicken warm while serving a soup made with the broth).

Serves not more than 22 people.