Mother's Day Lunch

The mother was visiting for the weekend and in addition to taking her out for the evening on the Saturday to our current favourite steakhouse Gaucho in Hampstead (where the food and service was amazing as always), I decided to cook on the Sunday before she headed back to Brum.

I turned to Jamie's 30 Minute Meals and choose tray baked chicken (it's not baked but fried and then grilled for speed) with squashed potatoes and creamed spinach. It also recommends making a strawberry slushie but thought I would leave that out.

I knew it would be a bit of challenge to get done in 30 minutes based on what other people had said but I was going to give it my best shot. I did it in 40 minutes with a little help from Mat but due to quite thick chicken it took another 10 to cook through.

Mom was impressed with the results, as was I. The chicken stayed really juicy as the streaky bacon stopped it drying out, the vine tomatoes were really sweet and went well with the crispy potatoes and rich, irony creamed spinach. I would make it again but maybe bake the chicken instead of grilling as it would be easier to control the timings even if it did take a little longer overall. It would have been very tricky to make a slushie too as there would not have been room our tiny kitchen because in the panic of doing everything you do make a mess!

Tray baked chicken with squashed potatoes and creamed spinach

Serves 4

Ingredients:

For the potatoes

• 700g small red potatoes or new potatoes

• few sprigs of fresh rosemary

• 2 fresh bay leaves

• 6 garlic cloves

For the spinach

• bunch of spring onions

• 2 garlic cloves

• few fresh thyme tips

• 1 whole nutmeg for grating

• large knob of butter

• 400g prewashed baby spinach

• 100ml single cream

• 25g Parmesan cheese

For the chicken

• dried oregano (I used dried basil as I could not get hold of any oregano)

• sweet paprika

• knob of butter

• 4 x 180g skinless chicken breast

• 1 lemon

• 300g cherry tomatoes on the vine

• 4 rashers of smokey streaky bacon

• couple sprigs of fresh rosemary

Method:

• Wash the potatoes and halve lengthways (leave whole if using new potatoes) and add to boiling water in a saucepan with a pinch of salt. Put the lid on a boil hard for 2 - 14 minutes.

• Trim and finely slice the spring onions. Add to a large shallow pan with a splash of olive oil. Crush in 3 cloves of unpeeled garlic and add a swig of boiled water. Pick the leaves from a few sprigs of thyme, finely grate 1/4 nutmeg and add the butter. Cook for 3 minutes stirring occasionally.

• Heat oil in a frying pan so it gets very hot. On a large piece of greaseproof paper, sprinkle over a good pinch of salt, pepper, oregano and paprika, then drizzle over some olive oil. Lay the chicken breast on the greaseproof and roll them in the flavour.

• Add a knob of butter to the hot pan and then the chicken, fry for 4-5 minutes until cooked on both sides.

• Put the spinach in the pan with the spring onions and leave to wilt. You may need to do it in batches. keep stirring s it does not burn.

• In a roasting tray, quarter the lemon and put in the vine tomatoes. Tip in the chicken breasts and any juices from the pan. Use tongs to arrange everything nicely, lay the bacon on top of the breasts. Put the frying pan on a medium heat, add the sprigs of rosemary to the pan and move them around to get the coated in juices. Pop them into the tray, then put the tray under the grill for at least 14 minutes.

• Check the potatoes are cooked, drain and let them steam dry. Add some olive oil, rosemary leaves and bay leaves to the empty frying pan. Put the potatoes on top of the herbs in a flat layer, drizzle over some olive oil and salt. Crush in 6 cloves of unpeeled garlic and turn the heat high. Get a flat lid from a smaller pan and press down on the potatoes so they burst and sqaush. Leave to colour, then toss after 3 minutes and squash again.

• Remember to stir the spinach, pour in the cream. Turn the heat low and finely grate in the parmesan and stir well.

• Keep checking, squashing and turning the potatoes so they are golden all over.

• When the chicken is done take out from under the grill (check the chicken is coked through). Take straight to the table with the pans of spinach and potatoes - I transferred both to warm bowls and we tucked in.