The herbs are growing faster than I can chop. Thyme – green, silver and variegated; mint (the herb garden bully); coriander that forever threatens to bolt into a fluff of fairy parasols. There is a Vietnamese basil bush whose spikes of purple flowers are too beautiful to drown in a bowl of pho, and wide leaves of Italian basil that fall into a faint if you so much as raise your voice. The latter must be used immediately.
Preserved in oil, the more fragile leaves lose much of their magic. Frozen, they emerge stripped of their aromatic powers. So the green bounty of scented leaves I am growing in pots is something to use with abandon. Basil has been torn over plates of peaches and burrata all summer long. Thyme is stirred into bean soups and coriander is hidden in a tangle of grated courgette fritters. Basil is a favourite for pounding to a verdant paste with mauve-skinned summer garlic, while tarragon is regularly mashed into a mayonnaise to become a shimmering chartreuse paste. No one can say this kitchen isn’t fragrant.
This week, I mashed a fistful of parsley, thyme and dill into a slab of softened butter and used it to season a roast chicken, teasing the freckled fat under the skin with two fingers. It’s a delicate job, even with the thick skin of an outdoor reared bird. But if you can get the paste to sit, sandwiched between skin and flesh, it will calmly baste the roasting meat from the inside. Sliced, the chicken will have a nut brown skin and a stripe of still vivid green herb paste framing the white breast meat. The juices in the tin smell of high summer and provide somewhere to toss spinach leaves, radishes, cooked flageolet beans or tiny turnips.
Roast chicken with herb butter and summer vegetables
Take care not to tear the skin as you push the butter between it and the flesh of the bird. It isn’t the end of the world if it tears, it will simply escape into the roasting tin. Serves 4
dried flageolet or cannellini beans 150g
dill 10g
parsley leaves 10g
thyme leaves 2 tbsp
garlic 3 cloves
butter 175g
chicken 1, medium
turnips 6, small
olive oil 3 tbsp
radishes 20
Soak the beans in deep, cold water overnight.
Make the herb butter by finely chopping the dill, parsley and thyme leaves and putting them into a small bowl. Peel the garlic and then grate or crush it, then add to the herbs. Cut the butter into small pieces and mix with the herbs, creaming them together with a wooden spoon. Season lightly with salt.
Set the oven at 200C/gas mark 6. Put the chicken in a roasting tin. Carefully work two or three fingers between the skin and flesh of the breast to create a large pocket under the skin. (They should part quite naturally.) Push the herb butter between the flesh and skin, spreading it evenly by massaging the skin. Put any remaining butter in the chest cavity.
Trim and wipe the turnips, then cut them in half. Trickle the olive oil over the chicken skin, then add the turnips to the pan and roast for 25 minutes. Add the radishes to the pan, turn them in the roasting juices, and return to the oven for a further 25 minutes.
To cook the beans, first drain and place them in deep, boiling water for approximately 25-35 minutes until tender. Add salt for the final 10 minutes. (It is always worth checking the beans’ progress regularly. Some batches will take longer than others, depending on their age.) Drain the beans and set aside.
To serve the chicken, remove the roasting tin from the oven and place the chicken on a warm serving plate. Stir the drained beans into the radishes, turnips and roasting juices, and return to the switched off oven to keep warm.
Let the chicken rest for 15 minutes then carve and serve with the beans and vegetables.
Roast chicken, watermelon and herb salad
You could measure my summer in chicken salads, but each one is very different from the other. This week I tossed roast chicken with chunks of watermelon and a dressing of mint, coriander and pungent fish sauce. Serves 3-4
chicken 500g
olive oil a little
ginger 1 x 35g piece
spring onions 3
watermelon 300g
canteloupe 150g
mint leaves 20, small
coriander leaves a large handful
pak choi 1 head
Thai or Vietnamese fish sauce 2 tsp
lime juice of 1, large
Set the oven at 200C/gas mark 6. Place the chicken in a roasting tin, rub with a little olive oil and season lightly. Finely grate the ginger then, after the chicken has been roasting for 40 minutes, stir it into the roasting juices.
Thinly slice the spring onions. Cut the watermelon into large pieces, removing the skin and seeds as you go, and put the flesh into a large bowl with the spring onions. Repeat with the cantaloupe and add the mint and coriander leaves. Slice the pak choi into thin strips and shred the roast chicken and its skin and add to the melon, then stir in the fish sauce and lime juice and serve.
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