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Roast chicken, mango and ginger salad
Roast chicken, mango and ginger salad. Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin/The Observer
Roast chicken, mango and ginger salad. Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin/The Observer

5 Nigel Slater recipes for early summer

The best of early-season fruits and herbs, from a mango and ginger salad with roast chicken to pistachio and lemon thyme biscuits

The summer brings with it a change of step in the kitchen. Suddenly our cooking is heady with the scent of mint and basil, of ripe melons and warm, sweet cherries. The mood is lighter and there is a vibrancy and freshness to the food on our plates. Green is the predominant colour. Herbs come into the kitchen in generous bunches, and many meals are eaten outdoors. This month’s recipes are the very essence of the early summer kitchen.

Roast chicken, mango and ginger salad

A refreshing salad made all the better with the inclusion of the chicken’s roasting juices. A little sugar will balance any dressing in which there is lime juice and fish sauce. If you are using caster rather than the palm sugar I suggest then you will need much less. Start with a teaspoon then taste and adjust as you go.

Serves 2-3
chicken breasts 2
olive oil
salt and black pepper
ginger a thumb-sized piece
cucumber 1
limes juice of 2, about 100ml
mangoes 3 medium-sized, ripe
fish sauce 40ml
palm sugar 2-3 level tbsp
parsley 15g

Set the oven at 180C/gas mark 4. Put the chicken in a roasting tin, brush with a little olive oil and season with salt and black pepper. Bake for 30-35 minutes till the skin is crisp and golden and the juices are clear when the flesh is pierced with a skewer. Set aside, reserving the roasting juices.

Peel the ginger. Peel the cucumber, slice in half lengthways then scrape out the seeds and pulp from the centre with a teaspoon. Cut the flesh into pencil thin slices and put them in a mixing bowl. Remove the chicken from the oven when it is ready, leave to rest for 10-15 minutes, then slice each breast into three thick pieces and add to the cucumber.

Cut the limes in half and squeeze them into a bowl (you need about 100ml of juice). Peel the mangoes and thickly slice the flesh, keeping the cut pieces brushed or dipped in a little of the lime juice to stop them browning. Finely grate the ginger into the lime juice, then stir in the fish sauce and palm sugar. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Pull the parsley leaves from their stems and add to the dressing, together with the reserved roasting juices. Toss the mango and chicken with the dressing. Pile onto a large dish or into a bowl and serve while the chicken is still warm.

Roast lamb with za’atar and broad bean freekeh

There is a moment, when you stir the hot juices from the roast into the dill- and bean-flecked grain, that make this one of my favourite ways to eat lamb. Its success will depend mostly on whether the meat is cooked to your liking and my timing is for a rare-ish finish. Tweak the timings to suit your own taste. If you have any left over, the meat can be torn into short pieces and folded through the freekeh for lunch.

Serves 4
garlic 3 cloves
salt
olive oil 2 tbsp
za’atar 3 tbsp
lemon juice of 3
small leg of lamb 1.5kg

For the freekeh
freekeh 75g
broad beans 400g
olive oil 4 tbsp
radishes 100g, sliced into rounds
dill a handful

Peel the garlic and crush the cloves in a blender or a mortar with a little salt and the olive oil and za’atar, then blend in the lemon juice. Place the lamb in a roasting tin then pierce it all over with a stainless steel skewer. Spoon half of marinade over the lamb then set aside for an hour or two. Set the oven at 180C/gas mark 4. Roast the lamb in the oven for about 1 hour 25 minutes to 1 hour and 35 minutes depending on how rare you like your meat. Baste three or four times during cooking. Half way through the cooking time pour over the remaining marinade.

Boil the freekeh in lightly salted water for 20 minutes then drain. Boil the broad beans in salted water for 8-10 minutes depending on their size, then drain them and briefly refresh under cold running water. Pop the beans from their papery skins with your thumb and forefinger. Fold the beans and olive oil through the freekeh. Thinly slice the radishes, chop the dill then fold into the salad.

Remove the lamb from the oven and leave to rest for 20 minutes before carving and serving with the broad bean salad.

Roast courgette, herb labneh

Courgettes, baked in olive oil and herbs, crop up throughout the summer in this kitchen. We eat them straight from the oven with garlic-rubbed toast or cool (not chilled) with mozzarella and tufts of vivid green watercress. This week I ate them with yogurt that I had strained over muslin till it was as thick as cream cheese, then trickled it with herb oil and toasted sesame.

Serves 4
yogurt 500g
courgette 1 large
garlic 2 cloves
lemon thyme leaves 2 tsp
olive oil 4 tbsp
golden sesame seeds 1 tsp
black sesame seeds 1 tsp
parsley, chives, tarragon 3tbsp, mixed and chopped

Line a sieve or colander with muslin or a new J cloth and place it over a deep mixing bowl. Scrape the yogurt into the sieve and leave for a good 3 or 4 hours, in a very cool place, to drain.

Set the oven at 200C/gas mark 6. Wipe the courgette and cut into diagonal slices approximately ½cm thick. Line a grill pan or baking sheet with foil, place the courgette slices in a single layer, their edges not quite touching.

Peel and slice the garlic, or crush it if you prefer, then mix it with the lemon thyme leaves and olive oil. Brush the courgette with the herb oil then bake for 20-25 minutes, turning once, until they are golden. Remove the courgette slices from the pan to a large serving plate, reserving their cooking juices.

Toast all the sesame seeds in a dry, non-stick pan and set aside. Stir the finely chopped parsley leaves, chives and tarragon into the courgette cooking juices together with the toasted sesame seeds.

Spoon the strained labneh on the plate with the courgettes then spoon over the herb and sesame oil.

Pistachio and lemon thyme biscuits

Baked, initially, to offer with a platter of blood-red cherries, I find these crisp yet chewy biscuits are even more suited to contrast the softness of a fool or to crumble over the surface of a summer ice. Let the biscuits settle for 10 minutes before lifting them from their baking sheet, then eat a few of them warm, before they have time to crisp.

Makes 8-10
shelled pistachios 45g
ground almonds 30g
butter 125g
icing sugar 50g
lemon thyme leaves 1 tbsp
plain flour 75g

To finish
dried rose petals 2 tsp
roughly chopped pistachios 2 tbsp

Grind the pistachios coarsely – they should not be quite as fine as ready-ground almonds – then mix them with the almonds. Put the butter in the bowl of a food mixer fitted with a flat paddle attachment, add the icing sugar and beat to a soft cream. Chop the lemon thyme leaves and add to the creamed butter and sugar. Line a baking sheet with baking parchment.

Mix the ground nuts and the plain flour with the creamed butter, sugar and thyme and roll into a soft dough. Chill in the fridge for a good 30 minutes. Set the oven to 180C/gas mark 4.

Lightly flour a work surface, divide the mixture into 8 to 10 equal lumps then roll each into a ball. Place the balls on a baking sheet and flatten them slightly with a fork. (They will spread as they bake.)

Bake for 8-12 minutes until the biscuits are pale gold in colour, remove from the oven and scatter with the rose petals and the roughly chopped pistachios. Leave the biscuits in place for a few minutes until cool enough to move carefully to a cooling rack with the aid of a palette knife.

Chilled rice, apricot compote and sesame

The compote gets silkier as it cools. Chilled overnight, it can be spooned over breakfast yogurt or porridge. At first sight, the rice will appear a little on the thin side, but will thicken once thoroughly chilled. If too thick to start with, the rice tends to set in the fridge. You can adjust the texture with a splash of cream or a few spoonfuls of yogurt. I have been known to eat chilled creamy rice and apricot compote by the bowlful for breakfast.

Serves 6
For the rice
pudding or Arborio rice 150g
water 500ml
full cream milk 500ml
caster sugar 4 tbsp
sesame seeds 3 tbsp

For the compote
apricots 350g
cherries 200g
caster sugar 75g
water 100ml

Put the rice in a saucepan with the water and milk and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and leave the rice simmering gently for about 20 minutes till tender. I don’t think “al dente” is appropriate here. Stir in the sugar then set aside. When the rice is cool, leave it in the fridge for a good couple of hours to chill and thicken.

Slice the apricots in half and discard the stones, then halve and stone the cherries. Put the fruit in a saucepan with the sugar and water and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and leave to simmer for about 15 minutes till the fruit is soft. Scoop the fruit out with a draining spoon and transfer to a bowl, then turn up the heat and boil the syrup for five minutes or so, until it has reduced by half. Pour the syrup over the fruit, cool and refrigerate.

Toast the sesame seeds in a dry, non-stick pan till golden then tip half into a mortar and grind to a coarse powder.

Serve the chilled rice with the apricot and cherry compote, and a scattering of sesame powder and whole toasted seeds.

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