Sunday easiest: Thomasina Miers’ recipes for braised hen with chickpeas and rosewater dried apricots

Spring is right here in all its glory, because the birds testify with their ebullient chitter-chat. But the elements is wilful and the air can flip cold in a flash, and it’s this in-between time when soothing braises made with lighter substances are simply what’s wanted. I latterly discovered a recipe for an Iranian hen stew recipe that paired carrots and yoghurt, and its sunniness in point of fact appealed to me; I added cardamom for its evocative smell and chickpeas for frame, and it was once demolished through the troops. Pudding needed to be easy, and each the biscuits and poached apricots can also be made a couple of days forward, so it is usually blissfully simple. An attractive spring lunch for a lazy, sun-soaked day.

Cardamom hen braised with candy onions, chickpeas and saffron yoghurt (pictured best)

Beautifully scented, yellow-stained hen this is as pretty served at room temperature as it’s heat.

Prep 20 min
Cook 1 hr 15 min
Serves 6

Sea salt and black pepper
1 medium hen, jointed, or use 8 hen thighs, if you happen to want
3 tbsp olive oil
30g butter
2 huge onions, peeled and thinly sliced
4 celery stalks, finely chopped
4 huge carrots, minimize at an attitude into chunks
4 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
2 tsp inexperienced cardamom seeds
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tsp black peppercorns
500g tired jarred or tinned chickpeas
1 small bunch contemporary thyme, leaves picked
300ml hen inventory
2 huge pinches saffron threads, toasted, overwhelmed and steeped in 3 tbsp boiling water
200ml yoghurt
½ lemon
1 small bunch contemporary parsley, leaves picked and kind of chopped
Couscous or rice, to serve

Season the hen in all places, and put a big casserole pan on a prime warmth. Once it’s just right and sizzling, upload part the oil, then brown the hen items, in batches, if want be, till golden in all places. Transfer the browned hen to a big bowl.

Turn down the warmth, upload the rest oil and all of the butter, then gently fry the onion and celery for 10-12 mins. Season with salt, then stir within the carrots and garlic.

Meanwhile, toast the cardamom, cumin and peppercorns in a small frying pan till aromatic. Crush the spices, then stir them into the greens and cook dinner for 5 mins extra.

Return the browned hen legs, thighs and wings (or all of the thighs, if the use of the ones) to the pan, upload the chickpeas and thyme, pour within the inventory and two-thirds of the saffron liquid, and convey to a boil. Turn the warmth proper all the way down to an excessively delicate simmer, then go away to cook dinner for 12-14 mins.

Stir within the hen breasts and cook dinner for an extra 12-14 mins, or till the thighs are cooked via.

Mix the rest saffron water with the yoghurt and season with a little bit salt and pepper. Squeeze the lemon juice into the hen, style and alter the seasoning, and serve with the yoghurt, parsley and a few couscous (huge, for desire) or rice.

Rosewater apricots with pistachio butter biscuits

Ludicrously easy, however however scrumptious. Try serving the apricots with other ice-creams: pistachio, hazelnut, and vanilla are all nice.

Prep 5 min
Chill 1 hr
Cook 1 hr
Serves 6

60g golden caster sugar
250g dried apricots
2 drops rosewater
Zest of 1 lemon, pared off in extensive strips (use a vegetable peeler), plus the juice of ½ lemon
1 tsp vanilla bean paste

For the biscuits
80g pistachios, plus a couple of further, kind of chopped, to complete
125g softened unsalted butter
70g caster sugar
175g simple flour
2 tsp fennel seeds
½ tsp sea salt

To serve
Whipped cream, greek yoghurt or ice-cream
Roughly chopped pistachios

Put 350ml chilly water and the sugar in a small pan on a medium warmth and, as soon as the sugar has dissolved, upload the apricots, rosewater, pared lemon pores and skin and vanilla, and simmer for 25 mins. Off the warmth, stir within the juice of part the lemon, then go away to chill within the pan.

To make the biscuits, blitz the pistachios in a meals processor to gentle crumbs – this will have to handiest take a couple of pulses; you wish to have a most commonly floor texture, however with some chunks. Using an electrical whisk (or a hand whisk), cream the butter and sugar, then upload the flour, fennel seeds and salt, and gently deliver the dough in combination. Add the blitzed pistachios, form the dough right into a sausage, then wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

Heat the oven to 190C (170C fan)/375F/gasoline 5, and line a big baking tray with greaseproof paper. Take the biscuit dough out of the refrigerator and minimize it into 5mm-thick rounds – you’ll have 16-18. Arrange at the tray spaced somewhat aside, bake for 15 mins, or till the biscuits are very somewhat beginning to flip golden, then take away and go away to chill.

Serve the apricots with some calmly whipped cream, ice-cream or thick yoghurt, and crowned with some kind of chopped pistachios and the biscuits along for some welcome crunch. The apricots can also be stored of their poaching liquid within the refrigerator for as much as per week – I really like them for breakfast.