Baked chicken with garlic and sherry

This is the most delicious way of cooking chicken which basically creates sticky, sherry-flavoured chicken nuggets. It comes from my friend Charlotte and I’ve been cooking it for about 20 years

Serves 4

A medium-sized chicken or 1 kg chicken thighs

1 head of garlic

extra virgin olive oil

about 3 sprigs each fresh rosemary and/or thyme

100ml fino sherry or white wine

Salt and pepper

* Take a medium-sized chicken and chop/joint it into pieces - slightly bigger than bite-sized - leaving it on the bone or chop each thigh in half with a sharp knife or cleaver. DO NOT REMOVE THE SKIN!

* Sprinkle salt (and pepper) over the chicken pieces

* Take a head of garlic, separate the cloves and, leaving the skin on, smash with the flat side of a knife.

* In a large, thick-bottomed, shallow pan heat a good glug of decent olive oil and sauté/seal the chicken til golden brown (skin-side down first)

* Throw in the garlic and a couple of sprigs each of fresh rosemary and thyme and turn the heat up, whilst stirring

* Add a small glass of fino sherry or white wine, quickly bring to the boil and then put into a pre-heated oven (180°C/350°/gas 4) for 30-45 minutes until the chicken is cooked and sticky with the caramelised garlic and juices

* Serve with a bitter leaf salad and roasted new potatoes or crusty bread to mop up the juices in the base of the pan.

What to drink: Well, you could carry on drinking sherry but I think that might be overdoing it. I'd go for an oaked white rioja or a white Côtes du Rhône myself.

Want more ideas for pairing with sherry? Download my ebook 101 Great Ways to Enjoy Sherry here.

Roast supreme of guinea fowl with sherry and grapes

A perfect autumnal dinner party recipe from James Ramsden's lovely book Do Ahead Dinners.

James says: "Guinea fowl remains an inexplicably underused bird – it’s got something of the pheasant about it (but without the propensity to dry out), it’s no more expensive than a decent chicken, and it’s lovely to cook with. So I say we should be cooking with it more.

Supremes are the breasts with the wing still attached. If you can’t find any, then buy two whole guinea fowl and cleave in half down the middle, cooking for 15 minutes longer."

Serves 6

2 tsp finely chopped thyme leaves

1 tsp finely chopped rosemary

1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed to a paste

100g/3½oz/7 tbsp butter, softened

salt and pepper

6 supremes of guinea fowl

olive oil

200ml/7fl oz/generous ¾ cup medium-dry sherry

100ml/3½fl oz/7 tbsp chicken stock

200g/7oz grapes, halved

Up to a day ahead:

Beat the thyme, rosemary and garlic into the butter and season with salt and pepper. Ease the skin of the birds away from the flesh and carefully spread the herb butter underneath the skin. Put in a roasting pan, cover and chill.

2 hours ahead:

Take the guinea fowl out of the fridge.

1 hour ahead:

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas mark 6.

Drizzle the guinea fowl with olive oil and roast for 30 minutes, or until the juices run clear when the thickest part is pierced with a thin sharp knife. Remove to a warm place to rest. Put the roasting pan over a high heat and add the sherry, scraping up all the sticky bits in the pan. Simmer for a couple of minutes, then add the stock and the grapes. Simmer for another 5 minutes and taste for seasoning.

Dinnertime:

Serve the guinea fowl with the grapes and a good spoonful of gravy.

And James's tips for varying the recipe and using up leftovers:

Tart: Bit tarty already, this, though if you feel the urge to wrap the guinea fowl in Parma ham then follow that urge.

Tweak: Roast whole grouse for 12 minutes at 220°C/425°F/Gas mark 7 and then follow the same recipe for making the grape gravy.

Tomorrow: Thinly slice leftover guinea fowl and toss through a green salad with a handful of croutons.

What to drink: Although sherry is included in the dish - and would match with it - I don't think most people would expect sherry with their main course. Instead look for a heavyweight white like a grenache gris from the Roussillon or a pinot gris from Alsace. If you want to drink red I'd go for a dark, plummy pinot noir or a medium-bodied modern Spanish red like a young rioja or other tempranillo.

This recipe is from Do-Ahead Dinners by James Ramsden, published by Pavilion. Recipe photography by Yuki Sugiura

Jolly Old-Fashioned: a great seasonal twist on this cocktail classic

I was chatting to mixologist Robbie Bargh on Twitter (as you do) and told him I was looking for a great Christmas cocktail. His team at Gorgeous Group came up with this fantastic spiced rum and apple brandy Old Fashioned which totally hits the spot.

"A perfect digestif or dessert cocktail with mince pies, Christmas pud or even cheese" reckons Robbie.

Note the rum infusion needs to be started 24 hours ahead

Spiced Rum & Apple Brandy Old-fashioned

Serves 1 but you'd no doubt make it for more.

Ingredients:

20ml 5 y.o. Somerset Cider Brandy or other apple brandy

30ml 5.y.o. Eldorado or other 5 y.o. rum infused with raisins, sultanas & orange peel (see below*)

10ml Pedro Ximenez sherry

2 dashes Angostura Bitters

A twist of orange peel to finish

Add all the ingredients to a mixing glass with cubed ice and stir, checking for temperature and dilution**. Strain over cubed ice in a rocks glass (tumbler).

Twist the orange peel over the glass to release the orange zest and use as garnish.

* For the infusion prick raisins and sultanas, and finely pare the rind of 1 orange making sure to remove all the pith. Then add the ingredients to kilner jar, top with rum and steep for 24 hours.

** By this Robbie means make sure the temperature and strength of the cocktail are right. In other words taste it!

Sherry Cobbler

Given the growing popularity of sherry cocktails and the fact that it's World Sherry Day this weekend here's a recipe for a sherry cobbler from Hawksmoor at Home (my son's restaurant, I have to confess).

Will and Huw write: "As the discerning drinker’s pre-air conditioning coolant of choice, this was, according to the New York weekly New World in 1840, ‘the greatest “liquorary” invention of the day’. Its popularity continued, leading Harry Johnson to observe in the 1888 edition of his Bartenders’ Manual, that it is ‘without doubt the most popular beverage in the country, with ladies as well as gentlemen’. A description in The Gentleman’s Magazine explains why: ‘[The cobbler is] a light vinous punch, exceedingly well iced, and grateful to the delicate æsophagus’ (William Burton, 1840.)

Sherry seems to have had a rather different image back then as it was deemed the perfect match for an evening of debauchery: ‘[at a San Franciscan saloon] we find the governor of the State seated by a table, surrounded by judges of the supreme and superior courts, sipping sherry cobblers, smoking segars [cigars], and reveling in all the delights of anticipated debauch’ (Dreadful California, Hinton Helper, 1855).

Early recipes call for it to be made with slices of orange. We think it makes for a more refreshing drink if lemon and lime are added as well.

For each person

2 slices each of lemon, lime and orange

100ml manzanilla sherry

50ml freshly squeezed lemon juice

25ml sugar syrup (gomme)

crushed ice

Dice one slice of each fruit into small pieces (about 3cm x 3cm) and put these at the bottom of a large glass tumbler

Add the sherry, lemon juice and sugar syrup, then fill the tumbler 3/4 of the way up with crushed ice. Churn the drink until well mixed and top with a little more crushed ice. Add a straw and garnish with the other slices of lemon, lime and orange.