EVERYONE wants to improve themselves during lockdown in some way.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
Be it through exercising or home maintenance, it's an opportunity to do something extra while stuck at home.
But there are few things more enjoyable than cooking.
Judi Gillson of Your Place or Mine is here to help you step up in the kitchen with multiple recipes to attempt before lockdown ends.
Lemon, honey and pepper chicken drumsticks with carrot and thyme couscous
Drumsticks
Ingredients
Eight drumsticks
100ml white wine vinegar
200ml honey
Three tablespoons of wild pepper berries or two tablespoons of cracked black pepper
One lemon
Method
1. Mix vinegar and sugar in a saucepan, bring to boil and reduce until large bubbles disappear.
2. Add honey and pepper, reduce until sticky.
3. Add drumsticks, mix, place in oven-proof dish and bake at 180°C for 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
4. Remove from oven, squeeze lemon juice over, and serve with lemon wedges.
Couscous
Ingredients
Two cups of couscous
Two carrots — grated
One crushed garlic
One tablespoon of butter
One tablespoon of oil
Two cups of boiling water
One tablespoon fresh chopped thyme
Salt and pepper
Method
1. Melt butter and oil in pan, add carrot and garlic and fry until soft.
2. Add water, bring back to boil, add couscous, salt and pepper and thyme.
3. Stir until combined and take off heat and leave covered for five minutes.
4. Stir through with a fork and serve under chicken drumsticks.
Pumpkin, spinach and pine nut flan
Pastry
Ingredients
Two cups of plain flour
125g of butter
One egg
50ml of water
Method
1. Blend butter and flour in food processor.
2. Add egg and water and blitz until pastry forms a ball.
3. Roll out pastry to about 4mm thick and place in flan tin (eight inch).
OR
1. Buy savoury shortcrust pastry sheets.
Filling
Ingredients
One quarter pumpkin
Handful of spinach leaves — chopped
Half a cup of grated cheese
Three eggs
400ml cream
Half a teaspoon ground nutmeg
Salt and pepper
Two tablespoons of pine nuts — toasted
Method
1. Peel and slice the pumpkin, coat in oil and salt and pepper and place on tray and bake in oven until cooked before cooling.
2. In a bowl mix eggs, cream, salt, pepper and nutmeg until combined.
3. Layer pumpkin, spinach and cheese onto pastry, pour over egg mix and top with pine nuts.
4. Bake in moderate oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until egg mix is set.
5. Rest for five minutes and remove from flan tin and serve.
Sports journalist