Lucy Boyd - Kitchen Memories

At this time of year I want to make light of the ingredients available; griddling a chicken breast or poaching a chicken with a few carrots, leeks and celery seems less hearty and comforting than making a stew of it, which is more suited to cold nights. Early soft-leaved herbs such as marjoram, mint and parsley add an enlivening quality that reminds me of spring and new growth.

Beating the chicken breasts between two pieces of greaseproof paper until they are about cm thick and have spread out makes them tender and quick to cook on a grill or griddle. It feels good not to be baking or roasting or stewing after the winter months.

I often cut up a whole chicken if I am not going to use the whole bird in one meal, and then marinate it in lemon and olive oil and whatever herb is around. In March it is usually an evergreen herb such as rosemary, thyme or bay. This is a delicious way of cooking the breasts, but you can also use the boned-out thighs.

In March I serve the chicken with purple sprouting broccoli, as it has just come into season and is at its best. Later on you could have it with some broad beans and peas, or in the summer with a simple tomato salad. At the Sticky Wicket, in Antigua, they griddle flattened chicken to make a delicious hot sandwich with tomato, salad leaves, sour cream and the local chilli sauce.

It is important to eat the chicken as soon as possible after it has come off the grill, when the flesh is still juicy and full of flavour.

4 boned chicken breasts, skin on with the wing bone still attached (chicken supremes) or 4 boned chicken thighs

juice of 1 lemon

a few sprigs of fresh thyme or rosemary, leaves picked from their stems, washed, dried and finely chopped (about 1 tbsp)

2 tbsp olive oil

2–3 medium-sized sweet potatoes, peeled, washed and sliced lengthways into quarters

3 garlic cloves, peeled and crudely smashed

3 or 4 stems of fresh thyme, leaves picked from their stems, washed and dried

1 dried red chilli, crushed

200g purple sprouting broccoli

100g sour cream

2 fresh red chillies, cut in half lengthways, deseeded, stalk removed, then finely chopped

a few sprigs of fresh marjoram, leaves picked from their stems, washed and dried

sea salt and black pepper

Place each piece of chicken between two sheets of greaseproof paper and gently beat the meat until it has spread out to about cm thick. Put the chicken on a plate and squeeze half the lemon juice over. Scatter the tablespoon of thyme or rosemary leaves over the chicken, season with pepper and a drizzle of olive oil and leave to marinate for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 200ºC (180ºC fan) Gas 6. Put the sweet potato quarters into a bowl with the garlic, thyme leaves, a pinch of the dried chilli and enough olive oil to just coat the potatoes, then season with salt and pepper and toss together. Place in a baking dish and cook in the oven for 35–40 minutes, turning the sweet potatoes every now and again. They are ready when they offer no resistance to a knife tip and the outside is golden and slightly caramelised.

Put a pan of salted water on to boil for the broccoli. Prepare the broccoli by cutting off the thick stem at an angle, leaving 3–4cm still attached to the buds, then slice through the stem and buds lengthways. Leave any smaller, thinner stems intact, just remove the ends. The idea is that they should all cook at the same time and so should be of roughly the same thickness.

Salt the boiling water, then plunge the broccoli in and cook for 2–3 minutes until the stem is just tender when pierced with a knife. Drain in a colander, then return to the pan and pour a little olive oil over. Season with salt and pepper and keep it warm while you cook the chicken.

Heat the grill or griddle pan until smoking hot. Season the chicken with salt, place on the hot griddle or grill and leave to cook undisturbed for minutes or so, then turn and cook for a further 4–5 minutes until the flesh has cooked through. Remove from the heat, place on a board and leave to rest for a few minutes.

Slice the chicken at an angle into strips and serve with the sweet potato, broccoli and a spoonful of sour cream. We love chilli in our family, so I lightly scatter the chopped fresh chilli over the top with a few marjoram leaves and a squeeze of lemon. This makes all the difference.

Young broad beans with their bright green pods are the first bean of spring. I know I will be cooking with them right through the summer, the beans swelling in size and fading in colour as the sun gets higher, the texture changing as the bean matures, becoming starchy and nuttier in flavour. But in late March, when they first appear (usually imported from Italy) with their tight young skins, small, young and fresh, they are sweet and crisp and provide relief after a winter of dried pulses.

750g fresh young broad beans in their pods, podded

1 tbsp olive oil

100g pancetta, cut into small cubes

1 garlic clove, peeled and sliced into slivers

2 dried red chillies, crushed

a few leaves of fresh mint, washed, dried and roughly chopped

3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

juice of ½ lemon

2 small round soft-leaf lettuce, leaves separated, washed and dried

200g feta cheese, roughly broken into pieces (barrel-aged feta is delicious if you can find it)

sea salt and black pepper

Blanch the broad beans in boiling, unsalted water for 3-4 minutes or until just cooked, depending on the size of the bean. Then drain.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and add the pancetta. As it starts to colour, add the garlic slivers and the crushed chillies. When the garlic turns golden, add the broad beans and mint and toss all the ingredients together.

To make a dressing, combine the extra-virgin olive oil with the juice of half a lemon in a small bowl, then season with a small amount of salt (both the pancetta and feta are salty) and pepper.

Put the salad leaves in a bowl and toss with the dressing and the feta cheese, then spoon the broad beans and pancetta over the top.

Everyone has their own pancake recipe; this is the one we traditionally make in our family. Rose always made this mixture on Pancake Day or as a quick pudding after supper. The pancakes are very thin and exciting to cook, and are eaten the moment they come out of the pan.

A good fat and plump vanilla pod slit in half and put in a jar with caster sugar is one of the simplest ways of tasting the vanilla bean. A squeeze of lemon juice to melt the sugar brings the taste out even more. Delicious …

about 150g vanilla caster sugar (see above)

4 lemons, cut lengthways into quarters, as Rose always did

225g plain flour

4 medium eggs

450ml milk

150g butter, melted

2 tbsp vanilla caster sugar

110g butter

Sift the flour into a bowl, make a well in the centre, and add the eggs, slowly stirring and combining, then pour in the milk in a continuous stream, stirring all the time to form a batter. Add the melted butter and caster sugar. Cover with cling film and leave in the fridge for minutes.