store cupboard supper

Have you any ingredients knocking about?

This is another winning recipe from my mother's 'Kitchen Notes' book.

It must be a terrible shame for mothers, after slaving over a healthy tasty hot meal, when their children request ketchup as an accompaniment and ruin every inch of flavour that was supposed to be enjoyed!

The thing is, taste is acquired. Taste buds change and evolve. When we are babies there is only one thing we like. Glucose. Sugar. It's a nature thing. An inbuilt thing. We want the pureed fruits. We want the pureed root vegetables. We might turn our noses up at certain things (I only disliked mushrooms, bananas, honey and milk on its own). It takes a determined mother to encourage tastings through major trial and error. The best place to start is in the breast milk (its flavour varies everyday depending on what the mother has eaten, so better prepares the baby for a wider range of foods). As children, we still like sweet things. It's taken me until age 27 to lean more to the savoury side of cravings...so there we go.

When you look at the ingredients in this dish, you can tell why children love it. I call it nursery food, which is why we still love it as adults. It is also incredibly easy and cheap to make (4 free range chicken thighs were just over £2), and you pretty much have all the ingredients already.

Chicken thighs - chef Bruno Loubet for L'Odeon

This is a recipe that French chef Bruno Loubet used to make for his staff at L'Odeon, which they LOVED.

So for those that can't read writing:

• 16 chicken thighs (rub oil, salt, pepper)
• 3 tbsp HP sauce
• 1/2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp tomato ketchup
• 1 tsp tomato puree
• 2 tsp soya sauce
• 1 tbsp honey
• 3 tbsp malt vinegar (use less than this though)
• 2 cloves of garlic crushed
• 1 tsp ginger, grated
• 1/2 finely chopped onion
• 8 spring onions, sliced

Make a marinade of the ingredients I've highlighted. Roast the seasoned/oiled thighs for 15 mins in a hot oven (200'C) to get them going and to get the skin crisping.

Hello birdies!

Then add the marinade, with the finely chopped onion (mine wasn't so fine!) scattered over and bake in oven until done (about another 30-40 mins).

Add the marinade and scattered onion on top

Perhaps after 10 mins of cooking put some foil over the top to prevent blackening on the top (like mine went - don't be alarmed though, this is sticky and toffee like). Take out of the oven and leave to sit for about 10 mins. Scatter over the chopped spring onion and serve with a plain green leaf salad and seasoned new potatoes. The sauce of the chicken is enough to scoop everything up with.

Finger licking good!

(NB Try and use chicken thighs with skin and bone, otherwise they will dry out and cook too quickly).