Chicken souvlaki

I fancied kebabs on Monday because it felt like summer. It may be only March but the sky was blue with a couple of funny-shaped clouds. Ed, Dexter and I went on a long walk across Nomansland, stopping for a pint and a coke and a bowl of water in a sunny beer garden in Sandridge.

A while ago, Yvette cooked me a Lindsey Bareham recipe for Souvlaki (Greek kebab) and I decided to expand on this. I used chicken instead of pork, added garlic to the marinade and some peppers and onions to the skewers. I served it with rice and lovely green salad and some leftover lentils. Souvlaki is best served with tzatziki and/or a squeeze of lemon.

I’m also going to try to remember what I did with the leftover rice a few days later because it turned out quite well. It was an attractive colour, tasty and the rice became almost crunchy round the edges. I didn’t work in specific quantities so I’m afraid you will have to experiment if you want to recreate this dish.

Souvlaki

750g chicken breast or pork fillet (for the original)

1 large juicy lemon

4 tbsp olive oil

4 bay leaves

1 tbsp dried oregano

1 tbsp fresh thyme

5 or 6 cloves of garlic, chopped

3 peppers

3 onions

Chop the meat into chunks and marinate in the all ingredients except the onion and peppers for at least 2 hours.

Chop the onion and peppers into large chunks. Spear these onto kebab skewers interspersed with the meat.

Cook in hot oven (200C) for about 30 minutes. Turn over once and keep checking because time will depend on the size of your pieces of meat.

Tzatziki

½ cucumber

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 garlic

2 tbsp olive oil

300g Greek yoghurt

2 tbsp chopped dill

Peel the cucumber, split lengthways, scrape out seeds, then dice. Crush garlic with a pinch of salt. Whip garlic, lemon juice and olive oil into yoghurt. Stir in cucumber and dill.

Rice

Some leftover rice (enough to feed 2 hungry people or 3 not-so-hungry)

1 courgette

1 red pepper

olive oil

a sprinkle of paprika

a sprinkle of turmeric

a couple of coriander seeds

a couple of fennel seeds

Dice vegetables and roast in a hot oven with generous amount of olive oil. Turn occasionally and take out when starting to caramelize. Put rice in ovenproof dish with a lid and add in cooked vegetables, spices, seeds and some salt and pepper. Turn oven down to 180C and cook for 15/20 minutes until heated through.