Friday Night Supper Menu

Start the weekend as you mean to go on, by relaxing over a delicious meal. Supper for six is ready in an hour, as it cleverly combine supermarket shortcuts and simple home cooking.

Recipes 1 → Creamy goat’s cheese with chives & pomegranate (6 Servings)

Simply plonk this in the middle of the table and let your friends get to work on it. I prefer tearing off chunks of bread to scoop straight from the plate, but if you’re a bit more polite, slice the bread and serve with a handful of knives for spreading. 

Ingredients :

150g soft, rindless goat’s cheese

250g tub ricotta

50g pomegranate seeds

1/2 small bunch chives, snipped

1 tablespoon clear honey

1 teaspoon red or white wine vinegar loaf of crusty bread, to serve

To Prepare :

Mash the goat’s cheese and ricotta together in a bowl, then use a spatula to roughly spread over a large plate. Scatter with the pomegranate seeds and chives and set aside until ready to serve.

Stir together the honey and vinegar, then as you’re about to serve, drizzle over the plate. Enjoy with crusty bread.

Recipes 2 → Roast chicken with salsa & garlic mash (6 Servings)

There’s nothing nicer than crispy roast chicken with mash, but the addition of a fresh, flavourful salsa lifts this dish to new levels. 

Ingredients :

6 chicken legs or 12 things or a mixture of both

8 unpeeled garlic cloves

5 tablespoons olive oil

Few bay leaves, plus extra for decorating, if you like

200g large, stoned green olives

2 small bunches flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

2 red chillies, deseeded, finely chopped zest of 2 oranges, juice of 11/2 oranges juice of 1/2 lemon

3 tubs ready-made mash, about 450g per pack

To Prepare :

Heat oven to 180C. mix the chicken and garlic with 1 tablespoon oil in a shallow roasting tin, then poke around a few bay leaves. Sprinkled 1/2 teaspoon black pepper and 1/2 teaspoon sea salt over the chicken pieces and

roast for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, fish out the garlic, increase the oven temperature to 220C and roast the chicken for 15-20 minutes more until golden, crispy and cooked through.

While the chicken is cooking, pulse the olives in a food processor to roughly chop, then scrape into a serving bowl. Add the flat-leaf parsley, chillies, orange zest, orange juice, lemon juice, remaining olive oil and some seasoning. Set aside at room temperature until ready to serve.

Squeeze the roasted garlic cloves out of their skins and mash with a fork. About 10 minutes before you want to serve, heat the mash in a pan or microwave – 3 packs will take about 8-10 minutes or high. When hot, empty into a serving dish, stir in the mashed garlic and serve with the roast chicken olive salsa and some salad leaves.

Tips :

You’ll need about 150g salad leaves for 6 people. Dress your favourite mixed bags with a squeeze of juice from the leftover lemon half you should have from the salsa.

Recipes 3 → Little iced lemon mousses

You can make these ahead of time, just store in the fridge and transfer to the freezer roughly 1-1½ hours before you plan to eat.

Ingredients :

300g good quality lemon curd

Zest of 1 lemon

300ml whipping or double cream

25g lemon shortbread or crunchy lemon flavoured biscuits, plus extra to serve, if you like

To Prepare :

Put two-thirds of the lemon curd into a large bowl with the zest and cream, then beat with an electric whisk until it just holds its shape. Dribble over the rest of the lemon curd and divide between 6 small glass pots or glasses, marbling the curd through as you go. Sit the pots on a small tray, cover the whole lot with cling film and freeze until ready to serve.

Put the biscuits in a strong plastic bag and bash with the end of a rolling pin to crumbs. When you’re ready for pudding, remove the pots from the freezer (they should be ice cold but still soft and creamy), top with crumbs and serve.

Enjoy this dishes with your friends this coming weekends