La Recette du Jour

I'm mainly recording this for the biscuits, which are light and crumbly and would make a nice base for other desserts. The dough must either be left in the fridge for several hours or put in the freezer for a couple of hours once made, because it's too sticky to work with otherwise.

This is a wonderfully old-fashioned and comforting dish, from one of my favourite cookbooks, Plats du Jour by Patience Gray and Pimrose Boyd (published 1957). I can't recommend this book too highly; it's so old-fashioned that words like pizza and courgettes are printed in italics, and the recipes owe absolutely nothing to fashion and everything to love of good, simple food.

Anyway, you would normally use a boiling chicken for this, difficult to find nowadays, so just use a nice free-range chicken and reduce the poaching time.

These make a delicate and elegant starter and are easy to make too.

While I'm on the subject of petits pots, this is a ridiculously simple and delicious idea from Nigel Slater. An excellent opportunity to use up some home-made yogurt and lemon curd.

I felt very virtuous doing this, because after squeezing my oranges for juice, I used the empty shells to make these little candied nibbles. The recipe I used suggested removing the peel in quarters, then using the oranges for something else, but I needed the juice so I did the opposite. After squeezing, I cut each half-shell in half again, and then used a small sharp knife to remove the remaining pulp/membrane, a bit like skinning fish; once you get the tip of the knife under the membrane, you can grip one end of the peel firmly, skin-side against the cutting board, and push the rest off with the knife quite easily.

Once made, these can be kept in an airtight tin. An elegant garnish for citrus or chocolate desserts; and for after-dinner treats you can dip them in melted chocolate and serve with coffee.

Having said all that, while not difficult it is time-consuming, and you can't go very far away while they are cooking.