Lime and paprika chicken

This is easy Spring/Summer food, peferct for bbq's or an after work dinner with whatever salad bits you've got in the fridge. Marinade the chicken the night before or before you go to work if you can, otherwise an hour before you're due to eat it is fine.

Place de-boned chicken thighs in a bowl with olive oil, crushed garlic, the juice of one lime and plenty of smoked paprika. Add some dried chilli flakes for extra kick if you like. When you're ready to grill/griddle/bbq the chicken, season it with plenty of salt and pepper first before cooking the chicken fast on a high heat. Sprinkle the chicken with a little extra paprika once cooked if you like.

We had ours with garlic and parsley corn on the cob and a warm herby new potato, green bean, spinach, onion and tomato smush. It tasted a lot nicer than it sounds!

Herby green risotto

This was lovely and fresh and Spring-like, even if there has been snow and hail here in Cheshire in the last week or so :-(

I've not included how to make a risotto again here, just the ingredients used. For the first time ever we made a risotto without wine in it. It didn't taste any worse for it. Although it was rather odd to stand stirring the rice with a cup of tea in hand rather than the usual glass of vino.

Ingredients:
- veg stock
- arborio rice
- 1 white onion, chopped
- 1 fat clove of garlic, minced
- 6 chestnut mushrooms, sliced
- 2 handfuls of spinach, roughly chopped
- handfuls of parsley, watercress and chives, blitzed
- handful of green beans and asparagus cut in half, cooked in boiling water for 2 mins and then set aside to add to the risotto for the last few minutes
- small tub of double cream, added towards the end
- salt and pepper
- plenty of parmesan grated on just before eating

Watercress sauce

We have this as a cold sauce to go with salmon wrapped in pancetta. You can warm it up gently too though which is equally nice.

Blitz a bag or two of watercress with a couple of handfuls of spinach (if you happen to have some), plus a small handfull of parsley and a handful of chives. Then add a small tub of double cream and season with salt and pepper.