Domini Kemp’s April feast is big on flavour and short on faff

There’s no actual theme for this month other than something you might want to cook, from start to finish, for a nice Sunday dinner. Between Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Paddy’s Day, it can feel as though Hallmark cards dictate our decisions. So instead, here are some of my favourite things to cook.

The roast chicken is adapted from Alison Roman’s New York Times cookbook. If you don’t know who she is, follow her immediately. She's wonderful and I am properly in love with her. Since trying her slow roast technique and finding it provides the ultimate in juicy and delicious roast chicken with a tomato jammy gravy that’s ready to go, it has become my preferred way to cook a roast chicken, especially if I have a few hours.

Sometimes I think about making flavoured butters and then can’t be bothered, but again, a mistake (like not stretching after exercise - another thing I think about and don’t do). This harissa butter is a lovely ingredient and makes everything taste good. Try it, and thank me later.

The artichoke and lemon roast spuds are also a lovely dish, and a useful side if you want something a bit lighter. Finally, the chocolate and muscovado tart is one of the nicest and easiest chocolate tarts you could ever make.

I’ve tweaked it a little by adding some tahini to it, but honestly, it’s a cinch to make and can provide a little “wow” to a relaxed Sunday night family dinner. All recipes feed four to six, although the chocolate tart will undoubtedly feed 12.

Roast chicken with tomato and fennel

Ingredients

1 chicken

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

80g butter, softened

3 tsp fennel seeds

1 bunch fresh thyme

500g cherry tomatoes

2 garlic bulbs, cut in half horizontally

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

Method

1. Heat the oven to 150C. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Mix the fennel seeds and butter together with some salt, then spread all over the chicken, adding a little in the cavity of the chicken. Stuff some thyme into the cavity and place the bird into a roasting dish.

2. Place the cherry tomatoes and garlic around the chicken, and cover loosely with tin foil. Roast for about three hours. You can add the red wine vinegar for the last half hour along with a splash of water or white wine if the tomatoes look like they’re cooking too fast - the foil should protect them while allowing the chicken to colour.

3. Allow to rest under more foil and then carve up onto a large platter and spoon some of the sticky tomatoes over the chicken and serve. This is great at room temperature also.

Artichoke, lemon and crème fraîche potatoes

Ingredients

For the artichokes and potatoes

250g jar artichoke hearts, drained and rinsed

500g potatoes

2 preserved lemons, roughly chopped

1 white onion, peeled and sliced

Few garlic cloves, peeled and sliced

2 sprigs rosemary, roughly chopped

Good pinch red chilli flakes

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

200ml white wine

50ml olive oil

For the Parmesan and basil crème fraîche

150g crème fraîche

Finely grated zest of half a lemon

30g Parmesan, grated

25g basil, torn

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Put all of the ingredients for the artichokes and potatoes into a roasting tin and toss together. Cover loosely with some parchment paper and some foil, then cook for about 30 minutes. Remove the foil and paper, then cook for another 20 minutes until the spuds have some colour and most of the liquid evaporates.

2. In the meantime, mix the ingredients for the crème fraîche together and season well.

3. Serve the spuds with blobs of the crème fraîche. These work wonderfully with the roast chicken.

Tenderstem broccoli with harissa butter and flaked almonds

I used all of the harissa butter in this recipe which was a bit obscene. Feel free to make double batch and freeze for emergency use.

Ingredients

For the harissa butter

1 small onion, peeled and diced

1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed

Good pinch coarse sea salt

125 g butter, softened

2 tbsp harissa

For the broccoli

300g tender stem broccoli, trimmed and rinsed

30g flaked almonds, lightly toasted

Method

1. To make the butter, combine all of the ingredients in a pestle and mortar or food processor and blitz until well combined. Shape it into a log by placing the butter onto some cling film, then wrap and roll into a log shape, twisting the ends of the cling film like sweet wrappers to seal. Allow to chill to firm up before use.

2. When you’re ready to cook, heat a chargrill pan with some of the butter and cook the broccoli - the bit of water from rinsing will help steam it a bit. Toss it around and add lots more butter. It’ll cook quite quickly.

3. To serve, tip the broccoli into a bowl or dish, then dot with extra butter and sprinkle with toasted almonds.

Chocolate, hazelnut, tahini and muscovado tart

Ingredients

100g hazelnuts

150g dark muscovado sugar

120g rice flour

50g soft butter

300g dark chocolate

500ml cream

2 tbsp tahini

2 tsp espresso powder

6 egg yolks

150g caster sugar

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 140C. You’ll need a 20cm tart tin with removable base.

2. Toast the hazelnuts in the oven for 5-10 minutes until they are lightly golden. Let them cool down a bit then whizz them in the food processor along with the muscavado sugar, rice flour and butter. Whizz until it forms a breadcrumb-like texture and then press down the crumbs into the tart tin, as you would a biscuity cheesecake base. Spread evenly, which is sometimes easier to do with a wet spatula, and then freeze or chill while you get the chocolate filling sorted.

3. Melt the dark chocolate in a bowl over simmering water. While that is melting, bring the cream just up to the boil and, separately, whisk the egg yolks and sugar until pale, thick and doubled in volume.

4. Pour the hot cream onto the melted chocolate and whisk. This will look scarily seized up for a second or two but keep whisking then add in the tahini and espresso powder.

5. Fold the melted chocolate into the whisked egg yolks. It should become very thick and glossy as it’s mixed in and starts to cool down slightly.

6. Place the tart tin onto a flat baking sheet, which will be easier to transport then pour in the chocolate filling in and bake for about 45 minutes. There will be a slight wobble in the middle, but this is gorgeous after it’s cooled right down and served cold with a big blob of cream.