Miss Dahl’s Voluptuous Delights. Sophie Dahl

Add the cubed chicken, cover the bowl with cling film and marinate for 2 hours.

      

      Preheat the grill. Sauté the chicken pieces for 8-10 minutes over a low heat in 1 tablespoon of olive oil, then assemble the kebabs in the following order: chicken, halloumi, chicken, halloumi. Season to taste. Before you grill the kebabs, make sure the chicken is moist and, if needed, add more oil. Grill for 4 minutes under searing heat.

      

      While the chicken is grilling, pan-fry the chanterelles in 1 tablespoon of olive oil for 3 minutes. Pour a mound of the mushrooms on a serving plate and lay the kebab sticks across them. You can make a separate dressing of olive oil and lemon juice if you want and pour that over thetop.

       Spinach barley soup

       SERVES 4-6

      3 tablespoons of olive oil

      1 onion, chopped

      2 large fresh sage leaves, chopped

      1.5 litres/6¹/₂ cups of vegetable stock

      180g/6 cups of spinach, washed and chopped

      150g/³/₄ a cup of pearl barley

      Salt and pepper

      50g/¹/₂ a cup of grated Parmesan

      My nanny Maureen is a master soup-maker. It was almost worth being ill from time to time as a child, just in order to get a steaming bowl of comfort on the sofa in front of The Wombles. This is my homage to her.

      Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed pan, put in the onion and sage leaves and cook on a low heat for about 5 minutes. While that’s cooking, heat the stock in another pan. Stir the spinach into the onion mixture and cook for another few minutes. Pour in the hot stock and cook, covered, on a low heat for 10 minutes. Add the barley and leave it cooking for another half an hour or until the barley is soft. Season to taste. When it is ready, ladle into bowls and sprinkle the Parmesan on top.