Lemon Chicken

Ingredients:

• Whole chicken

• 2 cups of Cider

• A few Juniper berries

• A Small Handful of fresh Sorrel

• A Small Handful of Wild garlic

• A Small Handful of Ground elder

• A slice of Stale Bread

• Olive oil

Method:

Put the chicken into a large pot or cauldron and add the cider and juniper. Top up the pot with water, ensuring the chicken is completely covered. Heat the liquid to a simmer and parboil the chicken for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile roughly chop the sorrel, garlic and ground elder. Tear the bread into chunks and mix into the chopped leaves, with a little oil.

Carefully remove the chicken from the pot (reserve the liquid to use as stock in another dish). Stuff the bread and sorrel mix into the cavity, and place the chicken on a spit. Rub a little oil onto the chicken skin and cook over hot embers for about an hour and a half, turning occasionally.

Be sure to avoid any flames coming into contact with the chicken, or it will burn before cooking all the way through. Skewer the chicken and check the liquid runs clear before serving.

Stuffed spit-roast hearts

In the saga of the Volsungs, Sigurd kills the dragon Fafnir. He spit roasts the heart and eats it, giving him the ability to understand the language of the birds.

If you don’t have any dragons that need slaying, this recipe will work just as well with a lambs heart.

Ingredients:
2 lambs hearts

For the stuffing;
Butter
200g lardons
Large handful of hazelnuts (finely chopped)
Large handful of spinach
1 mushroom (finely chopped)
Splash of white wine (parsnip if you have it)

Method:

Melt some butter in a pan. Add the lardons and fry for several minutes, until browning.

Add the rest of the stuffing ingredients and fry, Stirring occasionally, until the liquid has cooked off and the spinach is wilted.

Leave to one side to cool.

Trim the hearts of any excess fat and slice them in half, but not all the way through, opening them up like a butterfly.

Spoon some of the stuffing mix onto the open hearts, close them up and tie together with a few pieces of string.

Push the hearts onto a skewer and cook for around 30 – 40 minutes over a hot fire, depending on how rare you like it.

Leave to rest for 5 minutes, before slicing and serving with any leftover stuffing mix.

This recipe is taken from my book ‘Eat like a Viking!’ Available now on Amazon