Ruling the roast.....

I feel like I should have cooked something with pumpkins by now. They are everywhere in Cornwall. In laybys. In people's windows. On Friday we went to Illogun for a friend's fireworks/halloween party. I think my lungs have just about recovered from the huge amount of fumes from the fireworks. If you live in Illogun, in fact if you live in the Camborne/Redruth area, I apologise for the clouds of green smoke wafting around the area.

It was a lot of fun. Our friend bought everyone a pumpkin and we carved faces in them. I think we should have got a psychiatrist to tell us what our pumpkins say about us. (Mine is the one with the ears.)

Sunday nights are a tricky one for me. Roast dinners have always been as big a part of Sundays on Scilly as the Archers and Desert Island Disks. But the other half doesn't like roasts. I know. Who doesn't like roast dinners? It's like saying you don't like breathing. So every week I have to try and disguise a roast dinner as something else.....

Chorizo and paprika roast chicken...

1 whole chicken

4oz chorizo

1 stick cinnamon

2 tsp smoked paprika

1/4 pt sherry

(for the gravy)

1 tbsp flour

1 small knob butter

a splash of sherry

1/4 pint chicken stock

Preheat oven to 180'c. Inside the chicken cavity put the cinnamon and chopped chorizo. Sprinkle the paprika over the chicken, pour the sherry in the baking tray and pop in the oven for one and a half hours.

While your waiting make some of Mary Berry's yummy bread sauce....

(You can find the recipe here...http://www.maryberry.co.uk/index.asp)

Once the chicken is done, take it out of the oven. Pour the juices into a saucepan. (Make sure you tip the chicken up carefully because some of the juices will be trapped inside. You should be left with a lovely orangey, red sauce from the chorizo. Add the flour and butter and pop on a hob. Whisk until it thickens. Add a splash of sherry and the chicken stock and keep whisking for about 2 minutes.

Serve with some of Delia's red cabbage with apple from here.

We also had watercress with it. (In case you're wondering pudding fans we had apple crumble)