Weekend Foodie: Celebrate Mother’s Day with a simple menu fit for a queen
Dianne Curtuin is reviving that old Mother’s Day tradition of home baking with these elegant little lemon scented and frosted queen cakes, fit for the queen of your family.
On Mother’s Day this Sunday, it’s time to give your mum the right royal treatment!
The main looks like it came from a restaurant kitchen, but is in fact a very easy to make dish.
Chicken fillets are infused with lemon and thyme before cooking, then set on creamy garlic mashed potatoes and topped with herby and buttery green beans. Really simple but looks the part!
To really infuse flavour, the meat can be infused overnight.
Cooking in a griddle pan gives a lightly charred finish. At the same time, you can cook the spuds for the mash and steam the green beans. Everything is done together, so there is zero stress, with lots of success!
For pudding, a dessert that harks back to times when ancient tradition dictated Mother’s Day as a day to go to church, then to spoil Mum with gifts of fresh picked wild flowers and a home baked cake.
Things have moved on since those days, with Mother’s Day gifts getting more elaborate and expensive each year.
But nothing beats a gift that has real meaning and thought behind it. So I’m reviving that old Mother’s Day tradition of home baking with these elegant little lemon scented and frosted queen cakes, fit for the queen of your family.
They make a simple and elegant sweet treat to have with a cuppa after the main course. Stack them on a pretty tiered cake stand or pack in a tissue-lined box tied with a ribbon. Either way, they’re the perfect gift for a special lady on her special day.
- 4 skinless chicken breast fillets
- 6 tbsp olive oil
- Juice of 2 lemons
- 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Generous knob of butter
- 200mls chicken stock
- 1kg potatoes, peeled weight, in chunks
- 200g green beans topped and tailed
- 2 tbsp finely chopped parsley
For the mash:
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely crushed
- Generous knob of butter to taste
- 3 tbsp cream, or to taste
- Rub chicken fillets all over with olive oil and lemon juice, massaging well into the meat.
- Scatter over the thyme.
- Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- Lay in a dish and leave to infuse for at least 30 minutes or overnight in the fridge.
- Melt butter in a pan and add a little extra olive oil.
- Add chicken fillets and cook to lightly char both sides.
- Add stock, cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
- At the same time, steam the potatoes for the mash.
- While the potatoes are cooking, bring a pan of lightly salted water to the boil and add the green beans.
- Cook till just tender.
- Drain and reserve, keeping hot.
- When the potatoes are ready, mash with garlic, butter and cream until soft and smooth, adding more cream to taste if desired.
- Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- To serve, spoon the creamy mash onto warmed plates and top with chicken fillets.
- Drizzle over the pan juices.
- Lay green beans on top of the chicken and scatter with parsley.
- Top each with a knob of butter to finish.
- 300g self-raising flour
- 1 level tsp baking powder
- 225g butter, in cubes
- 225g caster sugar
- 2 medium free-range eggs
- 5 tbsp milk
- Finely grated zest of a lemon
- Squeeze of lemon juice
- 12 tbsp icing sugar, sifted juice of half a lemon approx
- Cake decorations (optional)
- Method
- Sift the flour with the baking powder and set aside.
- Beat sugar and butter together till light and fluffy.
- Whisk in the eggs and milk gradually, with alternate spoonfuls of flour.
- Fold in the remaining flour with lemon zest and squeeze of juice.
- Pop 12 deep paper cupcake cases into the moulds of a 12 hole baking tray.
- Divide the mix into each case, leaving space at the top of each to rise.
- Bake in a pre-heated oven, Gas 4 180C (160C for fan assisted) until golden, risen and firm to the touch.
- Test by inserting a skewer into the centre of the cakes. It should come out clean. If still sticky, return to oven for a little longer.
- Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.
- Mix the icing sugar with lemon juice gradually, to make a thickish consistency
- Spoon on top of the cakes and decorate with sugar flowers other decorations if using.
- Leave to set.
A bottle of fizz never goes amiss for any special occasion. This weekend, I’ve found a cork popper that marries fantastic presentation with superb quality in the bottle. Jaume Serra Bouquet Cava Brut is so called because the bottle is adorned with a beautiful print of a bouquet of red roses - just perfect to give to the lady of the house on Mother’s Day! Cava is Spain’s answer to champagne, made in exactly the same way, with a second fermentation in the bottle, but with Spanish grapes. This process creates small and busy bubbles in the glass, which pop with crisp fruit flavours on the tongue. This is a great wine to start the celebrations but also to drink throughout the meal as well. And it’s on special offer now at Supervalu stores until 9/04/25, reduced from €15.00 a bottle to €10.00. Flowers and wine in the same bottle - what a way to spoil Mum!
Skinless Chicken breast fillets 750g pack: €7.00
Lemons x 3 pce: €1.29
Fresh Thyme pack: €1.19
Garlic x 3 pce: €1.05
Rooster potatoes 2kg bag: €3.79
Green beans 220g: €1.29
Cream 250mls: €1.49
Fresh parsley pack: €1.19
Self-raising flour 2kg: €1.59
Butter 227g: €2.29
Free range eggs half dozen: €1.95
Icing sugar 500g: 95c
App?
