Birthday Simple Roast Halibut Treat

Liking something special for a birthday treat, and wanting a change from fillet steak I bought a thick chunk of halibut from my fishmonger.  never having cooked such a beast I looked to the internet for instructions for Roast Halibut and fortuitously my favourite food guru Nigel Slater came up with the goods.  It was delicious, and even in my capricious cooker, was cooked to perfection - I always choose the shorter time)
Here is the extract from an article in the Guardian from 2005, along with a chicken dish that I will try in the future (no more need for a birthday for this one)

Roast halibut with capers, lemon and parsley

Given a spanking fresh piece of white fish I sometimes do nothing more to it than rub it with salt and roast it in a very hot oven, its only gilding, the juice from a fat Sicilian lemon and some lightly steamed spinach. Last time, I got the parsley out too and a few piquant little capers.

serves two 
2 x 225g halibut steaks olive oil 
2 tbsp salted capers 
flat-leaf parsley - the leaves from a small bunch 
juice of a large lemon

to serve: steamed spinach, halves of lemon

Set the oven at 230 c/Gas 8. Warm 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a flame-proof baking dish over a moderate flame. Rub the fish generously with salt and pepper and brown lightly on one side in the hot oil. A minute should suffice. Put the fish into the hot oven and bake for 7-8 minutes until opaque and the flesh comes easily away from the bone.

Chop the parsley and rinse the capers. Lift the fish out onto warm plates and place the baking dish over a moderate flame. Scatter in the capers and parsley, squeeze in the lemon juice and grind in a little salt and pepper. Drizzle in a little extra virgin olive oil and bring to a fierce bubble. Tip over the fish and serve.

Slow-cooked chicken with star anise and ginger

A mellow, earthy supper that fills the house with the warm, aniseed smell of a Chinese supermarket. The full hour of unattended cooking time here is a real bonus. Don't panic about the Shaoxing wine, you can get it in Chinatown with the star anise, but I must tell you I've used dry sherry, saké, even dry vermouth before now and it's been fine. You may want rice with this if you are very hungry.

serves 2-3 
6 chicken pieces on the bone, skin on 
groundnut oil 
a medium onion 
ginger - a thumb-sized lump 500ml chicken or vegetable stock 
3 tbsp soft brown sugar 
3 tbsp Shaoxing wine 
1 tbsp dark soy sauce 
a good half teaspoon sea salt 
1 flower of star anise

Warm a couple of tablespoons of groundnut oil in a heavy pan - a cast iron casserole is ideal. Lower in the chicken pieces and leave them to brown, then turn them and brown the other side. Lift them out and set aside in a dish.

While the chicken is browning peel the onion and cut it in half, then cut each half into six slices from tip to root. Stir the onion into the oil and leave it to soften, stirring occasionally so it doesn't stick. Peel the ginger, cut into matchsticks, then stir them into the onion. When the onion is soft and almost translucent return the chicken and introduce the remaining ingredients. Bring everything to the boil then turn down the heat so that the liquid simmers gently. Cover with a lid and leave for an hour, turning the chicken just once.

If you are taking the greens option, and I hope you are, then rinse them thoroughly

and get them and their water ready for steaming. Lift the chicken out of the sauce and keep it warm. Turn up the heat under the sauce and let it boil, furiously, for 6 or 7 minutes till there is about a cupful left. Taste it. It will almost certainly need a little salt. Put the greens on to steam - they will need about six minutes. Tip the sauce over the chicken and serve with the steamed greens.