Chicken with preserved lemons (or limes)

As with most dishes packed full of flavour, this is great cold, and the chicken, infused with the lemon flavours makes a fabulous salad ingredient.

You'll need to start it a few weeks before you want to cook it, however as the first step is to make the preserved lemons (or limes) and these take a number of weeks before they are ready.

To make the preserved fruit, clean it thoroughly and scrub the skin to remove any wax. Cut it almost all the way through into quarters and pack it with salt. Turn it upside down and press it into a jar so it releases some of its juices. Repeat until the jar is full, then top up with more fruit juice or warm water and seal it (make it in one of the jars with a rubber seal). Store it in a coolish darkish place, turning fairly regularly and topping up with more juice if necessary.

To make the dish, first make some stock. I make a vegetable stock from dried mushrooms, an onion, bay leaves, possibly celery, and peppercorns which I boil up.
Fry a couple of onions, sliced into strips and add a teaspoon each of ground ginger and ground cumin. Crush three garlic cloves and chop them and add to the pan.
If you have saffron, add a few strands to the stock.
Once the onions are translucent, add the chicken, some pepper, two of the preserved fruit and some stock and cook on a low heat for around one - two hours. Don't add salt as the fruit and the olives are both salty.
Chop a couple more lemons into quarters and add them plus a generous handful of olives to the pan. Cook for a further five minutes then serve.