Maggie Beer shares her recipe for a long and healthy life

These are Maggie Beer's recipes for every day, for everybody, full of deep flavours and beautiful ingredients that will nourish you and your family. Nobody wants to eat worthy food that tastes like cardboard. For Maggie, food without flavour is unthinkable! Her recipe for life is to have a healthy attitude to eating - it's all about balance, variety and choosing foods that give you the best chance of being in good health now and into your future. This is not a diet book - it's a way of life.

Chicken is quite a staple in our house and the difference a well-brought-up chook makes in flavour and texture is incredible. The great thing is that each state of Australia has wonderful producers and they need to be encouraged as it costs a lot more to grow out a free-range bird to full maturity. The marinade here is definitely "finger-licking good" in the true sense of those words and it adds wonderfully to the caramelisation of the skin. You're a stronger person than me if you can peel that off before you eat.

Ingredients

6 x 230g chicken thighs, skin on, bone in

80ml extra virgin olive oil

sea salt flakes

Marinade:

1 tbsp soy sauce

finely grated zest of 1 lime

1 tbsp lime juice

1 tsp finely grated orange zest, plus extra to serve

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 clove garlic, finely grated

1 tbsp finely grated ginger

1 lemongrass stalk, pale end only, finely chopped

1 tsp finely grated turmeric

1 tsp raw honey

sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. To make the marinade, place all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk until well combined.

2. Place the chicken in an airtight container, pour over the marinade, then place the lid on the container and shake well. Refrigerate for two to four hours.

3. Preheat the oven to 200C (fan-forced).

4. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Remove the chicken from the marinade and shake off the excess. Season with salt, then place half the chicken, skin-side down, in the pan and cook for two minutes on each side or until golden. Take care not to burn the marinade. Remove from the pan and place, skin-side up, and spaced well apart on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Repeat with the remaining chicken thighs.

5. Transfer to the oven and bake for four to five minutes or until just cooked through. Remove from the oven and allow to rest in a warm place for eight to 10 minutes. Scatter with extra orange zest and drizzle with any resting juices.

Serves 6.

Nutrition: Turmeric contains the polyphenol curcumin which has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer and anti-diabetes properties.

I think people fall into two categories when making scones: those with gifted fingers whose scones will rise no matter the conditions, and those who can always make a scone worth eating given the right ingredients. I have always wished I was the former. My mother used to make scones without weighing anything and with such casual abandon I took it for granted, scones were just part of my childhood. So here is a scone full of good ingredients that - gifted or not - you'll love to eat. Why not add a lashing of cold butter and an extra slice of cheese?

Ingredients

360g self-raising flour

60g soft brown sugar

1 heaped tbsp skim milk powder

50g butter, diced

120g feta

255g pumpkin, cooked and mashed (see note)

3 free-range eggs (large)

3 tbsp milk, for brushing

50g butter, to serve

200g cheese, sliced, to serve

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170C (fan-forced). Line a baking tray with baking paper.

2. Sift flour into a large bowl. Add sugar and milk powder and mix to combine. Add the butter and rub it into the flour with your fingertips.

3. Crumble feta into the mixture and mix until just combined.

4. Combine the cooled pumpkin and eggs in a medium bowl, whisk to combine.

5. Add the pumpkin mix to the bowl of flour and mix slowly. If the mix is sticky, add some more flour until it binds well and is no longer sticky to the touch.

6. Place some flour on the surface of your bench. Tip the dough onto the flour and shape into a round disc around 3cm high. Cut dough with a floured 6.5cm scone cutter and place onto the prepared tray. Keep the scones close to each other, not more than 1cm apart. Brush with milk.

7. Bake for 20-25 minutes, then remove scones from the oven and transfer onto a cooling rack. To serve, cut the scones in half horizontally, serve warm with butter and slices of cheese.

Note: Steam the pumpkin covered with a tight lid, so that it does not absorb any moisture while cooking. If it absorbs moisture, it will make the dough sticky.

Makes 12.

This recipe came about to prove to my group of trainee mentor chefs that we could still get a beautiful burnish on a shoulder of lamb without searing the meat in a pan before baking, which can be time-consuming and difficult to manage. It might not seem difficult for just one piece of lamb, but think of cooking shoulders for 80-100 residents in an aged care home. Then, leaving out an arduous process becomes life changing - as long as the lamb has been marinated skin-side down for at least an hour. The real trick to this dish is making sure that there is only a very small amount of stock or water in the base of the pan as you cook, or the lamb will actually steam instead of bake. The slow cooking gives a wonderful juicy, silky quality to the lamb. Serve with vegetables roasted at high temperature with extra virgin olive oil and salt for maximum flavour.

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp chopped rosemary

1 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

600g lamb shoulder, bone in (this is about half a shoulder cut by the butcher)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tbsp salt

chicken stock or water to approx 1/2cm in bottom of pan

Method

1. Place oil, rosemary and balsamic vinegar into a large bowl and whisk together, then add the lamb skin-side down to marinate for at least one hour (see note).

2. Preheat oven to 140C (fan-forced).

3. Add the garlic and salt to the marinade and baste both sides of the lamb. Sit the lamb in a roasting pan, skin-side up. Add chicken stock or water to the base of the pan, and loosely cover with baking paper and foil. Roast in the oven for two hours, then check for doneness. It may take another hour or more until the lamb starts to fall off the bone.

4. Rest in the pan, covered, for 30 minutes. Siphon off the juices and skim off as much fat as possible. Slip out the bone to serve easily. Heat the juices and pour over the lamb to serve.

Note: Lamb can be left in the marinade in the fridge overnight if desired and brought to room temperature for one hour before cooking.

Serves 4.

This creme is a beautifully creamy silky custard with lingering flavours of fresh ginger and turmeric, without either being overpowering. It's a wonderful high protein snack just as is, though when served with a compote of raspberries, blueberries or stone fruit it becomes a truly luscious dessert. I make this recipe in my home steam oven though it can easily be baked in a conventional oven in a water bath.

Ingredients

145ml thickened cream

85ml full-cream milk

35g skim milk powder

40g raw honey

1 tsp ground turmeric

20g ginger, peeled and sliced

3 free-range egg yolks (small eggs)

2 tbsp raw sugar, to serve (optional)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to Steam 100C or conventional oven 160C.

2. Place the cream, milk, milk powder, honey, turmeric and ginger into a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Remove from the heat and rest for five minutes.

3. Gradually add the hot liquid mixture to the egg yolks, whisking as you go.

4. Pour the mixture evenly into six ramekins.

5. For a steam oven, wrap ramekins securely in plastic film. Place on a baking tray and steam for 25-30 minutes or until just setting - you need a little jiggle in the centre for maximum mouthfeel. Keep in mind that the custard will carry on cooking as it cools.

6. For a conventional oven, place the ramekins into a high-sided baking dish. Carefully fill the baking dish with very hot water to two-thirds of the height of the ramekins. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 45 minutes. It should wobble if you gently shake a ramekin.

7. If you want to serve with a crunchy creme brulee topping, cover the tops of the cremes evenly with raw sugar and tap off any excess. Blowtorch the sugar for 10 seconds.

Note: The cooking time will be influenced by the thickness of the ramekin. A pottery one could take an extra 15 minutes or so to cook.

Serves 6.