chicken with leeks and ham

tonight's dinner is the variation on the chicken theme from the other day http://n1kitchen.blogspot.com/2009/03/roast-chicken-and-chicory-with-parma.html i'm on my own and this is easy - a bit of prep and you bung it all in the oven while you go and watch the market kitchen. for example.

there's roast butternut squash, boiled savoy cabbage, some roast shallots and leeks topped with ham.

the thing i like best of all about this plate are the leeks. you just parboil them for maybe 3 or 4 minutes, drain them and leave them to dry in a colander or sieve. you then put them in a roasting dish with olive oil, salt, pepper and some thyme leaves and roast at 200C for ten minutes or so. then drape with ham and put back in the oven for another 10 minutes. of course, you can skip the ham and just roast the leeks - reckon they'll be great at room temperature in a slightly sharp olive oil and lemon juice dressing.