I’M terribly busy at the moment and therefore need a few easy dishes up my sleeve.

We all have times when we’re so busy, we just want to fling something together or reheat a pre-cooked dish and we can’t face another takeaway.

I know time is tight for many of you, so it’s nice to have a few old reliables on standby.

As we head out of winter, we must sadly say goodbye to the thicker braised dishes, the casseroles and heavy pies. Not to worry, they’ll be back in the autumn to warm the heart once more.

We’re not quite in salad territory yet, though, so we need a few dishes that, while still satisfactorily warming, also have a certain lightness of texture and flavour to suit the climate and the appetite.

At this time of year, risottos can be particularly good, and only last night I enjoyed a spectacular paella-style dish made with bulghur wheat instead of rice.

It was a bit of an experiment by Tracy, my wife, and it worked very well indeed, the nutty taste and bouncy texture of the bulghur complementing the prawns, squid and chicken perfectly.

A lightly-spiced tomato sauce was all that was required to moisten the dish.

Perhaps the perfect dish for this time of year, though, is a good Coq Au Vin.

Coq Au Vin is pretty much France on a plate, comprising as it does a chicken (the national bird), mushrooms, shallots, red wine and garlic.

Very little else is added, because very little else is needed.

It’s just one of those dishes that works so perfectly and, while lighter than a red-meat stew, still carries some heft to the table, especially when served with creamy mashed potatoes or wide noodles and a green salad or crunchy vegetables.

Traditionally the Coq Au Vin was the final resting place of the barnyard rooster, or the once-popular capon.

The rooster being far too old and sinewy for simple roasting, yet so full of corn-fed flavour, it would be criminal not to use the feathery old bird for something.

So the French, in their culinary wisdom, took what was lying around – a bottle of decent red, a few onions, a slab of fatty bacon, some mushrooms, and came up with the classic dish that still remains a terrifically popular plateful.

Made well, and with care, it is an unalloyed joy. It is not a dish to be messed with. (I once saw a recipe that tried white wine instead – sacrilege. I’m all for experimentation, but you don’t paint over the Mona Lisa.)

It will take two to three days to prepare, but in actual fact takes very little time to put together. The chicken must be steeped in the red wine to allow the flavour to penetrate deep into the flesh and don’t skimp on sautéeing the other ingredients.

All that caramelisation pays dividends at the end.

Like all stews and casseroles, it’s a perfect dish to cook one day and eat the next.

You’ll need a good frying pan, and an ovenproof dish which can hold the finished casserole.

Ready? Vive La France and aprons on!

A large corn-fed chicken, jointed into 6 or 8 (or your choice of chicken pieces)

200g unsmoked pancetta cubes (or unsmoked bacon pieces)

30g clarified butter or ghee

4 cloves of garlic, minced

A bottle of red wine (Cotes du Rhone or Burgundy preferably)

1 – 1 ½ litres chicken or vegetable stock, small sprig each of thyme and curly parsley 3 bay leaves 4 large banana shallots, or 12-16 small pickling onions, peeled, whole

300g baby button mushrooms

S&P

A little chopped parsley to garnish

A couple of days before you want to eat the chicken, you need to start by marinating it in the red wine. I find that a Ziploc bag standing in a plastic bowl or tub works perfectly. Mix the jointed chicken with the red wine, seal the bag and keep refrigerated for at least 24 hours, turning gently from time to time.

The next day, heat the oven to Gas 7 or equivalent. Heat a little of the butter in a pan and fry the pancetta cubes until nicely golden and crispy. Spoon them into the casserole and fry the mushrooms in the butter for a few minutes until well-coloured. Then, fry the shallots for a few minutes on all sides until golden and caramelised.

Pop in with the bacon and mushrooms. Add the garlic and fry for just a few seconds, then add to the casserole too.

Remove the chicken from the red wine and pat dry. Keep the wine, though! Add a little more butter to the pan if necessary, and sauté the chicken pieces well, until nicely coloured all over. Pop these in the casserole.

Add the red wine to the hot pan, scraping up all the goodness stuck to the bottom, allow it to bubble and reduce a little and tip over the chicken and other ingredients.

Add enough stock to cover the chicken, pop in the sprigs of herbs, and cook, covered, in the oven for about an hour, until the chicken is tender and just coming away from the bone. Either leave the dish until the next day or eat it straight away.

If the sauce is a little runny, strain it off, reduce in a pan, and spoon back over the chicken. Serve with wide noodles, mash, or a few boiled new potatoes and some tasty greens or a salad.