July can be tricky – it’s either delightfully sunny, uniformly grey or endless rain, depending on what our fickle climate decides – so this week’s recipes are designed to cope with whatever the weather gods throw at us. Homemade satay sauce leaves the stuff you get at most Thai takeaways standing: fresh, nutty, aromatic and intoxicating, especially when served with crisp-skinned chicken. Thanks to its large surface area, and all that lovely skin, a spatchcocked bird is ideal, but thighs will work, too: just roast in the oven or cook on the barbecue.

And, for pudding, an easy ice-cream that makes the most of our fleeting cherry season, leaving you to enjoy yourself, rain or shine.

Chicken satay with cucumber salad

Ask your butcher to spatchcock the chicken, or do it yourself at home: just cut out the back bone with a pair of poultry shears, then flatten the bird with a firm push on the breasts. It’s a wonderfully simple bit of butchery. Serves four to six.

For the marinade
1 tbsp coriander seeds
2 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
½ thumb fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
1 lemongrass stalk, tough outer layer peeled and discarded, finely chopped
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sesame oil
1.6kg chicken, spatchcocked (or 8 thighs)

For the satay
150g unsalted skinned peanuts
3 baby shallots, peeled and roughly chopped
1 lemongrass stem, tough outer layer peeled and discarded, roughly chopped
1 bird’s-eye chilli, roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
4 anchovy fillets
2 tbsp vegetable oil
300ml coconut milk
2 tbsp palm or caster sugar
2 tbsp dark soy sauce, plus extra to taste
Juice of 2 limes, plus extra to taste

For the salad
1 large iceberg lettuce, halved and cut into thin wedges
2 cucumbers, thickly sliced diagonally
6 spring onions, shredded
1 bunch fresh coriander, leaves picked
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
Juice of 1 lime

Start with the chicken. Toast the coriander seeds in a dry pan until they smell fragrant. Tip into a spice grinder, food processor or mortar, add the garlic, ginger and lemongrass, and blitz or pound to a coarse paste. Add the soy sauce and sesame oil, rub this mixture into the chicken and leave in the fridge to marinade for at least an hour, preferably longer.

Heat the oven to 200C/390F/gas mark 6. Roast the chicken skin side up for 40-45 minutes, until it’s crisp and the juices run clear.

Meanwhile, make the sauce. Roast the peanuts on another shelf in the oven, shaking them occasionally, for 10-12 minutes, until golden. Once cool, blitz in a food processor for about a minute, until they resemble fine breadcrumbs, then tip into a bowl. Blitz the shallots, lemongrass, chilli, garlic and anchovies in the processor, also for about a minute, then add a few tablespoons of water and blitz to a smooth-ish paste.

Heat the oil in a wok on a medium flame, then stir-fry the paste for a minute, until it darkens. Add the coconut milk, sugar and ground nuts, cook for a minute or two, then stir in the soy and lime; loosen with water until it’s the consistency of thick double cream.

Once the chicken is cooked, leave it to rest for 10 minutes, then cut into large chunks and rip up the crisp skin. Toss both in the cooking juices.

Put the salad ingredients in a bowl, dress, season generously and toss. Serve with the shredded chicken and a bowl of warm satay sauce; I like some sticky rice alongside, too.

No-churn boozy cherry ice-cream with cherry financiers

I make financiers in muffin tins, but if you have a financier or madeleine mould, all the better. Serves six to eight (the ice-cream makes about 1.5 litres, so you should have leftovers).

800g cherries, halved and stoned
600ml double cream
200g condensed milk
50ml kirsch (or brandy)

For the financiers
25g butter, plus extra for greasing
25g flour
70g ground almonds
80g golden icing sugar, plus extra to dust
A few drops almond extract
3 egg whites
1 pinch sea salt
6 cherries, halved (stalks intact, ideally)

For the ice-cream, blitz the cherries to a smooth-ish puree. Whip the cream to soft peaks, then slowly whisk in first the condensed milk and then the kirsch and puree. Tip into a two-litre freezer container, cover and freeze for at least four hours.

Meanwhile, make the financiers. Melt the butter in a pan and cook until the fat solids go dark golden and smell nutty. Mix the flour, almonds and sugar, then add the egg whites. Stir in the brown butter and almond extract, season with salt and beat until smooth. Cover and rest in the fridge for 40 minutes.

Heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Butter a 12-hole muffin tin and refrigerate. Once chilled, spoon the batter into the moulds, press a cherry half into each one and bake for 10 minutes, until golden. Leave to rest for a few minutes in the tin, then turn out on to a wire rack to cool.

Take the ice-cream out of the freezer 15 minutes before you want to eat, to soften, and serve scoops with the financiers and perhaps a glass of cold kirsch (or other liqueur).

And for the rest of the week…

I find satay sauce irresistible, so always make double, to freeze or to have in the fridge; it keeps, covered, for at least 10 days, and is great for spooning into a quick soup (stock, coconut milk, curry paste and veg) or sauces, or as a dip for crudités. Double up the financiers, too, so you can have some in a tin when the urge takes you. Whenever I make proper custard, for instance, I freeze the excess egg whites and use them for these and other biscuits.