Duck breast with beans, grilled mushrooms and baked potato

 

After my first day back in the office I was utterly wrecked! It was a tough first day back, quite a shock to my poor system, so I decided to try to unwind with food shopping!

Duck for me is happy food!

This dish is extremely comforting. Pan fried duck breast, pink and tender. With grilled flat mushrooms which are juicy and full of flavour. Green beans and a simple baked potato. Delicious!!! 

 

Honey Roasted Chicken

 Honey roasted chicken is one of my favourite dishes for when I am feeling lazy. Not only is it very yummy it doesn't require much work. It is a great treat for guests - honey roast chicken wings are perfect for parties!

Rubbing a little oyster sauce and a couple of drops of sesame oil over the two chicken legs, then drizzling honey generously, the chicken legs are then left to cook in the oven for about 1hr.

The chicken is juicy and the skin crisp and tasty. 

Today's roast chicken was served with a stir fry of mixed vegetables: pak choy, baby sweet corn, buna shimeji mushrooms, onion, ginger and garlic.

I must mention I am feeling quite proud of myself for food blogging for the last 3 days! :) We have eaten well and my energy and happiness levels are pretty high! Tomorrow I will return to work at Supermassive and I fear my time for cooking will diminish again...

Bur persevere I will, to continue to eat well and keep my tummy happy!

Mediterranean Chicken

Rainbow trout

 

For tonight's dinner we had baked rainbow trout with stir fried vegetables and rice.

It will be only so long before Francesco will be craving pasta again but I will see how long I can get away with Chinese food for now. :)

Salmon with green beans and mushrooms

Over 10 years ago my friend Vincent cooked this for me. I really enjoyed it and still to this day I cook it. Vincent grilled the salmon with little pieces of garlic inserted in the fish. I tend to pan fry the Salmon. 

 After two weeks in Italy I was craving for some Chinese food. This is a very tasty dish and healthy too.

I am not used to writing out recipes so I will do my best to give an account of how I cook things. But the recipes are mostly for inspiration. I am not a follower of recipes or measurements.

The amount of onions, garlic, vegetables should be completely up to the cook. Feel free to add more or add less depending on how much you want to eat.

Ingredients:
Shallots 
Garlic
Mushrooms
Green beans
Fresh Salmon fillets (about 250g each)
Oyster sauce
Soy sauce
Rice

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Preparation:
Chop shallots and vegetables.Chop garlic finely.

Heat oil in pan. When pan is hot, add Salmon add cook for about 15 minutes, turning the fish over a couple of times.

At the same time heat oil in another pan and fry shallots. When slightly brown, add garlic, then beans then mushrooms to cook evenly.

To make the sauce, add a few dollops of oyster sauce and some soy sauce. Add water and some corn flour to thicken.

Season with salt and pepper. Garnish with chopped coriander.

Lunch in Giaveno

The Christmas season in Italy is all about spending time with friends and family and stuffing with them with food until they explode! We visited our friend Andrea in ? and had lunch with his family.

Christmas Dinner in Italy

This was my second Christmas in Italy. My little sister, Naomi, shared Christmas with us which was lovely. May be next year out parents will join also.

Again, Christmas crackers were brought over from London and pulled at the beginning of the meal. Our suitcases were unfortunately too full to pack the minced pies. But it was not as if there was a shortage of things to eat.

It's 2013! Happy New Year!!!

 2013 was welcomed in Italy with a huge feast. The last day of 2012 was spent food shopping, preparing and cooking. And 2013 started in the company with friends and tons of food!

Italian Christmas's are all about food and family. I thought there was too much food during Christmas but for our New Years Eve dinner there was even more!