Thursday, April 02, 2009

foodie april: part 1 ~ chicken & lemon pasta

As you may have picked up, I'm quite into eating. And cooking. And baking.

One of my favourite ad's recently had a little girl asking her Granny what did they do in olden times without mod cons etc, the Granny responds that they 'cooked and cooked and cooked'. 'But Granny,' says the little girl, 'what did you do for fun?'. Granny replies: 'We baked.'

I totally get that.

But I've started becoming more discerning about what I eat, and cook. Ok, ok, this doesn't seem discerning at all, but if you're going to eat trash you got to do that with flair too see?

And, less voluntarily, I've started becoming more discerning about what it costs. Goddamn stuff is expensive these days!

And also, as much as I enjoy cooking, I do rather hate deciding what to cook, especially on week nights. So I hereby decree that April is all about quick, easy, cheap and delicious recipes. Yup, I'm going to become a foodie blog for a while (in between the usual shit). And I'm totally going to count successful and especially yummy meals as part of my 100 things. When I remember to photograph them. And/or photograph the picture from the recipe. 'Cos obviously mine looked exactly like this ...

Chicken & Lemon Pasta

(adapted from Nigella, stolen from a magazine, but I don't really care 'cos that's another thing about me and my wildly exciting food blog - I don't credit recipes unless I want to. So there.)

1 x packet any kind of pasta you like

1 x large onion, sliced however you like it

2 x garlic cloves, crushed as above

Peel of 1 lemon, sliced into thin strips or ... however you like it

1 x Rotisserie or deli roasted chicken (or some roasted chicken pieces), skinned and shredded

Quarter cup lemon juice

1 and a half cups chicken stock (or vegetable I guess)

Quarter cup roughly chopped Italian flat-leaf parsley and quarter cup chopped basil or rocket (never let it be said I'm a taste dictator)

Salt & pepper

Heat some olive oil, saute onion 'til soft. Add garlic & lemon peel and cook for 2 mins. Add shredded chicken, lemon juice & stock and heat through - about 5 mins.

Add herbs, salt and pepper and simmer.

Toss through cooked pasta and eat immediately with some more of the herbs scattered on top and freshly shaved Parmesan. 

De Lish Us. Trust me.

And no. 18.

1 comment:

julochka said...

i like foodie april and i love nigella (whether you credit her or not).

i think i can turn my risotto into this (sans pasta of course) and i've got half a chicken in the oven too...bring on the lemons.