I have done this lentils recipe quite a lot now, so here is a more detailed and illustrated version.
Heat a frying pan and add some chopped pancetta. There is no need to add any extra oil as there is sufficient fat in the pancetta.
Pan Roasted Chicken
One dish I seem to make much more on a regular basis is pan roasted chicken.
This is an easy and quicker dish than a simple roast chicken in many ways.
Start off with some chicken, either joint a whole chicken, or buy some thighs and legs (they have more flavour).
Place them in a pan with onions, pepper, pancetta, mushrooms, cubes of bread, herbs and a good dash of olive oil.
You can add other things as well such as sweet potato, parsnip, partially cooked potato, tomatoes, sausages and courgettes if you so wish.
Roast in a hot oven for about thirty to forty minutes.
The bread is a key as this will soak up the wonderful juices.
Pasta Salad
I do like a nice pasta salad, especially as it can be eaten instead of bread and adds some substance to a salad based meal.
The problem I have with some you can buy is that they are either too salty or too wet! So where possible I try and make my own.
This is a very simple recipe and you can adjust quantities to taste, how much you want, how much you have in the fridge.
Cook some pasta.
You can use any pasta, but have been using and prefer De Cecco’s Fusilli.
While the pasta is cooking, in a frying pan add some olive oil and then add onions and red pepper. After that has cooked for a while add some mushrooms.
Ensure that they are cooked through, add some freshly chopped parsley and turn off the heat.
Now you could add the pepper and mushrooms raw, but I prefer to have them cooked.
Once the pasta is cooked, drain and then to stop it cooking further and to cool it down rinse well with cold water.
Put the cooked pasta in a bowl, add a splash of olive oil for flavour and to stop it sticking. Note always add oil to cooked and drained pasta to stop it sticking. Adding it the boiling water does not do this as the oil floats on the top of the water.
To the cooked pasta add some mayonnaise and some creme frache.
Then add the cooked mixture.
Stir with a spoon until the rice and cooked mixture is evenly coated. As with a lot of salads though you could serve this straight away, it will improve if you leave it in the fridge for a few hours.
Excellent.
Pasta with Pork and Cream
Cooked a nice simple pasta dish tonight.
In a hot pan, cook off some pancetta, now add some diced (or sliced) pork and brown.
Now add some finely chopped red onion and add some Italian herbs.
In another hot pan, add a splash of olive oil then cook some sliced mushrooms, they will cook and taste much better than cooking them with the pork and onions.
Cook some fresh pasta in a pan of rolling boiling water.
To the mushrooms add some freshly chopped parsley.
Then add the mushrooms to the pork, add a tub of creme frache, some grated parmesan and freshly ground black pepper.
Drain the cooked pasta, and add the pork and cream mixture on top.
Add some more grated parmesan to taste.
Serve.
Chicken with honey and coriander
This was a Chinese meal with some additional extras.
The chicken was roasted in the oven with mushrooms, onions and spring onions (scallions) with honey and coriander.
I served the chicken with home made egg fried rice, basically take some cooked rice and fry with chinese five spice, spring onions and beaten egg.
I also cooked a selection of mushrooms including shitake and oyster mushrooms.
Chicken and Mushrooms with a Cream Sauce
A very simple dish which is probably either best served with rice or gnocchi.
In a large frying pan, fry off some pancetta bacon and onions. Once these are cooked, remove from the pan, turn the heat up and fry off the mushrooms.
Now add a tub of creme frache and some cooked chicken. Add the bacon and mushrooms. Freshly ground black pepper to season.
Serve.
Steak and Mushrooms
Last night I cooked a very nice (and quick) meal.
I took some sirloin steak, I actually prefer ribeye but sometimes you have to have what is available and not what you want or prefer.
I heated the frying pan without oil, the steaks were oiled though and then placed in the hot pan.
In a separate pan I fried some pancetta and onions, once they were nearly cooked, I remove them, turned the heat up and added the mushrooms so they fried rather than steamed.
Once the steaks were cooked I removed them from the pan, and put them on a warm plate to rest (really important to let steaks rest for a few minutes before serving they will be a lot more tender).
I then added the onions, pancetta and mushrooms to the steak pan and a couple of large spoonfuls of creme frache.
Then in a pan of rolling boiling water I put some gnocchi.
In two minutes the sauce was ready, the gnocchi was ready, so serve.
Delicious.
Baked Mushrooms
This is an excellent choice as a vegetarian main course, or as an accompaniment.
Take some portobello mushrooms (these are the big flat ones) remove the stalk. Add some olive oil and butter. Cover the mushrooms with breadcrumbs, fresh herbs and parmesan. You could if you wanted add garlic as well.
Bake in the oven for about twenty minutes until the topping is golden brown.
Serve.
Pasta with Chicken and Mushrooms
In a frying pan cook off some pancetta bacon, remove from the pan. Cook the chicken, I usually use chicken thigh (bonless and skinless) cut into a size which is about the same as the pasta I am using. Cook the chicken over a relatively high heat. Remove the chicken and then add the onions, cook until softened. Now cook the mushrooms.
Whilst this chicken and mushrooms are cooking cook the pasta. I used fusilli (pasta twirls) and cooked until al dente.
Once the mushrooms are cooked, add back the pancetta and chicken, add some creme frache.
Mix the chicken mixture with the cooked pasta and a good handful of freshly grated parmesan and some freshly ground black pepper.
Serve.
Gnocchi with chicken and mushrooms
This is a very quick meal to cook and shouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes, probably even less.
Take some chicken and cut into pieces the same size as gnocchi. You can use chicken breast, personally I use chicken thigh partly because it is cheaper, more so because it has a much better flavour.
In a large hot frying pan, add a splash of olive oil, then add the chicken.
In another pan add some pancetta. You can use the cubed pancetta, though when I cooked this I used the sliced pancetta cut into small strips.
Ensure that the chicken is cooking and remove the cooked pancetta from the other pan to the chicken. Add some freshly chopped parsley and some freshly ground black pepper.
Keep the heat up in the pancetta pan and pan fry the mushrooms in the fat from the pancetta (you may need to add a little olive oil).
In a pan of rolling boiling water add the gnocchi. Cook for two minutes.
Add the cooked mushrooms to the chicken and mushrooms and then add a couple of spoonfuls of creme frache.
Drain the cooked gnocchi, spoon over the chicken, mushroom and creme frache mixture, toss lightly.
Spoon onto plates, add freshly grated parmesan and ground black pepper to taste.