lunch – Page 32 – Myfrenchkitchen

I am always starving on a Saturday afternoon. But I don’t have the desire to take on cooking a meal. And I don’t want bread and jam. And I don’t want MacDonald’s or the likes. And I don’t want loads of dishes and cleaning up to do. I want no-fuss. I want something that is quick and easy and light, because we play tennis afterwards, but it still needs to be filling.

A protein salad like this one works for me. With a banana in the tennis bag.

Make a salad from the following ingredients:

Mixed salad leaves, a huge bowl.
mixed herbs of your choice
Bocconcini cheese
a can of “Catalan tuna” (tuna in a tomato sauce)
a small can of sweetcorn(or frozen)
sun dried tomatoes
cucumber sticks
dry roasted almonds
dried cranberries
A vinaigrette made of: sun dried tomato paste, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, sherry vinegar, lemon juice, salt and pepper, small finely chopped shallot.

serves 2

…moulin rouge…

With our weather being somewhat cooler and the rain pouring down constantly, our bones are in need of some warmer nourishment. The grey skies whispered lemon chicken. So we had the old classic, lemon chicken with herbs. An ever popular meal, so easily done in the oven and sliced at the table, which leaves you with ample time to indulge in that book you just glance at every time you speed past it.

Oven baked lemon chicken with herbs

Do I need to give the recipe?

Take a chicken, clean it. Flee into your garden and cut herbs to heart’s delight…tarragon is a must. Lemon cut into chunks is a must. As is some butter, salt and pepper and two or three shallots. Then just stuff the chicken with all ingredients, rub with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Bake in a 180 deg. C oven for about an hour or until you have clear juices running when piercing the chicken into the thick flesh of the thigh next to the bone, normally the part which takes the longest to cook. Turn the chicken over and drizzle often with the pan juices.
In the meantime prepare some vegetables. I used green asparagus, of which I snapped the ends off and some cherry tomatoes. Clean and dry them.
When the chicken is done, remove from the pan and cover with foil on a serving platter. Skim off the excess fat from the pan.
Arrange the asparagus in the pan and roast at 200 deg. c until nicely caramelized. Add the tomatoes 10 minutes before the asparagus is done and roast until the tomatoes start shrinking.
Serve on the platter alongside the chicken, drizzle with the pan juices and serve the rest of the sauce on the side.

*for more about herbs and it’s uses, see “In my herb garden”