Japanese curry is both easy and a crowd pleaser. I saute whatever veggies I have on hand and just add curry mix and water to it (S&B medium spice is my go to brand). Serve with flatbread or rice. It’s very forgiving and customizable to personal taste.

Gnocchi with green asparagus in butter and lemon juice and zest. Optional sage in butter. Finish with parmesan. Also easy to veganize.

Pho. Vietnamese chicken noodle soup. It’s my favourite meal in the world. Healthy, cheap and incredibly easy to make.

Buy pho powder/ tablets. Put in water.

Add onions, chillis and a bit of lime.

Cook rice noodles.

You are done. It also freezes well. For all you lazy bastards out there. Try it once! You will add it to your weekly shopping list.

Gyoza and chicken onigiri, neatly and cutely arranged of course

Sushi/maki. Just need a good recipe for cook the rice

Pasta aglio, olio, peperoncino.
Literally “pasta with garlic, oil and chili peppers”: easy to learn, hard to perfectionate.

Beef gyudon / beef bowl

• thinly sliced shortplate
• onion
• garlic
• japanese soy sauce
• mirin
• sesame oil
• water
• salt & pepper

Steak. Medium. Mashed potatoes. Onion and garlic in the oven. Chopped sour salty salad.

Simple to make. All parts are ready at the same time if you prepare it in the right order.

Chicken Tikka with a Carrot Biryani. You marinade the chicken overnight for all the flavour and then pan sear it for a few minutes and oven in a covered dish for 25. The biryani is basically just garlic, chilli, onion and grated carrot with some turmeric and garam massala, with rice dumped in. Frozen peas and fresh coriander optional.

Both take about 30 mins cook time, prep can all be done beforehand, always turns out nicely and gets compliments.

A combination of these two recipes with some tweaks. https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/carrot-biriyani https://butteroverbae.com/chicken-tikka-recipe/

Risotto. I make one with panceta and mushrooms that can’t be easier to make. And the principle is to just stir for 20’ or so.

Ingredients (serves for 2)

• Risotto type rice (Arborio, Carnerolli or similar) 150 gr
• Chicken broth (homemade, if store bought then liquid, never in cubes) 1 lt
• Onion 1 medium
• Panceta 200 gr
• Mushrooms (fresh) 200 gr
• Olive oil
• White wine
• Parmesan cheese (grated or in very small chunks) 50gr
• Butter 20 gr

Prep

1. In a pot, put the broth to heat. It’s not required for it to boil just to be hot.
2. Chop the onion in very small cubes, as small as the rice grain if possible (so when you are eating it, you don’t feel it)
3. Chop the panceta in cubes (no bigger than your thumb)
4. In a big pot, at mid heat, put the panceta to brown and defat
5. Once the panceta is brown and you have a good fat source at the bottom, remove and reserve the panceta
6. Put the onion in the pot and use the same fat from the panceta to sauté it. If you need more, you can use olive oil.
7. Once the onion is almost translucent, put the rice and pearl the rice. From now on, you should always be mixing the rice with a big wooden spoon or similar. Never stop stirring. This will make the rice to let all the starch go, which will make your risotto creamy.
8. Once the rice is pearled, pour some wine to deglase and keep stirring.
9. Once the wine has evaporated and you hear the crackling, pour some broth until the rice is submerged, keep stirring.
10. Once your broth is evaporated and you start hearing the crackling again, put the panceta, the mushrooms and pour some more broth. Keep stirring.
11. When you see that you are low on broth and hear that the rice is crackling, check on the rice for the cooking point. It should be al dente, meaning that you should be able to bite it and feel some resistance, but it should be very edible. If you still feel it too hard, pour more broth and keep stirring.
12. When your rice is done, take the pot away from the fire, and put the parmesan cheese with the butter. Stir and mix until it’s uniform and creamy.
13. Serve hot in small bowls or similar plates
14. Decorate with olive oil, fresh grinded pepper and parsley.

Big veggie omelet.

Cut up 2 tomatoes, 1 bell pepper, several stalks of asparagus, and half an onion into 1-inch cubes. Place in a deep frying pan, add salt & pepper, a little bit of oil, some butter, and cook them on stove top on low heat for ~5 min until all the veggies are soft and turning dark (especially asparagus.)

While the veggies are cooking, take a bowl, add 7 or 8 eggs, more salt and pepper, 1/4 cup of milk, 1 tbsp of whipped cream (optional), 1 tsp crushed garlic. Add seasoning like dried oregano and parsley, and whisk everything together.

Add the egg mix to the pan, mix well with veggies, raise the heat to high, don’t mix it any more. Cook until the mix begins to rise, and the eggs on the to start bubbling. Then cover with a thin layer of shredded cheese on top.

Turn on the oven to the “broil” setting. When the cheese begins to melt, place the pan inside the oven on the middle rack. Broil for ~5 min, until the cheese starts turning light-brown. Turn the oven off, take the pan out, serve immediately.

Pasta with a from scratch tomato sauce. Use candy tomatoes, slice in half. Heat in pan at medium high heat.

While heating, add sweet red wine until slightly covering bottom of pan. Add generous oregano, a few pinches of salt, generous black ground pepper, 1 spoonful of pre-minced garlic, 1table spoon of butter.

Use a spatula or potato masher to mash the tomatoes and stir everything together. Use a little milk to thicken the sauce if you want.

While that’s going, cook pasta as normal, once ready, strain and dump pasta into the heated pan with sauce. Mix together well and add a few spoons of parmisian cheese if you would like. Otherwise, sprinkle with a little more oregano and serve in a bowl or plate.

If you wanna be fancy, place a single leaf of basil on the top of the pasta lol.

Pork chops in garlic-butter sauce with mushrooms. I usually serve them with mashed potatoes and steamed fresh green beans. If you don’t do pork, you can do the exact same thing with chicken breasts.

3-4 thick-cut pork chops, preferably bone-in

1 cup mushrooms, cleaned and sliced

4 tablespoons butter

2-4 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon fresh oregano, OR 1 teaspoon dried

1 tablespoon fresh thyme, OR 1 teaspoon dried

1/2 cup flour

3/4 cup milk

2 cups chicken broth

Salt and pepper to taste

Pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. In a large oven-proof skillet, combine the butter, garlic, herbs, and mushrooms over medium-high heat.

3. When the butter has melted, push everything to the sides and add the pork chops. Sear until golden on both sides.

4. Spread the mushrooms evenly over everything, and put skillet in the oven. Bake for around 35 minutes, or until the pork chops are at 150-160 F.

5. Remove from oven and set the pork chops aside to rest. Tent foil over them to keep them warm. You can remove the mushrooms too if you want, but don’t take away too much of the fat in the pan. You need whatever is in there for the gravy.

6. Put the skillet over low heat and whisk the flour into the fat in the pan. No lumps! Cook for 1-2 minutes to cook the flour and keep whisking. Whisk in the milk and chicken broth and cook until gravy is thick. Keep whisking the entire time. Flavor with salt and pepper to taste. If you want, you can add a pinch (1/8 teaspoon-ish) of red pepper flakes. It balances out the richness of the butter. You can also just put hot sauce on table, if you have spice-averse guests.

Spaghetti with Salmon.

Panna cotta is so easy to do

#food/dessert

[!summary] 👪 Serves: 6 people Difficulty: Average Time: 20 Minutes Additional Info: No Oven

Necessary Ingredients

• Cream 50 cl
• [ ] Powdered sugar 75 gr
• [ ] Baileys 45 ml
• [ ] 2 sheets Gelatine

Instructions

1. Soak the two gelatine sheets in cold water for at least 10 minutes.
2. In a saucepan, heat the liquid cream with the sugar and stir until the sugar has completely melted (without boiling the cream).
3. Turn off the heat
4. Add the Baileys liqueur and stir.
5. Add the gelatine, squeezing out as much water as possible, and stir until smooth.
6. Pour into container

Bonus information

Never put gelatine in a saucepan on the heat. For more flavour you can put a little Baileys on top