This is the first post in what I expect will become a semi-regular series on this blog. I’ve always enjoyed cooking, but I never thought to blog about it because I consider the food I cook to be very simple and not all that interesting. But, people keep asking me how I cook things, so I figured I may as well share my ‘secrets’ here. If you’re wondering what kind of food you’ll find here, I think I could best describe it as simple and wholesome. I hate processed foods, so I try to cook with as many fresh ingredients as possible. As for the style – it’s very eclectic. I neither like bland food nor spicy food, so I tend to cook things that have a lot of flavour, but aren’t spicy – a little tangy maybe, but never spicy.

I promise I’ll get to the first recipe in a moment, but before I do I want to share my ethos on cooking. For me it’s all about sharing, what’s the fun in cooking a nice meal if you can’t share it? And what’s the fun in sharing food if you don’t also share ideas and methods with people? I’m always changing how I cook things, and I’m always learning from people. I get ideas and I edit them to make them my own. The best thing that could come out of this series of posts for me is that I inspire people to customise and change my recipes and to share their thoughts and modifications with the community here.

OK – so, lets get cooking! For my first post I’ve chosen to describe how I pan-fry chicken. I have a love-hate relationship with chicken, on the one hand, it has very little flavour, on the other, it’s a wonderful flavour sponge, so you can make it taste like anything! This first and very simple recipe is entirely of my own making. I used to be very lazy and just use pre-made chicken seasoning, but when my partner was diagnosed with coeliac disease I had to stop doing that because every brand available here contains flower.

This works on any part of the chicken, but I particularly like using chicken breasts for this. Start by cutting the breasts into strips, and laying them out on a flat surface. Sprinkle some salt over them, then grind some black pepper over them, then add a generous sprinkling of paprika, then a generous coating of Herbs de Province, and then optionally some sage, some marjoram or some of each. Don’t be shy with the herbs and spices – when you’re done the top of the strips of chicken breast should be totally coated, like shown in the image below:

Heat up a pan to a medium heat and add some oil, I like to use half vegetable oil and half olive oil. How much you use depends on how good the Tefal in your pan is, and how health-conscious you are 🙂 Once the pan and the oil are heated add the strips with the side with all the herbs down.

Then add the same herbs to the back of the strips which will be facing up – don’t be afraid to get some on the pan an in the oil, that’ll all get added to the flavour.

Turn frequently and cook till the outside is nice and dark and the inside is cooked. With the paprika you’ll get what looks like a burned colour quite quickly, but don’t worry about that. If the chicken starts to stick to the pan and you don’t want to add more oil, you can add a small amount of water to the bottom of the pan. It’ll evaporate off quickly, but you can do it as often as needed.

I like to cook mine quite hard, so I end up with something that looks like this:

I like to serve this with mashed potatoes and vegetables of some sort, but it also works really well in a stirfry, and as strange as it sounds, it works really well with mashed potatoes and tinned peaches (in juice not in syrup).