So here is the recipe for my main course during the romantic dinner I mentioned some time ago. I took my inspiration for pan frying the duck breast from the Crazy Mother Cooker and improvised a lot as I went.

Step 1: preparing your potatoes. I found in Coop some super cute Charlotte baby potatoes that only needed to be washed well, seasoned with salt, pepper and olive oil and popped in the oven for about half an hour. If you want to, you can add some duck fat to the whole mix, which gives amazing flavour, but I forgot I had some on hand.

Step 2: the duck breast. Since this recipe serves 2, you will only need one decent sized duck breast (300-400 grams I think). It is best to take out the meat from the refrigerator 15-20 minutes before cooking it (around the time you pop your potatoes in the oven) so that it gets to room temperature.

Step 3: pan frying. Score the skin on the duck breast in a criss-cross manner, this will help render the fat. Try not to score the meat underneath (I did in one or two places, it’s not such a big deal, but try to avoid that as it may dry your meat). Massage the meat with salt and pepper. Heat up a non stick frying pan and do not add any kind of oil to it. You’ll see, the duck has plenty of its own. Put the breast skin side down in the heated pan, cover with a lid and let it fry for about 7 minutes. Please, open the window, there will be some smoke involved. After 7 minutes or so, uncover the pan and wonder where all that fat came from .I know, it still amazes me too. Flip the breast and cook for a further 4-6 minutes (depending on how pink you want it to be). Take the breast out and put it in a tupperware dish, or any dish covered with tin foil. Let rest for about 10 minutes. Try not to skip this step, even if you’re really hungry, because it will make the meat really melt-in-the-mouth.

Step 4: plate up. Slice your breast diagonally, obtaining nice little even slices. Set it on two plates. Add the potatoes to the plate. Serve with Spicy Cherry Jam you find in the Fine Food Section of your Coop or blueberry jam, rose jam, cranberry jam, fig jam…well duck marries well with most types of jam anyway so you’re good. The spicy one I had from Coop has an extra kick from some kirsch and spices, but I am sure It will be amazing without it too.

And voilà, not difficult to make, festive and tasty.  Bon appetit!

Well, since school here is an absolute nightmare, with more work that throughout the 3 bachelor years (or so it seems to me) I haven’t really had the time to cook very complex recipes. Usually when I arrive home I am already starving and my better half is staring into my eyes like a hungry (yet powerful) puppy. So I open the fridge, turn on the oven and try to make the fastest, most delicious lunch ever…again and again.

So here I was one of these days, hungry and tired and busy, trying to make a decent meal while juggling with I-don’t-even-know-how-many case studies and readings. I turned the oven on…and came up with my own adaptation of Garfield’s parmesan chicken. Yes, I do own Garfield’s cookbook, it’s really nice, you can check it out in my widget that will take you to amazon.co.uk.

Anyways, since I didn’t have breadcrumbs, I skipped that part of the recipe, and here is what I did instead:

I took two chicken breasts, cut them in half and let them sit in barbecue sauce +olive oil+herbs for a little while. I took out a bit of bacon from the fridge, as well as some parmesan cheese and mozzarella. I peeled some potatoes, cut them into wedges and put them in a bowl. I added olive oil, herbs, paprika, salt and pepper and tossed the bowl to coat the potatoes evenly.

I took half of the chicken breast, cut it into strips and rolled them in bacon. I heated the oven at about 200 degrees C and took out a pan. I put the potatoes in it, the chicken breast with bacon and the regular one. Popped them in the oven for about 25-30 minutes until the potatoes were tender.

Meanwhile, I cut some nice slices of mozzarella and parmesan cheese. When the food was nearly ready, I put them on top of the chicken and let them in the oven for another 10 minutes, until the cheese was nice and melted.

All I can say…yum!