Negroni

Not sure about you, but right now, one -or several- of these seems like a good, a really good idea.
Sure it is 5 o'clocl somewhere, right?
Take care, stay safe and enjoy!


Classic Negroni 

Ingredients
1 oz. London dry gin
1 oz. Campari
1 oz. vermouth rosso

Directions

Add the ingredients together in a cocktail shaker.
Shake well with cracked ice.
Strain into a glass over cubed ice.
Garnish with a twist of orange peel.

Green vegetable soup - Broccoli & pea winter warmer

January, green, vegetables. Quite obvious,right? May be, but I am not planning to convince anyone about detoxing or anything of the like. I enjoy my vegetables in January as in July, and in a soup they are just perfect. 

You can double quantities here and have a couple of batches for freezing. Just remember to bring the soup again to boil again once defrosted and you will be ready to go.
No detox or anything.
Just real vegetable comfort in a bowl for this grey first weekend of  January.

Green vegetable soup

1 tbsp extravirgin olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed

400 g broccoli chopped into small florets

300 g frozen peas

200 g potatoes peeled and grossly diced

1 litre stock (fine if you dissolve 2 stock cubes -beef, vegetable or chicken-into 1 litre of boiling water)

A small bunch of herbs, chopped (either basil, dill, parsley -anything you have)

1 lemon, zested and juiced

Natural unsweetened yogurt and black or pink pepper to serve

Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion and sauté until soft and transparent (6-10 mins). Add the crushed garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the broccoli, peas and potatoes, pour in the stock and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook for 25 minutes. Once all vegetables are tender, stir through the herbs and juice and blitz the soup with a stick blender until completely smooth. Serve with a swirl of yogurt and some fresh ground pepper.

Lemon and herbs roast chicken

This is what a real, lemon and herbs, juicy, tasty roast chicken looks like.

Simple as it is, I coud not help but taking some photos of this beauty as it went out from the oven and share them here. I had not planned a blog post at all. I was just in the middle of a lazy Sunday roast at home, but could not stop myself from taking the camera and improvise a shooting before we ate it with a large, green leafy salad.

Real food is made of this. Simple, unexpected pleasures popping up from the ordinary. The sharp citric juice notes of a couple of lemons and the delicate aroma of rosemary and thyme did wonders for the otherwise bland meat of a whole chicken.

 

I know, you can hardly call this a recipe. But it was so, so good I just wanted to have it here. And share the joy of enjoying this little wonder in the middle of a cold winter day. Easy, honest homemade food full of flavour with just a few ingredients. How could anyone resist this?

Lemon and herbs roast chicken
Ingredients (4-5 people)
1 whole chicken (1.5 kg)
2 medium lemons
2-3  sprigs rosemary
1 sprig thyme
Olive Oil
Salt



Preheat oven at 190º/170º Fan
Put a teaspoon of oil in a roasting pan and spread it to coat the pan. Put the chick on top of it, with the breast side touching the base of the pan. Add some olive oil on top of the chicken (a couple of tablespoons), salt, and the sprigs of rosemary and thyme and put in the oven for 45 minutes.
Take the pan out of the oven, turn the chicken arround so that the breast are now upwards, coat with the juices from the pan, and add the juice of 1 lemon. Cut the other lemon in quarters lenghtwise and add to the pan. I usually put one in the cavity, but this is optional. Add a bit of salt, and put again into the oven for another 45 minutes. Check from time to time and in case the chicken is getting too brown, cover with foil.
Once cooked, remove from the oven and leave to rest for 10 minutes before carving and serving with a green salad.

(For cooking time, add 20 minutes per 500 grams, plus 20 more minutes)