Everyday Dishes of 2015

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Yesterday, I reminisce through all my photos of 2015 - both food related and others - I saw at least half a dozen photos of my everyday cooking that really looked quite good. They were dishes   prepared after a hard day at work and often too tired to tell anyone about them. Yet I have the good intuition to grab my phone to shoot a photograph or two to save for a rainy day. Well, today is that rainy day. Here are some dishes I made in 2015 that I am really quite proud of.

Chicken Marsala with Cherry tomatoes and asparagus




My recipe was inspired by Gordon Ramsay's Chicken Marsala (here's a video). Instead of chicory, I used cherry tomatoes and asparagus. The chicken breast is juicy on the inside and almost crunchy on the outside.

Pan Seared Scallops with Crunchy Apple Salad

There's a wonderful little gem of a grocery store near work called Garden Foods that sells fantastic quality scallops. Whenever scallops are on sale, which is often, that means scallop night at our household. The combination in this dish is clever. The apple match-sticks has that freshness that cuts through meatiness of the scallop. For me, the tricky part is to not only put a nice bark on the scallop but make sure it is thoroughly cooked without going over.

Lemon Roasted Chicken

The work of a roast chicken is mostly done by your oven since the prep work is quite minimal. I sometime do a nice stuffing with churizo sausages and beans. It is spectacular.

 BBQ Chicken with Fresh Fruit Salad

In the summer, I like to grill as much as I can (guess I can grill in the winter as well). This BBQ chicken is inspired by the Portuguese, who flatten out the chicken so it grills evenly.

Chicken Curry


I love curry. The strong fragrant flavor combination really wakes up your palette. This is my version of chicken curry based on Jaime Oliver's recipe. It is not extremely hot but very flavorful. My favorite ingredient is the cilantro as it gives balance and ensures a fresh tasting curry.


BBQ Sausages with Kale


This was a Friday night in August when I was home alone. I fired up the grill and threw on a few mildly hot Italian sausages and some veggies. With a cold glass of amber beer, I dug into the sausages. Man, that was a little slice of heaven.

 Tomatoes and Luncheon Meat

Last but not least, this is a humble dish my grandparents used to make for me. It's not out of any cookbook but it brings back so much memories. It's basically tomatoes and luncheon meat (mystery meat) cooked together with some garlic slices and a little scallion for freshness. It goes, of course, with white rice. Really good combination.

There you have it folks. Feel free to suggest any exciting yet yummy and easy to make recipes for me to try out in 2016.

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