Crispy parmesan panko chicken with tomato and mascarpone beans and garlic butter drizzle

This might just be the best thing I've cooked all year

Cooking is not always about the end result, there is so much joy to be found in the process. The gently bubbling risotto, the bacon sizzling in the pan, the euphony of sounds. It’s soothing. A Sunday lunch for example requires you to concentrate, to plan what goes in the oven when and what needs to be done next. There isn’t space to think about your tax return or that email you’ve been putting off for weeks. You simply don’t have space to think about that time you said “love you, bye” to Brian from accounts and wanted to die of embarrassment. No. The kitchen needs your full attention. Chop Chop. Sizzle Sizzle. The pans are the orchestra and you are the conductor.

The gentle hum of the kitchen can be so relaxing. It’s an escape. It’s mindfulness in motion. Crescendoing into the moment you plate up. When the music stops and you’re on to the next act.

All very romantic. It’s therapy in motion.

But.

Do I feel like that during the week?

No. No I do not.

Or for the most part I don’t. On a weeknight after a long day I mainly want to sit down. Oh and course I want to eat.

Of course the above can still apply to a 30 minute meal like this. Cooking supper is a time to decompress, certainly it’s a means to an end but a little bit of chopping here, some stirring there can be very therapeutic even when you’re in a hurry. And there there is so much satisfaction to be found in turning a few humble ingredients into something delicious. It’s just on a weeknight cooking for me it is more about the end result.

Which brings me on to today’s recipe which is something I cook a lot. And OH MY GOODNESS, it’s so good. It’s kind of a cheat’s chicken Kiev. I love chicken Kiev but they are a bit of a faff to put together and heaven forbid you bog it and the garlic butter oozes out before you have a chance to plate it up. This way of doing the chicken means you get the perfect crunch to chicken to garlic butter ratio and it’s so good. We also flatten the chicken so that it cooks very quickly - just sizzled in the pan for a few minutes each side. It couldn’t be simpler. I’ve also added some grated parmesan to the panko breadcrumbs, because why not? And it’s so incredibly good!

And I’ve got little tricks to make sure you’ve got flavour in every bite - like I love grating a little garlic into the egg so when you coat the chicken in the egg it’s got a whole other layer of flavour. And you pretty much can’t go wrong. Which is comforting too. Serve it with these beans (I urge you) or with tomato pasta, in a sandwich, with mashed potato, Caesar salad or with pretty much anything you like. It’s delicious.

I’ve always loved pasta and growing up as a treat my mum would buy a tub of the Marks and Spencer’s tomato and mascarpone sauce which was the best of the best. Strange to think now that that was such a treat, but it really was. I think they might have changed the recipe as I had it recently and it didn’t quite taste the same, or maybe I’ve changed…quite likely after 30 years. Anyway it’s an incredibly good combination and so easy to make at home. I’ve added a little finely chopped chilli to give it just a small kick to counterbalance the creaminess and it’s so good. So this sauce is gorgeous with pasta but I love it with cannellini beans. I love pasta, that goes without saying, but creamy beans are also very good.

I think of all the beans cannellini beans are my favourite. Butter beans are great but they do vary a lot depending on what kind of you buy and they can, with a bad batch taste a little bit furry. You know what I mean? Well, that is never the case with a cannellini bean. They are delicious and dependable. And I love tinned beans and I want to tell you why. My choice is partially time-sensitive but also based on experience the difference in flavour to ones lovingly simmered, is really undetectable. I think there are some cooks who might be horrified at my use of tinned beans. Perhaps they think I should be setting an example and soaking the beans overnight before gently simmering them until soft. And whilst I agree that can be lovely and there are some dishes that warrant it. I just don’t possess that inclination when I’m busy and time is of the essence. I am not so black and white when it comes to cooking. I take shortcuts but I enjoy the long way round as well.

The purpose of this newsletter is to make your life easier. I think you might have stopped reading some time ago if I were to tell you to remember to soak your beans the night before. Get up early and simmer them for a few hours before you go to work. All so you have supper on the table before midnight. It’s not realistic for the way most of us live now. And using tinned beans, or taking shortcuts to make our lives easier does not make us any less passionate about food. We want to eat delicious food, we want it to be exciting and comforting, or whatever we need it to be. But we don’t want to spend hours making it every evening. So some compromises are worth making and it’s my job to suss out what’s worth your time and what’s not.

Cook smarter not harder (as the saying definitely doesn’t go but perhaps it should)