When you've been travelling, and eating exotic things, sometimes it's good to sit down to a simple supper made with familiar foods, writes DOMINI KEMP

ONE OF MY friends often finds herself in China, because of her job. The first time she went to Beijing, I was dying to hear about the food and expected to be convincingly assured that Chinese food in China is much better than “western” Chinese food. However, much to my disappointment, she is just not that into the regional delicacies that she has been served there.

Lots of the dishes contain ingredients that many of us would be a bit squeamish about, including fish tripe, duck tongues, pig lungs, pig brain and alligator. As a result, she reckons that a trip to Beijing is great for weight loss as dinners filled with ducks’ tongues aren’t her favourite. So she eats one bar of chocolate per day from the mini-bar. I’m still hoping that one day she’ll be converted to the joys of real Chinese cuisine, as I’m sure the food is amazing, and it’s a place I long to travel to.

One night, she was told there was to be a cheese course. Delighted at the thought of being able to eat something other than jellied organs, she waited with bated breath for the cheese. What came out was a platter of Laughing Cow cheese, with half of the foil wrapper tastefully and thoughtfully removed. Needless to say, she devoured them, grateful for the processed cheese that made her feel very home-sick.

The dishes below are what I made for her when she returned home recently. It was deliciously plain and simple, but I cooked it two different ways – the posh and fancy versus healthier and lazy. The posher one involves using chicken supremes with the skin on, then browning them to get a nice colour before baking with the rest of the ingredients. I’m not crazy about eating chicken skin, because of its particularly evil cholesterol levels, so I preferred eating the healthier version, using skinless chicken breasts, bundled together in a roasting tin (no browning of the chicken required) and baked till cooked. This version is naturally drier and less tasty than the chicken supreme which has a layer of evil (but delicious) skin to keep it moist and protected during baking.

Anyway, it’s your call: if you’re cooking mid-week, do it the healthy way, and if it’s a special treat (such as welcoming home your starving friend), then go for the supreme version. Either way, the quinoa salad makes a great accompaniment and is very good for you.

Caroline’s chicken with olives and almonds

Serves four

Inspired by a Karen Martini recipe

4 chicken supremes or skinless breasts

3 parsnips, peeled and chopped

100g whole almonds, roughly chopped

100g pitted green olives

Big bunch of flat-leaf parsley

100ml olive oil

Salt and black pepper

6 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped

1 lemon, zest and juice

1 red onion, peeled and sliced

2 tbsp Dijon mustard

125ml water

125ml white wine

Preheat an oven to 180 degrees/gas mark four. If you are using the chicken supremes, heat up a splash of olive oil and a knob of butter and fry the chicken supremes, skin side down, till you get great colour on the skin. Season them really well. Transfer them to the roasting tin and then brown the parsnips, again in some butter and a little olive oil. If they’re taking too long to colour, add a pinch of sugar. Season well and add to the chicken. Add in the other ingredients and toss them around so the chicken is lying on top of and slightly coated by the olive, onion and nut mixture. Mix the Dijon mustard with the water and wine and pour over the chicken. Bake for 45 minutes or so, until the chicken is fully cooked. Baste halfway through cooking.

If you’re making this with skinless breasts, you don’t need to brown the chicken or the parsnips. Mix all the ingredients together except the mustard, water and wine, and feel free to leave it in a roasting tin in your fridge until you are ready to cook. Pour on the Dijon/water/wine mixture at the last minute and bake for about 35 minutes, or until the chicken is fully cooked. Again, it’s good to baste this halfway through cooking and you can cover it with foil if you feel it’s drying out too much. Serve with the quinoa salad.

Curried quinoa salad

Serves six

500g quinoa

500ml water

2-3 tsp curry powder

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp Marigold stock powder, or water

Handful of raisins

Bunch of spring onions

Bunch of coriander, roughly chopped

Splash olive oil

Give the quinoa a quick rinse then put it in a saucepan (for which you have a lid) and bring up to the boil. Simmer gently along with all the other ingredients (except the spring onions, coriander and olive oil) until all the water seems to have been absorbed, then take off the heat, keep the lid on and let it steam for another 10 minutes. The grains should look like they’ve “popped” or burst. Give them occasional stirs and let them steam till they’re soft, but still with some bite.

Allow the grains to cool down a bit (I like this best when it’s warm), then mix with the herbs, spring onions and olive oil. Season with lemon juice, if you like, and some salt if you’ve cooked it in water. This keeps for several days in the fridge. dkemp@irishtimes.com

See also www.itsa.ie

DOMINI RECOMMENDS: The Sussex, above famous pub O’Brien’s on Sussex Road, in Dublin 6, next door to the Leeson Lounge. Tuck into the mushrooms on toast and smokies, skull a pint of Guinness and enjoy tasty, Irish grub