Spaghetti alla Puttanesca

This southern Italian sauce (roughly translated as tart's pasta) is one of my favourites. First and foremost it's big on flavour, spicy and salty. It can also be made from ingredients I usually have hanging about. Perfect.

Ingredients

Spaghetti
1 red onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, sliced
3 anchovy fillets, chopped
2 small red chillies, chopped
1 400g can chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons capers, chopped
2 tablespoons black olives (11)
parsley

Fry the chopped onion in olive oil with a little salt. After about 5 mins add sliced garlic and cook on a low heat for 3-5 minutes.

              Add chopped anchovies and chillies, cook for 3-5 minutes. 

Chopped tomatoes go in, with 1 tbsp red wine vinegar. Bring to boil then simmer.

 Reduce sauce a bit, then add olives and capers.  If necessary loosen the sauce with a bit of the cooking water from the pasta.  At this point I fish out the large slices of garlic (well the ones I can see).

Drain the pasta when it's still a bit undercooked, then stir into the sauce. The ingredients are quite salty so I don't usually need to add any extra.

No need for Parmesan on this one (unless you want to). Finish with black pepper and parsley (I ran out of parsley and really missed it). Buon appetito.

Chicken One Pot Wonder.

There is something to be said for simplicity, putting everything into one pot and forgetting about it. I often make this on the weekend ready to eat mid-week (tastes even better after a day or two). Seasoning, particularly on something like this, really does determine whether the dish succeeds or fails so no skimping on the salt!

Ingredients

10-12 Chicken pieces (thighs and drumsticks)
Olive oil
Flour
2 1/2 Onions, chopped.
2 cloves Garlic, sliced
Thyme
Mushrooms, 400g
1 can plum tomatoes
chicken stock
1 tbsp tomato purée
250ml red wine

Lightly coat the chicken pieces in well-seasoned flour (dusting off the excess).

Fry in batches for a few mins each side until golden, remove and drain on kitchen paper.

Next  fry onions sprinkled with salt in the olive oil / chicken fat in the pot. It's worth taking the time to do this slowly and until the onions are going brown (about 15 mins) , then add the sliced garlic and cook for another 5-10 mins.

When the onions are done, transfer to a bowl. Turn up the heat and add a little more oil if necessary, add mushrooms and cook on a high heat until golden brown (any fans of Anne Burrell will know that "brown food tastes good!"). Season mushrooms.

Turn the heat down and return onion and garlic mix to the pot, adding thyme. Then add plum tomatoes, tomato purée and red wine. Fill the empty tomato can with water and chicken stock (1 1/2 times), add to pot. Bring to the boil. Season.

The liquid should just cover the chicken pieces. Cook in a low oven (160) for about 1 1/2 hours). The chicken should be very tender and moist.

When it's ready, remove the chicken from the pot. Bring sauce to the boil then simmer to reduce a bit  (about 15 mins). Return chicken to pot.

Serve on basmati rice with a dollop of yogurt on the side.

NB

I keep the skin on whilst cooking for flavour but remove before eating.



Weekend Scrambled Eggs.

To some degree I am a creature of habit. Well not habit exactly, more like someone who appreciates short term traditions. My weekend scrambled eggs have become just such a tradition and weekends wouldn't be weekends without them. Simple, quick, and delicious- the perfect lazy breakfast.

Ingredients

3 eggs
cold butter
double cream (or crème fraiche)
lemon

Add 3 eggs to a pan with a few blobs of cold butter. I don't whisk, just give it a good stir with a wooden spoon or spatula.

    Add pepper and stir periodically, taking the pan off and on the heat so as not to overheat.

When the eggs are to your liking, add a drizzle of cream (about 3/4 tablespoon, this will also cool the eggs down) and some salt.

In my opinion the absolute must-have with scrambled eggs is lemon, a very generous squeeze changes everything. Season again with salt and pepper, and that's it. Roll on Saturday.

Vanilla Frozen Yogurt, a David Lebovitz recipe.

I have always thought of frozen yogurt as ice cream's poor relation, or worse the 'healthy option'.  I am not one for brown rice, quinoa or goji berries, I find it all just a little bit worthy (not to mention largely unpalatable). So frozen yogurt was not a natural choice, but as I always like to know what I'm missing out on (if anything) I thought I'd give it a go. This was a good decision.

Ingredients:

720g Greek yogurt
200g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp vanilla bean paste (my addition, optional)

                                  Put yogurt and sugar into a bowl, stir until sugar has dissolved.

   Add vanilla extract. I also added 1 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste for extra vanilla  flavour, and because I love seeing those little black vanilla dots in the mix.

                                                              
                                                            Refrigerate for 1 hour.

                 Churn in an ice cream machine (it will become quite thick rather quickly which is fine).

                                                     Decant into a container and freeze.

                                        Leave to to soften for 10 minutes or so before serving.



I am officially converted. It was a perfect combination of creamy, sweet and  tangy. I actually think I prefer this to ice cream. This recipe's a keeper.

Stuffed Aubergines, by an indecisive cook.

I am an indecisive cook, starting one way and darting off in another direction half way through. This is probably due to a lack of planning and skill on my part, but I prefer to think of it as an organic and flexible approach that promotes creativity. I had originally intended to make a vegetarian Middle Eastern inspired aubergine dish, but whilst making the sauce I realised that this was in urgent need of some meat. A quick addition of minced beef was hastily thrown in (lamb would have been better), and what would have been a rather sloppy and disappointing meal actually turned out rather well.

Ingredients

4 aubergines
Olive oil
2 red onions, chopped
2 fat cloves of garlic, sliced
2 hot red chillies, chopped
2 anchovy fillets, chopped
1/2 tablespoon cumin seeds
1/2 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 can plum tomatoes

water

minced beef (or lamb)

chicken stock

goats cheese (or feta)

Lightly brush a baking tray and 4 aubergines with some oil. Prick (to avoid messy explosions) and roast until yielding, about 1 hour at 180.

Fry 2 red onions sprinkled with salt, after 10 mins (ish) add 2 red chillies and sliced garlic

 then add the anchovies (you won't be able to taste them but the flavour of the sauce is vastly improved by their inclusion).

In a separate dry pan toast the cumin seeds and coriander, then grind.

Add the spices to the onion mix.

 

When the aubergines are ready, peel pack the top layer of skin and discard, then carefully scoop out the flesh (trying not to pierce the skin)

The flesh will look alarmingly like squid innards, ignore this and add to the pan with onions and spices (chopping a bit if necessary).

Cook for a few minutes, then add 1 can of chopped plum tomatoes, fill the can  with water and chicken stock and add to the mix (plus another 1/2 can of water and stock) with some black pepper. Bring to boil then simmer. Check seasoning.

It was at this point I realised that a meaty texture was required, and fried off some minced beef and added to the pan. Check seasoning.

 When suitably reduced, fill the aubergines and bake in the oven for 10 minutes or so, with some goats cheese (or preferably feta) crumbled on top.

Serve with rice and yogurt, and a watercress salad.

Afterthought: Sprinkle aubergines with parsley before serving.