Spaghetti tetrazzini

From Jamie’s Italy
Serves 6
Ingredients

20 g dried porcini mushrooms
olive oil
4 higher-welfare chicken thighs, boned, skinned and cut into bite-sized pieces
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
350 g mixed fresh mushrooms, cleaned and torn
200 ml white wine
320 g dried spaghetti
300 ml single cream
150 g Parmesan cheese, grated
1 sprig of fresh basil, leaves picked

Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas 6. Put your porcini mushrooms in a bowl and pour over just enough boiling water to cover them (approx. 150ml/5½fl oz). Put to one side to soak for a few minutes. Heat a saucepan big enough to hold all the ingredients, and pour in a splash of olive oil. Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper and brown them gently in the oil. Strain the porcini, reserving the soaking water, and add them to the pan with the garlic and fresh mushrooms. Add the wine, with the strained porcini soaking water, and turn the heat down. Simmer gently until the chicken pieces are cooked through and the wine has reduced a little.

Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in plenty of boiling salted water according to the packet instructions and drain well. Add the cream to the pan of chicken, then bring to the boil and turn the heat off. Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add the drained spaghetti to the creamy chicken sauce and toss well. Add three-quarters of the Parmesan and all of the basil and stir well. Transfer to an ovenproof baking dish or non-stick pan, sprinkle with half the remaining cheese and bake in the oven until golden brown, bubbling and crisp. Divide between your plates, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with the rest of the cheese before serving.

After one month of spending weekends in the office, and not having much energy left to do proper cooking, things have quietened down a bit (fingers crossed) and I have managed to get myself back into my cooking routine. What better way to do that than a simple pasta bake.

Recipe uses chicken but I had turkey from Tesco and so I decided to use that instead. If I am not wrong, the tacky version of this uses turkey!

Pizza margherita

BBC GoodFood
Serves 4

Ingredients

300g strong bread flour
1 tsp instant yeast (from a sachet or a tub)
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil , plus extra for drizzling

100ml passata
handful fresh basil or 1 tsp dried
1 garlic clove , crushed

125g ball mozzarella , sliced
handful grated or shaved parmesan
handful cherry tomatoes , halved

handful basil leaves (optional)

Make the base: Put the flour into a large bowl, then stir in the yeast and salt. Make a well, pour in 200ml warm water and the olive oil and bring together with a wooden spoon until you have a soft, fairly wet dough. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 mins until smooth. Cover with a tea towel and set aside. You can leave the dough to rise if you like, but it’s not essential for a thin crust.

Make the sauce: Mix the passata, basil and crushed garlic together, then season to taste. Leave to stand at room temperature while you get on with shaping the base.

Roll out the dough: If you’ve let the dough rise, give it a quick knead, then split into two balls. On a floured surface, roll out the dough into large rounds, about 25cm across, using a rolling pin. The dough needs to be very thin as it will rise in the oven. Lift the rounds onto two floured baking sheets.

Top and bake: Heat oven to 240C/fan 220C /gas 8. Put another baking sheet or an upturned baking tray in the oven on the top shelf. Smooth sauce over bases with the back of a spoon. Scatter with cheese and tomatoes, drizzle with olive oil and season. Put one pizza, still on its baking sheet, on top of the preheated sheet or tray. Bake for 8-10 mins until crisp. Serve with a little more olive oil, and basil leaves if using. Repeat step for remaining pizza.

Italian roast chicken with peppers and olives

From Nigella Lawson’s Nigellissima
Serves 4-6

Ingredients
1 x 1.5kg/3lb 5oz chicken (preferably organic)
1 unwaxed lemon, cut in half
4 sprigs rosemary
3 leeks, washed and trimmed
2 red peppers
1 orange pepper
1 yellow pepper
100g/3½oz pitted dry-packed black olives
4 tbsp olive oil
Sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper, to serve

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Untruss the chicken, sit it in a roasting tin and put the lemon halves and two of the rosemary sprigs into the chicken’s cavity.
Wash and trim the leeks, cut each into three logs, then slice lengthways and add to the tin. Now remove the core and seeds of the peppers and slice them into strips, following their natural curves and ridges, and add these to the tin.

Tumble in the olives, and now pour the olive oil, mostly over the vegetables but a little over the chicken, too. Add the remaining rosemary sprigs to the vegetables, along with some sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper, to taste. Using a couple of spoons or spatulas, gently toss the vegetables about to help coat them with the oil and make sure everything’s well mixed up.

Sprinkle some sea salt flakes over the chicken and put it in the oven for about 1-1¼ hours, by which time the chicken should be cooked through, and its juices running clear when you cut into the flesh with a small sharp knife at the thickest part of the thigh joint. The vegetables should be tender by now, too, and some of the leeks will be a scorched light-brown in parts.

Remove the chicken to a carving board and, while it rests (for about 10 minutes) pop the pan of veg back in the oven, switching the oven off as you do so.

Cut the chicken up chunkily, transferring the pieces to a large warmed platter. Now take the pan back out of the oven and, with a slotted spoon or spatula, remove the vegetables to the large platter and when all is arranged to your aesthetic delight, pour over it all the bronze, highly-flavoured juices that have collected in the pan.

Lamb chops with black olives and chilli

From Nigella Express
Serves 4
Ingredients

Ingredients

12 lamb rib chops
4 tablespoon(s) olive oil (plus 2 tablespoons for frying)
3 clove(s) garlic (peeled and sliced)
1 teaspoon(s) dried chilli
1 teaspoon(s) oregano
1 small lemon juice (zest and juice)
1 teaspoon(s) maldon salt (or ½ teaspoon table salt)
15 black olives (pitted and sliced)
1 long red chilli pepper (deseeded and finely sliced (optional))

Method

Layer the rib chops between clingfilm and flatten gently with a rolling pin or mallet. Unwrap and place the chops in a large dish, so that they all fit in a single layer.
Pour the 4 tablespoons of oil over the chops and add the sliced garlic, chilli flakes, oregano, lemon zest and juice. Sprinkle with the salt and the olives, then turn the rib chops in the marinade so that both sides are coated.
Cover and leave the lamb to marinate for 20 minutes at room temperature.
Heat the 2 tablespoons of oil in a large heavy-based frying pan, and add the chops, scraping off the marinade before you put them in the pan. (Reserve the marinade.) Fry them for a couple of minutes a side on quite a high heat so that they take on some colour.
Turn the heat down to medium and pour the reserved marinade into the pan over the now coloured chops. Add 2 tablespoons or so of water and cook for about 5 minutes for rare cutlets or a little longer if you like your lamb well done (this will also depend on the thickness of the chops).
Transfer the chops to a serving plate, pour over the juices from the pan and sprinkle with the chopped red chilli, should you feel like enhancing the dried chilli with the pep of fresh.

Normally, I am not a huge fan of Nigella’s recipes. They tend to be simple and not inspiring unlike Jamie Oliver who always has a few tricks up his sleeves.That said, this lamb chops recipe works wonderfully well, good combination of hot and savoury.

As the sides, I added some cherry tomatoes to the frying pan, to cook it a bit. And I chopped up some potatoes, added thyme, salt and olive oil, and roasted it in my toaster oven for around 40 minutes. Good combination.

Red wine risotto with bacon and mushrooms

From BBC GoodFood
Serves 4

Ingredients
450-500ml/16-18fl oz chicken or vegetable stock, more if needed
85g butter
1 medium onion , chopped
200g round grain risotto rice , such as arborio or carnaroli
500ml red wine , a merlot is ideal
grated Parmesan (or vegetarian alternative), to serve

Heat the stock in a saucepan and keep it warm at the side of the stove. Melt half the butter in a shallow saucepan or casserole, add the onion with salt and pepper and sauté for 5-7 minutes until soft, but not browned. Stir in the rice and sauté it, stirring constantly, until it absorbs the butter, about 2 minutes.

Stir in about half the wine with a little salt and pepper and simmer, stirring, until the rice starts to dry, 5-7 minutes. Add a couple of ladlefuls of hot stock and continue simmering, stirring gently but constantly. When the rice dries again and needs more liquid, add the remaining wine.
Continue cooking, stirring all the time and adding more stock in batches. At the end of cooking, the rice should be tender, still slightly al dente (chewy) and creamy from the starch that has begun to leach from the grains. This will take 25 to 35 minutes and don’t hesitate to use plenty of stock.
Take the risotto from the heat, add the remaining butter in pieces, and stir it into the rice as it melts. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve the risotto in shallow bowls or on deep plates with a sprinkling of Parmesan. It is best served at once, though it can be kept warm for a few minutes. If necessary, soften it with a little more stock just before serving.

The gf is finally here with me to do her studies, and one of the first things she’s ask her is mushroom risotto. Also she mentioned that she has never tried red wine risotto before and so I decided to make a red wine mushroom risotto for her. So what I have done is to combine my mushroom risotto recipe with this red wine risotto recipe i.e. instead of using white wine, I used red wine instead. The difference between the two is that the red wine risotto is much more robust in terms of flavours.

Pork chop hot pot

Taken from “Let’s Cook – Italian & Pasta”

Ingredients

4 pork chops
Flour for dusting
225g shallots, peeled
2 garlic cloves, peeled
50g sun-dried tomatoes
400g can plum tomatoes
150ml red wine
150ml chicken stock
3 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp dried mixed herbs

Preheat oven to 190 degrees, 10 minutes before cooking. Dust the pork chops with a little flour and reserve. Chop the garlic and slice the sun-dried tomatoes

Heat olive oil in a large casserole dish and cook the pork chops for about 5 minutes, turning occasionally during cooking, until browned all over. Using a slotted spoon, carefully lift out of the dish and reserve. Add the shallots and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Return the pork chops to the casserole dish and scatter with the garlic and sun-dried tomatoes, then pour over the can of tomatoes with their juice.

Blend the red wine, stock and tomato puree together and add the mixed herbs. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then pour over the pork chops and bring to a gentle boil. Cover with a close-fitting lid and cook in the preheated oven for 1 hour or until the pork chops are tender.

Adjust the seasoning and serve.

Serves 4

Normally the recipes I have used go for a white wine/tomatoes mix, but this goes for a red wine/tomatoes mix. The latter has a much richer flavour and very appropriate for pork.

Pasta Puttanesca or Working Girl’s Pasta

Jamie’s Dinners
Serves 4

Ingredients:
A handful of fresh basil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
Extra virgin olive oil
Two 8-ounce tuna steaks, chopped into bite-size chunks, or 2 cans of good-quality tuna, drained
14 ounces penne or spaghetti
8 anchovy fillets
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
2 handfuls of soaked capers
A handful of black olives, pitted and roughly chopped
1 to 3 small dried chiles, crumbled to your taste, or 1 fresh red chile, deseeded and finely sliced
2 handfuls of really ripe tomatoes, finely chopped
Optional: a swig of white wine
A handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

Smash the basil to a pulp with a pinch of salt and pepper. Add the lemon zest and juice and 2 good lugs of extra virgin olive oil. Mix this up and either rub over your chopped-up fresh tuna or mix with your broken-up canned tuna and allow to marinate.

Get a large pan of salted boiling water on and cook the pasta according to the package instructions. As soon as you put the pasta on, put 3 or 4 good lugs of extra virgin olive oil into a large frying pan and put on the heat. As the pan starts to get warm, add your anchovy fillets and allow them to fry and melt. At this point add your garlic, capers, olives, and chili and stir around for a couple of minutes. If you have used fresh tuna, add it to the pan now with all of the marinating juices and sear it on both sides. When done, add the tomatoes and a little swig of white wine if you have some. If you have used canned tuna, add it to the pan at the same time as the tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then simmer for around 5 minutes, stirring regularly with a spoon, breaking the tuna up into smaller pieces. What you don’t want to do is overcook the tuna so it goes tough. You want it to be soft and silky. Correct the seasoning carefully with salt and pepper.

The pasta should now be ready, so drain it in a colander, reserving some of the cooking liquid. Toss the hot pasta with the hot tuna sauce, add the parsley, and mix well. You may need a few more lugs of olive oil and a spoonful of cooking water to make the sauce nice and loose.

One of my go-to recipes for good wholesome seafood pasta.

Pasta primavera with parma ham

Ingredients

150g French beans
2 spring onions, chopped
40g butter
1 tsp olive oil
225g baby carrots
175g leeks, chopped
300ml single cream
1 tsp lemon juice
25g parmesan cheese, grated
3 tbsp freshly chopped basil
6 slices of parma ham, chopped

Trim and halve the French beans. Bring a large saucepan of lightly salted water to the boil for 4-5 minutes. Drain the beans and briefly rinse under cold running water.

Heat the butter and oil in a large non-stick frying pan. Add the parma ham and cook for 2 minutes. Add the baby carrots and cook for 2 minutes, then stir in the leeks and spring onions and cook for 10 minutes stirring, until the vegetables are almost tender.

Stir the cream and lemon juice into the vegetables and bubble over a gentle heat until the sauce is slightly reduced and the vegetables are cooked.

Add the beans, parmesan cheese and basil to the sauce. Stir for 30 seconds or until the cheese has melted and the vegetables are hot. Add the sauce to cooked pasta, then toss gently to mix and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve.

Wanted something relatively light to eat after a dim sum at Royal China (although it’s odd that I started getting hungry at around 17:00 despite eating a fair bit of dim sum. Maybe it’s because I didn’t have breakfast). So I decided to make this pasta dish, full of vegetables, nutrients and fibre to balance the unhealthiness of dim sum. Didn’t have any parma ham, and used bacon instead.

I love the taste of this dish; the creaminess of the bacon sauce, the sweetness of the vegetables, and the crunchiness of the carrots and long beans.

Lainey: are you fine with farfelle?:P

Chicken with porcini mushrooms

Revisited this dish by adding diced bacon (left over from yesterday’s Mac and Cheese) to the mushroom mixture. Had it with macaroni, and having it with pasta does tone down the strong taste of the white wine.

 

I first cooked this a few years ago when I bought this Italian cookbook from The Works in Nottingham for my mom. Interestingly, it was also the first time I cooked for an audience; it was a Christmas dinner party at my uncle’s place. So when I took this book, from my mom, back to London, it’s one of the first recipes from it that I wanted to cook from it as I recall it was quite popular at the dinner.

Fry brown 5 chicken thighs (deboned) with olive oil in a frying pan. Remove the chicken and reserve. Add two crushed garlic, stir into the juiices and cook for 1 minute. Pour around 1/2 cup of white wine into the pan and season to taste with salt and pepper. Return to the chicken to the pan. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 20 minutes. In another frying pan, heat some butter and add 15g of porcini mushrooms (hydrated with boiling water for 20 minutes previously) and 400 grams of mushrooms. Fry for around 5 minutes or until the mushrooms are golden. Add the mushrooms to the chicken. Season to taste, then add 1 tbsp of chopped fresh oregano. Stir together gently and cook for 1 more minute. Serve with rice or pasta.

The dish has a strong white wine taste so if you don’t like such flavour, this dish isn’t recommended.

Macaroni cheese with pancetta

I went to a Blink 182 concert at the 02 arena, and for dinner I had baked chicken pasta with spinach and bacon at Zizzi. For some strange reason, my pasta was sweet, and that annoyed me and made me want to make and eat proper cheesy pasta. So with that in mind, I went back to this mac and cheese recipe. Variation this time is that to add a layer of cheddar cheese on top and to bake it in the oven at 200 degrees until it’s nice and crispy, and then to serve it on a bed of spinach. Yums. My mac and cheese definitely beats the pasta at Zizzi I had yesterday.

Taken from Bowl Food

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups macaroni
75g pancetta (or bacon)
2 cups cream
1 cup grated Cheddar
2 cups grated Gruyere
1 cup grated parmesan
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp paprika
2 tbsp snipped fresh chives

Bring a large saucepan of lightly salted water to the boil. Add the macaroni and cook until al dente. Drain, cover and keep warm.

Meanwhile, place the pancetta in a large saucepan and cook over high heat, stirring for 4 minutes, or until well browned and slightly crisp. Drain on paper towels. Reduce the heat to medium, stir in the cream and simmer. Add the cheeses, garlic, mustard and paprika, and stir for 5 minutes, or until the cheeses have melted and the sauce has thickened. Season.

Add the macaroni and pancetta and stir for 1 minute, or until heated through. Stir in the chives, garnish with the extra chives and serve.

Lainey sniffed when I told her I was going to cook Mac and Cheese until I gave her more details of the recipe. She then proclaimed that it’s Gourmet Mac and Cheese. Why, I am not too sure because I have never tried the American version of Mac and Cheese that she spoke of. I should try it one day when I go to the US

Feel free to adjust the portions of the cheese. To be honest, I didn’t bother with gruyere I just used lots of cheddar and parmesan and it turned out just fine.