Make it quick

Faster Pasta Carbonara

Fasta-pasta-carbonara

For 2, I used:

225g pasta, cooked
150g bacon, chopped (or use lardons to save even more time)
1 clove garlic
2 eggs
150ml double cream
80g grated parmesan (or my favourite, Grana Padano)

While the pasta is cooking, fry your bacon in a little olive oil until it is slightly crisp around the edges. Drain off excess fat, add garlic and cook for a couple more minutes. In a separate bowl whisk together the eggs and cream, adding plenty of ground black pepper and most of the cheese. Drain the pasta and put it in the pan with the bacon and garlic. Add the cream-egg-cheese and stir well over a low-ish heat until heated through. Serve with remaining grated cheese.

To follow, we had tinned peaches with chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream - a poor man's Poire Belle Helene. My favourite fruit and ice cream pudding is a good banana split, the success of which hangs on the quality of the chocolate sauce. I made two today in the interests of research. One, made with melted chocolate, turned out like Ice Magic (remember that?). The other was a super quick and easy Nigella recipe: Place equal measures (I used 4 tablespoons) of cocoa powder, sugar and water in a pan over a low heat and stir until the sugar has melted and there is a bit of bubbling going on. I later added a dollop of golden syrup. It is quite intense, so a little goes a long way. She says it will keep 'for a long time' in the fridge.

Pears, ice cream and chocolate sauce

National Sausage Week

Did you know it's National Sausage Week? You can read all about it at lovepork.co.uk. Gen up on a whole host of piggy facts, join the British Sausage Appreciation Society, or even submit your favourite porky jokes (everyone knows that German sausage jokes are the wurst...).

We are having pork and leek sausages tonight in celebration of NSW. I have baked them, for ease and because they develop a nice even tan cooked this way; grilled are good but need attending to; and child 1 claims to like fried best (can he really tell the difference?) - but I hate the way they splatter and roll over when you're not watching them so they end up black one side and pink the other. Whichever method you choose, do not prick them and do not cook at too high a temperature or they will burst.

The most important ingredient is a happy pig

This is my favourite sausage recipe, from an old Sainsbury's recipe card:

Spicy Sausage Ragout 

1lb sausages
1 onion, sliced
1 red pepper, sliced
1 yellow pepper, sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
2 teaspoons paprika
1 x 397g tin chopped tomatoes
1 x 284ml tub of fresh chicken stock (or make up your own with a stock cube)
1 tablespoon fresh oregano (or use a teaspoon of dried)
1 teaspoon brown sugar

Fry the sausages in a little oil until evenly browned, then remove them and set aside. Fry the onions until softened, add the peppers and cook for another 5 minutes. Stir in the remaining ingredients and season. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Slice the sausages into bite size pieces, add to the pan and simmer for another 10 minutes. Serve with pasta and a sprinkling of parmesan.

Jamie Oliver, eat my shorts!

So Jamie can make money from a book telling you to make toasted cheese sandwiches. But I can tell you how to make one for free.

Cheese, ham, tomato and chilli jam toasted sandwich

After a decidedly ascetic lunch of Raisin Wheats and skimmed milk, I was really looking forward to a hot, savoury meal. But I forgot to make one, and returned home too late to start. So I made a sandwich, put it in a toasted sandwich maker and took it out and ate it when the bread went a bit brown. My sandwich had grated Cheddar, sliced tomato, decent ham and a shimmer of chilli jam in it.

Nicely rounded off with a bit of yesterday's cherry crumble.

Nouvelle cuisine

Past experiences of introducing new meals into the household have not been entirely positive, but my children are both fans of Wagamama so I thought I'd try something from their cookbook. Child 1 came home from school with a stomach ache unable to eat, child 2 pushed it around her plate a bit, and my husband ate it all but didn't make any comment. I loved it, and urge you to try it!

Marinated chicken with orange, soy sauce and ginger 

(Serves 3-4)

For the marinade:

3cm piece root ginger, peeled and grated

1 garlic clove, crushed

zest and juice of 1 orange

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon brown sugar

Put everything in a saucepan on a medium heat for a couple of minutes and stir until the sugar dissolves.

200g chicken meat, roughly chopped

150g medium noodles

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

a handful of mange tout or sugar snap peas, sliced

80g baby corn, halved lengthways

100ml chicken stock

1 tablespoon cornflour

1 tablespoon sesame seeds, briefly toasted in a hot, dry frying pan

1 lime, quartered

Marinate the chicken for between 1-24 hours. Cook the noodles, then drain and rinse with cold water. Heat the oil and cook the chicken (not the marinade) for a few minutes until golden. Add vegetables, remaining marinade and stock, and stir fry for another couple of minutes. Dissolve the cornflour in a little water and add to the pan, simmering for another minute or so until thickened. Add the noodles and sesame oil and stir well. Taste, and add more soy sauce if needed. Sprinkle over the sesame seeds and serve with a wedge of lime. 

I didn't brown the chicken enough - but it was still delicious
(I also didn't have any sesame seeds or lime)

You say "burger", I say "steak haché"

Iced ginger biscuits

Further inspired by my trip across La Manche, I decided to re-create steak haché (our French friends' answer to the turkey twizzler). Mince was not sold in France until relatively recently, as the consumer preferred to pick out a piece of meat themselves and watch the butcher mince it. A canny way to avoid the accidental ingestion of cows' lips and other rubbery bits. 

Steak Haché

I bought 500g of lean minced beef, tipped it into a bowl and added a generous amount of seasoning. I then squished it all together wearing my best Marigolds, formed it into 4 patties and fried them for a few minutes on each side. Served with sugar snap peas, broccoli and oven chips.My steaks were rather thick and inelegant (and looked like burgers, I admit). Try and make yours as thin as possible.

Steak haché frites

Iced Ginger Biscuits

For pudding, we ate some iced ginger biscuits made by child 2. 

12oz plain flour

2 teaspoons ground ginger

4oz butter

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
6oz soft light brown sugar

1 egg

4 tablespoons golden syrup (warm it gently for ease of handling)

Heat oven to 190/gas 5. Put butter, flour, ginger and bicarb in a food processor and whizz until it reaches the breadcrumbs stage. Add sugar and whizz again for a few seconds. Beat the egg and golden syrup together in a separate bowl, and add them to the dry stuff. Whizz yet again until it forms a dough. Roll the dough to about 5mm thick and cut out as many shapes as you can. Bake for 10-15 minutes, depending on how large your biscuits are. Leave to cool and decorate with tubes of writing icing.

Because good things come in small packages

Inspired by a few days in France, where the most delicious and fattening foods are served in teensy portions, I decided to make some individual, portion-controlled Banoffee Pies (in shot glasses).

Banoffee pie in a glass

Banoffee Pies

(Makes 10)

2oz butter, melted
4oz Hobnobs
(or Digestives, Ginger Nuts, etc)
A large banana
Just over half a tin of Carnation Caramel
About 250ml double cream, whipped
A couple of squares of dark chocolate, grated (or a crushed Flake)

I put the biscuits in a freezer bag and bashed them hard with a rolling pin until pleasingly and uniformly crushed, added to them to the melted butter and stirred well. I divided this between all 10 glasses, gently patting it down into the bases. I then added a few slices of banana and a generously heaped teaspoon of Caramel, before topping each one with some softly whipped cream and a sprinkling of chocolate.

Et voilà! Put them in the fridge and see how long you can resist their siren call.

Pumpkin - it's almost good enough to eat!

If you didn't get round to carving your pumpkins yesterday - cook them. 

Chicken-in-a-pumpkin!

Chicken in a Pumpkin

(Stolen, with thanks, from Josceline Dimbleby)

You will need:
A large pumpkin, top cut off and seeds and gunk removed, leaving firm orange flesh
A 3 inch piece of root ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
8 cardamom pods
1-2 fresh green chillies
8 skinless chicken breasts
4oz butter
20 oz onions, thinly sliced
6-8 cloves garlic, crushed
4oz button mushrooms, halved
2oz plain flour
3/4 pint milk

Heat oven to gas 9/240 degrees. Extract the seeds from the cardamom pods and grind them in a pestle and mortar. Chop the chilli/es and cut the chicken into 1cm slices. Melt 3/4 of the butter and cook the onions in it until soft. Add the ginger, cardamom, chillies and garlic and remaining butter. When the butter has melted stir in the sliced chicken and mushrooms. Stir in the flour well and gradually add the milk, continuing to stir until it comes to the boil (don't overdo the milk - it should be thick). Season. Spoon it into the prepared pumpkin, put the top back on, and smear with vegetable oil. Cook for 30 minutes, then lower the heat to gas 4/180 degrees and cook for about another 75 minutes. To serve, scoop out some of the pumpkin flesh with the chicken.

This will amaze, delight and impress your friends, and will win over the staunchest of pumpkin-haters!