food, reviews and of course coffee
I do eat a lot of pasta, and this is one of my regular recipes.
It is a simple recipe that is quick and easy.
In a pan cook off some diced onions, pepper and pancetta.
Cook the fusilli pasta in lots of boiling water. The key for me for cooking pasta is lots of water. I don’t use salt and I most certainly don’t add any oil to the water.
Once the pasta is cooked, add the cooked onions, pepper and pancetta. Also add creme frache and grated parmesan. Season with black pepper and serve.
A nice accompaniment to grilled meats is a salad. This recipe is one of my regular salads and is very simple to make. It consists of lettuce, halved cherry or small tomatoes and thinly sliced pointed red pepper. This time I also added some basil leaves.
I dress the salad with olive oil, white wine vinegar and ground black pepper.
Simple, refreshing with a hint of heat from the pepper (red and black).
The foraging season is approaching, even today I saw ripe blackberries.
A great book to help you is now available, Hedgerow (River Cottage Handbook).
Hedgerows, moors, meadows and woods – these hold a veritable feast for the forager. In this hugely informative and witty handbook, John Wright reveals how to spot the free and delicious ingredients to be found in the British countryside, and then how to prepare and cook them. First John touches on the basics for the hedgerow forager, with an introduction to conservation, safety, the law, and all the equipment that you may need. Next he guides us through the tasty edible species to be found. Each one is accompanied by photographs for identification, along with their conservation status, habitat, distribution, season, taste, texture and cooking methods – not forgetting, of course, some fascinating asides and diversions about their taxonomy and history. Over 40 species are covered, including bilberries, blackberries, cloudberries, common mallow, dandelions, hedge garlic, horseradish, pignuts, nettles, sloes, sweet chestnuts, water mint and wild cherries. Then John describes the poisonous species to steer clear of, including warnings about any nasty ‘lookalikes’, along with their identifying photographs. Finally, there are 30 tempting recipes. Introduced by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, “Hedgerow” is an indispensable household reference, and an essential book to have by your side for every trip into the countryside.
Buy Hedgerow (River Cottage Handbook)
If you are looking for an interesting pasta starter than the basil & pine nut margherite fresh pasta from Sainsbury’s Taste the difference range could be a good choice.
The egg and spinach flower shaped filled pasta is stuffed with a basil and pine nut filling (a bit like pesto).
Cooking in just a few minutes I served mine with a quick sauce made from creme frache and parmesan cheese, then adding some freshly ground black pepper.
BBC News Magazine has a nice article on the International Cheese Awards.
I do like to roast chicken portions in the oven with vegetables. In this recipe I also use lemons to impart a delicious citrus flavour to the chicken.
To make this dish, I took some chicken legs and thigh portions. These I slashed with knife and then placed in a bowl with the juice, peel and the rest of two lemons. I added a splash of white wine. I then added small plum tomatoes, onion, mushrooms and basil.
This was then roasted in the oven for thirty minutes, or until the chicken was golden brown as in the top photograph.
Place the chicken on a plate and add the roasted vegetables.
You can also use the juice from the pan as a basis for a sauce if required.
If you are a regular reader of the blog you will know that I am a bit of a fan of Jamie Oliver. However I have been avoiding buying any Jamie Oliver products as I was concerned that my expectations would not be met.
However having put off buying anything I saw in my local supermarket some Jamie Oliver Italian style sausages. Coarse pork with red wine, prosciutto and herbs. They sounded and looked great.
After watching Jamie’s Great Italian Escape
I pan fried them, they browned and cooked fine.
I served them with some pasta and a green salad.
So what did I think?
Well…
They were certainly meaty, a great texture.
However I was disappointed with the flavour. It wasn’t sausage enough and it wasn’t Italian enough either. The flavours needed to be stronger in my opinion.
The key question is will I buy them again?
Sorry no.
There is something about grilled chicken that has me thinking about my childhood, summer and outdoor eating. As my oven doesn’t have a proper grill I have never managed to capture that grilled taste and freshness.
One tool in my kitchen I do have is a griddle and that I can use that in some way captures the essence of grilled chicken. Yes it is not a perfect replacement.
I took some chicken breast and between two sheets of cling film and flattened it with a rolling pin.
I then brushed the chicken with olive oil and seasoning.
This was then placed onto a hot griddle and cooked for a few minutes on each side.
Perfect.
Jamie Oliver makes a cracking BBQ chicken.
Divers have found 30 bottles of champagne thought to pre-date the French Revolution on the Baltic seabed.
“It had a very sweet taste, you could taste oak and it had a very strong tobacco smell. And there were very small bubbles.”
Read more.