Caramelised Onion Pasta

Social media keeps on pushing caramelised onion spaghetti/linguine recipes my way.  So I gave one a go.

The recipe I roughly followed was a little greasy, not a surprise with all the butter, oil, cream, and cheese, so I added anchovies, chilli flakes, and lemon zest to cut through the richness.  If you don't mind having pasta without much sauce you can omit the cream and add the parmesan and zest after tossing through the cooked onion mixture.

Serves 4

400g spaghetti

4 brown onions, peeled and finely sliced

4 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced

15g butter

1 tbsp olive oil, including anchovy oil using

1 tin anchovies in olive oil, chopped

1/2 tsp chilli flakes

300ml double cream

100g grated parmesan or grana padano

Zest of 1 lemon

Fresh parsley

Fry the sliced onions in the melted butter and olive oil over a medium heat for 20-25 minutes, stirring from time to time, until brown and meltingly soft. 

Stir in the chop anchovies, garlic, and chilli. Fry until the anchovies start to break up.

Pour in the cream, cheese, lemon zest and heat gently whilst you cook the pasta.

Once the pasta is cooked, drain and mix into the creamy sauce.  

Sprinkle with chopped parsley before serving if using.

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Fruit Smoothie Ice Lollies

Get yourself some lolly moulds, make a smoothie and freeze it.  It's as simple as that.  Making these in small yoghurt pots with plastic of disposable cutlery as handles also works.

1 soft banana (I have loads of brown bananas in the freezer)

100g frozen fruit (mixed berries, mango, strawberries, raspeberries etc)

Apple juice

Work out the volume of your moulds by filling one almost to the top, weighing it into a liquidiser cup, and multiplying it by the number of containers you have. Note this number.

Without zeroing the scales, add in the banana broken into pieces and the fruit, and top up with apple juice to the weight you noted at the start.

Liquidise and pour into the moulds.  Freeze for at least a couple of hours.

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Viral Smashed Kofta Wraps

I've seen a lot of reels of mince being squished onto wraps and fried.  My teens love kofta so I thought I'd give it a go.  The benefit of squishing the mince onto wraps means they don't take much cooking, and kids can cook their own without fear of serving themselves raw meat.  The only problem with feeding a family is that you can only cook one tortilla at a time, unless you have an array of frying pans.

Serves 4

500g lamb or beef mince

1 small onion, peeled and grated

3 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed

1 tbsp ras el hanout or harissa

30g fresh coriander or parsley, finely chopped

4 medium flour tortillas

Sunflower oil for frying

4 tbsp greek yoghurt 

1/2 tsp lemon juice (optional)

1 tbsp tahini paste (optional)

1/8th wedge of red or green cabbage, thinly sliced 

1/2 red onion, peeled and thinly sliced

1 tbsp apple cider or white wine vinegar

Chilli sauce to serve

Mix the mince, grated onion, 2 of the crushed garlic cloves, chosen spices, and the herbs together.  Cover and chill for 1-24 hours.

When ready to cook, scrunch the cabbage and onion together with a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of vinegar and leave to one side.

Mix the last remaining crushed clove of garlic into the yoghurt together with the tahini and lemon juice if using, and leave to one side with the cabbage salad.

Weigh the flavoured mince and divide into 4.  Squish one quarter of the mince onto one side of a tortilla.

Preheat a pancake pan or shallow frying pan over a medium heat and brush with oil.  

Place the tortilla meat side down onto the hot pan.  Cook for 3-4 minutes until the mince is browned.

Flip over with a fish slice and slide onto a plate.  Add a quarter of the garlic yoghurt and cabbage, and chilli sauce to taste. Roll up and tuck in.

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Rhubarb Cordial

My rhubarb at the allotment this year is plentiful.  And as I only made one batch of Elderflower Cordial this year, I thought I'd make Rhubarb Cordial to add to a Midsummer's Day Prosecco. Recipe is from BBC Good Food

Makes approx 600ml

450g rhubarb, rinsed and chopped

300g sugar

300ml water

Zest & juice of 1 lemon

Zest & juice of 1 orange

A slice of root ginger

Bring the water and sugar syrup to the boil.  Add the rest of the ingredients and bring back to the boil.  

Cover and turn down to a simmer.  Cook until the rhubarb has turned to mush.

Strain through a fine sieve, keeping the rhubarb pulp (Congratulations, you have made rhubarb compote too.  Save this for Rhubarb Ice Cream or Rhubarb Fool).

Store in sterilised bottles in the fridge for up to a month.  

Add around 25ml (just under 2 tbsp) to 100ml of sparkling water or Prosecco

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Homemade Lemonade

Homemade Lemonade, aka Citron Pressé or Spremuta di Limone is a great quick cooling drink in the height of summer. Depending on whether you have a sweet tooth or not, you may not need any sugar.

Ideally this is make with sugar syrup (a cooled water and sugar solution), but this assumes you want sugar.  With one Type 1 diabetic and now a pre diabetic in our family of five, we don't. Just stir well if you do add sugar.

Makes 500ml 

Juice of 1 lemon

500ml chilled still or sparkling water

Caster sugar to taste

Quite simply, juice half the lemon and add half the water. 

Taste it to see if you want sugar, and if so, how much.  Stir well to dissolve the sugar as best you can.  

Add the other half of the lemon juice and water with the same amount of sugar (if any) that you added to the first half.

Oranges or limes can be used instead of lemon.

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Roasted or Grilled Peppers

Warning, home roasted/grilled peppers are addictive, and a lot of peppers roast down to a not enough.  They are just so tasty and moreish.

Serves 4

4 large red, orange, or yellow peppers (green peppers aren't as sweet so I avoid them)

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 clove of garlic, peeled and crushed

A large pinch of salt

1 tbsp chopped broad leaf parsley

Place the peppers in an ovenproof dish or tray and grill under a medium high heat until the skins starts to blister and blacken.  This could take 5-10 minutes depending on your grill, possibly even more.  They can be roasted in a hot oven with other dishes, but this takes longer.  Grilling on a barbecue also works well.

When blackened on one side turn them over with tongs and repeat on the other side.

Once blackened on both sides, and collapsed, place the hot peppers into sealable pot, ideally once you can store and serve them in.  Seal the pot and leave for 20 minutes or so to cool enough to handle.

When cool enough, peel the skin off the peppers, remove the stalk, slice in half lengthways,  remove the seeds and slice into thin strips.

Toss in the olive oil, crush garlic, salt, and parsley.  Leave for about 20 minutes for the flavours to mingle if you can.

Serves as an accompaniment, or on bruschetta.

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Pan Fried, Griddled, or BBQ Asparagus

Picked up some beautiful English asparagus from my local farm shop, West Lea Farm Shop, the other day.

We cooked half on the bbq at the weekend, and have pan fried the other bunch for lunch today.

1 bunch serves 2 as a starter

To cook, snap off the woody ends.  

Toss in a little olive oil if cooking on a griddle pan or bbq.  If pan frying, put about 1 tsp olive oil in a frying pan.  I reckon you could cook them in an air fryer too, but I haven't tried.

Cook over a medium high heat/flame until the asparagus begins to colour.  Try to colour all sides, without burning.

Serve hot with a small knob of butter or a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a little pinch of salt flakes.

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Chinese Congee (Rice Porridge/Soup)

Rice porridge may sound unappealing, but this simple Asian dish is great comfort food and can be taken in a soup flask as a packed lunch. 

Congee is the Mandarin name, Jook in Cantonese, Chok in Thailand, and Cháo in Vietnamese. I regularly had it for breakfast backpacking in Malaysia, Thailand, and Hong Kong.

The classic congee is just rice simmered in water or stock until it breaks down essentially to mush, and flavoured with ginger and soy.

Shredded chicken, minced pork, or egg can be added to the classic congee for protein, but I like to make a plant based version with vegetable stock, tofu, and colourful vegetables.

Serves 2

1 litre vegetable stock

1 cup cooked rice, white rice is traditional but I prefer brown rice

1 tbsp finely grated ginger

2 large cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed

200g firm tofu, grated

1 large carrot, grated

1 pak choi, thinly sliced 

2 spring onions, finely chopped

Seasonings - chilli oil, sesame oil, chilli flakes, soy sauce, and/or fish sauce to serve

Add the rice, garlic, and ginger to a pan.  Pour over the stock and bring to the boil.

Boil for 5-10 minutes uncovered until the rice is a runny porridge consistence. 

Stir in the tofu, carrot, and pak choi to heat up.

Serve when congee comes back to the boil.  Sprinkle each serving with a chopped spring onion, and season with what ever you have to hand and to your own taste.

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Super Green Flatbreads

@boroughchef has a great recipe for Wild Garlic Flatbreads.  As ever, I've played around with ingredients based on what I have on hand.  The flat breads above were made with wholemeal self raising flour, as it needed using up. I've made them with plain flour and bread flour.  These were made with wild garlic, but I've also used chard, spinach, kale, and watercress.

Makes 4 

120g flour (self raising, plain, bread)
50g wild garlic, spinach, chard, watercress, or kale

80g plain yoghurt, labneh, cottage cheese, ricotta, feta, soured cream, kefir, or creme fraiche

1 tbsp olive oil

Pinch of salt

Liquidise your greens of choice with your dairy of choice plus the olive oil.

Mix the liquidised greens, flour, and salt into a dough.  Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 2-3 minutes until smooth and not sticky.  Add more flour a little at a time if it is very sticky/tacky.  

Divide the dough equally into 4, shape into balls and roll out into a circle as best you can.  My tip is to roll them out then leave for about 30 minutes for the dough to relax, then roll them out a little further, otherwise I find the dough too elastic and it shrinks back to an impractical taco size.

Took cook the wraps, heat a frying pan over a medium high heat.  Carefully drape in one rolled out flatbread and cook for 1 minute until the underside is just starting to brown.  Flip over with tongs or a fish slice and cook the other side for another minute.  Watch your flatbreads carefully.  Thicker flatbreads will take longer to cook, but thinner ones will dry out quicker and crack when they cool and you try to wrap them around any filling.  Wrap the cooked flatbreads in a clean tea towel to keep them warm and moist until you are ready to fill them.

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How to remove foam from jam

After years of making chutney and marmalade, I've just started making jam for sale.

Surprisingly, it's not been as easier.  Yes, it is a much quicker process once boiling. But soft fruit 'foams' at setting point (particularly strawberry jam), and this foam sets in the jam.  The finished product tastes delicious, but can be off-putting to more judgy consumers ie paying customers.

My jam making bible has been my 94 year old mother's 1950's Marguerite Patten's Jams, Preserves, & Chutneys, which recommends a small knob of butter to disperse foam and clarify jams and jellies, but I like to keep my preserves simple and dairy free.

Two barely passable batches later, I have googled how to remove foam from jam;

1) Add a small knob of butter or flavourless oil to the cooling jam - this apparently breaks the surface tension and 'pops' the bubbles.  It may shorten the life of your jam.

2) Stir the jam in the same direction as it cools - does reduce the foam slightly, but not to an acceptable level for some customers

3) Leave the fruit to macerate with the sugar overnight - to be tried!

4) Skim the jam with a spoon as it reaches setting point, and as it cools - keep the foam for yourself/children. It still tastes like jam!

5) Lay a sheet of greaseproof paper on the cooling jam then peel off - I was impressed with this method (pic above). It removed most foam, just leaving a few little patches to be removed with a spoon.  I scrapped the foam off the greaseproof paper and put it in a little jar for my daughter.

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Spicy Chana Masala

Chana Masala is surprisingly easy to make.  You could even get away with just garam masala (and chill obvs) if you don't have all the dried spices.

Serves 4-6

2 cans chickpeas including liquid (or 200g dried, soaked overnight then cooked in fresh water until tender)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 large onion, finely chopped

1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp garam masala

4 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed 
1 tbsp grated root ginger
30g fresh coriander, finely chopped
2-4 green chillies, finely chopped, seeds and all
1-2 tsp chilli powder to taste
500g passata 

1 tsp salt
1 tbsp lemon juice

Fry the onion in the vegetable oil in a saucepan over a medium low heat until they start to turn golden brown.

Stir in the cumin, ground coriander, turmeric, garam masala, grated ginger, and garlic. When you can smell the warm spices, add the rest of the ingredients including the liquid from the canned chickpeas or enough of the cooking water to cover the chickpeas with about 1cm of liquid.

Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes.

Serve with basmati rice or naan.

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Patatas Bravas, Spicy Spanish Potatoes

Wonderful fried potatoes in a slightly spicy rich tomato sauce.  I made these for a Spanish themed (sherry) night.

Serves 8 as tapas

800g small salad potatoes, halved lengthways
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
1 fresh chilli, deseeded and roughly chopped
1 tbsp fresh rosemary leaves

1 tsp fennel seeds

500g passata
1 tbsp sherry or wine vinegar

1 tsp sweet paprika

Salt & pepper

Light olive oil for frying

Bring some water to the boil, and boil the potatoes for 10 minutes, until they start to feel slightly tender when poked with a sharp knife. Drain in a colander and leave to steam whilst you get on with the sauce.

In a saucepan large enough to hold the potatoes, heat 1 tbsp olive oil over a low heat. When hot, add the onion and 2 sliced garlic cloves, and cook until soft but not coloured. 

Stir in the chilli and fennel. When you can smell the fennel, add the tinned tomatoes and vinegar and a good pinch of sea salt and black pepper. Bring the sauce to the boil then turn the heat down to a simmer for 10-15 minutes until the sauce has thickened.

While the sauce is reducing, heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large non stick frying pan over a medium high heat.

When the oil is hot, fit as many potatoes into the pan as you can, taking care not to overcrowd the pan. You will need to do this in several batches. Fry the potatoes for 8-10 minutes, turning to get them golden brown on each side. Once browned, stir in the final sliced garlic clove and rosemary, and turn the heat off once you can smell them.

Mix the potatoes and sauce and serve hot or cold on saucers as a tapas.

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One Pan Chicken & Rice

An Iraqi recipe for T'Beet on my Instagram reels reminded me of a simple one pan chicken & rice I used to make, as well as Egyptian Rice & Lentils (Mujaddara).  As I didn't have the requisite Iraqi spices for T'Beet I freestyled sit, based on my earlier recipe.

Serves 4

4 large or 8 small chicken thighs 

2 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, peeled and sliced in half moons

4 garlic cloves, peeled & crushed

1 large mug basmati rice

200g cooked puy lentils, drained, or bag of baby spinach 

1 tbsp ras el hanout (optional)

1 lemon ( I used a homemade preserved lemon)

In a lidded pan, large enough for the chicken to be in a single layer, brown the chicken thighs skin side down in the olive oil over a medium high heat.  Remove to a plate when brown.

Turn the heat down to medium and caramelise the onion the same pan
after you have removed the chicken.

When the onion is as brown as you dare, stir in the garlic and ras el hanout, and fry for a minute or so before adding the rice and drained lentils.  Measure out a mug and a half of boiling water and pour into the pan.  The water needs to be 1 cm above the level of rice and lentils, so top up with boiling water if required.

If using spinach rather than lentils, stir it into the hot water and rice until it is wilted and mixed through well.

Halve the lemon and juice, then cut the halves in half again.  Pour the lemon juice over the rice.  Arrange the browned chicken, skin side up now, on top of the rice and nestle the juiced lemon quarters between them.

Cover and bring to the boil.  Once boiling, turn the heat down to it's lowest heat and leave to simmer for 20 minutes.

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