Roasted tomato and basil pasta

Sinead, just for you: 

This was one of those dishes that came out of going " we have dot dot dot, what shall we make with it?" Most of this stuff, if not quite regular store cupboard stuff, is regularly bought. If you're cooking on a budget, Lidl and Aldi sell entirely acceptable versions of all of these. They're classic flavour combinations; this isn't rocket science, but it was really tasty. 

You will note that the basil, the one on the left, is that of my herbs which is thriving. I conclude that basil likes being grown in teapots. 

Roasted tomato and basil pasta:

2 large handfuls of small tomatoes, cut in half, mixed varieties if possible

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 green chille, finely chopped

1 large handful fresh grated parmesan

3 inches chorizo sausage, sliced finely

2 large handfuls of fresh basil leaves

300g spaghetti

Olive oil

Sprig fresh fresh rosemary

Salt and pepper

serves 2-3

Preheat oven to 200 oC. Arrange your tomatoes on a roasting tin, lightly drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, and sprinkle with rosemary leaves pulled off the stalk. Roast for around 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally until they look something like this:

Cook the spaghetti according to the instructions on the packet/to your normal preference. I like mine still with a bit of a bite. Meanwhile, fry the garlic and chille in 1 tbsp olive oil in a small frying pan on a low heat, until the garlic is just starting to turn brown. 

When the pasta is cooked, drain, and stir through all the ingredients. Garnish with a little sprig of basil.

Enjoy as a quick, light lunch or tea.

You can do owt with eggs

An old flatmate of mine from first year used to say (and you have to imagine this in a strong, West Yorkshire accent) "You can do owt* with eggs."

This is very true. I think people forget just how wonderful, and versatile, eggs really are. They have exceptionally high levels of protein and amino acids, high levels of vitamin D (which is really hard to come by in food - our bodies most often make it using sunlight) low levels of fat, they're cheap and they are absolutely delicious. They can be cooked in minutes.You can make them as simple or as fancy as you like.  What's not to like? As another friend used to say (hardboiled egg in hand): it's a meal in and of itself.

I have constructed a table below with examples of what purpose eggs can serve in a variety of dishes. As demonstrated by the discussion V and I have just had, clearly it is possible for an egg to serve more than one of these purposes: Eggs are good at multi-tasking.

	Sweet	Savoury
Main protein	/	Eggs Benedict
Flavouring	Sweet breads	Kedgeree
Thickener	Custard	Hollondaise sauce/Japanese Miso soup
Aerating agent/riser	Cakes	Tortilla
“Matrix” (ok, I can’t think what to call this...)	Eggy bread	Spaghetti Carbonara

Emulsifier (allows the mixing of water and oil)

Mayonaise

I grant you, I only discovered just how amazing eggs are a couple of years ago. The trick is to find out exactly how you like your eggs, and learn how to cook them that way consistently. For me, having grown up with my mum's eggs, who, for example, hates having a boiled egg without a runny yolk, I didn't like eggs until I discovered that I just don't like snotty eggs. I will happily sacrifice some of that runny yolk for the guarantee of a completely solid white. I therefore didn't like omelettes until I discovered Tortilla, (or as J insists I should call them to avoid confusion, Spanish Omelettes.) My recipe for a really good Tortilla is below. My one exception is scrambled eggs,  I'm still not a fan. Or maybe I've just not yet found out how to make them so I like them.

I apologise for the continuing lack of pictures. Having finally managed to install the Bluetooth thing to get the pictures off my Blackberry, my Blackberry died. Until I have enough money to join the world of digital cameras or buy a decent new phone, this situation will continue. In the meantime I shall describe to the best of my ability.

Spanish Tortilla


Serves 1-3 .


1 medium potato, peeled and sliced very thinly. Use the slicer on a grater if you don't have a sharp enough knife.
1 onion, chopped as finely as possible.
1 clove of garlic, chopped or grated.
1 small handful of mushrooms, washed and sliced thinly.
1 large handful of grated cheese
3 large to 5 small eggs
A slurp of milk (say, 1/4 of a mugful? ish...)
1/4 tsp baking powder/bicarbonate of soda
Plenty of salt and pepper. If your name is Shell, at least three times as much as you think you need. And stop worrying about too much salt in the diet. Once in a while is not going to kill you, and you need plenty of salt in tortilla. I have no evidence, but a deep suspicion that adding it at the end will not work, because something chemical goes on to improve the texture of the omelette and make it light and fluffy.
Loads of olive oil.


Any other "filling" ingredients e.g. sliced pepper, salami, chorizo...or flavouring ingredients e.g. herbs, spices, mustard...

Turn on your grill to high. In a frying pan, heat your oil on a medium heat, and throw in the garlic when the oil is hot enough for the garlic to start sizzling. After 30 seconds, throw in the potato, and cook until soft and starting to brown, stirring occasionally.

While the potatoes are doing their thing, crack the eggs into a bowl, add salt, pepper and baking powder, and milk. Whisk. Whisk a bit more. And some more. You know what, just carry on whisking it whenever you're not doing anything else. It's good exercise. By the time it goes in the tortilla it should have a nice layer of big-bubbled foam on top.


At some point you'll want to throw in the rest of the veg and let that cook. When it starts softening, make sure that there's still plenty of oil, and throw in your excellently whisked eggs. As it starts solidifying, use a spatula to loosen the edges of the tortilla from the pan. When it's not quite still liquid in the middle, sprinkle the cheese on top and place under the grill. Grill until the egg is cooked and the cheese has gone golden brown.

Enjoy your protein-rich, cheap and very tasty meal.

*I looked this up. Google accepts it is the correct spelling.

The mystery of white sauce

I'm going to let you in to a secret now.

It's a life or death thing - if you tell anyone else, I'd have to hunt you down.

You ready?

You sure?

Here goes:





It's not hard to make white sauce.







Honestly. I promise. Hand on heart. Forget lumps. You never need to have them again. Forget burning your butter. I laugh in the face of it.

Yes, yes, I know the roux method often can be tricky. But really, you hardly ever have to use that! (Although I did in my previous post...I just didn't tell you that.)

So, just for Vic and Nic, here is my sure fire way of making white sauce, perfectly:

1. The ingredients:

Traditionally, you would use milk, flour, and butter. For it to be a white sauce, you really do need the milk. The flour can be wheat flour, corn flour, gluten free flour, I've even used bread flour in the past, although I wouldn't recommend using a seeded one...Cornflour is particularly easy to keep lump-free, however.

You can use butter, margarine, lard or virtually any type of oil or fat. If I'm just making a sauce (e.g. for Broccoli Cheese), rather than (as in the case of the Rarebit) something that I'm making the sauce around the filling (if that makes any sense) then I'll use the spreadable butter I always have in.

And of course, you can use Lactofree or milk substitutes if you're that way inclined.

You probably also need a flavouring, e.g. cheese or parsley and some seasoning. White sauce on it's own is really just a base for making flavoured sauces.

2: The amounts

So you've decided what you're going to use. Now you need to work out how much you need.

The proportions depend on how thick you want your sauce to be, but don't worry, if it's too thick or too thin we can deal with that later. For a sauce that is a little thicker than double cream, I use about 4 heaped teaspoons of flour, 1 teaspoon of butter, and 3/4 - 1 pint of milk.


3: The method:

This is how I do it.

Mix flour and a little bit of the cold milk in a mug, so it's a smooth paste. Make sure you get right into the corners of the mug so all the flour is mixed in, and you've squashed any lumps floating on top against the sides so they mix in properly. Top the mug up with milk and mix again, just to make sure.

Add to the rest of the milk, which should be in your pan, and add the butter/fat. Heat up on a low-medium heat, stirring gently but constantly. The flour cooks just before boiling point, and so as the sauce gets near to this point you will notice it starting to thicken, and then just as it boils it will have got as thick as it's going to. Turn the heat off immediately, and check how thick it is.

4: Troubleshooting

-If it is too thick, then add a bit more milk.

-If it is too thin, then mix a little more flour in a mug with a little more milk (but not too much this time - just enough so that it is in a paste but will pour out of the mug easily.) and add to the pan. Stir it immediately, then put it back on the heat and warm to boiling point again. NEVER add the extra flour straight to the pan and NEVER add it when it's only just below boiling point. Remember that the thickening is caused by the flour cooking, and lumps are what happens when the flour has cooked before having a chance to disperse properly.

HOWEVER, remember that flavourings such as cheese will thicken the sauce further.

-If, by some miracle such as being unable to follow my instructions, you have managed to get a lumpy sauce:

a) Whisking and sieving may help - but only if it's not too thick/the lumps aren't too prolific or too large. Remember Bridget Jones's Diary. "Sieve it Una, sieve it."

b) Otherwise, it might be best to chuck and start again.

-If you've burnt the milk, it's pretty unrescuable. Sorry. Stir more next time, and keep it on a lower heat.


If you can think of, or get any other problems I've not thought of, put a comment on the blog and I'll address it.

Hope that helps.

All things Rhubarb and a twist on Welsh Rarebit

Apparently final year of university isn't compatible with much. At least, my knitting has slowed almost to a standstill, I've barely been bellringing more than a couple of times a month since Christmas, pub trips are at a minimum, and I haven't even been popping to my friends' for a coffee and a chat on a whim any more! And of course, my fledgeling blog barely got started before having to go on hold.

One thing you can be sure of though, is that I do still eat, and eat fabulous food at that (in case that intimidates some people - don't worry, I still have supernoodles and beans on toast days). After all, we all have to eat, so we might as well take the absolute maximum pleasure from it. Which is possible even without much time.

It was with this philosophy that I took a rare afternoon off yesterday to head over to Wakefield for the annual Rhubarb festival with two of my coursemates. Surprisingly, I hadn't even heard of it, and S and J had been intending on going for the past 3 years and so far failed. I picked up some lovely bits and pieces. It being a rhubarb festival, I of course got some of the obligatory Yorkshire forced rhubarb, although I haven't yet decided what to do with it. I've also been introduced to the following revelations: 

Rhubarb vinegar - as light as rice vinegar, and as sweet as balsamic. I've got so many ideas for what to do with this I think I'm going to be using it every time I cook for the next two months.

Rhubarb and pork pies - that is, like a normal pork pie with a layer of stewed rhubarb on top. Fab combination.

Rhubarb in cocktails - we went to the cocktail demonstration and I'm now especially a fan of the one S and I helped demonstrate, which consisted of rhubarb puree, cointreau, juice of half a lime, gin, and topped up with soda water. 

Smoked goats cheese - ok, so it's not rhubarb, but I'd never had it before. The combination that is. I've had smoked cheese AND goats cheese before.

Spicy hawthorn sauce - see above.

I ended up combining a few of those into tonight's tea - which because I've been studying most of the day and will be again tomorrow, needed to be quick, comforting and tasty. The result is below*.

(Wakefield) Welsh Rarebit (with Smoked Goats Cheese, Rhubarb and Hawthorn)

Serves 1 reasonably hungry person, as long as you're not too concerned about the amount of fat you're eating. 

(Ok, my photography needs work. But hey, it is really just glorified cheese on toast...)

If you don't have access to rhubarb vinegar, then balsamic vinegar would be good too. If you don't have either then you'll come up with something. If you really can't, email me and I'll help you out.

1 large flat mushroom, sliced thinly

1 small onion, finely chopped

2 tbsp water

1 tbsp rhubarb vinegar

1 tsp cornflour

1/6 of a pint of milk

A large handful of grated mature cheddar

2 slices brown bread

A few slivers of goats cheese, smoked or unsmoked.

2 tbsp low-flavoured oil, e.g. sunflower, vegetable, rapeseed etc.

Salt and pepper

Hawthorn or brown sauce to serve.

Heat 1/2 the oil in a large ovenproof non-stick frying pan. When hot, turn the heat down to medium and place your mushroom slices in, making sure they all touch the bottom of the pan and are not overlapping each other. When they start going brown on that side, turn them over and cook for another couple of minutes until they are brown on both sides.

Remove the mushrooms from the pan, and add the onions. Fry on a low-medium heat. As they begin to brown, add the water and the vinegar. Continue to cook until the onions are just softening.

Turn off the heat and sprinkle over the cornflour. Mix well, ensuring the onions are coated and the flour is mixed into any remaining oil. Add the milk, and place back on a low heat. Keep stirring as it thickens, and when it has thickened add the grated cheddar. Mix until melted, smooth and glossy.

Remove from the heat again. Layer the bread with the mushrooms, and then spread the cheese and onion mixture over the top, spreading it right into the corners of the bread and covering the mushrooms. Make sure you get as much of the sauce out of the pan as you can - you still need it. Place your slices of goats cheese on top and season with salt and pepper to taste. 

Heat the rest of the oil in the frying pan on a high heat, and when hot place the loaded bread slices unloaded side down in the oil. Fry for 30 seconds, and then place under a hot grill for 2 minutes. (If you'd prefer not to fry the bread as well, then toast your bread lightly and place them on a grill pan. I was a) trying to save on washing up and b) forgot to toast my bread.)

Serve with a dollop or a drizzle of sauce. And if you've got some in, maybe a bowl of salad dressed in some more rhubarb vinegar to balance all that fat...

Enjoy curled in a corner on your own, jealously guarding from anyone who may walk by. 

* It seems ridiculous writing a recipe for Welsh Rarebit - its one of these things that I do completely differently every time, because virtually everything in that recipe list you can substitute, or even not use, and you can do it in so many different ways. However, this one was especially good, so I thought I'd share. 

But not the one I cooked, oh no, that one was all mine.

Reindeer Meat

There seems to have been a bit of a storm of controversy about Lidl's reindeer meat. Bit stupid really I think. Meat is often far worse treated in this country. I'm rather looking forward to trying it. I think I shall swing by Lidl to do my shop this week, and make some kind of stew with the meat.

Anyone cooked reindeer before? What works well?


In other news, it transpires that Kate and Wills are getting married. Apparently the last big royal wedding included a menu of fresh strawberries and cream, brill in lobster sauce, and supreme de voilaille Princess de Galles which is chicken breast stuffed with a fine lamb mousse (sounds delicious...ish). I wonder what a suitable wedding breakfast for royals will be this time. 

Bacchus Food and Beer Festival: The Food

For discussion of the beer see Chris's blog here.


Well, the time rolled around again last week for another Food and Beer festival at one of our favourite pubs in Newcastle, the Bacchus. These are gluttonous affairs, consisting of 8 courses, each matched with a half pint of real ale from one brewery. As time has gone on they have refined the format, and now the brewer usually comes and talks about each beer and the brewery.

It's not just about the beer though, despite its popularity among the Camra community in Newcastle. The festivals are a chance for Paul, the chef, to get away from the normal (always excellent) pub grub that is served the rest of the time, and experiment with ingredients and combinations he doesn't often get to cook in a restaurant environment.

This in turn, means that I often get new food experiences. It's at these festivals that I've had oysters and snails for the first time (the oysters were great, the snails were the one course I have ever not finished in the Bacchus - but then, I'm squeamish about snails anyway) and memorable combinations like Chocolate and Courgette Brownie, and Mexican Style Strawberries with nachos, sour cream and cracked black pepper.

Last week's festival was matching beers from Fyne Ales who are based at the head of Loch Fyne in Scotland. I think it was one of the best, and most consistent of the festivals, and I enjoyed it immensely. None the less, me being me, I can always suggest improvements.

So, on to the courses themselves:

Course 1: Caviar (with Hurricane Jack)

Straight away, something I've never eaten before: caviar, served with Scottish wheat cakes. Really simple flavours, that packed a punch for the first course of the day. I loved the salty, fishyness of it, and I was surprised that the texture wasn't slimy in the least. The savoury wheat cakes worked really well to balance the salt. Having said that, I'm not sure I'd ever pay huge amounts of money for it.

As for the beer match, I thought it was a great one.

Course 2: Moules Mariniere (with Pipers Gold)

Mussels are a recent love, but a great one, and these were done to perfection. I tried to claim our friend's, who doesn't like mussels, but his wife got there first. Shame. A classic combination, and I can't say much more about it (other than it inspired me to finally try cooking them myself the other day).

As for the beer, it was another good match.

Course 3: Piri Piri King Prawn Filo Parcel (with Avalanche)

The parcels in this course were served with Jasmine rice. It is a good combination, although I think the rice was a touch to delicately flavoured to stand up to the massive amount of chille and lime in the parcels. I did think however that the prawns were well spiced, in the sense that they were very spicy, but you didn't lose the flavour of the prawns or the lime. 

The beer match was great, and really helped to calm the spice down.

Course 4: Caramelised Onion, Bacon and Goats Cheese Tart (with Maverick)

This was one of the best presented dishes of the day - maybe not imaginative, but it was one of few that had a variety of colour on the plate. And sometimes I couldn't care less about stacking things on top of each other in an artistic manner, if there's no colour. The pastry was crumbly and buttery, and the filling packed full of salty sweet flavour. It came at just the right point in the meal as well, with the dairy being able to eradicate the storm of spice still lingering from the prawns. One of my favourite dishes of the day.

The beer match was ok, but not that memorable.

Course 5:  Lamb with Balsamic vinigarette

I think this course is designed purely and simply to show of the quality of the meat. It was superb. Yes, it was just lamb, lettuce, and a balsamic dressing, but the lamb was still gorgeously pink in the middle, melt-in-your mouth juicy, and the balsamic vinegar combined with the distinctive taste of lamb fat on the crunchy lettuce was to die for. It's a dish of contrasts - the bite to the lamb and the crunch of the lettuce, and the sharpness of the vinegar and the grease of the lamb. Great.


Course 6: Venison stuffed with Haggis

The flavours in this were great, really robust and warming on a cold autumn night, but I can't help feeling that it just looks boring on the plate. I would maybe have put a tiny heap of pickled red cabbage with it, more for the colour than anything else (although pickled red cabbage would have worked wonderfully well). I also found that my piece was just a touch tough and dry around the edges, although those near me didn't have that problem at all. Maybe it was one of the first to be plated and spent a little too long under the warmers. I have to give them a little leeway for getting 30 plates for each course out within 5 minutes of each other after all.

Course 7: Scone with fruit preserve and clotted cream

The scone was gorgeous - crispy top, soft and fluffy in the middle. Even Chris ate it without bothering to pick out or complain about the raisins. The fruit preserve was good, but not as good as our friend Cath's. But hey, who's complaining?


Course 8: Espresso Creme Brulee with Shortbread

The custard in this was nice, but unfortunately the sugar on top was not crunchy! And the shortbread was slightly undercooked, giving it a doughy middle. It's a real shame, because this would have been a fantastic end to the meal had it been perfect. Which is not to say I didn't enjoy it of course. Things have to taste pretty horrible before I won't eat them.




Over all, I think the balance of courses was great, although more vegetable matter would have been lovely. I really like fishy stuff but am not great at cooking it so I loved the fact that the menu was relatively heavy in fish. I thought some of the dishes were superb, most particularly the lamb, the mussels and the tart. It wasn't perfect, but that was ok. Each time the standard goes up as the Bacchus team get more experienced. I think the beer matches this time were the best and most consistent of any of the festivals I've been to - there wasn't one I disagreed with, although some worked better than others.

As ever, I had a great time, and I can't wait for the next festival we go to.

Cragside Soup

After a wonderful day visiting the National Trust Property of Cragside in Northumberland, it was definitely an evening for a warming dinner. The amazing autumn colours of the trees, along with this last week inspired me to create the following. It is named in honour of one of the most gorgeous places I've been in a long time.

Cragside Soup


2 Onion Squashes
2 small red onions
2 large cloves of garlic
1 thumb sized piece fresh ginger
Drizzle olive oil
Small tub single cream
Milk
Nutmeg
Chille Powder
Ground Cumin
Salt and ground black pepper.

Prehet the oven to Gas mark 6/200C

Slice off the bottom point of each squash, just enough so that it will stand upright. Slice off the top, leaving a big enough section to be able to get a soon into. You may also need to cut out some of the flesh in order to get into the seed cavity. Keep the top, but discard the bottom.

Finely chop the onion, garlic, and grate the ginger. Share between the squashes and drizzle a tiny amount (about 1/2 a tsp) of olive oil in each. Sprinkle about 1/2 tsp chille on top, and replace the lids of the squash.

Place in the oven in a roasting tray, for about an hour, or until you can stick a fork in the flesh of the squash easily, and the skin is easy to peel away.

It should be noted at this point that I had really wanted to be able to serve the soup in the skins of the squash, but unfortunately, the skins of onion squash apparently are too thin and unable to stand up when roasted. See picture for evidence.

Using a spoon, and your fingers (asbestos fingers helpful) remove the flesh from the skins and place in your blender or other blending implement. Add the cream and blend until smooth. Add milk to thin it to your desired consistency (I like soup quite thick, so mine was a bit thicker than double cream.)

Season with plenty of salt and pepper to balance the sweetness, add more chille if it is not hot enough for you, and some nutmeg to balance the creaminess with a bit of earthiness*. Serve sprinkled with grated nutmeg, another sprinkling of chille, and a nice bread roll.

Marvel at the bright yellowy orange colour, then dig in.

*I did not actually add nutmeg at this point simply because Chris doesn't like it. I just put loads on top of mine in the bowl.


Beer Match: We have been enjoying three lovely Rauchbiers. The smoky, meaty flavour goes wonderfully well with the soup. Read more here.