A very un-Kosher pasta dish

Sometimes, a recipe comes from almost nowhere.  That's what happened with this.  A chance glance at a photograph on the BBC Good Food website, led to me dreaming up this recipe on my drive home from work a couple of weeks ago.  It was so visceral, I could almost taste it.  In the end, I gave into my cravings, dug out the non-kosher cookware and came up with this:

Bacon and cream cheese pasta

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients

150g bacon trimmings

1 onion sliced
1 clove garlic, crushed
100g mushrooms, sliced
250ml dry white wine
200g cream cheese
30g or so of freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (real "parmesan" not that Danish fake rubbish)
500g pasta shapes (I used quills because that is what I had)

Method

• Put the water on to boil for the pasta.  Cook the pasta according to the packet's directions.
• Meanwhile, prepare the onion, garlic and mushrooms and proceed with the rest of the recipe.
• In a non-stick frying pan, dry fry the bacon until the fat begins to run.  Stir occasionally.
• Once there is fat in the frying pan, add the onion and continue frying it until the onion becomes glassy/clear.

  

• Stir in the mushrooms and the garlic.  Continue frying, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms have made water and it has evaporated.
• Pour in the white wine and bring to the boil.  Stir in the cream cheese and keep stirring until it has melted and the sauce is creamy.  Switch off the heat and stir in the parmesan.

 

• Drain the pasta and return it to the saucepan.  Pour over the sauce.  Season with freshly ground pepper and serve.

  

 

Enjoy.

 

- Pam

Scrummy with a touch of spinach

Several months ago while surfing the "condemned food counter" at Tesco, I scored the final four inches of a chorizo sausage discarded from the deli.  like many such prizes, it went into the freezer until I decided what to do with it.  I was really tempted to try Kale and Chickpea Stew a la Crazy Aunt Purl but DH doesn't like cooked kale or many of its relatives (cabbage, etc).  He'll eat them raw, but not cooked.

Saturday, when we were grocery shopping, I hit on making it with spinach.  Thanks to an offer, I could pick up a large bunch of spinach for 60p.  DH will eat spinach raw in salads and cooked in Sophie Dahl's Dhal so I rationalised that maybe, just maybe, he'd eat it in this.  The original recipe is here.  This is my version.

Chickpea and Chorizo Stew

Serves 4 to 6


Ingredients

1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 red jalapeno chillies sliced
100g/4oz chorizo, diced
450g cooked chickpeas (drained weight)
1 large bunch of spinach roughly chopped
1 bay leaf
500ml chicken stock
500g potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch dice (preferably use a boiling potato)
2 tablespoons olive oil

Method

1.  Heat the oil in a large saucepan/stew pot.  Fry the onion and chorizo together until the fat starts running from the chorizo (it will be red-ish).
2. Add the garlic and chillies.  Fry for two or three more minutes.
3. Add the stock, chickpeas, potato, spinach and bay leaf.  Bring to the boil and simmer for at least 20 minutes or until the the potato is cooked and at least half of the liquid has evaporated.  The dish should look stew-like not soupy.
4. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Serve in deep soup plates.

This goes well over couscous or with good bread for dunking.  It is even better when left to be eaten on the second day.

And the verdict?  DH declared it "Scrummy", went back for seconds, and then demanded that I make it again soon.  Even the dreaded spinach got the thumbs up.

- Pam

Mmmm.....Moussaka

I'm still lusting after the moussaka I cooked for dinner last night and had again for lunch today. It was scrummy(!!!) so I thought I'd share.

My recipe is based on one from the Greek Cookbook by Tess Mallos, which I bought in a secondhand bookshop in Melbourne in 1997. I've modified it a little - the original uses a white sauce, whereas mine uses plain yoghurt.

Lamb Moussaka - serves 4-6

Ingredients

2-3 Aubergines/eggplants, sliced 1/4 inch thick
500g/1lb minced/ground lamb
1 large onion, chopped
2 large cloves of garlic, crushed
150-200g/6-8oz mushrooms, sliced (optional)
1 x 400g/14oz can chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato puree/paste
1/2 cup of red wine
1/4 teaspoon cinamon
1 teaspoon sugar
300ml (approx half a pint) of plain yoghurt
2oz/50g freshly grated parmisan cheese or very strong cheddar
2 eggs
Nutmeg
Olive oil

Method

1. Pre-heat the grill/broiler. Lightly grease a large baking tray and cover it with aubergine slices. If possible, try to keep it to a single layer. Brush the top of each slice with olive oil. Grill/broil for 30 minutes, turning at half time. The aubergine should be soft and browned.
   
2. Meanwhile, prepare the other ingredients.
3. Heat a frying pan or large pot. Crumble in the lamb and dry fry until browned. Stir in the garlic, onion and mushrooms, if using, and fry in the lamb fat until the onions have gone clear and the mushroom "water" has evaporated.
4. Stir in the chopped tomatoes, tomato puree, cinnamon, sugar and wine. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 30-45 minutes or until the sauce is thick.
5. When the sauce and aubergine are ready, preheat the oven to 180C.
6. Line a lasagne dish with a layer of aubergine. Check out how much you have left - is it half or two-thirds? If it is half, pour all the sauce over the first layer and cover with the remaining aubergine. If it is two-thirds, pour half the sauce over the first layer of aubergine, cover with a second, pour over the rest of the sauce and cover with a final layer.
7. In a bowl or jug, beat the eggs together then stir in the yoghurt until thoroughly combined. Grate over some nutmeg - 5 rubs of the nutmeg over the grater should do. Stir it in.
   
8. Carefully pour the yoghurt mixture over the contents of the lasagne dish (it tends to run off the sides!). Try to get an even coverage. Sprinkle over the cheese.
9. Bake for an hour, then let sit for 10 minutes before serving to firm up.
   

Notes

• If you keep Kosher, use a soy-based fake yoghurt instead of the plain yoghurt and forget about the cheese. That works well.
• Jewish cookery writer, Evelyn Rose, in the Jewish Cronicle, suggested using coconut milk mixed with eggs as a non-dairy substitute for the traditional white sauce I've not tried this variation, but she said it made a rich topping which brought out the sweetness of the lamb.
  
• The recipe book suggests using courgettes/zucchini instead of aubergine. Yet another way of using up a glut of zukes.

- Pam