Bacon with Red Pepper Pesto Pasta - done in a twinkling!

What a success this one proved to be!  Mind you, I don't know why I'm sounding surprised because it uses three of my favourite things - bacon, mushrooms and Asda's ricotta & red pepper pesto.  To my way of thinking, it was a winner before I even took my knife to the bacon.  However, sometimes what seems like the perfect combination of ingredients turns out to leave a little to be desired in one way or another - but happily, not so here.  Plus, of course, it has the added bonus of being simplicity itself to prepare.

Oh and as a little aside, have you noticed how often my food seems to turn out to be orange coloured? I don't try to make it that way, honest I don't, it seems as though my choice of ingredients has a marked lean towards the orange.  But then, the menfolk grumble if there's too much green on the plate, grumble again if I serve them "brown food" and would justifiably grumble at being served black food, so aside from white I guess that just leaves the red/yellow/orange palette as there's not too many blue foods out there!  So this one is following along in the tradition of being the seemingly man-friendly colour of orange. 

Now, let me recommend to you Asda's little pot of Ricotta & Red Pepper pesto.  This seemingly unassuming little jar contains one of the most delicious substances that I have used in everything from sandwiches to pasta.  Along with the rich ricotta and flavoursome red pepper, it also has a sneaky little bite from red chilli that just makes it glorious.  I would be very happy if you were all to rush out and buy some, love it and continue buying it, as that would mean it will stay around on the shelves for ever!

The pesto marries up with bacon perfectly, of course.  The celery adds a welcome freshness that prevents the dish from becoming too heavy on the palate and the addition of the small amount of sour cream helps to loosen the pesto into a sauce without impinging on the flavour at all.

I call this one a very definite win.  The empty bowls and enquiries as to whether there was any left, gave proof to that belief, too.  As a mid-week, easy, relatively cheap dinner, you can't go wrong.

BACON WITH RED PEPPER PESTO PASTA   (serves 3)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp olive oil
350g smoked back bacon, trimmed of fat and diced
1 large onion, diced finely
1 clove garlic, chopped finely
2 sticks of celery, diced finely
black pepper
half a tsp dried oregano
200g quartered mushrooms 
190g jar red pepper & ricotta pesto
1 tbsp sour cream
200ml water
250g dried pasta shapes - tubes are good.

Method :

Heat the olive oil in a large deep sided frying pan and add the bacon.  Fry over a high heat until all the moisture has evaporated and the bacon is cooked through.

Reduce the heat to moderate and add the onion, garlic and celery, along with a pinch of black pepper and the oregano.  Fry until the onion is transparent and the celery is beginning to soften.

Add the mushrooms and continue to fry until they are beginning to soften.

Three quarters fill a large saucepan with water and add a pinch of salt.  Bring to the boil and once boiling, add the dried pasta.  Remember to give the pasta a stir every so often to ensure it's not sticking to the bottom of the pan.  Cook for 10-12 minutes, or to manufacturer's instructions.

Add the contents of the pesto jar to the bacon mix, along with 100ml of water (you can use it to rinse out the pesto jar, so as to get every last little bit!) and stir to combine.

Once the ingredients are looking mixed, stir in the sour cream.  Simmer on a very low heat until the pasta is ready.  You may need to add a little more water from time to time to keep the mixture saucy.

Once the pasta is cooked, drain it well and return it to the hot saucepan.  Take the bacon mixture and decant it on top of the pasta and stir gently, but thoroughly, through.

Serve in warmed bowls with some garlic bread to accompany.

Printable version

Reviewing : Asda's "Family Favourites" Beef Lasagne (and trying Poutine!)

No matter how dedicated a do-it-yourself, cook from scratch, no additives, no sweeteners, no colours type of foodie you are - sometimes you need to use a Supermarket bought ready meal of some kind or another.

We use these sorts of foodstuffs as a break from the intricacies of cooking from scratch, with a very great mix of results.  Anyone who follows Rhubarb & Ginger's Facebook page will remember the horror that was the Lamb Grills.  ~shudder~

So anyway, I was sitting there today waiting for the Lasagne and oven chips to cook - I know, don't hate me for it, okay? - and I thought that I should do a little review post on the Lasagne.  After all, Rhubarb & Ginger is all about family cooking and making do with what you've got - and sometimes, you can't afford to make an entire four person Lasagne from scratch because to do so would amount to the equivalent of at least two of the frozen version from your local supermarket.  Inevitably, in that sort of circumstance, the supermarket one will win - and quite rightly too.  Who knows, maybe you could buy your son some long awaited socks with the other £3, before he winds up with tubes on his feet instead.

The more I pondered on the idea, the more I liked it.  Well, when you've got 50 minutes to wait for the Lasagne, it gives you plenty of opportunity for pondering, in between putting the chips onto a baking tray, then into the oven, then out of the oven, turn them around, back into the oven.  *sigh*  Such hard work.

The Lasagne in question was Asda's (humungous, at 1400g) "Family Favourites" Beef Lasagne from their freezer cabinet.  Now we went into the Lasagne thing this evening with some trepidation as Lasagne had become something of a minefield in the past - albeit quite a long ago past.  For a while there, it seemed impossible to find a Lasagne that wasn't all sauce and no meat.  You would try to serve it up using a fish slice, only to have it literally pour off the sides of the slice and you wound up with three pieces of empty pasta that you had to flop dejectedly onto a pool of tomato based liquid on your plate and call it dinner.  Just disgusting.

However, not so with the new breed of Lasagne!  Now bear in mind that this is just a bog standard version - a "Chosen By You" but not one of the "better" grades, just a standard, common or garden Lasagne - and at £3, I defy you to make one for less.  With no artificial colours, flavours or hydrogenated fat, I'd say we've probably come a long way since I indulged in a shop bought Lasagne.

Not only did it cut acceptably, but it served very nicely too.  It kept its filling in place and its Bechamel sauce stayed put.  The grated cheese on the top made for a nice toasty cheese flavour and I heartily approved of the small cubes of carrot that were included in the tomato and beef mince sauce.  When you are trying to get some kind of veggies into your children, hiding them in a Lasagne is often the only way with some.

The only negatives that I could pinpoint were :

a) that the sauce was a little too tomato and not enough beef in flavour, but that is probably just a personal preference.

b) that the pasta, once cooked, became a bit over soft and plasticine like.  However, again, if you're trying to feed children - soft pasta is a good thing.

c)  that the cooking time required an extra ten minutes to get the heat right through - and even then we had to blowtorch the middle of the surface to get that all over baked cheesy goodness look.

I felt that the salt content was reasonable, as at 2.2g of salt per quarter of a pack it could certainly have been better (especially bearing in mind the Government recommendation for a daily salt allowance of 5g), but then I was expecting far worse.  I suspect that without the declared level of salt there would have to be some radical work done on flavour, which would in turn have a knock-on effect on the price.  So, in this case, I'm willing to allow that you actually get a little bit more than you've paid for.

Bearing in mind that the Lasagne didn't have much to live up to, it has done very well.  However, don't forget that this isn't a swanky version with sun dried tomatoes and fresh basil - it is the "one above economy" version.  So you're not getting a Lasagne with thick layers of meat sauce that tastes amazing.  However, what you are getting is a perfectly good, honest, presentable family dinner.

Marks out of 10?  I'd give it a 9 for doing what it says on the tin.

Now, what about this Poutine thing?  Well, it had come to my attention that in Canada - Quebec, particularly - they ate this somewhat odd combination of chips, dark meaty gravy and cheese curds and called it Poutine.  It seemed to be something of a Marmite sort of thing - people either love it or hate it with no leeway inbetween.

I made a mental note to look out for cheese curds (I'll admit, the name "cheese curds" is about as off putting as they come) and maybe - just maybe - try it out one day.
 
Over the ensuing months, I learned a little more about Poutine - and the cheese curds aspect particularly.  It would seem that cheese curds are no more than a dry Cottage Cheese.  Now in Canada, they recommend using Cheddar cheese curds.  As to where I could find some of those, I have no clue.  For a long time, I had no clue about what cheese curds were in relation to where you got them from, never mind specific Cheddar versions!  It seemed to me that if you had Cheddar cheese curds on hand, you'd be far better employed turning them into Cheddar cheese than selling your basic product out from under your own two feet!  I had a number of products suggested - from buying a pot of standard creamy Cottage Cheese and draining it, to using Quark.  None of those sounded right.

Just - literally - a few days ago, hubby discovered a pack of full fat cheese curds in the Polish section of Asda - Twarog Lowicki.  He mentioned it to me and I lit up like a roman candle.  Taking that as a declaration of extreme interest (clever lad!), he bought some today.  Of course, the fact that we were a) having chips with the Lasagne and b) we were due in Asda anyway, helped enormously.

So, these cheese curds are intriguing and from what I could gather, absolutely right.  Imagine our kind of cottage cheese, but without the loose creaminess, being put through a sieve.  Tiny little pearls of white, very young, cheese.  Put a teaspoonful on your tongue and you taste nothing.  They're akin to water.  Allow some heat to permeate through and you start to taste their creaminess - which grows as you move them around.  They aren't anything like as chalky as Cottage Cheese, they are much smoother.  A little tart tasting - but very good.

On the chips, with the addition of beef gravy and malt vinegar, they are a revelation.  Poutine - count me in!

Honey mustard chicken with herb salad & jacket potatoes

In an attempt to put some lighter and remotely healthy dishes on the menu list, I hit upon the half-way house that is "something with salad and a jacket potato" idea.  The something being the star of the show, the salad being the healthy bit and the jacket potato takes on the role of the filler.

You see, I've discovered that if you go from big old hearty stews with dumplings, enormous bowls of steaming pasta, lovely warming soups etc. straight to salads, what you wind up with are a lot of peckish chaps by 9pm.

So, in this intervening period (Spring, some call it) I've been trying to hit upon nice half-way house types of recipes that suit the weather and suit everyone's need for something fresher and lighter for dinner.  Of course, needless to say, by next week it'll be sub-zero overnight and we'll be hankering for the old Shin of beef stews again - but I might as well try!

This Honey Mustard Chicken recipe is a perfect example of a recipe of the type.  The chicken is served hot, as is the jacket potato - so both warm you up a bit on a chilly evening.  However, the salad provides that fresh flavour and crunch that your tastebuds have been hankering for, after a couple of months of root vegetables.

In fact, this chicken recipe is the first for aeons that the glaze has actually gone right - and glazed the chicken, instead of falling off and resisting all attempts to have it do any glazing.  Instead, it normally winds up laying in the bottom of the pan sulking, claiming it's "not in their job description" and "a real cook would know how".

This glaze - whether it was the hotter temperature, or the size of the pan I got right - worked perfectly and the chicken came out of the oven suitably glazed, with a lovely soft, perfectly cooked middle.

Because I was cooking the Jacket Potatoes at the same time, I had the oven temperature up at 200 deg C instead of 180/190 deg C - which is what I would normally cook chicken at.  It seems as though I shall have to try this hotter temperature again, as it seemed to do the trick beautifully.

A word about the Jacket Potatoes themselves.  They were Asda's Extra Special Marabel potatoes, which I would heartily recommend.  They are sweet and fluffy - and the skins taste really richly potato-like.  Oh, and ignore the "won't need butter" instruction on the label - they might not NEED butter, but every jacket potato should have SOME butter!

July 2018

I have just made this yummy chicken dish again - except this time I paired it with some delicious paprika roast potatoes and a mixed salad with cherries.  I had forgotten how good the chicken tasted and how easy it was to make!  Here's the picture of today's incarnation.  :D

HONEY MUSTARD CHICKEN WITH HERB SALAD & JACKET POTATO  (serves 3)

Ingredients :

2 tbsp clear honey
1 tbsp grain mustard
half a lime, juice only
3 skinless chicken breasts

3 baking potatoes
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
3 knobs of butter
3 tbsp soured cream
3 tsp chopped fresh chives

A bag of herb salad
9 cherry tomatoes
some cucumber slices

Method :

Pre-heat oven to 200deg C/400deg F/Gas 6.

Take the three baking potatoes and clean them thoroughly, removing any dodgy looking eyes or scratch marks and rub in the olive oil to the skins of the potatoes and place onto a baking sheet.  Season both sides of the potatoes, then place into the oven for an hour.

Mix the honey, mustard and lime juice together in a small bowl.

Trim the chicken breasts of any fat and arrange them in a baking dish.  Spoon the honey/mustard/lime juice mix over, taking care to cover every inch of the chicken.

Place into the oven for 20-25 minutes or until the chicken is white all the way through and not showing any pink liquid when pierced with a knife.

In the meantime, open a bag of herb salad and arrange a portion onto each of the three plates.  Add the cherry tomatoes and cucumber.

When done, place a jacket potato alongside the salad.  Cut a cross into the top of each and squeeze gently to raise the flesh of the potato.  Add a knob of butter, a tbsp of soured cream and sprinkle the chives over.

Add the chicken with a little of the cooking juices spooned over and serve.

Printable version

Getting closer to Christmas!

Some cheese & biscuits that Hubby prepared for me. 
Cute, eh?  :)

The tension is mounting!  Ridiculous, isn't it, when it is just for two days of eating, drinking, being in one another's company, supplying batteries for the kids' new toys and watching rubbish t.v.  I'm trying to retain some perspective, but it is so easy to get swept away when the shops and t.v. (and the internet, to an extent) are plastered with Christmassy messages, all designed to part you from some cash.

I have been trying to assemble a menu for the three days of Christmas and failing miserably, so far.  Hubby and I had an impromptu discussion - just as we were getting into bed - on the subject that resulted in the Ottolenghi Cookbooks coming out and a little bit of research being done, to illustrate my thoughts on the subject.  I now feel as though I've a bit more of a focus as to what I'm doing, but the planning aspect is still getting away from me - as is evidenced by the cook books and notepad out on the bed ... and I'm writing a blog post.  *chuckle*

Speaking of blog posts - I noticed the other day that Rhubarb & Ginger had gone up 20 points on the Wikio scale.  I'm proud of that!  Alright, I'm still only at number 420 - but it's 20 less than I was at!

We went out shopping on Tuesday as normal, only decided to have a scope around our local Tesco, with a view to perhaps shopping there in future (because it's a lot nearer) instead of at our local Asda (which is further away).  We attacked Asda first, so as to get the bulk of the shopping done, and as a damage limitation exercise for Tesco.  You know what it's like when you're in a new shop - everything seems so much more interesting, before you know where you are you've spent a fortune!

We arrived at Poole Asda at around 8.30am, having dropped son at school.  Because our tummies were rumbling and it's never good to shop when you're hungry, we decided to pop into their cafe and have a bacon sandwich and a coffee.  Now bear in mind that we had to have been one of the first customers there that morning - and in light of that I really do think that there was no excuse for the half-cooked bacon, nor the sausage that tasted of cardboard and especially the lukewarm coffees.  Oh, and why in heaven's name do they give you little pats of rock-hard butter to "spread" (one lump or two?) on your soft roll - which destroys it?  *sigh*

As for Tesco at Fleetsbridge, well I think I'm safe in saying we won't be spending much time shopping there.  As a disabled person who has to use one of their electric ride-on buggies, shopping as Christmas approaches becomes an increasing challenge.  However, Tesco's ride-on buggies run silently - which you would think is a bonus.  Right up until you "sneak" up on someone who steps back into you and hurts their foot for the third time in as many minutes.  It gets very, very difficult thereafter.  It would also help if the buggies went when you pressed the "go" button and likewise, stopped when you let it go.  Allowing for two second's drift in either manoeuvre helps, but not when someone stops dead in front of you.  Asda's noisy buggies some into their own there - at least everyone (apart from the very deaf) knows you're there!

Hubby's Prawn & Little Gem Risotto was a success, by the way.  Not quite a triumph, as it lacked a teensy bit of creaminess and would definitely have benefited from more Parmesan, but it was so very nearly there.  The King Prawns we got from Asda were super meaty and juicy and the addition of the Little Gem lettuce may seem odd, but it worked brilliantly.  Because he added it at absolutely the last minute, it wilted but still retained the crunch that made each mouthful so interesting.  The lettuce also gave a freshness to the dish which sat very well beside the prawns.  Can't wait for the second edition!

One last note - I think I may have just marked myself, as son's Mum, as a source of very good grub in his friend's eyes.  *chuckle*  They arrived hungry and in time for lunch, so I made them toasted ham & fried egg sandwiches.  The plates came back polished.  Job done.  *grin*

[Edited to correct grammatical inconsistencies caused by arrival of son & friend]