Fast brekkie, soupy lunch, divine dinner - works for me!

Today, being Tuesday ... hang on, it's Wednesday.  Well, for circumstances we won't go into here (dull, dull) we didn't get to go shopping until today.  So I found myself outside Asda with a growly tummy of doom and succumbed to a Mcdonald's double bacon & egg Mcmuffin and a cup of tea.  I resolved to make up for it at lunchtime.  LOL  No three course lunch for me, today.

When lunchtime came around, it was a quick scan of the soup cupboard and recourse to good old Heinz soups - Lentil and Bacon, in fact.  Add a few Finn Crisp crispbreads with a smidgeon of goat butter on each (they make fantastic dipping ammunition and carry far less calories than a piece of bread) and a couple of plums for afters and there's lunch sorted.  457 calories for the lot, which was equivalent to the Mcdonalds brekkie - so it could have been worse.

I had one of my favourites on the menu plan for our evening meal - the Sicilian Pork Ragu with chocolate (go to http://jennyeatwellsrhubarbginger.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/sicilian-pork-ragu-with-chocolate-co.html to find the recipe).  Mmmmn, oh how I adore that dish.  It is so simple to make, so long as you give it time to marry up the flavours and reduce to the correct flavour intensity.  You really can't hurry this one.  The chocolate is just one square stirred in towards the end and although it doesn't make a huge difference to the flavour, it does richen both the colour and the texture along with making a subtle difference to the flavour.

We tried out Asda's fresh egg spinach fettucine for the first time with the Ragu and it was epic.  Really, really good.  I recommend both to you!

For dessert, we had the rare occurrence of a "proper" almost home made dessert which was a real throwback to the seventies.  On Valentine's day, I had received a beautiful box of plums, peaches and nectarines from South African fruit.  I ripened them up in the fruit bowl, then put them in the fridge to await their fate.  Easily assembled, the flan involved a sponge flan case with sweetened vanilla mascarpone smoothed inside, then the sliced fruit (peaches and nectarines) laid on top and secured by lemon jelly.  Fan-flipping-tastic.

It's probably best not to think about the calories for the flan were (404 for a quarter, ouch!) - but the calories for the Ragu were very acceptable at 686, especially considering the amount of red wine that is involved in its cooking.

It was certainly a good day where food was concerned!

Today's dinner : An emergency Sicilian!

Son & heir's plans changed suddenly and instead of being out this evening, he and a friend were going to be in for dinner after all.  This meant that what we had planned to have - a night off from cooking, complete with prawn cocktail baguettes - was abandoned and I had to get thinking about what to make instead!

It had to be something easy, with not much preparation, as following on from a busy and slightly stressful day yesterday (yes, going out for lunch is stressful, these days), I knew I'd be feeling it today.

Good old pasta.  You can't go wrong with it, it's so easy to make - whatever you put with it!  I decided upon the Sicilian Pork Ragu with Chocolate that we all love.  All you need to prepare is an onion and some basil, so it was perfect.  You can find the recipe for this quick and stress-free lovely at http://jennyeatwellsrhubarbginger.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/sicilian-pork-ragu-with-chocolate-co.html

The ragu was a little wetter than usual, largely because the pan decided to act like Mount Vesuvius and send little super hot globules of sauce flying in all directions.  I'm really not sure why this one decided to do that and others haven't, but it made simmering the sauce virtually impossible.  I really must buy a splatter guard.  I don't really want to go and see the state my cooker is in!

Dessert was a shop-bought lemon tart with additional raspberries - and hubby went a bit mad with the squirty cream and sprinkles.  He reckons everything is made better by the addition of sprinkles.  He may even be right!

From Cottage Pie to Chicken & Bacon Stew : a round-up of the last two weeks

Medicinal Cottage Pie - just what the doctor ordered!

As I had been struck down with a case of the nasties, my meal planning for the last two weeks has been a bit different to normal.

For the first week, I had to come up with meals that Hubby could make without too much difficulty, as it was quite apparent that I wouldn't be doing very much in the kitchen other than making toast!

So, on that Monday we had shop-bought chicken in spicy breadcrumbs, in a wrap with lettuce, salsa and guacamole.  Son & heir was very happy with this (well, apart from the guacamole, but hubby very wisely put his guacamole separately on the side of the plate as he'd anticipated problems there) and it was a doddle for Hubby to put together.

Son & heir was going on his first parent-free visit to the cinema on the Wednesday, so when we'd collected him and his friend, we wheeled them off to Macdonalds for a celebratory burger.  I had one of their sweet chilli chicken wraps, which was actually quite palatable.  We got home and I went back to bed.  LOL

I was paying for the outing the following day, so Hubby prepared a medicinal Cottage Pie, with carrots, broccoli and celeriac (for Shepherd's Pie, just use lamb mince instead of the beef mince used for Cottage Pie).  Unfortunately, the potatoes let him down in that they simply disintegrated in the pan, but the meat part of the pie was delicious as ever.  I felt much restored, thereafter.

Friday was good old Bacon & Leek Pasta.  It is one of the simplest recipes to cook and Hubby did a great job with it.

He'd got the bit well between his teeth come Saturday, and ventured into curry!  We had a really lovely chicken curry with rice and shop-bought puppodums.  There was intentionally nothing fancy, nothing special about the curry, but it was saucy, flavoursome and rich - a perfect everyday curry.

Is that not a very creditable looking roast dinner?  :-)

We've recently discovered that Hubby makes a great line in roast dinners, so for Sunday, he cooked roast chicken breasts with roast potatoes, parsnips and assorted vegetables.  He did the Marco Pierre White thing with the chicken breasts, in that he let down a stock cube with a little water and rubbed it into the meat, together with a little lemon juice.  It was really yummy!   He even found some yorkshire puddings hiding in the freezer, so they went into the oven too.  A cracking good dinner.

Monday is always a "rely on storecupboard goods" day, as either the veggies have all been used up, or it's too long (from shopping on Friday) to expect salad to keep nicely.  So we had good old sausage, mash, baked beans and peas - using Spring Fields lovely Cumberland sausages, of course.

So that was the first week, successfully completed.  I think Hubby deserves a medal, as he was carrying the entire household on his own two feet.

The second week, I was starting to feel a bit more human and anticipated being able to return to kitchen duties.  So, when I was planning the meals I went for ones I've done successfully before, that barring catastrophe, would be almost guaranteed to turn out how they should and be enjoyed by everyone.

Tuesday was cop-out day and we all had frozen supermarket pizza.  Well, it's easy!

See the purple basil?  Cute!

Wednesday was my first day back in the kitchen and although my legs really weren't ready for all this, I struggled on through and made a Sicilian Pork Ragu with Spirali pasta.  I had only made this once before, but it ranks right up there with my favourites.  Hubby did a lot of the getting stuff out and putting stuff away again, so I can't claim to have done it completely on my own - but it was a start.  I was a little concerned about how the Spirali pasta would behave with the Ragu, as the original recipe (care of "A Glug of Oil") uses Tagliatelle and knowing how Willie insists on using the right pasta for the right sauce, I was firmly crossing my fingers.  Happily, it behaved impeccably and everyone cleared their plates (well, all except for a few pieces of pasta - which the dogs soon took care of in their dinners!).

Thursday, I was back at work and Hubby was exploring further along the curry route.  This time, he made a chicken Biryani.  See how artistically he presented it?  I absolutely love boiled egg with curry (well, boiled egg with just about anything really!) and the tomato - which looks a teensy bit overpowering in the picture - in fact was a lovely juicy counterpoint to the rice mixture.  Hubby polished off the leftovers the following day for lunch, so that proves how nice it was!


Friday dawned and we had a guest for dinner that night, as Son & heir had a friend staying over for a sleepover.  I had booked in my Turkey meatballs in a tomato and fennel sauce for that night, which proved perfect as we just had to buy a little extra Turkey mince and the rest stretched.  I found the cooking a little easier to do, this time, too.

Mmmn - tenderstem broccoli!

So that brings us to last night, which was my lovely one-pot chicken & bacon stew, which I served with tenderstem broccoli.  I set off doing the prep. for the dish and suddenly it dawned on me - but not until I was pretty much half-way through - that I should be using half the quantities stated!  It was the 1 litre of chicken stock that alerted me - for 3-4 people, it would have been swimming!  So I had to back up a bit and do some adjusting of the quantities that I had prepared, but even so, I put too much onion, bacon, tomato puree and bay leaves in the mix.  Oddly enough, the result tasted absolutely gorgeous - and a marked improvement on the original (which was pretty darned good, as it stood!). In fact, I've just eaten the leftovers for breakfast, which might tell you how good it was!


Tonight, I'm planning a Pork and Caramelised Apples dish which will be started on the hob and wind up in the oven, just to ensure the pork is tender.  I'll be serving it with mashed potato, runner beans (hopefully some from our garden), carrots & broccoli.  I'll get some vitamins and minerals into those boys if it's the last thing I do!


Tomorrow, Monday, Hubby is back on the curry trail - this time he's planning a vegetable curry, in which he'll use up whatever is leftover in the vegetable drawer and has a secret weapon - a cauliflower!  Curried is the only denomination of cauliflower he enjoys, so a cauliflower was a must for a vegetable curry.  He's planning on serving it with rice and naan bread and I'm really looking forward to it.  There's quite a selection of bits and pieces of vegetables in the veggie drawer, so it should have plenty of variety!


Now, all that leaves me to do is to work out what the heck we're going to be eating this coming week!  Wish me luck!


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Sicilian Pork Ragu with Chocolate : c/o "A Glug of Oil"

Just how lovely does that look?

I found this recipe on the excellent "A Glug of Oil" blog some two or three months ago.  It immediately intrigued me in its use of dark chocolate, not least because of the conjunction with pork mince, but the use of tagliatelle instead of the more usual accompaniments of rice or vegetables.  (More usual, that is, when accompanying mince - rather than accompanying a Sicilian dish).

I held onto it for two reasons.  Firstly, because I needed a little time in which to "get my head around" the idea of using chocolate in this context, and secondly because we never seemed to have the right ingredients around at the same time.

I found myself, this week, with not only some red wine in the fridge but a small block of dark chocolate too.  Bingo!  I could break out the recipe at last.

I loved the result.  The juxtaposition of the cinnamon and the dark chocolate beside the rich tomato and pork mince is not one I have experienced before, but boy oh boy is it good.  I felt that the dish needed some herb input and opted for parsley (as that was the only remotely suitable herb I had to hand), but in retrospect I think that basil would have sat more easily beside the chocolate - which isn't a strong flavour, but is evident nonetheless.

This one will definitely re-appear on the menu list, as it resulted in clear plates all round.

SICILIAN PORK RAGU WITH CHOCOLATE (serves 3-4)

Ingredients :

1 onion, chopped

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

500g pork mince

175ml red wine

2 tbsp tomato puree

1 tsp ground cinnamon

500g Passata

15g dark chocolate

1 tsp sugar

salt & pepper to taste

knob of butter

3-4 basil leaves, shredded

Method :

1.  Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the onion.  Cook over a medium heat until soft but not coloured.

2.  Now add the minced pork, stirring and breaking it up as you go.  You may need to increase the heat to prevent the pork from braising.  Allow the meat to brown slightly, but not burn.

3.  Stir in the tomato puree, then the wine and turn up the heat to simmer for 2 minutes.

4. Add the passata, cinnamon and sugar, then taste and season.

5. Simmer for around 10 minutes, then stir the chocolate in a little at a time.

6. Taste and adjust the seasoning and sugar if required.

7. Reduce the heat and slow simmer until the sauce is nice and thick.

8. Stir in the butter and basil leaves and serve immediately with Tagliatelle pasta.

Printable Version

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