Well this one is hot off the press! We had this for dinner this evening and it was so good, I had to commit the recipe to the blog before I forgot what I'd done. Yes, it's a Jenny Eatwell original, so mind you remember that when you're telling all your friends. *wink*
In actual fact, the germ of inspiration came from a news article regarding an Italian restaurant. I forget where the restaurant was, but in the article they showed a dish of meatballs with "rag" pasta. This one was completely new to me and required some further investigation - and it turns out that recipes involving "rag" pasta are all over the internet. It is only a wonder that I haven't tripped over one before!
So what is "rag" pasta? It's such a simple thing! You take a fresh lasagne sheet (egg pasta preferably) and cut it into random shapes. Tadaaaaa! Rag pasta. Now I do remember seeing Gennaro Contaldo making something with randomly shaped flat pasta in the past, but hadn't connected it with "rag" pasta. I decided to cut mine into triangles, but you can be as random as you like, so long as the shapes are roughly the same size so that they cook at the same speed.
I will admit, however, that once I combined the pasta with the sauce it looked rather flat and uninviting. Hubby was looking at it most dubiously and I suddenly lost all confidence in my lovely tasty sauce that I'd been quietly rhapsodising over only minutes before.
I made the mistake of serving it on flat plates - it would have looked so much better in a bowl with a little sprinkle of some herb or another - parsley probably - to give a brighter green. Everything looks inviting with some parsley sprinkled over it!
Having dashed off the three photographs (why didn't I take more?) I ventured into the sitting room where hubby and son were tucking in. Well? How was it eating? "Do you know," said hubby, in amazement, "this is actually really very good!".
Really? I mean, there, I told you it would be lovely. ~Koff~ He was right, as well. It ate very nicely indeed. The pasta wasn't chewy, or flabby, the meatballs were just right size wise and yes, you could taste the fennel seed. The sauce was just the right consistency and perfect amounts of it. Gosh! I'd only gone and conjured up a family favourite.
So here I am, dashing off a quick blog post so that you, too, can enjoy some "rag" pasta with your families.
Now, for the cook's notes, I've a couple :
- firstly, make sure to use full fat creme fraiche. Low fat just won't work and will split once you bring it up to the boil.
- Secondly, any old stock will do (other than fish, of course!), so don't worry if you don't have any lamb stock cubes or powder in the cupboard.
- It is very worth crushing the fennel seed before adding it to the meatballs, as getting a seed stuck between your teeth can ruin the best of meals.
For those who might be counting calories, this amounts to roughly 1,161 calories per portion (which is the entire amount divided between three people). However, it is an entire meal on the one plate, so long as you make sure to have a light breakfast and lunch. Of course, you could always serve it with a salad and split it between four people, which would reduce the calories a bit!
Happy munching!
LAMB & FENNEL MEATBALLS WITH RAG PASTA (serves 3)
Ingredients :
500g minced lamb
1 tsp fennel seed
1 tsp sumac
half a tsp garlic granules
1 large banana shallot, one half chopped finely, the other sliced finely
1 tbsp olive oil
200g chestnut mushrooms, sliced
200ml lamb (or veal, or chicken) stock
300ml full fat creme fraiche
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
half a tsp dried thyme
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
300g fresh egg lasagne pasta sheets, cut into 2" triangles
50g tenderstem broccoli
20g peas.
Method :
1. With a pestle and mortar, crush the fennel seed with a pinch of salt. Then into a large bowl, mix together the minced lamb, crushed fennel seed, sumac, pepper, garlic granules and the finely chopped half of banana shallot.
2. Wet your hands and shape the mixture into small meatballs - about the size of a cherry tomato.
3. Heat a deep frying pan and add the olive oil. Once hot, add the meatballs and fry on a high heat until lightly browned, but just cooked through. Remove from the pan and reserve. Tip away all but 1 tablespoonful of the oil.
4. Add the remaining finely sliced half of banana shallot and sliced mushrooms and fry gently until softened.
5. Return the meatballs to the pan and add the lamb stock, creme fraiche, Worcestershire sauce plus thyme and season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to the boil and reduce until you have a thickened sauce (around 10-15 minutes).
6. In the meantime, bring a deep pot of water to the boil and once boiling, add the pasta pieces. Cook until tender - approx. 3-4 minutes.
7. Add the tenderstem broccoli to the sauce, making sure to submerge it so that it cooks evenly. Cook for around 7-8 minutes, then add the petits pois and cook until heated through and tender.
8. When the pasta is done, drain and add the pasta to the sauce. Toss in the sauce to coat - and serve into warmed bowls.
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Believe it or not, this was the first time I'd ever tried to make anything remotely resembling a schnitzel. I know! Weird that it had managed to escape me for this long.
I think the main reason for it having escaped me, was that Hubby has always done the "egg and breadcrumb" dishes in the past - and I was happy to leave it that way, as his results have always been pretty spectacular. However, it occurred to me that for all that it was great to have a successful egg and breadcrumber on hand, it would also be good if I were to master the art!
Instrumental in this decision was our new Ceracraft pan. It's one of those ones with the white ceramic insides - and it is absolutely wonderful. Absolutely nothing sticks to it (or nothing so far!) and it cleans with the wipe of a cloth, no matter how much devastation you leave in it.
Not worrying about how the pan is going to behave when frying, is quite a comfort if you're a bit leery about frying, as I am. I think I might have taken the Fire Brigade's dire warnings about frying pans bursting into flames a bit too much to heart when I was younger and ultimately became too scared to break out a frying pan.
Frying was something else that Hubby used to do for me, as I was too scared to try it out (much the same as grilling things - which I've also conquered since). So it is any wonder I hadn't tried making something like Schnitzel? No, I don't think so!
Now, with my trusty Ceracraft pan with its fantastic well fitting lid (which I can clap on top, if ever it does decide to burst into flames), I feel confident enough to get on with the serious frying.
Neither Hubby nor son & heir are particularly enthusiastic about pork (when it's not in a sausage or rasher of bacon), so I bought just the one piece of pork for me - and a couple of chicken breasts for the menfolk. In fact, the butcher didn't have pork steaks that day (what's up with that then? No pork steaks? Tut!), so we bought a pork chop and I simply removed the bone before cooking. I don't recommend you try to hammer a pork chop bone flat - at least, not with a wooden meat mallet, anyway. *wink*
The chicken was simply trimmed of fat and gristle, then halved through the middle to form a "butterfly" and hammered flat. I did the same with the pork, in that I butterflied it and smacked it one with the meat mallet so that it was roughly the same thickness. Doing this is essential for this type of cooking, as you want the meat to cook at the same time. It'd be no good having to wait for the thick end to cook, while the thin end is busy going dry or getting burned. If ever I manage to lay my hands upon some British Rose Veal escalopes, you can be absolutely sure they're going to be turned into Wiener Schnitzels, quick-sharp!
So having got the meat how I wanted it to be, it was a simple matter of whipping up some eggs, seasoning some flour and working out what flavours I wanted to appear in the breadcrumbs. I made the breadcrumbs myself, from a few slices of my lovely Polish Bakery sourdough bread that is just perfect for breadcrumbing as it is really substantial and so totally not cotton wool-ish. A few minutes in the mini food processor and you're sorted, with perfect breadcrumbs. I decided to season the breadcrumbs with a combination of black pepper, celery salt, dried thyme (just a tiny pinch as I really don't like it at all - but I know that my menfolk do), dried parsley and made the majority flavour that of Sumac, for its gorgeous zestiness.
The process of dipping into flour, egg then breadcrumbs was easy enough - I was forsighted enough to do this beside the sink so had good access to hand washing facilities - and Dustbin No. 1 (Jonty dog) was there to take care of the excess egg. I was pleased to see that I'd made sufficient breadcrumbs, as it's always a bit of a lottery as to whether the breadcrumbs will make it to the end of the things you're trying to cover with them!
Following a half an hour in the fridge to firm up, they went into the pan with a mixture of goat butter and rapeseed oil on a moderate heat for around 10 minutes each side. Make sure to not fiddle about with them - just leave them to cook and let the crumb set, then become crisp. If you fiddle about with them, keep turning them or lifting them up, they will find it very hard to become crisp. You can see from the very edge how they're doing - and once that edge starts to become golden, you know you're onto a winner.
I sneaked one of the smaller chicken schnitzels onto my plate, just so that I could compare and contrast. I made these smaller ones from the chicken tenders - or inner fillets - and they were a perfect little size for a smaller appetite. The pork version was a lot more robust and required a little bit longer in the cooking to become tender, however the flavour was a touch above the chicken versions. The chicken ones were super-tender and very tasty - the seasoning in the breadcrumbs was more obvious with the chicken, so bear that in mind when you are choosing whether to use pork or chicken.
The flavour of both was really good - and the meat in both cases retained its moistness, largely due to the speed at which they cook and the flour/egg mixture sealing the juices in. I can't wait to make some more, but this time I might have a go at the Southern Fried style of flavour combination.
I served the schnitzels with buttered new potatoes,
a mixed salad and a very nice minty mixed bean salad that I found in Asda. However, for a speedier supper, I should imagine they'd be great with just chips, too!
So come on, put your big girl/boy pants on and have a crack at egg and breadcrumbing, followed by a bit of shallow frying. You know you want to!
SUMAC & THYME SCHNITZEL (serves 3)
Ingredients :
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts or 3 boneless pork steaks
2-3 tbsp plain flour
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 large egg (have another handy, just in case you need it)
4-5 slices of tasty bread, slightly stale, breadcrumbed
1 tsp celery salt
1 tsp dried parsley
half a tsp dried thyme
1 heaped tsp ground sumac
3 tsp rapeseed oil (required separately)
3 tsp butter (required separately).
Method :
1. Well before you require the meat for cooking, prepare it for coating with the seasoned flour, egg and breadcrumbs. Take each steak or breast and cut through it down a long side, opening it out and effectively butterflying it.
2. Place onto a piece of cling film - opened out in the butterfly shape - and sprinkle with a couple of drops of water. This helps the cling film not to stick. Using a blunt instrument - or a meat hammer on the blunt side - gently but firmly hammer the meat until just a quarter of an inch thick, or less.
3. Place onto a plate and cover with cling film. Continue to the next breast or steak and repeat, placing it on top of the cling film and covering with another piece of film. Continue until all pieces are butterflied, hammered to an even thickness and stacked, then cover the lot with film and refrigerate.
4. About an hour and a half before you are due to cook, remove the meat from the fridge and prepare the three coating bowls - which should be a decent size so as to fit each schnitzel in without overlapping the side.
5. Into one bowl, place the flour and season well with salt and pepper. Mix the seasoning in.
6. Crack an egg into the second bowl and whisk with a fork.
7. Add the breadcrumbs, a good amount of black pepper, the celery salt, parsley, thyme and sumac to the last bowl and mix well.
8. Take the first breast or steak and gently lay it on top of the flour, then turn so that both sides are well coated. You may need to press down a little, to ensure every inch gets a coating.
9. Move on to the egg and lay the meat into the beaten egg, again turn to achieve an even coating, but don't wash the flour off!
10. Straight away, lay the meat onto the seasoned breadcrumbs and lightly press down to convince the crumbs to stick. Once again, turn and repeat to achieve an even coating of crumbs.
11. Place each schnitzel onto a plate or baking tray (I covered a tray with cling film and used that) and refrigerate for an hour.
12. Once it comes to cooking, take a large frying pan - non-stick are best - and heat 1 teaspoonful of the oil on a moderate heat, adding 1 teaspoonful of the butter just before you add the schnitzel.
13. Once the butter is frothy, add the schnitzel to the pan and leave it alone! Don't be tempted to shuffle it around the pan, or to turn it too soon. You want the coating to achieve a crispy shell before you turn the schnitzel and cook the other side.
14. Cooking usually takes around 7-8 minutes each side, but to check simply cut through the thickest part of each schnitzel and pull the edges of the cut aside so that you can see a) what colour the meat is, and b) what colour the juices are. If there is any sign of any pinkness, turn the schnitzel and continue cooking until all traces of pink have gone.
15. Place onto some kitchen paper and keep warm whilst you cook the remainder of the schnitzels. It is best not to stack the schnitzels or the ones at the bottom of the stack will go soggy whilst they are waiting. Keep them separate to retain the crispiness of the coating.
Serve with new potatoes, or potato salad and a garden salad.
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I expect you all know, by now, how much I like to find good soup recipes that can be used in place of the main course. There are so many "meat and vegetable" combination meals out there, that it is nice to find a good hearty soup recipe to ring the changes every now and then.
I was attracted to this vegetarian soup (or it would have been, if I hadn't have used chicken stock) from Bill Granger (via the Good Food Channel website), because it involves oven roasted veggies of your choice. Now this is a real change from most recipes, that direct you to use this vegetable or that vegetable, do this to this one, do that to that one - and you get your meal. With this recipe, you could choose to use whatever you liked from within the winter vegetable category and so long as it could be oven roasted, you could make the soup.
Of course, oven roasting vegetables always intensifies their flavour - which is perfect for soup making. After all, nobody likes a weak flavoured soup that is more water than flavour!
Aside from the vegetable aspect, I also liked the sound of the "spiced" in the name. Using chilli, cumin, coriander and paprika just heaps flavour upon flavour and the addition of red lentils puts heart into the dish, so all the elements were there promising a cracking bowl of soup.
I opted to use carrots, parsnips, celeriac and turnip along with the butternut squash, tomatoes and garlic. The end result was warming and delicious, with the added interest of the yoghurt, sumac and coriander sprinkles that were absolutely essential to the flavours. It's not often that I say the additional garnish is essential to a dish, but in this case the yoghurt gives the creaminess which together with the citrus sharpness of the sumac and freshness of the coriander brings alive the sweet earthiness of the basic soup.
Hubby wasn't as in love with this soup as I was, which I think was entirely down to the lack of a meat ingredient. He liked the flavours, but was left thinking "well that was good for starters, now where's my dinner?" - which is never a good thing. Son and heir enjoyed his soup and was satisfied by it - as was I. The leftovers (because it really does make a lot!) I ate for lunch throughout the week and as is often the way, the flavours just got better as the soup aged.
Upon reflection, I think maybe this soup would be better served just as a lunchtime soup, or as a starter - in rather less quantity. However, you can't argue with its lovely flavours, each of which were distinct and detectable. I would definitely make it again.
SPICED VEGETABLE AND LENTIL SOUP from Bill Granger (Serves 3-5)
Ingredients :
1kg mixed winter vegetables (such as carrots, parsnips, celeriac) peeled and cut into 3cm cubes
500g butternut squash, peeled, seeds removed and cut int o 3cm cubes
750g tomatoes, quartered
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 small carrot (if you've not included carrot in the winter vegetable mix), chopped
4 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
chilli flakes to taste
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp paprika
1.25 litres vegetable or chicken stock (I used Essential Cuisine chicken stock)
180g red lentils.
To serve :
plain yoghurt - 1 heaped teaspoonful per bowl
sumac for sprinkling
chopped coriander leaves, for sprinkling
warm crusty bread.
Method :
1. Preheat the oven to 180degC/350degF/Gas 4. Put the vegetables into a large bowl and drizzle with the oil. Add the spices and season with a little sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Toss to coat the vegetables liberally with the flavourings.
2. Turn out onto a large roasting tray lined with silver foil (or two, if necessary, to give the vegetables room to breathe as they cook). Cover and roast for up to an hour, or until the vegetables are soft. You can reduce the amount of time required for roasting by cutting the veggies into smaller chunks.
3. While the vegetables are roasting, add the stock and lentils to a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes, or until the lentils are tender. Spoon out 2-3 spoonfuls of the lentils and reserve.
4. Once the veggies are done, keep two or three of each vegetable cube back and place the rest into the saucepan. Using a hand blender, whizz until smooth. You can add a little more stock or just some water, if the soup becomes too thick.
4. Take the reserved cubes and cut them into bite sized pieces and add them to the soup along with the reserved lentils.
5. Heat through - without boiling - to bring back up to temperature.
6. Serve in warmed bowls with a blob of yoghurt, a sprinkling of sumac and coriander - and some warm crusty bread.
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