Spicy Bacon Pasta

 

There is nothing better than a bowlful of pasta.

This is my new, absolute favourite pasta dinner. It is quick, tasty and uses a lot of kitchen staples which I always seem to have on hand. It is a perfect mid-week dinner that I probably make once a week. It's a take on amatriciana but it's got so many changes to that classic that I can't call it that in good faith.

The only slightly niche ingredient is nduja which, if you frequent hipster pizza establishments you'll probably have come across before. It's a very spicy Italian pork paste that has basically unlimited uses. It's fabulous mixed into a sauce like this where it confers a warmth. It's AMAZING in a grilled cheese sandwich where the spiciness really comes through. You can also just spread it on a cracker. No rules.

I get mine from the butcher but I have seen it in supermarkets too. Try it. Once I started using it, I couldn't imagine life without it. I basically have to have it in the fridge at all times.

Serves 2 generously, I usually add a little more pasta and make an extra portion for lunch the next day

Za'atar Dinner Rolls

It's a bold statement, but I think my all-time favourite spice mix is Za'atar. I think I've obsessed over this since encountering it for the first time in Beirut last year (oh, travel eating.. how you are missed). It's thyme, it's sesame, it's herby and nutty and a little bit tangy and I found it in Morrison's spice aisle so it isn't unknown to the UK!

I add it to every pizza dough I make, I throw it into any meat I marinade for a shawarma meal, and I haven't made a loaf without it since finding some. In lockdown, this is what I stockpiled. I am obsessed.

When I saw these little za'atar rolls, I pretty much made them for dinner the following day. 

So good. Make them now.

Spetsofai

As with all good meals - photographs questionably but tastes fantastic

A firm Greek favourite to finish off 2020.

I go to the same Greek restaurant all the time – but obviously not recently. One thing I was really missing was this amazing chorizo and pepper stew which tastes rich and delicious. I think cooking time is the key, this could be a great slow cooker meal. But I have nothing if not time on my hands at present, so I had time to cook it low and slow on the stove.

The boyfriend required chips with his.

I had mine with flat bread, but this would also be amazing with a fresh slice of thick bread, or even a nice crisp side salad. Rice and chips also work!

Mughlai Chicken - Creamy Almond Chicken

This delicately spiced meal is visually reminiscent of a korma, but it's got a huge depth of flavour that I'm obsessed with. It's borrowed from my ride-or-die Nigella, with a few little tweaks.

It's one of those brilliant meals that's even better re-heated the next day and it's quick and easy enough to whip up after work! If I'm willing to make that effort on a weeknight then it must be easy, I swear. The whole spices make it taste like a meal that takes a lot more effort than it actually does. 

Speaking of the spices, I'll admit that there are a fair few ingredients. Having said that, the whole spices don't really go off and I find myself reaching for them often - it's worth having them in your cupboard!

Ras El Hanout Baked Chicken

This is a perfect midweek “throw it all in one pot and cook” dish which packs the most ridiculous flavour punch while being the most low-effort dinner I’ve made in a while. You could use skin-on chicken thighs (use 8) but I don’t really like those.

Ras-El-Hanout is a fabulous mix of spices. I got mine from a little deli, but I’m sure I’ve seen it in world food aisles of bigger grocery shops. It means “head of the shop” and is usually made up of the best of spices. The exact spices and quantities are not set in stone, but usually combine all of the delicious ones – cumin, coriander, cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, cardamom etc. Mine had rose petals in it too!

This is a full on one pot dish – everything in an oven-proof dish, bake, serve. So quick. So delicious. So what are you waiting for?

Butter Chicken

The very best curry is fairly time consuming but so, so worth it. That’s how I categorise this meal; it’s more of a delicious weekend effort than a weekday meal. It involves juggling a few things and throwing in a lot of ingredients.

Served with some Nigella seeds and I reserved a little of the fried garlic for a topping

But during the cooking process it smells INCREDIBLE and the end product is one of the best curries I've ever eaten - woooooorth it!

Steamed BBQ Pork Buns - Char Sui Bao

PERFECT

This takes quite a bit of prep but it’s super delicious and worth it. Luckily I have time on my hands and a recipe I’ve been dying to try. Normally I’d go out for dumplings and bao once a month, so I’m feeling the lack of it in my life.

I haven’t gone super traditional with the pork for the filling, usually it would be made with roasted pork shoulder. I didn’t want to make loads, so I improvised with a small cut - pork chops. It was still very good!

Also please look up a good video for the pleating technique because mine are unforgivably messy.

Homemade Sausage Rolls

I'm so proud of this pastry - and it's easy!

In these uncertain times, being able to cook is really important. It’s something that has kept me sane, and I’ve had some extra time to be able to make stuff I never normally would have. You can make this recipe even easier, by buying pre-made pastry, but I haven't made it in ages and wanted to make sure I still had it (spoiler, I do).

Pre-bake (I got ten out of the recipe and froze the other two).

One thing I’m really missing is a big meaty sausage roll. The kind where the filling is thick and flavoursome and the pastry is fresh and crisp. You cannot get this from a supermarket pre-packaged sausage roll. I mean, I’m still buying and eating them, but they’re quite underwhelming.

Post bake, smells so good

The obvious next step was to take things into my own hands. I whipped up some rough puff pastry (took about 50 minutes) and filled it with sausage meat that I randomly flavoured with anything that sounded good.

And it was good.

Makes 10 sausage rolls, serves as many as your heart desires

Ingredients for the puff pastry

• 200g plain flour
• Pinch salt
• 175g butter, not cold from the fridge
• 100ml cold water

Ingredients for the sausage filling

• 400g pork sausage meat
• ½ onion
• 1 tsp sage
• ½ tsp paprika
• ½ tsp mustard
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• Ground black pepper

To finish

• 1 egg, beaten
• A sprinkling of seeds (sesame seeds, poppy seeds etc)

Method

Start with the pastry as it needs time to chill. Your butter should be nearing room temperature but not soft, I took mine out of the fridge about 2 hours before using.

Measure out the flour, stir in the salt, then add the butter (cut into chunks). Roughly rub the butter into the flour with your fingers. There will be big globs of butter – you want that.

Add in about 75ml of the water and mix until you have a rough, slightly soft dough. Add more water if needed to get it to come together.

Cover in cling film and rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Come back to it, form into a rough rectangle on a floured surface.

And roll out until long and thin, like 15cm x40 cm ish. Roll in only one direction.

Fold the bottom third into the middle, and put the top third over the top of that.

Spin it around 1 quarter turn and roll it out as before, folding over again.

Turn it once more, roll out and repeat the folding. Put the folded pastry in the fridge again for 20 minutes.

Now you can make the filling. Chop the onion up small and add it to a bowl with the rest of the ingredients. Mix well with your hands.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.

Now, remove the pastry from the fridge and roll it out once more to a long rectangle, but a little wider than before, closer to 20cm by 45 cm.

Place the meat filling in a long cylinder shape up the centre of the pastry.

Brush one long edge with beaten egg. Roll up, keeping the seam at the bottom. The egg should help to bind it together. Cut into whichever size you like, I went for 10 medium ones.

Place on a baking tray, brush with the egg and sprinkle with some sesame seeds or whatever you have on hand. I had some yummy “everything but the bagel” seasoning from a kind friend, so I used that!

Bake for 35 minutes until the pastry is golden and the meaty filling is cooked through.

Enjoy hot or cold!

Instant Pot Lamb Biryani

Someone got a new gadget for Christmas! And someone has time to work out how to use it now!

I have been interested in pressure cookers, from a safe distance, for a while. But I was still very surprised when Santa put one under my tree! The reason I haven’t gotten one before is that it seemed a bit daunting to learn a whole new way of cooking, and one that comes with its fair share of safety briefings.

I have never made a biryani because I was worried about the rice burning to the pot, and put off by the time it takes to cook it. So this meal felt like the natural first one to try out.

I completely didn’t believe that it only takes 7 minutes to cook in the Instant Pot. But trust me – it does! SEVEN MINUTES! But it’s not like that’s all  the time that it takes – you still have your prep, sauté and depressurising time, so all in all this probably takes about 40 minutes from start to finish. Which is relatively quick for this type of meal, but it’s not like dinner will be made in 7 minutes.

Sorry about all the ingredients, but the whole spices are really key to the flavour if you have them!

Meal prep life

I have found that some of the recipes for the Instant Pot don’t explain much and assume a level of knowledge. I am still very much learning so I will assume no such thing and explain as much as I can as I'm testing it out.

Cauliflower Mac and Cheese Bake

So, you've eaten most of the meat in the fridge before it goes bad, and now you have a cauliflower sitting there in the crisper, judging you, wondering when it gets a chance to shine.

This is a quick midweek dinner, and adds some delicious veggies to this rich pasta bake. It's filling, creamy and goooood. Think of a cross between cauliflower cheese and mac and cheese. Cheese is a great common denominator.

Now, it's vegetarian as a base recipe, unless you go and add bacon (which I did). I cooked the bacon in the oven and then added the sliced bits in at the end. But it would be perfectly lovely without that.

Pav Bhaji- Spiced Vegetable Mash

This is an absolutely delicious, wholesome, nourishing, spiced bowl of comfort.

Yes, there are dishes, but it's worth it

I affectionately call it spiced veggie mush, but it’s so much more than that. This is apparently a common lunch in India, where it is served with a lovely soft bap on the side. I’m salivating just thinking about it, especially with my delicious brioche bun recipe.

The good thing is, all you need are a few vegetable cupboard staples and some spices and you’re good to go. The spice mix is the only tricky bit, made by toasting and grinding whole spices.

It feels like a lot of ingredients and I know that not everyone obsessively buys whole spices. You can sub in the ground version of the spices if you need, but the flavour won’t quite be the same.

For a mix made of pre-ground spices, I’d suggest:

• 1.5 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp cumin
• pinch chili powder
• pinch ground cinnamon
• pinch ground cloves
• a good few twists of ground black pepper 

(the traditional recipe also calls for amchur powder which is hard to find. It is a dried mango powder and apparently is quite zesty, I just left it out because I find the chopped tomatoes zesty enough.)

I served mine with what I had to hand – wholemeal chapatti. I kind of wish I’d had a fresh brioche roll though.

Lasagne Pasta Bake

So, there’s not much pasta to be had in the shops so you can’t be choosy about the type you’re using. My boyfriend casually mentioned yesterday that we hadn’t eaten lasagne in ages (probably years) and today I got a delivery from a local fresh food market who have had to close but are rolling with the punches and reinventing as a delivery service. We got onions, carrots, peppers and mince (among other lovely things) – so I had all the fresh basics for lasagne! 

Pre-cheese phase

Now we had  zero lasagne sheets in the house, but this lockdown requires adaptability and inventiveness. AND bonus, I prefer it with shaped pasta.

Lentil and Black Bean Chili Non Carne

Look, it's not photogenic. But it tastes good, I promise.

So I guess we are all looking to our cupboards for what we can make from pantry staples. And I've basically got chilli without the meat, but with the same punchy flavour and very similar texture.

And it's also meat-free! It isn’t strictly veggie the way I made it, I had just fried some chorizo for quesadillas so I used that oil to fry off my onions for some extra smoky depth of flavour. But you can very easily just use vegetable oil and make this veggie/vegan.

I find it easier to stick to flavour profiles I know and textures I like when I'm trying something new. I LOVE lentils and beans. I LOVE Mexican flavours. And I love the versatility of Mexican food. Note - I did not use kidney beans because I hate them. Feel free to use them if they're your fave.

You could serve this on top of nachos, or with some guac, sour cream, or salsa on top. It would be a lovely meat-free filling for tacos or enchiladas. I had mine with mozzarella stirred through it while hot which gives it some cheesy goodness, and scooped it up with a soft tortilla wrap.

Cauliflower Coconut Curry

That meal prep life

More vegetarian food! And it's absolutely delicious!

My biggest problem with doing a “weekend big shop” is that you can never trust the meat to last more than 3-4 days, so by the time you’ve hit Friday, your options are really limited.

Bright yellow loveliness

A simple way to combat this, something I really should have considered earlier, is to lose the meat. This involves expanding the selection of veggies that I eat. I have a love-hate relationship with cauliflower. I hate when it’s made to be something its not – rice/pizza bases it is NOT. However, it brings an incredible texture to soup.  And I hoped it would be nice in a curry (don’t worry, it is).

This meal is great - low in calories, main ingredients unlikely to go bad in 5 days, delicious and easy to whip up! You could also mix up the veg – spinach, peas, carrots would all work here.