Daring Cooks July Challenge

This month's Daring Cook's challenge was to make a pasta or noodle without the aid of a motorized machine. We were however allowed to use a hand-crank pasta roller.

The challenge presented me with a conundrum - I got a pasta rolling machine at Christmas and have made my own pasta a few times since then, so I could take the easy route of making a recipe I know, or I could investigate a different kind of pasta. It seemed more in the spirit of the Daring Cooks to attempt something new, so I started to look around for ideas.

I've been reading a memoir by Josceline Dimbleby recently. Its a meander through her life and travels, interspersed with lovely recipes and photographs. Towards the end of the book there's a chapter on a visit to the Gujarati district of India, and a recipe for Khvandi, which she describes as a kind of Indian pasta. It sounded intriguing, and we were planning a curry night, so I decided to give the recipe a try and serve it as a starter.

It is an unusual method for a pasta - you boil the ingredients (gram flour, tumeric, chilli powder, yoghurt and water) down to a thick paste;



then spread it into a greased tray and leave it to set;



The idea is to then cut it into strips and serve it garnished with herbs, seeds and some dessicated coconut.

Mine didn't set though! I imagine I needed to simmer the mixture for longer before spreading it out to set. I will give this another try at some point because the flavours were good - a little bit spicy and sour. Definitely interesing.

This non-setting disaster left me with very little time to acheive a Daring Cooks dish for this month - or at least one that was edible. I got in there with only hours to spare, making Jamie Oliver's Pici with tomato sauce (from the Jamie's Italy cook book) for dinner on the day this was all due to be posted! Pici is an eggless pasta made from semolina flour and formed into tubes. Previously I have always made egg pasta in sheets or strips, so this was still something new for me even if it is a little unadventurous!

Here's what I did - mix the semolina flour to a dough using a little water. Kneed it until silky and smooth:



Wrap in clingfilm and leave it in the fridge until needed.

Divide it into small pieces, place a skewer in the middle and roll the dough around it to form a tube of pasta:



Mine were a little thicker than intended because my skewer was a bit of a thick one for this task - the thinner the better.



Served with very tasty cauliflower from the farm shop, tomato sauce and prawns, this made a good dinner. It was fairly straight-forward to make really.



Steph from Stephfood was our Daring Cooks' July hostess. Steph challenged us to make homemade noodles without the help of a motorized pasta machine. She provided us with recipes for Spätzle and Fresh Egg Pasta as well as a few delicious sauces to pair our noodles with!

Italleeee

I have just realised that 2010, sadly, was a year in which I did not visit Italy. Being a spoilt brat, in 2008 I went to Venice and Lake Como, in 2009 I went to Matera in the spring and Lake Como and Garda in the autumn. But this year...nada. In fact, since we have scrimping and saving our pennies foreign travel has been neglected in 2010. Again, I am aware how spoilt that makes me sound, but with relatively few other extravagances, travel is something I do like to spend my pennies on.
I feel a New Year's resolution coming on...I want to finally make that trip to Cuba this year. The autumn or winter seems achievable. Lets hope!

Anyway, back to Italy. Perhaps my withdrawal symptoms was what made me finally purchase this little beauty over the Christmas period:



Yes, a pasta roller/cutter.

I am aware that this is a gadget along the lines of 'definitely not strictly necessary' for a kitchen. Which is probably why it had sat on my Amazon wish list for about 18 months as I procrastinated about whether it was worth spending money on a nonessential item.
And then over Christmas I threw caution to the wind and bought it.

So on Monday, to celebrate the bank holiday, we had homemade pasta for dinner. I can honestly say that the machine made all the difference. I've never been able to roll pasta out thin enough by hand, but this machine worked like a dream, producing a beautiful silky textured pasta that made gorgeous cannelloni. Yum yum.

I then followed this up on thursday with Tuna 'meat'balls from the Jamie Oliver Jamie's Italy cook book.



Whilst they are intended to be served with pasta we currently have a potato glut so I served them on mash instead.


(sorry for the bad photo!)

Find the recipe on Jamie Oliver's website here.
The cinnamon, herbs, and lemon in the meatballs were great, and it worked very well with potatoes. I amended the quantities very slightly as I didn't have much bread or parmesan, so I reduced these (about 1/2 the quantity of bread, about 1/4 the quantity of parmesan). I think it does need the extra bread as our meatballs did have a tendency to fall apart a bit. If you are like me, and not mad keen on cheese, then I suggest you also reduce the cheese. I also reduced the pinenuts to about 1/4 of the quantity as we were nearly out of pinenuts too. I think that was fine, but more wouldn't hurt.
I'm not as keen on frying stuff as Jamie is, so I lightly braised my tuna and baked my meatballs instead of frying it all.



This worked fine, and at this post-Christmas time of year, it seemed kinder on my waist-line!

More Riverford recipes

I'm still working my way through the Riverford Farm cook book which I bought in Devon. Its an amazingly useful book. I LOVE the fact that its full of fantastic ideas for vegetables.

So...ta dah! This week we had Mexican one-pot courgettes. I only made one amendment to the recipe, and that was enforced; the cream we had in the fridge had gone off so I used sheep's yoghurt instead.

Sorry, no photos - I was too hungry! We had our courgettes (cooked up in one-pot with cinnamon sticks, cloves, pepper, chilli, coriander and mint, yoghurt and tinned tomatoes) with pork loin chops and new potatoes. We both thought this would be great with chicken and rice, and possibly also good cold for work lunches.

It was easy. It was pretty quick. Low effort. Tasty. What's not to like?

I forgot to post last week's recipe - One of my Dad's recipe cards picked up in the supermarket a while back. It was lemon and basil chicken with pasta. It meant that we could have the first crop of peas grown by my own fair hands in our little vegetable plot.
Here's the recipe:

Lemon and basil chicken (for 2)

2 chicken breasts
Handful of basil leaves
Approx 50g fresh peas (or defrosted frozen ones)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tablespoon yoghurt or creme fraiche
Enough pasta for 2 people

Dice the chicken then stir fry it until there is no more pink showing. Stir in all of the other ingredients. Season with salt and black pepper. I also added a pink of smoked paprika but you don't need to. Heat through. Serve with cooked pasta.

It was easy, quick, filling and refreshing on the tastebuds.

PS You will notice that a lot of my recipes recently have been low-effort quick dishes. My explanation (excuse?) is that I'm currently training for a half marathon in 4 weeks time. I'm spending silly amounts of time running, which doesn't leave a lot of energy for complicated cookery!
Next week marks the 52nd of this project, ie a WHOLE YEAR. Who'd have thought I'd keep going for so long? Lobster here I come......

Sicilian pasta

No great excitments on these week's recipe of the week. It was a quick and easy recipe from my Quick and Easy recipe book. It did exactly what it said on the tin and provided a speedy and tasty dinner.

I noticed a very similar recipe in the Jamie Oliver Jamie's Italy book, Pasta con acciughe e pomodoro (anchovies in tomato sauce with pasta).
Its a poor man's pasta sauce recipe with very minimal ingredients. Basically just a handful of toasted pinenuts, and handful of sultanas (soaked in warm water for a few minutes to soften them), 2 or 3 skinned chopped tomatoes, a couple of cloves of garlic, 4 anchovy fillets and a tablespoon of tomato puree.

Put your pasta on to cook.
Fry the garlic in olive oil to soften it. Add the anchovies and stir until 'melted', then add all the other ingredients and heat through. Season.
Drain thge pasta, toss the sauce and pasta together.
Serve.

Can't be exciting every week!

Cooking with yoghurt

Dairy products and me do not get along well.

Particularly cheese, cream, and yoghurt. Not a fan, and they always seem to make my stomach hurt. (Although occasionally its worth the risk for a nice bowl of icecream or a slice of cheesecake!)

However, I have been gradually trying to introduce small quantities of milk based products into my diet. With the amount of running I do each week I think my bones probably need a little extra help from the increased calcium.

I've found that goat and sheep products don't give me the same problems as cows' milk, so have been using small amounts of sheeps yoghurt, goats milk, and sheep and goat cheeses.

Although I still wouldn't eat a bowl of yoghurt, not being keen on the taste, I do find it a very good cooking ingredient, particularly with fish. I've been using this fairly regularly of late:



This week I came over all ambitious with a smoked fish lasagne from my 'Nearly Vegetarian' cook book (really old-fashioned but fantastic recipes) - using yoghurt, milk AND cheese in the sauce. Goodness me. Tempting fate.

But hurrah - no tummy ache!

I aquired the cheese at the Chipping Norton Farmers Market a couple of weeks ago - a lovely smooth and creamy cheese. Not too strong flavoured for a cheese novice like me, but nonetheless not mass-produced and flavourless.

I followed this minor miracle with an improvised fish pie along the same lines a few days later (we still had the pot of yoghurt & it needed using!). Again, no problem...

The yoghurt gave the pie a nice tang, and it was lighter than using a traditional white sauce or cream. The cauliflower is in there because we had a load in our vegetable box, but it was a good addition.

Prawn and Cauliflower Pie
enough for 2 fairly generous portions

250g raw king prawns
50g smoked salmon (Dan filched some fom his parents' fridge when he went home for a visit so I threw it in)
100g chopped leek
175g cauliflower
2 cloves garlic - crushed
150g yogurt
25g hard sheeps cheese - grated or finely sliced
Small handful chopped parsley
Sprinkle of chopped dill
Squeeze of lemon
Salt and pepper
300g potatoes

Peel the potatoes. Cook in salted water then mash. Use a little of the yoghurt sauce from the fish mix (see below) to moisten the mash so that it binds together rather than adding extra butter. (You can use butter & milk if you prefer, but this makes it slightly lighter on the calories.)
Chop the cauliflower into bite-sized pieces and cook in salted boiling water. Drain and put to one side to cool slightly.
Chop the leeks and poach for a few minutes in boiling water until softened. Drain and put to one side.
Chop the smoked salmon into strips.
Mix the yoghurt, garlic, herbs, raw prawns, smoked salmon together in a bowl. Add the leek, cauliflower and a squeeze of lemon. Mix again, then add the cheese, season and stir.
Put the fish mixture in the bottom of an oven proof dish. Top with an even coating of mashed potato.
Bake in a preheated oven 180C for half an hour.

I served it with green beans, but peas would be nice too.

Recreating that holiday feeling...

When we were in Italy last autumnn Dan and I treated ourselves to a wonderful meal on the last night of our holiday.



The restaurant was down on the shores of Lake Garda, tucked away under Malcesine Castle. It was still just warm enough to sit outside in the evening, but no longer high season, so it wasn't crowded.



We gorged ourselves on lovely wine and several beautiful courses of Italian food. The courgette-stuffed tortelloni with ham and pinenut sauce sticks in the memory, as does Dan's dessert of semifreddo with peach compote.



This week I decided to take the flavours of the pasta dish and make something a little bit similar (although not as delicate, silky or delicious!). My version was a much more rustic and hearty. A quick and easy pasta bake, though not a refined culinary masterpiece!

Here's the method.

Courgette and Goats Chees pasta bake with bacon and pinenuts

Enough pasta for 2 people
2 small courgettes
1 or 2 garlic cloves
A handful basil leaves
50g goats cheese
salt and pepper
4 rashers smoked bacon
15-20g pinenuts

Put the oven on to heat up to 180C
Put the pasta on to cook in salted water.
Meanwhile whizz up the courgettes with the basil leaves, garlic and soft goats cheese. Season it.
Check if the pasta is cooked, drain in if it is and rinse in cold water.
Mix with the courgette mix. Turn into an oven proof dish and place in oven to bake for 20 minutes. Check regularly so that it doesn't scorch. Cover it if its browning at at the edges.
After about 10 minutes dry fry the pinenuts in a hot pan.
Then fry or grill the bacon. Cut the rind off and chop it into bite-size pieces.
Take the pasta out of the oven. Scoop it onto plates or into bowls.
Scatter bacon and pinenuts over the top.
Serve.

Nigella's crab pasta

Tuesday night is running club night, so I always get in at about 8:30pm starving hungry and physically pretty much knackered. Dinner has to be quick, extremely easy, and warming (particularly when its snowy out like it was last night!).

This week I finally made a pasta recipe which I'd been recommended by my friend Alana AGES ago (sorry it took me so long to get round to it Alana!). It was a recipe for crab and linguine by Nigella Lawson.

As ever, I did adjust the recipe a bit as I went along, but you can find it here in its unmessed-around state.

These were my alterations:
I used a tin of white crab meat instead of fresh crab and added a handful of prawns to bump it up a bit. I used a lot less olive oil - about 1/2 or 1/3 of the quantity in the recipe. It just didn't seem necessary to make it that oily! Also we had a bit of red pepper and some cherry tomatoes in the fridge so I threw those in. No linguine in the cupboard, so penne instead. And finally, a mixture of rocket, baby spinach and watercress instead of just watercress.



Very easy, very quick, very tasty. Hurrah!

Thanks Alana!