BBC Good Food Dead Good Spaghetti Carbonara

The worst thing about coming home from holiday is that after a long journey, you can't just relax.  There's no food in the house, and there's a mountain of unpacking, washing and ironing to be done.  In my case, I have to also write an eye-wateringly huge cheque to the local doggery to get my pooches back (two weeks = £408!!).  And then there's the post-holiday diet that needs to be addressed too.

So I'd planned that yesterday and today we'd have two last treats to soften the blow of an epic 12-hour car drive home (without any diversions back via North Berwick or Bempton Cliffs).  But because I'd left the blog on auto-publish and was too plain cream-crackered last night, the posts have come out the wrong way around.  So what we ate for dinner last night has become today's blog.  And today's breakfast is yesterday's post.  People who work in IT (as I do) and use technology?  A sure recipe for failure :o)

A deconstructed ham and cheese sandwich

Tea on the last night of holiday (ie the day we come home) is traditionally Chinese takeaway and I honestly wanted nothing else when we got in.  But I have a blog that needs a new recipe so I went with a simple spaghetti carbonara.  It's something that I've only ever made the husband once, back when he was still boyfriend (if that's the correct term for a 37-year-old) and that was using a tub of fresh sauce from Sainslebobs which I then proceeded to add more ham and cheese to and it still tasted vile.

It was a shame, because he basically lives on ham and cheese sandwiches so it seemed like a perfect addition to his limited eating repetoire.  I never thought about making it from scratch again until a fit of desperation when looking for simple, family friendly recipes for our holiday eating.

I was therefore sold on this recipe for two reasons.  #1 I could pick up the ingredients in an M&S Simply Food on the motorway services on the way home when we stopped for Miss A's babyccino fix.  #2 It had 'Dead Good' in the title, which is usually the sign of a winning recipe from Olive Magazine.  And, as a bonus, it used white wine which meant there was a welcome spare glass at the end of cooking.

Really simple, everyone liked it.  Just a shame that it's so fattening - a whopping 900 cals per serving, excluding garlic bread and wine - so it's definitely off the menu for the foreseeable future.

You can find the recipe here.

BBC Spaghetti Pomodoro with Chilli Prawns

Do you believe in horoscopes?  I do and I don't.  The rational part of me wonders how the same set of rules can apply to one-twelfth of the population?  And can how different astrologers see different things in the same set of stars? The romantic part of me wants to believe in fate and destiny and that sometimes a higher power is in operation.

There's one particular astrologer whose monthly forecasts I read.  She gives these really long, comprehensive insights with each horoscope and sometimes they're so delightfully vague in over the length that she does indeed cater for pretty much anything happening to anyone in some veiled comment or another.  I tend to read them when I'm having a bit of a navel-gazing time in my life.  Introspective and uncertainty always drives me to look for someone else to give me the answer.

My other foible is that I tend to read them towards the end of the month so I can say 'Oh so that's why xyz happened' rather than at the start of the month when she'll say something that I interpret to mean I'm going to win the lottery when in fact at the end of the month, I actually just found a forgotten tenner stuffed in the pocket of my winter coat or something similar (this month I did win £3.10 on the Euromillions though).

Not quite Pimms jelly

Of course, this month she said that I was due the best weekend of the current decade, ever, over the weekend of 12-13th May.  Well excuse me, but if that was my best weekend of the decade then I'm in for a bloody bumpy ride up until 2020!  But equally, she was right about a career decision that I'd been pressured to make.  She suggested waiting for the right thing to come along.  I chose not to do as I was told and wait.  All without reading the horoscope first so I like to think she's right.  About me and the other half billion Capricorns in the world.

One other thing she mentioned was the current Venus retrograde which would put a kibosh on some of my creative plans. And yes, life has now tampered with my blog plans for today and tomorrow.  So instead of a nice Pimms jelly, planned in advance of the jubilee celebrations and with the hot weather we had been having in mind, I've now had to bring you a pretty pleasant summer pasta dish from the BBC Good Food website at the last minute.  Fresh, storecupboard stuff.  Quick and easy for a last minute dish after a long day at work.  And healthy too.

I also blame the Venus retrograde for compromising my plans to make my jubilee bundt tomorrow.  An action-packed day of work followed by a Jubilee party at Miss A's nursery (I'd intended to make cake for that too but the week has just vanished) and a trip to the doggie doctors in the evening has left me severely short on time and inspiration.  Now wondering what the June horrorscope will hold but of course, I can't look for another thirty days.

Recipe for the prawn dish is here

Leith's Spaghetti with Courgettes and Chilli

I had a couple of moments of madness recently.  The first was agreeing to the husband's request to extend our summer holiday to two weeks.  The second was signing up for the Olympic Food Challenge.  Tonight, I'll talk about the holiday problem.  I'll talk more about the OFC later this week (in the meantime, check out my OFC page and the official OFC website)

We'd booked a week in North Berwick.  Hubs is a keen wildlife photographer and we regularly visit north-east England and south-east Scotland this time of year to see the see the sea-bird breeding spectacles.  This year's cottage overlooks Bass Rock which is one of the Seven Great Nature Wonders of the World  He's very excited about that.  Pre-child we also used to spend a separate week in the Highlands to see the ospreys that nest around the Cairngorms.  Never ever two consecutive weeks.  I worry that we'll end up getting divorced after so much time in close proximity.  Even our honeymoon was only ten days long.

Not only do we have to spend so much time in each other's company, but we also have to contend with the demands of the 366 Recipe Challenge.  It's challenging enough doing this in my own kitchen, let alone someone else's.  And the second week, the nearest supermarket is at least 20 miles away.  And my foraging credentials suck (see this post) so I need to be prepared.

I figured that I'd make a list of twenty simple recipes that could be easily prepared with the minimum of ingredients and fuss.  That would be all well and good, if I had a family that wasn't 'discerning' in what they eat.  Miss A has now fixated on fish fingers, meatballs, and malt loaf - in addition to her favoured diet of bread, Babybel cheese and fruit.  The husband still only eats chicken.  Or ham egg and chips.  This isn't going to be easy.

The non-veggie version...

So far, my list runs to James Martin's Chicken Club with Bacon Mayonnaise.  Yes, that's right.  I'm going to attempt homemade mayonnaise without a food processor.  I will also be packing my loaf tin so that I can maybe make a loaf or two (recipes still to be sourced) and maybe my sandwich tins so I can make a cake - it is holiday, after all.  So that leaves me with about fifteen more recipes to find.  Or they'll be eating fish finger sandwiches every day so I can try something new by myself.

During an idle attempt to come up with some easy recipes, I scoured my copy of Leith's Simple Food.  It's got some recipes that I could use.  If only the husband didn't mind spicy things or meals with 'grassy bits' in.  As I said.  He's 'discerning'.

In doing so, I happened across this little recipe which is a great store cupboard tea.  Although I keep my courgettes and creme fraiche in the fridge.  But you get my drift.

Being even more lazy than the book gives the reader credit for, I forewent the expense of buying a whole pack of chillies when I only needed one and used chilli oil instead.  As this meant that there wasn't red in the dish to contrast with the insipid whiteness of the pasta and the bright green of the courgettes, I then topped it with some crispy prosciutto (thanks for making the decision for me, Twitter!).  The recipe suggests Parmesan shavings as it's a veggie recipe, but the colour and flavour of the crispy ham worked just as well.

One other minor change is that they say to drain the pasta really well.  I found it hard to then stir the courgette mixture through the pasta as it was dry itself.  So I used a top tip I picked up from Jamie O.  Adding a little of the cooking water to the mix to ease the combination of veg and pasta.

All in all, another really easy tea that I love.  I pretty much love anything that comes with spaghetti and this summery dish will help me get my fix rather than a huge bloaty bowl of spag bol or meatballs.  On the cook again list.

Recipe - Serves 2 (adapted from Leith's Simple Cookery)

• 200g dried spaghetti
• 1 large courgette, grated
• 1 tbsp chilli olive oil 
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 2 tbsp low fat creme fraiche
• 1 slice of prosciutto fried or baked until crispy OR parmesan shavings

1. Cook the spaghetti according to the packet instructions.
2. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a frying pan over a low heat and fry the garlic for thirty seconds, taking care not to burn it (which I invariably do and then have to start again!)
3. Add the courgette and cook for a few minutes.  Take care to keep it moving round the pan or it will stick and burn (and you'll have to start again - see step 2!)
4. Add the creme fraiche and mix thoroughly.
5. Reserve 2 tbsp of the pasta water then drain the spaghetti.  Return it to the saucepan and add the courgette mixture.  Add a little of the pasta water at a time to ease combining the two.
6. Divide between two serving dishes and top with either the prosciutto or the Parmesan

Olive Magazine Spaghetti Puttanesca

The last two days have been yet another two very busy days in the crazy life that is mine.  I met two new and very different groups of people - both sets of whom got bored to tears with the story of how my blog came about (and my tendency to waffle endlessly when writing - also demonstrated verbally whilst describing the blog!)

Freestanding fork

First set of people were work colleagues who were on a Presentation Skills course.  I've been on several variations of this course over the years with my previous history as a trainer so for me it was a refresher more than anything.  I did, however, learn two new things which are kind of food related and will hopefully stick.  The first is that apparently there is an onion-related theme running throughout the Shrek films.  I've only seen Shrek 1 twice and Shrek 2 once.  I didn't notice this so I know what Miss A and I will be doing this weekend.

Second thing was SUMO.  Food related, because I am becoming rather sumo-shaped from all this over-indulgence and a lack of running thanks to the hacking cough that's still plaguing me.  More appropriate than the fat-bloke reference however (and no, I don't wear black nappies!), was the meaning of the acronym.  Shut Up and Move On.  I'm sure you're thinking that right now!

On to the second group of people.  The Bath Clandestine Cake Club.  What a lovely bunch of people!  Held in a secret location near Bath, with people whose names I can't reveal because I'd have to kill myself, the first meeting of cake club was a great event.  Of course, what's not to like about people that like cake?  Everyone was really friendly.  I felt a bit bad with my over-showy raspberry and lime cake with Swiss meringue buttercream (I got carried away - see yesterday's blog for the proof) and that was why I bored them all to tears about my blog in an attempt to justify getting carried away.

Aside from meeting lovely people, I also ate some fantastic cake.  Most memorable for me were a blueberry cake with cream cheese frosting and a malt vinegar cake (yep, that's right!).  I was also in awe of a beautiful cherry and almond cake where the cherries had been dusted in gold glitter - that one's still in my cake tin, awaiting consumption.

Note the cut off head to preserve Clandestine-ness

The meeting was held in a public place (hopefully I won't get shot at dawn for revealing this) and some people who happened to be nearby came to see what we were up to.  We gave one lovely gent some cake to take home to his wife of 48 years and he very generously made a donation to charity after he wouldn't take the cake away as a gift from the bakers.

A huge thanks to SJ for organising this and I'm really looking forward to the next one!

On the downside, I spent most of yesterday mainlining coffee (I don't know why I do this when I'm on a course) and then after no tea last night, I consumed an exponential amount of sugar.  Consequently, with a 20-woodbines-a-day smokers cough, I was still awake at 3am worrying about the Victoria sponge I'd planned to bake at 5.30am to cover the blog and the subject of my final presentation.

By 4am I'd managed to replan my final presentation to be about how I justify things economically (see the following post where I've talked about this before), thus ensuring that Short and Sweet made an appearance as a visual aid.  I then hit BBC Good Food to find a store cupboard recipe and came back with this one.

I bought a tin of anchovies three years ago to make some salsa verde to go with steak and homemade chips.  I can't remember why I didn't make the sauce, but that tin of hairy little fish has been staring me in the face every time I open my cupboard ever since.  Tonight it was opened, and I finally braved eating the little blighters.

While the sauce was cooking, I honestly didn't think I'd like it.  The flavour just seemed completely wrong and I couldn't work out what was missing.  There was saltiness from the very finely chopped anchovies, a little more from the olives.  A weird tang from the capers. Heat from the chilli flakes.  But I couldn't put my finger on what was missing.  So I soldiered on, fearing I'd end up with a rubbish tea after a long sleepless night and an even longer day.  The final step was to mix in parsley with the spaghetti and sauce.  And bang.  There was the missing ingredient.

I still continue to be amazed by how much just one element can make or break a dish.  Sometimes you can leave something out and it doesn't make much difference.  But for me, the parsley was an absolute must.

Bringing me nicely back to another point I picked up about planning.  Must, Could, Should.  I think it has a life application and definitely relates to cookery.  I was going with that theme for my presentation on the Vicky Sponge.  You must use equal weights of eggs, butter, self raising flour and sugar.  You must use jam to sandwich it together.  You should use vanilla to lift the flavour of the sponge.  You could use fresh cream or butter cream.  But it's not essential (and frowned on by the WI).

So my Must, Could, Should for the next week is as follows.  I must eat more healthily.  I should keep my promise to bake my mentor a banana cake - seeing as how he asked so nicely about three weeks ago.  I could try to make two or less Dan Lepard recipes.  But I'm not making any promises.

In the meantime, I'm loving the puttanesca and will be using this as a quick tea for me on many an occasion in the future.  You can find the recipe here.

Spaghetti with 'Spanish' flavours

This oddly named recipe is courtesy of BBC Good Food.  I don't really understand what's wrong with calling it Spaghetti with Chorizo and Peppers?  Because that's all it is in essence.

Life is busy with the candle being fully burnt at both ends.  I feel I barely have time to breathe some days with juggling a full time job, motherhood, wifehood, running and this cooking blog nonsense.  Tomorrow I'm having to get up at 4am to fit in a five mile run so I can still be at work by 7am, work til 5pm then home for another round of bedtime, dinner and blogging.  And they call this Women's Lib?  I guess thirty years ago (excluding the technological advantages) I wouldn't have been able to have the satisfaction of gradually trying a new recipe every day as the resources just wouldn't have been there.  I'm only in the privileged position to do this because I work full time.

Anyway, enough with the self pity.  To me, spaghetti should always be served alla ragu (or with a bit of Bol) or with rather tasty meatballs.  Failing that, it makes an excellent snack simply buttered with lashings of black pepper and parmesan.  You can keep your carbonara.  It just doesn't do it for me.

But as I'm running tomorrow, I wanted a quicky, tasty pasta dish to sustain me as I won't eat when I get up in the morning.  Or at least that's my excuse.  It's carb-loading, okay?

So I turned to BBC Good Food to help me make something out of the limited contents of my fridge and larder (two days to Ocado arrive and counting!).  And this was what I got.  A tasty pasta dish that was quick to make (and sadly even quicker to eat).  I used dried pasta.  I didn't have fresh parsley so used Garden Gourmet.  I think this is the one bit that could be improved on by using real herbs as you just didn't get those little parsley flavour spikes like you would with the real thing.

This will now be my new quick pasta dish of choice for evenings when I want to pack in the carbs but don't have hours to cook - and can't convince the hubby that it's good to have Spag Bol for the third time in under a week.  As for the flavours being Spanish?  Well it tasted of smoked paprika from the chorizo so I guess it can just about get away under the trades description act.  But only just.

You can find the recipe here

Runner bean & prosciutto pasta

Like a schmuck, I took one look at my husband's crestfallen face when I announced that he was getting last night's Chicken and Chorizo Jambalaya for tea and hot-footed it out the door to the chippie for him.  But because I'm still trying to be good and even though it was a running day and I resisted and changed my plans for my recipe of the day.

I was going to make a plum croute out of the plums that the child snuck into her shopping basket at Sainsburys on Tuesday night but instead, plumped for the Runner Bean and Prosciutto pasta I happened across on Good Food the other day when looking for a way to use up the prosciutto I bought for Christmas that never got used.

I must confess, I'm starting to rely on the Good Food website a little too much for this blog.  But it's so easy.  Rather than having to leaf through twenty different cookbooks to find what to do with the contents of my fridge, I just type a few words in the box and back comes the suggestion.  As mitigation, I do subscribe to the magazine and would leaf through the old issues in the same manner I do with my cookbooks, if only the husband didn't insist on throwing old magazines away.

Bacon, beans and pasta.  Mmmm....bacon!!

Anyhoo, this is a really simple supper to make after a hectic day in the office and something I will cook again on one of those days when I've been up since the crack of sparrow-fart.   The first few bites were disappointingly bland.  After all, pasta with creme fraiche, runner beans (not the tastiest of vegetables) and lashings of black pepper is hardly going to set the world on fire.

But then comes the lovely, salty, bacony bite of the crispy prosciutto.  Class.  It works perfectly against the bland background.  I think the only change I would make would be to make my prosciutto pieces smaller next time - either before cooking or by bashing them up once they are cooked - to spread them more evenly throughout the pasta.  I note the recipe mentions pouring over the pan juices.  There were none in my pan so maybe the presence of some would've balanced the blandness of the pasta versus the saltiness of the prosciutto out more.  It might be because I only used a tiny bit of oil for frying to keep the calorie content down.  Will try a bit more next time.

And I can highly recommend it with the crunchy bits from the bottom of the chip packet on the side.  Hubby refuses to eat anything crunchy which is my favourite bit.  No wonder we rub along okay even though we're often at polar opposites of opinion.  Just call us Jack and Mrs Spratt (although I can't stand fatty meat!!)

Recipe - Serves 2

• 175g tagliatelle (I used spaghetti)
• 200g runner beans , trimmed and cut into short lengths
• 3 slices prosciutto
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 rounded tbsp half-fat crème fraîche

1. Cook the tagliatelle in a large pan of boiling, salted water according to pack instructions. Four mins before the end of the cooking time, add the runner beans.
2. Meanwhile, cut each slice of prosciutto into 5-6 pieces. Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the ham, then fry quickly until crisp. Drain the pasta and return to the pan with the crème fraîche, prosciutto, pan juices and plenty of black pepper, tossing everything together until the pasta is well coated.