Spaghetti with prawns, chilli and tomato sauce

I absolutely love simple suppers like this – from chopping board to table in 15 minutes or less! The River Cafe Cookbook is full of delicious, quick recipes – this one is loosely adopted from their ‘spaghetti in a bag’ recipe. I love the mix of spaghetti, prawns, chilli and tomato from their recipe, but am not so keen on the eponymous ‘bag’ – a tinfoil parcel in which the dish is cooked and served. The thought of accidentally biting on some tinfoil somehow takes the joy out of eating it for me!

I also prefer fresh tomatoes to the tinned ones in the River Café’s recipe. Larger tomatoes, peeled and deseeded, in place of the chopped cherry tomatoes here would give a smoother sauce, but I quite like the little bits of tomato skin and anyway, life’s too short for peeling tomatoes!

Ingredients (serves 2)

180g spaghetti

3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1 large clove garlic, peeled and very finely chopped

1 red chilli, deseeded and very finely chopped

220g cherry vine tomatoes, chopped

1 packet (150g) cooked king prawns

2 tbsp basil, roughly torn

Method

1. Place the garlic and chilli into a small saucepan.

2. Pour the olive oil over the garlic and chilli and set the saucepan over a medium heat. As soon as you hear them starting to sizzle (about 30 seconds), add the tomatoes to the pan and mix well. Season with salt and pepper, reduce the heat to low and stir intermittently until the tomatoes have broken down and the sauce is reduced to a nice consistency (about 10 minutes).

3. Cook pasta according to packet instructions.

4. When your sauce is nice and reduced, mix in the prawns and the torn basil leaves. Mix the sauce with the cooked pasta and serve immediately. Buon appetito!

Chinese New Year Feast: General Tso’s Chicken; Changsha Beef; Egg Fried Rice; Pak Choi & Beansprouts

Happy Year of the Rooster! What better excuse to indulge in a feast of Chinese cuisine! The chicken and beef recipes below are from Fuchsia Dunlop’s Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook; her recipes are so lovely and easy to follow. The egg fried rice and pak choi dishes are my own recipes – the latter just using up stuff I had in the fridge.

There are a few unique ingredients below that are worth taking the trip to a specialty shop for – luckily, we have a huge Chinese supermarket in Bangor so I had no problem sourcing potato flour and Shaoxing rice wine. But if you don’t have access to such ingredients, cornflour works well in place of the potato flour, and you could use mirin or a dry sherry as a substitute for the Shaoxing wine.

The key to doing a buffet-style meal like this is to have all of your ingredients prepared in advance, as the cooking part happens quite quickly and everything is best served just-cooked. This is what my worktop looked like before I started the actual cooking!:

As such, I have not divided the ingredients by dish below – I thought it was easier than telling you to chop three scallions for one bit and two scallions for another element. But if anything is unclear, leave a comment below or send me a message and I can clarify!

Ingredients (serves 2)

120g basmati rice, cooked and left to cool

3 eggs

1 white onion, chopped into small dice

7 scallions, 6 chopped lengthways into fine shavings and 1 sliced on the diagonal

5 cloves garlic, very finely chopped

2 thumb-sized pieces of ginger, very finely chopped

2 red chillies, 1 de-seeded and very finely chopped; 1 sliced on the diagonal

3 baby pak choi, leaves picked

Handful of beansprouts

4 small boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into small chunks

1 sirloin steak, fat removed and sliced lengthways (against the grain) into thin strips

4 tsp sesame oil

300ml peanut oil (sometimes called groundnut oil)

3½ tbsp potato flour

1 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tbsp Chinese black vinegar

3 tsp dark soy sauce

5 tsp light soy sauce

2 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine

1 tbsp double-concentrate tomato puree

5 tbsp water

1 tsp salt

2 tsp cumin

1 tsp Chinese five spice

2 tsp dried chilli flakes

4 whole dried chillies, cut into thick slices with a scissors

Method

1. First, make your sauce for General Tso’s chicken. Mix the tomato puree, 4 tbsp water, 1 tbsp rice vinegar, ½ tsp potato flour, ½ tsp dark soy sauce and 1½ tsp light soy sauce and set aside.

2. Next, the marinade for your beef: mix 1 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine, 1 tsp each of the light and dark soy sauces, 1 tbsp water, ½ tsp salt and 1 tbsp potato flour in a small bowl. Mix in the beef slices and set aside.

3. Place the chicken chunks in a large bowl; add an egg yolk (keep the white!), ½ tsp dark soy sauce and 2 tsp light soy sauce and mix well. Add 2 tbsp potato flour and 2 tsp peanut oil, mix well and set aside.

4. Beat the remaining egg white with the other two eggs, a pinch of salt and a splash of sesame oil; set aside.

5. In a small bowl, mix half of your ginger and garlic, the finely chopped (de-seeded) red chilli, dried chill flakes and cumin and set aside.

6. It’s time to start cooking! Heat 2 tbsp peanut oil in a wok over a high heat, add the pak choi and beansprouts and stir fry for a minute or so. Add the Chinese black vinegar, 1 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine, 1 tsp dark soy sauce and the Chinese five spice and taste; add more of any of the above ingredients if you fancy. Remove to a warm plate, cover with tin foil and set aside. Wipe your wok clean.

7. Pour in all but 1 tbsp of your remaining peanut oil into the wok; it should come up to about 1-1½ inch depth in your wok pan, and heat over a high heat until it just starts to smoke. Add the marinated beef; it will start to come apart as it cooks. Use a chopstick or wooden spoon to make sure all of the pieces get cooked, then use a slotted spoon to remove to a plate with a piece of kitchen paper on it to soak up the oil.

8. Bring the oil back up to a high heat, then add the chicken, making sure all the pieces are submerged in the oil. Allow to cook for a few minutes, until they turn a golden brown colour (you may need to take one out to test it). Remove with a slotted spoon onto a plate with a piece of kitchen paper on it to soak up the oil.

9. Transfer three tablespoons of the oil to a small pan or pot (for the beef), and two tablespoons into another, slightly larger, pan (for the chicken). Carefully pour the rest of the oil into a bowl for disposing later when it cools down. Clean and dry the wok.

10. Heat your remaining 1 tbsp peanut oil in the clean wok over a high heat. Put the two pans you have transferred oil to for your beef and chicken over a medium heat.

11. Add the chopped white onion to your wok. Drop everything from the small bowl of ingredients you prepared at step 5 into your beef pan. Add the snipped dried whole chillies  and remaining ginger and garlic to your chicken pan. Stir-fry all briefly, until the onion has become translucent, the ingredients in the chicken and beef pans have become fragrant.

12. Push the onions into the centre of the wok to form a thick line. Put the rice on one side of the onions and the beaten egg on the other. Leave for about 30 seconds (while you crack on with the next two steps).

13. Add the beef to your beef pan and stir well. Remove from the heat.

14. Add the sauce to the chicken pan, stirring as it thickens. Add the chicken, stir to make sure it is well-covered with the sauce, and remove from the heat.

15. Mix the egg, onion, and rice in the wok so that the egg and onion are evenly distributed amongst the rice. Add a handful of chopped scallions and mix again. Remove the wok from the heat.

16. Stir 1 tsp of sesame oil and half the remaining scallions into the beef; do the same with the chicken. Scatter the diagonally-sliced scallions and red chilli over the chicken to serve.  I served the egg-fried rice in small bowls and the other three dishes along a long serving platter, allowing us to fight over the last piece of chicken just tuck in!

Biang Biang Noodles

I keep getting massive food envy from Instagram, especially when I see people’s pictures from a restaurant in London called Xi’an Impression. These thick, unctuous noodles – Biang Biang Noodles, my fellow Instagrammers’ helpful hash tags informed me – looked like nothing I’d seen before. It seemed unlikely that such deliciousness would be available in any of Bangor’s fine eateries, so I set out to making my own!

I found this video on YouTube and the guy made it look surprisingly easy! I started by making the dough – converting his recipe from imperial measurements (140g for a cup of flour; 225ml for a cup of liquid) and… it was an unmitigated disaster! I had to throw the first batch of dough in the bin, it was gloopy and disgusting. I got lazy with the second batch and, instead of using the mixing with chopsticks method preferred by the video, I pulled out my trusty Kenwood chef with a dough hook (adding the water in splashes until it had the springy, doughy, texture I was after) and it was perfect.

The very best thing about this recipe is the sizzle and the amazing smell of the garlic, chilli and onions as you pour the hot oil over them in the dish – it will be hard to go back to Pot Noodles after you’ve tried these!

Ingredients

280g strong white bread flour

1 tsp salt

180ml hand-hot water (have a little extra in your jug, in case you need to add another splash to the dough as it’s mixing)

30ml sesame oil

5 spring onions, finely sliced

3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

4 tsp crushed dried chilli flakes (this makes it quite spicy – use less if you prefer a milder dish, or more if you like it really hot)

2 baby pak choi, leaves picked

Handful of bean sprouts

60ml groundnut oil (sometimes called peanut oil in recipes)

1 tbsp Chinese black vinegar

1 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tbsp bouillon powder

Method

1. Sieve the flour into a bowl and add the salt. Tip into an electric mixer with a dough hook.

2. With the mixer on its lowest setting, add the warm water to the flour in splashes, waiting until one splash has combined before adding the next one. You may not need all the water – when the mixture has formed into a springy dough ball, that’s enough. Leave the mixer to knead the dough for ten minutes. Place the dough in a bowl, cover, and set aside for 30 minutes.

3. Remove your dough from the bowl and place on a lightly-floured surface. Roll it out slightly so that it takes a loaf shape, then divide into four even-sized pieces. Roll each piece into a thick sausage shape, about 3 inches long. Dip each piece into sesame oil so that it is fully coated, place on a plate, then cover the plate with clingfilm and leave in the fridge for an hour. You can use this time to crack on with prepping the rest of your vegetables as everything comes together quite quickly when the noodles are ready.

4. Lightly flour your work surface and rolling pin, and roll each piece of dough into a thin rectangle. Lightly press a chopstick into the rectangle at two evenly-spaced junctures (so that your strip has got three even demarcated sections). Now the fun begins!

5. Take a side of one of your rectangles of dough in each hand and gently shake it up and down, smashing it against the board as you go (apparently the ‘biang’ noise it makes as it hits the board is where biang biang noodles get their name!). The best way I can describe this motion is that it’s a bit like playing the wobble board! The dough will stretch as you shake it, and will start to come apart in three long noodles where you indented the dough. Pull the three noodles apart and set aside when you repeat with your three other pieces of dough. When you are half-way through making your noodles, place a large and a medium sized saucepan of boiling water and keep them both on a rolling boil. Put your groundnut oil into a wok but don’t put the heat under it yet.

6. When your noodles are made, quickly pop them into the large pot of boiling water and cook for three minutes. Put the pak choi leaves and beansprouts into the medium pot of boiling water and blanch for a minute and a half; drain and set aside. Mix the soy sauces, vinegar, and bouillon powder in a bowl, then mix with your pak choi and beansprouts and keep warm over a gentle heat. Drain the noodles, and divide them between two warmed bowls.

7. Heat the groundnut oil in the wok until it starts to smoke. Divide the spring onions, then the garlic, then the chilli flakes between the two bowls of noodles. Try to keep the garlic and chilli towards the middle of the bowl.

8. Using a ladle, pour some of the hot oil over the chilli and garlic in each bowl. Listen to that sizzle!! Breathe in that delicious smell! Add a little more hot oil to each plate – you probably won’t use all that you’ve heated up. Add the pak choi and beansprouts in sauce to each plate and eat immediately!

I really need a new scarf; this one has made an appearance almost every day this week!

 

Sage and Parmesan Polenta with Herby Mushrooms and Bacon

Dydd Santes Dwynwen Hapus! 

It was Saint Dwynwen’s Day (the Welsh equivalent of Valentine’s Day) yesterday so I rustled up a romantic supper! I had some sage left from Sunday’s roast pork dish that I wanted to use up, and it goes well with polenta, with a bit of parmesan mixed in for added creaminess.

The other herbs are growing in our garden – you could use just thyme or rosemary, or oregano, if you prefer. We’re doing Dry January this year, so this was served with an alcohol-free Muscat from Asda – not quite Champagne, but it was as close as we could get!

Ingredients (serves 2)

150g dried polenta (I used Polenta Valsugana)

600ml boiling water

16 sage leaves, 10 chopped finely and 6 reserved for serving

8 chestnut mushrooms

90g smoked bacon lardons

A few sprigs of thyme and rosemary

50g  butter

Squeeze of lemon juice

30g parmesan, grated

Method

1. Place the boiling water in a pan over a high heat with a teaspoon of salt.

2. Fry the bacon lardons until crispy; reserve on some kitchen paper and set aside. Wipe the pan with kitchen paper, if you like.

3. Peel and de-stem the mushrooms. Fill the cavity of each mushroom with a small knob of butter (see the picture below for illustration). Place them in the pan you used for the bacon over a low heat.

4. Pour the polenta into your pan of boiling water, reduce the heat and stir constantly with a wooden spoon for 7 minutes.

5. While you are stirring your polenta, gently move your mushrooms around the pan to make sure they don’t stick, being careful not to knock the butter from their cavities.

6. When the butter in the mushroom cavities has fully melted, flip them quickly and add the thyme, rosemary, lemon juice, and whole sage leaves to the pan.

7. Add any remaining butter to the polenta, together with the chopped sage leaves and almost all of the parmesan (reserving a little to sprinkle over the top just before serving).

8. Divide the polenta between two plates, topped with the bacon, mushrooms, and crispy sage leaves from the pan. Spoon a little bit of the melted butter from the mushroom pan onto the polenta, if you like, before sprinkling your remaining parmesan over the top.

“Waiting for my human to finish cooking is so boring!”

Crab Cakes with Sriracha Lime Mayonnaise

I had some leftover champ (Northern Ireland’s version of colcannon – mashed potato with spring onions instead of cabbage) from Sunday’s pork belly dish and some homemade coleslaw from the pork sandwiches I made the next day to use up, so on Tuesday I decided to try my hand at crab cakes! I’ve tried making fish cakes with freshly-made mashed potatoes before and they have just fallen apart in the pan. These crab cakes worked out really nicely though – I think the starch probably builds up in cold mash, meaning that they stick together a lot better.

The mix was very much a combination of things we had in the fridge; you could use different herbs, or leave out the chilli, garlic and/or ginger if you prefer.

Ingredients (serves 2)

For the crab cakes:

Leftover mashed potato (I had about half the champ from the pork belly recipe, so probably 250g equivalent in raw potatoes)

228 g white crab meat (I used Ocean Finest, currently on offer in Morrison’s!)

1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

Juice of 1/2 a lime

Zest of 1 lime

small bunch of parsley, finely chopped

2 spring onions, finely chopped (you could use 2 more if starting with plain mashed potato – mine had spring onions mixed through it already)

2-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated

2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely grated

2 eggs

150g breadcrumbs

For the Sriracha mayonnaise 

2 tbsp mayonnaise

1 tbsp Sriracha

Juice of half a lime

Method

Couldn’t be any easier; simply put all of the crab cake ingredients in a bowl…

… and combine (you can see my sous chef, Gwen, in the background here if you look carefully!)

Shape the mix into patties (I used a mould for two of mine, which made two HUGE crab cakes, as you can see below! I would probably just do the old fashioned method of shaping them by hand in future)

Pop these in the fridge while you make your salad (I just tossed some watercress, rocket, cucumber and tomato with a tablespoon of balsamic).

To make the Sriracha mayonnaise, simply combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

Beat the two eggs in a small bowl; mix the breadcrumbs with some salt and pepper in another small bowl. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a deep frying pan.

Dip each crab cake in the beaten egg, then the breadcrumbs, then into the pan, moving them around so that all of the breadcrumbs turn golden and the crab cakes heat through. When they’re done, pop them on a piece of kitchen roll before plating them up with your salad and sriracha mayo.

 

Slow cooked pork belly, crispy crackling, champ, apple sauce, mustard leeks, pork gravy

This was a lovely Sunday roast – inspired by a delicious lunch at The Lion Inn in Trellech over the New Year break, when we stayed at The Chickenshed with my in-laws. It is actually a former chicken shed that has been converted into a beautiful holiday home! The Lion Inn is a proper old-fashioned village pub (we bumped into the local vicar on our lunchtime there!). We enjoyed Sunday night jazz there on the last night of our holiday!

Anyway, back to dinner. I have tried for years to achieve the perfect crispy crackling and I think I have almost cracked (crackled?!) it. The secret, I think, is to remove the fat for the last bit of cooking and finish it off separately when the roast is resting.

We had leftovers of everything apart from the leeks; I made pork rolls for sandwiches the next day with the leftover pork and apple sauce, together with homemade coleslaw, barbecue sauce and salad. The mashed potatoes were used in Tuesday’s crab cakes!

Ingredients (serves 2, with leftovers for sandwiches!)

1 small pork belly joint (approx 800g)

small bunch of sage leaves

zest of 1 lemon

500g King Edward or Maris Piper potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

4 scallions, sliced

2 Bramley apples, peeled, cored and sliced

50g demerara sugar

2 leeks

125ml double cream

75g salted butter

1 tsp dijon mustard

500ml pork stock

2 tbsp flour

Method

1. Preheat the oven to  200°C/180°C fan.

2. Cut some deep scores through the pork skin in a criss-cross pattern.

3. Finely chop the sage leaves; mix with the lemon zest and rub it all over the pork joint. Season the pork generously with salt and pepper, and place it on a wire rack over a roasting tray.

4. Pop the pork in the oven for an hour, then reduce the heat to 180°C and cook for a further 90 minutes. Keep an eye on it, and if it starts to get a bit black at the edges, wrap the whole joint in tin foil.

5. Place the potato chunks into a pot of cold, salted water, and simmer for about 30 minutes, until soft. Drain and return to the hot pan, mash immediately before adding half the butter and cream, scallions and salt and pepper. Keep warm.

6. Melt the remaining butter in a pan and sauté the leeks over a medium heat until soft. Add the remaining cream and mustard; season to taste. Add a little more mustard if you prefer. The mustard leeks can be reheated just before serving.

7. Place the apple slices and sugar in a small pan with a splash of boiled water; stir over a medium heat until the sugar has melted and the apple has softened to a puree texture. Add a little more water if it starts to stick. The apple sauce can also be heated again before serving.

8. Take the pork out of the oven and separate the fat from the meat. Pour the roasting juices from the pan into a small pot. Wrap the joint of meat in tin foil and pop it in the bottom of the oven. Turn the oven back up to 200°C. Place the fat back on the roasting rack to let it crisp up (about 30 minutes more). Take the meat out of the oven after about 15 minutes and if it’s nice and tender, leave it to rest, wrapped in the tin foil, on a warmed plate.

9. Gently heat the pork juices in the small pan (you may need to add some butter until melted, if you have fewer than 2 tbsp of juices) and whisk in the flour. Slowly add the stock, whisking constantly to avoid lumps.

Rose Harissa Chicken with Sumac Roasted Vegetables, Pilau Rice and Yoghurt Sauce

I had opened a jar of rose harissa to accompany Sabrina Ghayour’s delicious Spiced lamb kebab-loghmeh from Sirocco over the weekend and was keen to use the rest of the jar quickly! So I came up with this little recipe, using free-range corn-fed chicken legs currently available in Asda (about £2.50 for a pack of two). The yoghurt sauce is heavily inspired by Sabrina’s lamb kebab accompaniment.

Ingredients (serves 2)

For the chicken with sumac-roasted vegetables:
2 chicken legs (or 4 thighs/drumsticks, or 2 of each!)

2 tablespoons rose harissa

1 courgette, sliced

1 red onion, chopped into six wedges

1 red pepper, sliced

juice of 1 lemon

3 teaspoons sumac

3 cloves garlic, crushed with the flat of a knife

12 cherry tomatoes on the vine

2 tablespoons olive oil

For the pilau rice:

175 g basmati rice

1 cinnamon stick

6 cloves

8 green cardamon pods

300ml boiling water

2 tbsp sunflower oil

3 shallots, very finely sliced into rings

For the yoghurt sauce:

200g Greek-style yoghurt

squeeze of lemon juice

pinch of cumin

1 teaspoon olive oil

1/4 cucumber, cut into small dice

handful of pomegranate seeds

small bunch of mint, chopped

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan.

2. Cut a couple of deep incisions into the chicken legs. Rub the rose harissa into the chicken legs and set aside to marinade for a few minutes. Season the skin side with salt and pepper.

3. Heat a large cast-iron skillet over a high heat (there is no need to add oil). Add the chicken, skin side down, and season with salt and pepper on the underside. Move the chicken legs around the skillet to prevent them from sticking to the pan. When the skin is nice and crispy, flip the legs over and cook for a couple of minutes. Remove from the heat

4. In a small bowl, toss the onion wedges with a little oil and half the sumac. Nestle them under the chicken legs in your skillet and bung the whole thing into the oven (without a lid) for 10 minutes.

5. While the chicken and onions are getting to know each other in the oven, you can crack on with your yoghurt sauce. Simply mix the yoghurt, lemon juice, olive oil and cumin in a small bowl until they’re all combined, then mix in the diced cucumber. Sprinkle the mint and pomegranate seeds on top and set aside.

6. Using the same bowl you used for the onion wedges, toss the courgette in olive oil and sumac (you will probably need to add another slosh of oil and another bit of sumac to what’s already in the bowl). Lift the chicken out of the skillet and add the courgettes, tossing them around with the onions to give them a good mix. Replace the chicken on top of the veggies and put the dish back in the oven for another 10 minutes.

7. Put the rice in a sieve and rinse under a cold tap until the water runs quite clear. Place the rice in a pot of cold water and leave to stand for 10 minutes.

8. Heat half the sunflower oil in a pan over a high heat and quickly fry the shallot slices until they are crispy (keep an eye on them, the line between ‘crispy’ and ‘burned’ is a fine one here!). Remove with a slotted spoon onto kitchen paper to allow the oil to drain off.

9. Toss the pepper slices in the small bowl with any remaining oil and sumac, the lemon juice and garlic cloves. Again, gently lift the chicken out of the skillet, add the pepper mix to the other vegetables, and give everything a good mix around before replacing the chicken on top, putting the whole lot back in the oven for another 10 minutes. I added the squeezed lemon halves to the dish for an added lemon kick, you can leave them out if you prefer. If you do add them, don’t forget to take them out before you serve, to avoid any nasty surprises amongst the sweet roasted vegetables!

10. Drain the rice in a sieve and set aside. Heat the remaining sunflower oil in a pot for which you have a tight-fitting lid and fry the cinnamon stick, cloves and cardamom pods just for a few seconds, until fragrant. Then throw in the rice, bay leaves, a good pinch of salt, and the boiling water. Stir once, quickly bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and stir one more time before putting the lid on. Leave untouched over the lower heat for 10 minutes. Do not be tempted to check it!

11. Take your chicken out to test it – it should be done at this stage. To check, pierce the leg at a couple of its thickest parts and if the juices run clear, it’s done. If it’s not done, return it to the oven for another five or so minutes. If it is done, very gently make a place for the tomato vines and give them a roll around in the cooking juices. You want to be careful here to keep them on the vine. Return the dish to the oven for about five minutes, until the skin of the tomatoes is wrinkly – don’t leave them too long or they’ll turn into a mush.

12. Take your rice off the heat – the rice should have absorbed all the water by now. Stir in the crispy shallots. Serve immediately with the chicken and vegetable mix, and the yoghurt on the side.