This is a favourite mid week/Friday night supper dish, perfect for when you’re tired and want something quick and fairly easy to rustle up that doesn’t skimp on flavour or comfort 🙂 I think it must have started off as a Carbonara, but time (and bad influences!) have morphed it into the boozy creamy pasta it is today that probably shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same breath as carbonara for fear of offending any passing Italians… But what this dish does have in common with Carbonara is that the sauce should coat the spaghetti and no more, rather than be something the pasta is swimming in.
What I really love about the sauce is how the wine gives it a slightly zingy note that really compliments the slight tang in the creme fraiche. For all that I call this a “boozy” sauce, it should be the flavour you taste rather than the alcohol.
And if you’re feeling particularly lazy (and who doesn’t mid week) you can sub cubed pancetta for strips, but I do think the strips work better. Streaky bacon also works if you can’t get pancetta strips, or if you just prefer bacon.
Spaghetti in a Boozy, Creamy, Pancetta & Mushroom Sauce
2014-08-16 21:26:51
Serves 4
Wine, creme fraiche, pancetta - what more incentive do you need?
1/2 pack of mushrooms, diced (I prefer chestnut, and sometimes use the entire pack rather than just half...)
1 packet of pancetta strips
Small glass or miniature bottle (18.75cl) white wine (or buy a normal bottle of white wine, and drink the rest!)
2 generous tablespoons of half fat creme fraiche
Olive oil for cooking
1/2 pack of spaghetti
Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to season
Parsley for garnish (optional)
Cook!
Heat some oil in the frying pan and cook off the onions and garlic on a medium heat until the onions start to look transparent.
Add the mushrooms (you might need to add a little more oil if it starts to get a bit dry) and once they’ve cooked down too, remove the lot to a bowl.
In the same pan, add a little more olive oil and turn the heat up to high. Once the oil is heated up, throw in the pancetta. I don’t like my pancetta crispy for this dish but that’s a personal thing, so cook your pancetta to suit and once it’s how you like it add the onion, garlic and mushrooms back into the pan, season with salt and pepper, and then give it all a good stir.
Now add the wine. Once it starts to bubble, turn the heat down to medium and leave it to simmer for five minutes.
In the meantime, bring a large saucepan of salted water up to boil and once the five minutes is up drop your spaghetti in and cook per the packet instructions. This should give the wine in your sauce another ten minutes to reduce right down – you really don’t want there to be much wine/liquid left, just the lovely lovely flavour of it.
That said, don’t reduce it away completely! If after ten minutes there’s still a lot of liquid, turn the heat up and until there’s around 2 tablespoons worth of liquid in the pan.
This is when I usually grate up (or should that be grate down?) a very very generous amount of parmesan. It really is a component of the dish rather than a garnish, so don’t be shy. And I’d rather have too much of it than too little.
Just before your spaghetti is ready, stir the creme freche into the pancetta, mushroom and onions and warm through.
When your spaghetti is ready, drain, reserving a cup of the cooking water just in case, before adding it to the frying pan along with the grated parmesan.
Toss everything in the pan so that the spaghetti is coated with the sauce and melting parmesan. If it all gets a little claggy, add some of the reserved cooking water which should sort that right out.
Grind some black pepper over it, garnish with a little chopped parsley if you have any to hand, and dish up!
Delicious with a little home made garlic bread on the side 🙂 NOM!
So… It’s safe to say that I’m very much a newbie blogger, and as such have been a little shy about self promoting in the belief that there’s no point telling anyone this blog is here until there’s a respectable amount of stuff to look at (one recipe does not an interesting blog make!) After posting up my Haggis Spring Rolls recipe last weekend, I thought I’d tweet Macsween about it and hoped that, at best, they might like it enough to retweet me and I’d get a few more people popping by here.
Not only did the very very lovely people there retweet me, but they emailed me to say how much they liked the look of my spring rolls, and could they send me some of their delicious noms! To say I was giddy with glee at getting such a response (and offer!) is an understatement, the more so because I picked up the email after having a wisdom tooth taken out and it put a much needed grin on my poor sore face 🙂
And then the delicious noms arrived…
Look at the size of that box! And a lovely canvas bag too (Tim Minchin would be so proud!)
HOW much noms??
And a little bit of everything too! Variety is the spice of life!
Thank you again, Macsween! Like I didn’t already <3 you enough!
The first time I had these was in a fantastic wee pub called The Magnum, not far from where I live, that used to serve them as a starter with a sweet Thai chilli dipping sauce that just went amazingly well with the spicy peppery haggis. I figured they couldn’t be that difficult, so I tried making them myself at New Year for my brother and sister-in-law and the results were none too shabby 🙂 Shamefully, I had to YouTube “how to roll a spring roll” first because I am, according to Hubby, the “most rubbish Chinese person in the world” (!) but that really was as tough as it got! To save you searching, I’ve tried to write up what I hope are simple yet sensible instructions, with pics so that you know what your roll-in-progress should look like.
I like to joke that Haggis Spring Rolls appeal to both my ethnicities at the same time, and this year when Chinese New Year and Burns Night were back to back these were perfect for satisfying two celebrations with one nom!
Ideally, use spring roll wrappers and deep fry until golden rather than bake, but spring roll wrappers aren’t the easiest thing to get your hands on so I’ve gone with filo pastry for this recipe which work just as well and should be readily available in your local supermarket.
If you’ve got friends coming round for dinner, these are great for making beforehand and keeping chilled until needed (I’d probably take them out of the fridge about half an hour before popping in the oven). These are also a great way to try haggis for the first time if you’re a little nervous of the ingredients 🙂
Haggis Spring Rolls
2014-08-16 21:08:30
Yields 4
A Scottish take on the humble spring roll, the best of both of my heritages!
Approx 130g haggis (Macsween's microwave haggis is perfect for this as its already cooked, and half a patty per spring roll works out just right.)
4 sheets of filo pastry, approx 20cm by 20cm
Melted butter for brushing
Thai sweet chilli sauce for dipping
To start
Get the oven on first, you want it heated up to 200C before you put the spring rolls in.
Wet some kitchen roll or a tea towel and wring out so that it’s damp rather than soaking. Lay this over your stack of filo to keep the pastry from drying out as you take one sheet out from under it at a time to work on.
Position the first sheet of filo so that one corner is pointing at you. Spoon one quarter of the haggis in the bottom part of the sheet, towards the corner nearest you but not touching the sides, in a sausage shape (if you’re using Macsween’s microwave haggis don’t heat it up first, put half a patty in a small bowl and loosen it up with a fork first).
Start by folding the bottom of the sheet up and tuck it loosely against the haggis, too tight and the pastry might split later when you’re rolling it.
Next, gently fold over one side, and then the other (it should look a little like an envelope) before rolling it up from the bottom. Stop just short of rolling it right up and brush the last exposed corner of filo with a little of the melted butter before rolling up completely, this will seal the roll.
Place on a pre-greased baking tray and very very lightly brush melted butter over the top – too much butter and the rolls won’t brown, so you really want to touch the pastry with the brush and no more.
Pop in the oven and bake until they’re a lovely light golden brown, about 15-30 minutes, give them a few to not burn your mouth, and then NOM!
Notes
For tips on rolling the spring rolls, check out the photos below!
fifigoesnom https://www.fifigoesnom.com/
To roll:
Wet some kitchen roll or a tea towel and wring out so that it’s damp rather than soaking. Lay this over your stack of filo to keep the pastry from drying out as you take one sheet out from under it at a time to work on (thanks @si_watson for recipe testing and spotting this omission!).
Position the first sheet of filo so that one corner is pointing at you. Spoon one quarter of the haggis in the bottom part of the sheet, towards the corner nearest you but not touching the sides, in a sausage shape (if you’re using Macsween’s microwave haggis don’t heat it up first, put half a patty in a small bowl and loosen it up with a fork first). Fold the bottom of the sheet up and tuck it loosely against the haggis, too tight and the pastry might split later when you’re rolling it.
Next, gently fold over one side, and then the other (it should look a little like an envelope) before rolling it up from the bottom. Stop just short of rolling it right up and brush the last exposed corner of filo with a little of the melted butter before rolling up completely, this will seal the roll.
Place on a pre-greased baking tray and very very lightly brush melted butter over the top – too much butter and the rolls won’t brown, so you really want to touch the pastry with the brush and no more.
You really can’t go wrong with Delia, and this recipe is as wonderfully tasty as it is easy. I tried it for the first time about a year ago and it’s become a firm favourite in our house. The prep may seem like a bit of a flaff, all that chopping of endless green, but it’s totally worth it. The lime starts to cook the chicken while it’s marinating, and coupled with the literal flash-in-the-pan cooking time results in amazingly tender chicken that is just bursting with that fresh zesty lime flavour.
Quick to cook and satisfyingly savoury!
Delia's Stir-Fried Chicken with Lime and Coconut
2014-08-16 18:55:38
Serves 2
A bit of prep work but this quick-cook dish is fresh, zingy and amazingly tender.
1 green chilli, deseeded and finely chopped (if you want a little more kick add another half chilli)
4 heaped tbsp fresh coriander leaves
4 spring onions, sliced into rounds, including the green bits
2 tsp / 10ml Thai fish sauce (Hubby likes a wee splash more, but be careful as this stuff is PO-TENT!)
Oil for cooking
Rice (Thai fragrant rice is perfect for this)
Prep
First things first, get that marinade going! Zest and then juice your lime into a bowl (the smell alone is worth the zesting!). Chop your chicken into bite sized pieces and then add to the lime in the bowl. Stir to coat the chicken, and then leave to marinate for 1 hour.
Snip the ends off your spring onions and slice into rounds (or at a slight angle for ovals if you're feeling artistic!), deseed and finely chop the green chilli (fifi's top tip! I highly recommend getting some vinyl gloves, or CSI gloves as our family calls them, to keep your fingers safe from accidentally transferring that raw chilli heat elsewhere – they make pepper-spray out of this stuff, and for good reason!), and finely chop your coriander leaves.
I generally put my rice on at this point, and then go and sit down for 45 minutes 🙂
Cook!
Heat the oil in a wok over a high heat.
Fish the chicken pieces out of the marinade and add them to the wok – if a little marinade goes in too it’s no biggy, but too much and you’ll end up poaching your chicken instead of stir-frying.
Speaking of which, stir-fry for 3-4 minutes, until they chicken is golden and starting to brown a little in places.
Then add the chilli and stir-fry for 1 more minute.
Add the coconut milk, fish sauce and almost all of the coriander and spring onions (you really only want to hold enough back for garnishing) and cook for another 1-2 minutes.
Serve with rice, and scatter the remaining coriander and spring onions over everything.
I have an ex-boyfriend to thank for introducing me to this delicious soup, which was more delicious than the ex apparently as after we broke up it was the soup I pined for rather than him! And his cat, but that’s another story…
Unfortunately, I didn’t have the foresight to get a copy of the recipe at the time. But, I finally found it online last year, hurrah (thanks to easy-soup-recipes.blogspot.com for reuniting us!), and it was every bit as tasty as I remembered 🙂
The cauliflower blitzes down into a thicky and creamy soup, with the cider adding that sweet and sharp apple note that just goes so perfectly with cauliflower.
This soup is a real winter warmer, and is also the first (and so far only) soup I’ve ever made. Must sneak another one in before Spring hits… If nothing else, it will give me an excuse to try and get a photo of this that does it justice!
Cauliflower and Cider Soup
2014-08-16 17:49:09
Serves 4
A creamy, indulgent warmer that's perfect for a cold winter's day.
1 ¼ lb cauliflower florets (which is about 1 medium head's worth)
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 carrot, thinly sliced
2 tbsp butter
½ cup milk
½ cup double cream
2 ½ cups cider (a sweet cider like Magners or Bulmers is perfect. This is "hard cider" for you Yanks!)
1 chicken stock cube / pot
Freshly grated nutmeg
Salt and pepper
Snipped chives for garnish (optional)
Cook!
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat before adding the onion and garlic. Cook for about 5 minutes with the occasional stir until everything is just softened.
Then add the carrot and cauliflower to the pan before pouring in the cider. Give it all a good stir and then season it with salt, pepper and a generous grating of nutmeg.
Bring to a boil, then add the chicken stock cube and stir that in before reducing the heat to low and covering the pan. Leave it to cook gently for about 50 minutes, or until the vegetables are very soft, and then remove the pan from the heat.
Simmer the soup over low heat with the occasional stir until it’s heated through.
Ladle up, garnish with a scatter of chives, or a few drops of olive oil and some freshly milled black pepper, and enjoy!
Notes
Perfect with lots of warm crusty bread to dip (Jus-Rol Bake-it-Fresh Crusty White Rolls, or one of those half baked french sticks that you finish baking yourself are perfect), or a fresh batch of sourdough croutons.
