Marvellous Mascarpone

Having come back from a lovely time away on the Gower in Wales, I was slightly at a loss about what to cook. Then looking at the little bits and pieces left over from the food whilst we were away and I found a gem. Mascarpone. It is a such a gem, a delicious accompaniment to cake (especially my Lemon Polenta Cake) and makes a lovely creamy pasta sauce, which is what I made.

Beautiful Rhosilli Beach

Mascarpone, Bacon and Spinach Spaghetti

1/2 an Onion diced finely

4 Rashers of Bacon, sliced up, streaky, back or pancetta would work well here

2 big handfuls of spinach

3 tbsp Mascarpone

Splash of Marsala

Thyme

Nutmeg

Spaghetti for 2 people

Boil the water for spaghetti, I would normally salt it, but the bacon is so salty I don't think it will need it.  

Whilst that is coming to the boil, saute the onion, once soft add the bacon, try to get some bits of the bacon crispy. It is always nice to have a bit of texture. Splash in the Marsala, add some thyme.

Add the spinach, let it wilt down and then add the mascarpone more thyme and a generous grating of nutmeg.

Whilst making the sauce cook the spaghetti, once it is al dente and the sauce is ready add the pasta to the sauce tossing it through and add a bit of the cooking water to make it extra silky.

Serve immediately, with a sprinkle of parmesan and black pepper.

Enjoy!

Crazy over Carbonara

Last night after yet more baking, I was craving something really savoury, but without much faffing about. We had some more leftover ham, a million eggs from all the baking and we always have parmesan some pasta and Hey Presto!  A delicious meal in minutes, here is the inspiration taken from the Guardian's Word of Mouth Blog:



(the picture is from the blog...mine looked exactly the same)
Felicity's perfect spaghetti carbonara. Photograph: Felicity Cloake

Serves 2

1 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, sliced
75g pancetta, cubed
250g dried spaghetti
2 eggs and 1 egg yolk
25g pecorino romano, finely grated
25g parmesan, finely grated
Freshly ground black pepper
Nutmeg, optional

1. Put two bowls into a low oven to keep warm, or boil a kettle and half fill them with hot water. Heat the oil in a large frying pan on a medium heat, then add the garlic and cook until well coloured, then remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and discard. Add the pancetta and cook until translucent and golden, but not brown around the edges.

2. Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in plenty of boiling, salted water until al dente. In a bowl, beat together the eggs and the extra yolk and then stir in the the pecorino and most of the parmesan, reserving a little for garnish. Grind in plenty of black pepper.

3. Scoop out a small cupful of the pasta cooking water, and then drain the pasta well. Tip it into the frying pan and toss to coat with the pancetta fat.

4. Take the pan off the heat and tip in the egg mixture, tossing the pasta furiously, then, once it's begun to thicken, add a dash of cooking water to loosen the sauce. Toss again, and divide between the warm bowls, finishing off with a grating of nutmeg and a little more parmesan. Eat immediately.

Making a Hash of it

Last night we couldn't really be bothered to make anything, what with cake baking, visiting friends and trying their cake and baking the biggest Dundee cake in the world (it took nearly 2 hours to cook!) I wanted something extremely savoury and relatively easy to cook.

So nothing in the oven as we had the giant cake in there, I thought a hash, comforting, tasty and pretty much one pot cooking. We had leftover from a bacon joint and some sweetheart cabbage that had been sauteed, I cooked a few new potatoes and sliced up an onion.


Recipe:

3 thick slices of gammon chopped up into chunky pieces
1 onion sliced
Half a bag of new potatoes, boiled
Any leftover veg, we had cabbage.


Heat some olive oil and butter in a saute pan and throw in the onion, cook until soft and going golden and add the meat.  Whilst this is happening you can cook the potatoes, once boiled chop them up roughly and add to the pan with the left over veg. spread the mixture out over the pan so it is in one layer and leave to get crispy then break up and flip over to get it all soft and cripy and hot and golden brown.

We had ours with a coleslaw using up the left over red and white cabbage, carrot and my Dad's secret coleslaw recipe!

This is a really easy way of using up leftovers, if you have cold left over potatoes even better as you don't have to cook them specially!

Enjoy

xx

Potty over Polenta

Sorry for the lack of posts, I have been away and busy with my real life, but i'm back in the kitchen trying out new recipes.

I have long been a fan of Polenta, the golden, soft, slightly gritty accompaniment to italian stews or the firm grilled or baked version as chips with steak, seasoned well with cheese and pepper. Delicious.  However I have never used it in a cake or in sweet recipes, although I have eaten my fair share of them.  As I have been asked to make a cake for this weekend and our little family excursion to Wales I thought that now would be the time to experiment (especially as my Mum is making a Dundee cake, so if it is a disaster we'll have that to eat anyway).

The unknowing got the better of me this morning so I am doing a trial run (fine polenta is so cheap £1.10 for 1.5kg) it seems rude not to use it and the recipe I have chosen is a Nigella one. She is very reliable for easy cakes that are a little different and so far it is going well! Plus it is Gluten Free too!


Here is the recipe and for once I have followed it faithfully:

For the cake

• 200 grams soft unsalted butter (plus some for greasing)
• 200 grams caster sugar
• 200 grams ground almonds
• 100 grams fine polenta (or cornmeal)
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder (gluten free if required)
• 3 large eggs
• zest of 2 lemons (save juice for syrup)

For the syrup

• juice of 2 lemons
• 125 grams icing sugar

Method

1. Line the base of a 23cm springform cake tin with baking parchment and grease its sides lightly with butter.
2. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4.
3. Beat the butter and sugar till pale and whipped, either by hand in a bowl with a wooden spoon, or using a freestanding mixer.
4. Mix together the almonds, polenta and baking powder, and beat some of this into the butter-sugar mixture, followed by 1 egg, then alternate dry ingredients and eggs, beating all the while.
5. Finally, beat in the lemon zest and pour, spoon or scrape the mixture into your prepared tin and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes.
6. It may seem wibbly but, if the cake is cooked, a cake tester should come out cleanish and, most significantly, the edges of the cake will have begun to shrink away from the sides of the tin. remove from the oven to a wire cooling rack, but leave in its tin.
7. Make the syrup by boiling together the lemon juice and icing sugar in a smallish saucepan.
8. Once the icing sugar’s dissolved into the juice, you’re done.
9. Prick the top of the cake all over with a cake tester (a skewer would be too destructive), pour the warm syrup over the cake, and leave to cool before taking it out of its tin.

Here it is!

Morning Munchies

Ingredients:

This recipe is actually on my other blog, but as I'm trying to reorganise what that one is about I thought I'd repost it here. Apologies if you've seen it before. It is actually from Bryony the genius behind A Girl, A Style  it is utterly delicious!

A few cups of plain rolled oats (not instant or quick cooking)
1 cup roughly chopped nuts (any combination, such as almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts or pistachios)
A good handful of mixed seeds (such as pumpkin, sunflower, linseed)
1 cup roughly chopped dried fruit (such as apricots, peach, cranberries, dried cherries, sultanas, raisins)
1/2 cup apple juice (though any  juice will do really)
2 tbs honey + 2 tbs maple or golden syrup (or 4 tbs honey if preferred)
2 tbs oil or melted butter
Small handful of dried coconut (shredded of flaked)
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
A large handful of rice bubbles, wheat flakes, chocolate chips or any other preferred additives

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius (35o farenheit). Lightly mist 2 large baking trays/sheets with cooking spray.
Combine the oats and cinnamon in a bowl until you???re happy with the proportions (no need to be too precise).
In a separate small bowl, combine the juice, vanilla extract, honey, syrup, salt and oil/butter. Add this to the dry ingredients, and stir well. Taste, and if it seems a little dry or not as sweet as you would like, add a touch more juice or honey (the mix should be moist and combined, though not saturated).
Spoon evenly into two large baking trays, and bake for approximately 20 minutes ??? or until almost dry and golden. At this stage, add the nuts, seeds, dried fruit and coconut (stirring in to combine and break up the baked mix slightly ??? you want a mix of small pieces and chunks). Bake for another 10-20 minutes, or until the nuts and dried fruit look slightly baked (do keep checking regularly, as the fruit can quickly burn) and the whole mix is a nicely crisp and golden.
Allow to cool completely in baking trays, then stir through rice bubbles (or whichever ???unbaked??? ingredients you wish) ??? these will lighten the whole mix, and add another textural layer against the crunchy oats.

Makes 2 large mason jars worth.

via agirlastyle.com

I saw this over on A Girl A Style, the delightful world of Miss B, makes you want to jump right on that health kick, right?! Yum! 

Enjoy

Xx

Humble Pie

I am so sorry I have taken such a long break, it all seems to have got away from me recently, new projects going on in my other life, but no fear there shall be new recipes for you to try and devour soon!