SAUSAGE, CHILLI TOMATO AND RICOTTA PASTA

SAUSAGE, CHILLI TOMATO AND RICOTTA PASTA

SERVES 2

1/2 tbsp olive oil

small knob of butter

1 shallot, very finely chopped

1 stick celery, very finely chopped

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

3 free-range pork sausages

8 chilli blush tomatoes (Sacla do a good version), chopped

4 tbsp chicken stock or water, hot

1 tbsp tomato puree

100g ricotta

150g amori pasta

handful chopped parsley leaves

Heat the olive oil and butter in a pan over a medium-low heat. When the butter has melted, add the shallot, celery and garlic and sweat, covered, for 5 minutes until soft but not coloured. 

Remove the meat from the sausages and add to the pan, breaking up lumps with the back of a wooden spoon. Fry gently for 10 minutes until browned and starting to caramelise. Then, stir in the chopped chilli tomato, hot chicken stock/water and tomato puree. Season with salt and black pepper and cook for 5 minutes. 

Meanwhile, bring a pan of salted water to the boil and add the pasta. Cook for 8 minutes until al dente or according to according to pack instructions. Drain, reserving 1 tbsp of the pasta water and stir through the sausage sauce. 

Stir the ricotta and the chopped parsley through the pasta and season again to taste. Serve with a crunchy salad and bread for mopping.

ASIAN BRAISED BEEF

BRAISED BEEF WITH COCONUT AND SPICE

SERVES 2-4

1 red onion, roughly chopped

2 sticks lemongrass, peeled of a layer

1 garlic clove

1-2 red chillies, roughly chopped

15g ginger, grated

1 tbsp light oil, for frying

1 tbsp ground cumin

1 tbsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground turmeric

500g beef shin, bone in

400ml tin coconut milk

200ml water

1 tbsp fish sauce
1 cinnamon stick

In a food processor or pestle and mortar, blend the red onion, lemongrass, garlic, chillies and ginger together until you have a rough paste.

Heat the olive oil in a deep frying pan and add the paste. Stir in the ground spices and fry for 1 minute until fragrant. Add the beef shin and coat in the spiced paste. Fry for 2 minutes over a high heat so the beef begins to brown, then add the remaining 5 ingredients. Gently simmer for 2-3 hours until the beef is falling apart and the liquid has reduced. Serve with wilted greens and sticky rice.

BEETROOT DAL SOUP

Oh, hello you. It's been a while.

Time to bring in the New Year with some spice and some warmth. 

We're doing a whole month of it. Every night for the month of January my dear one and I are cooking Feel Good Food. Spicy broths, Asian salads, punchy curries and argy bhaji.  So, set the table, pull on your stocking socks, and tuck into a whole lotta love.

For this recipe: Start with a dal, change your mind and end with a soup.

BEETROOT DAL SOUP

SERVES 6

250g red lentils, rinsed

3 tbsp sunflower oil

1 tbsp cumin seeds

1 onion, finely chopped

2 whole red chillies, sliced down the side

2cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and thinly cut into matchsticks

3 garlic cloves, finely sliced

1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes

1 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp garam masala

1 tsp ground coriander

4 cooked beetroot, quartered

400ml good quality vegetable stock

natural yoghurt, to serve

handful chopped fresh coriander leaves, to serve

Cover the lentils with approximately 1 litre of water and bring to the boil, skimming any froth that comes to the top with a spoon. Cover the pan with a lid, turn down the heat, and simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring regularly, until the lentils are tender. When cooked, remove the pan from the heat and drain if necessary. Stir and set aside to cool. 

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a pan over a medium heat, then gently fry the cumin seeds until they are fragrant. Add the onion, ginger and whole chillies and fry until golden and slightly softened. Add the garlic and fry for another 30 seconds.

Pour in the chopped tomatoes, 100ml water with the ground spices and stir. Season. Bring to a gentle simmer and leave to cook, with the lid on, for 20 minutes. 

Stir in the lentils and transfer to a blender. Add the quartered beetroot and whiz until smooth. Slowly pour in the stock, pulsing the blender until you reach a thick soup consistency. You may not want to use all of the stock or you may want more depending on how you like it. 

If you're feeling fancy, push the soup through a sieve for extra smoothness. If not, give it a good old stir, season and garnish with a dollop of yoghurt and chopped coriander. 

If you've got leftovers, the soup will keep for a week in the fridge in a (preferably) sterilised container, or freeze it for up to 6 months.

DHAL CURRY AND CARDAMOM SPINACH

This is such a delicious dish to eat in the heat. Two simple core ingredients that don't necessarily scream sunshine and picnics but, unusually, I find them beautifully refreshing.

Put earthy lentils with fresh ginger, curry leaves, cumin, mustard seeds, turmeric and tomatoes, together with delicate spinach and cardamom, and you're diverted to instant summer comfort; as the spices give off warmth, they relax and cool you down. The punch of the sweet and smokey spices grabs tongue and nostrils with one powerful spoonful: fragrant, light, and freakishly moreish.

Serve with natural yoghurt and freshly chopped chilli, a sprinkle of fresh coriander and - for a real dip in the pool - a slice of lime.

DAL CURRY WITH CARDAMOM SPINACH

SERVES 4

200-300g red lentils, previously soaked (though just a good rinse is OK if time is short)
500g water
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 large tomato, deseeded and peeled and chopped
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp cayenne pepper
4 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
3/4 tsp cumin seeds
1 shallot, finely chopped
20 fresh curry leaves
thumb-size knob fresh ginger, finely grated
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1kg spinach leaves, rinsed, dried and roughly torn
2 cardamom pods, crushed and ground

to serve:
handful fresh coriander, chopped
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
4 tbsps natural yoghurt
1 lime, cut into four

Heat a large pan with the water and add the lentils. Cook for 15-20 minutes until the water has been absorbed. Be sure to stir the lentils as they cook, to avoid sticking to the pan. Stir in the turmeric, cayenne pepper, chopped tomato, puree and set aside.

Heat up a saucepan and add the crushed cardamom. The light aroma of the seeds will release with heat. Add the spinach and cover. Spinach contains enough water within its leaves, so no needs to add water. Add a touch of olive oil, season, and stir. Keep in the pan, off the heat, until ready to serve.

Meanwhile, heat up a frying pan with the mustard and cumin seeds. When the mustard seeds begin to pop, add a little oil and the chopped shallot, and fresh curry leaves. When the onions have softened, add the garlic and ginger. Fry for another minute, making sure the garlic does not burn.

Stir the shallot mix into the lentils and gently heat through.

Serve the lentils on a bed of the wilted cardamom spinach. Garnish with the coriander, fresh chilli and yoghurt and wedge of lime.

Best eaten in the garden at sunset after a hot day with a cool beer. (Well, any excuse, really).

PINK SKY AT NIGHT

It's Turkish Delight, it's strawberry sherbet and it's diving into a pool of Daiquiri...

That's what happens after you eat James Ramsden's Pork Madras Curry, turn beetroot into muffins, and crane your unswan-like neck through your window to hum at the sunset. All powerful, all highly recommended, all rather narcotic. Time for bed.

BEETROOT MUFFINS:

A bizarre combo, an experiment, I know, but beautiful little cheese-boards, surprisingly scone-like and damn fine with a chutney and red wine.

Makes 6

75g softened butter
150g self raising flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cocoa powder
1 egg, whisked
1/2 orange, zested and squeezed
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 medium raw beetroot, grated
1/2 carrot, grated

75 ml milk

Preheat the oven to 165 degrees C. Wipe a little butter around the muffin moulds if not non-stick.

Rub the butter, flour and baking powder between the fingers until you reach a crumbly /pre-pastry like consistency. Beat the egg, orange juice and zest into the mixture, and stir with a blunt knife. Then fold in the sugar, beetroot, and carrot. Finally pour in the milk and quickly mix until all combined. The muffin dough should not be too wet, nor too dry.

Equally divide the mix into the moulds. You want them to fill just over half way.

Place them in the oven for 25-30 minutes. Check with a thin skewer to see if cooked. If it is sticky, the muffins need a little more love, if dry, they are ready to gobble.

Leave to cool slightly and serve with a good cheddar, and some in-season fig chutney.

DESSERT BEFORE MAIN

A relaxing holiday abroad. It seems just the thing for de-stress after the torment of leaving another country. I needed to hold on to the dream-world a little longer so rehab was at hand, our holiday destination in the Costa Blanca region of Spain offering me heat, sun, and most importantly foreign food.

I never thought I would miss Italian cuisine so much - that fresh pasta, pizzas which hang off the plate and overflowing markets of fresh fruit and vegetables. After nine months of nothing else, why was I so longing for it again?

The weaning off process from a oh-so-delicious high carb diet proved difficult... In this part of town, the restaurants seemed to offer me exactly what I had just left behind.

Spain? The land of Paella, fresh fish, patatas bravas and tapas?

Instead, the fresh calamares fritas seemed overwhelmed by Italian menus. Even here there was nowhere to escape! Suddenly my daydreaming of tortellini left me gagging for Spanishness.

With luck, our villa was perfect for cooking at home, so instead of spending holiday cash on wannabe Italian dishes, we stocked up with the fresh stuff and feasted on salads, olives, couscous with chorizo, and stuffed green Piquillo peppers. Despite looking rather unimpressed in the photo below, the peppers were more than edible!

After a week of home cooked meals, albeit scrumptious and highly satisfying, my holiday companions and I were champing at the bit for a taste of Javean authenticity.

I am a firm believer of local and traditional food is best, as I'm sure most are. I prefer a restaurant with a small menu - mainly to speed up the decision process - with dishes plucked from the family tree and embedded in the livelihood of the town. So to find a good-looking restaurant, out of the way of the heaving beach promenade, was just what el dottor had ordered.

Our last night in Javea, dressed to the nines and in panic to find some fresh fish, took us away from the pizzas and into true Spanish territory. A restaurant under the name of Amare (hmmm...an Italian name, no?), looking out onto the harbour with, luck had it, a table laid for 14 and a charming waiter.

Surely too good to be true?

The menus were handed to us, and the gaze of 14 clucky chicks immediately flicked towards paella and the three course set menu. An array of calamares, sea bass with balsamic vinegar, coconut ice cream...my eyes now far bigger than my stomach.

One thing that really caught my eye, was the melon sorbet. Not served as pudding – that was something else, far more indulgent – but as an unexpected inbetweener, a miniature course slipped in after the starter and before the main.

It arrived, very gracefully, as a palette cleanser. And a genius one at that. A strange concept to tuck into dessert when you have hardly begun your main meal, but it really worked. I could no longer taste the fried batter of the succulent calamari, but a sweetness that made me excited about gobbling up my next course.

Is it greedy to drop in an extra mouthful amongst a mountain of food? No, I don't think so. By the time the sorbet is demolished, one miraculously feels un-full again, and could go on eating and eating.

Finally, I felt I could happily release myself from cucina italiana, and begin to be normal again - remembering the important fact that there is more out there other than spaghetti bolognese...

Sadly I was unable to swindle the recipe from the restaurant in Spain, but have instead stolen, tried, tested, and translated the measurements of the melon sorbet recipe from another great blog 'GLUTEN FREE IN SOUTH AFRICA', and although not Spanish, it tasted pretty similar and mouthwateringly tasty.

MELON SORBET

The success of this sorbet all depends on the melon; under ripe fruit only produces an underwhelming result.

1 large, ripe melon- enough to make 4 cups (US measures) /940 ml / 2 pints puree

1/2 cup /125ml water

1/2-3/4 cup / 125-180g Castor sugar, depending on sweetness of melon

pinch of salt

2 teaspoons witblits (heated dry white wine at 80 degrees C) or other alcohol

Ice cream machine needed for churning

Puree the melon with the water, sugar [start with 125g of sugar], salt and taste. Adjust with more sugar if necessary.
Stir in the alcohol and churn 15-25 minutes, or according to the instructions on your machine.

And perhaps to eat before or after the sorbet...

VERY SIMPLE, HIGHLY DELICIOUS STUFFED PIQUILLO PEPPER

Makes 20

20 small green Piquillo peppers - topped and de-seeded

(1 tbsp olive oil if frying)

200g soft cheese

1 garlic clove, very finely chopped

juice of half a lemon

20g fresh parsley, roughly chopped

Tabasco (4 drops but add more for more spice)

salt and pepper

These little bite-size peppers are full of flavour and perfect for handing round as an aperitif. They are also extremely quick and easy to make, and seemed to go down as a success.

Before anything, top and de-seed the peppers, making sure you leave the bottom half intact for filling later. Heat up the oil in the pan on a medium/high heat until soft and the skin is starting to brown, or alternatively place them under the grill for 20 minutes.

The peppers need to cool, so meanwhile, mix up the other ingredients for the filling until all the flavours have merged together. With a small teaspoon, fill the peppers carefully with the soft cheese mix. Then they are ready to serve warm, or put in the fridge for later on. They won't last long...