Spaghetti with Muscles and Sun Dried Tomatoes

Spaghetti with Muscles and Sun Dried Tomatoes

I came home on Friday expecting a nice piece of white fish or a whole sea bass or something - ritual in our house is to buy what looks good at the fishmonger on a Friday and make it up from there. Judging from the purchase of ready cooked muscles I guess the fishermen hadn't had a good week!!

Whilst cooking your own can add a bit more flavour to the muscle the ready cooked variety are pretty cheap (85 pence for a pack at our supermarket) and a few bits of careful ingredient adding and a really nice, tasty meal can be prepared without much fuss.

Ingredients

wholewheat spaghetti (enough for 2)
2 shallots
2 cloves of garlic
pack of ready cooked muscles
6 sun dried tomatoes
150g of reduced fat creme fraiche
half a glass of white wine
basil leaves

Method

Start by boiling some water and getting the sundried tomatoes on to soak (they need about 10 - 15 minutes to refresh them otherwise they can be a bit leathery).

Get the spaghetti on the boil - mine takes about 10 - 12 minutes to cook which is plenty of time to prepare the sauce.

Finely chop the shallots and garlic and add to a hot pan with 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Let the shallots soften rather than fry to a crisp. Add a dash of sea salt at this stage.

Next remove the sun dried tomatoes from the soak and slice into thin strips and add to the pan. After the pan is back up to the heat add the white wine and the muscles - make sure you don't overcook the muscles as they only really need heating through.

Drain the spaghetti and add the contents of the pan to the spaghetti pan. Give a good stir, the olive oil should evenly coat the spaghetti. Then add the creme fraiche and a good bit of black pepper. Stir well.

Serve with the ripped basil leaves on top. Great with the rest of the bottle of wine.

Home Roast Coffee

How often do you see coffee claiming freshness? Well fresh ground and fresh roast are two different levels.

Green beans aren't so easy to get hold of but when you can grab them cos fresh roast and ground coffee is a real treat.

Simply heat the green beans in a non stick skillet, they will start to colour and crackle.

The darkness of the roasted bean will determine the strength of the coffee, a softer French roast comes from a brown bean. Black beans pack a punch.

When roasted to your liking place on two pieces of kitchen roll and give a rub to get the loose husks off the beans.

Grind in a coffee grinder. I have had mine for years and whilst electric grinders are available there is something satisfying about using a bit of elbow grease.

Sweet and Pepper Parsnips

Sweet and Pepper Parsnips

Ingredients
2 pasnips
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp sunflower oil
2 tsp golden syrup

Method

Place the parsnips, sea salt, black pepper and sunflower oil in an oven proof dish. Place in an oven for 15 minutes. Then remove the dish from the oven, give a quick mix then drizzle with the golden syrup. Place back in the oven for 5 minutes.

Curried Potatoes

Curried Potatoes

Great by themselves with chapatis - I served as an accompaniment to my Roast Chicken (see next post).

Ingredients

1 onion
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp garam masala
small potatoes
2 tablespoons sunflower oil

Method

Finely slice the onions and mix with the spices in an oven proof dish. Add the oil - mix well and place in a hot oven for 10 minutes. This softens the onion and gets the spices working. Add the potatoes (diced) and put back in the oven for 20 minutes.

Spiced Roast Chicken

This is an own creation that relies on a good dry spice rub to flavour the chicken with.

I use free range, corn fed chicken - it costs more than a battery bird but is well worth the additional expense.

Ingredients

1 corn fed free range chicken
a lemon
2 kafir lime leaves
2 pieces galangal
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp ginger powder
6 cloves
1 star anise
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp fenugreek
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp sea salt

Method

squeeze half the juice of a lemon over the chicken. Put the other half inside the bird with the galangal and kafir lime leaves (this helps keep the bird moist).

Mix the dry spices in a mortar and pestle. Rub the spices over the bird (if you want to avoid hands that look jaundiced either don't add the turmeric or use a piece of clingfilm over your hand!

Drizzle with olive oil and wrap in tin foil. Place in a preheated over at 180 degrees for about an hour and a half (remove the foil for the ast 30 minutes) - to check whether the bird is cooked prize a leg from the breast and check that the juices run clear.

Let the bird rest (wrapped in foil) for 10 minutes before carving - this lets the meat relax and absorb juices in the cavity.

I served with my curried potatoes, French beans and sweet and peppered parsnips (see previous post).

Tuna with Greek Salad

Tuna with Greek Salad

Dead easy and very healthy, that's what this meal is about.

Ingredients

Fresh Tuna Steak
1 Beef tomato
1 Little Gem lettuce
9 Black Olives
Feta Cheese
2 Pickled Chilli Peppers
Olive Oil
100g Cous Cous
1/2 a Green Pepper
2 slices Fresh Tomato
2 Sun Dried Tomatoes
1 tsp coriander powder

Method

For the cous cous - In a bowl place the cous cous, coriander powder, finely chopped sun dried tomatoes and salt & pepper into a bowl with some olive oil and 200ml boiled water. stir all the ingredients then add the green pepper (finely diced) and the fresh tomato (again finely diced) give a good stir and put a lid on the bowl.

Heat a griddle pan until searing hot. Oil the tuna with olive oil then season with sea salt and black pepper. Griddle on both sides to the point that the tuna is cooked 3/4 the way through. This allows for a medium rare steak - the way I like it - this requires good thick steaks.

Layer the salad and dress with a good olive oil.