Category: egg

Categories
bacon courgettes cream egg food pancetta pasta

courgette carbonara

courgette carbonara

I am utterly aghast that I have not blogged this before. I must’ve made it half a dozen times and it never fails to delight, yet somehow it fell through the cracks. I was chatting with a colleague that I was having this for dinner and she asked if it was on my blog. “Of course,” I said, “I’ve cooked it loads of times.” And yet there it wasn’t.

This is a great twist on carbonara. It always nags at me that these delicious pasta dishes don’t have a veg component which means cooking something else on the side. You can’t fault the Italians; it’s the way they eat but I prefer to have everything together. I find peas a little too harsh against the creaminess but the addition of courgette is a great one. It’s an idea I’ve lifted from Jamie at Home and it’s really worth trying. I’m also a big fan of dishes where the sauce is cooked in the same time as the pasta so can be up and on the table in under 15 minutes. Brill.

Courgette carbonara (serves 2):

1 large courgette

6 rashers of smoked streaky bacon, cut into small pieces

Leaves from a sprig of thyme

150ml double cream

A large handful of grated parmesan

250g penne

2 egg yolks

  1. Get a large pan of salted water on the boil and a big frying pan on a high heat.
  2. Slice your courgette in half, then use a spoon to scoop out the fluffy seeds and discard. Slice the courgette on an angle so you end up with pieces about the same size as the pasta.
  3. Chuck the pasta in to boil and keep checking for when it’s al dente. In your frying pan add a splash of oil and toss in the bacon. Keep frying until crisp on once side, then add the courgette and thyme and give everything a good toss to coat in bacony goodness. Meanwhile in a jug stir together the cream, parmesan and egg yolks and grind over loads of black pepper – it really helps cut through the cream. Toss your courgettes every now and then.
  4. Get a mug and scoop out some of the pasta cooking water to slacken your sauce in a minute. When the pasta is cooked drain, and when the courgettes are starting to go tender turn the heat off of the pan (this is important to avoid scrambling the eggs) and add your creamy mix. Keep stirring it to stop the egg clumping and add a dash of the reserved water. Toss with the pasta, check for seasoning and add a little more water if you need a bit more liquid in your sauce. Serve immediately with a dash more parmesan, this dish doesn’t hang around!
Categories
apples batter egg food

apple pancakes

apple pancakes with maple syrup

Pancakes for breakfast are the perfect Sunday treat. Usually the whole family gets involved, someone peels apples, someone cracks eggs, someone whisks up the batter and someone cooks. I can almost pass it off as healthy when there’s fruit involved… OK, maybe not. The presence of apples here is bittersweet against the tang of Greek yoghurt and the sticky sweetness of maple syrup, all soaked up with a fluffy pancake.

There’s nothing wrong with the accepted crêpe-style pancake on Shrove Tuesday, but for a change you could do worse than these more American types. And while you’re thumbing your nose at tradition check out this amusing Miffy pancake and mould. The mould plops out pretty rabbit heads! Apologies for the self-indulgence but my 3 year old would go absolutely bananas (sorry, apples) for this, given that she sleeps in a Miffy bed-spread clutching her Miffy rabbit nearly as big as her, after being put to bed with a Miffy story.

If you can’t get hold of one of those, a round pancake would be just as good. Just don’t let my daughter know they come in rabbit-shapes or she’ll never eat anything else.

Apple pancakes:

1 apple per person, peeled and diced

1 tablespoon sugar

Knob of butter

Pinch of cinnamon

A mugful each of flour and milk

1 egg

Greek yoghurt and maple syrup to serve

  1. Get the apples going by melting the butter and sugar together in a pan, then adding the cinnamon and apples. Toss the apples in the flavoured butter but be careful not to stir too much – you don’t want apple sauce. Keep cooking gently until they are tender and then keep warm. You may wish to add a little more or less sugar depending on the variety of apple you’ve used.
  2. Whisk the flour, milk and egg together with a pinch each of sugar and salt until smooth.
  3. Melt a little butter in a pan and ladle in some pancake mixture – it should spread to about 10cm across. Continue to cook until browned on one side, then flip.
  4. Serve the apples on top of the pancakes, dollop over some Greek yoghurt and drizzle with maple syrup.
Categories
egg marjoram pork

deep fried crispy pork

Being interested in all things food mean I read a whole bunch of other blogs. Today Google Reader says I subscribe to 81 food-related RSS feeds. They range from bylined journalist columns to people just starting to write up their first things that I like the look of. On any given day a  rolodex of recipes rolls past me from all over the globe.

Someone I’ve recently latched on to is Going With My Gut. She’s been posting about a recent nose-to-tail pig butchery day and the latest post featured some crispy fried pork chops. Deep frying a really fatty piece of meat sounds insane. AND GREAT. So I did something similar, using lean pork and sliced thin like the Chinese takeaway classic deep-fried crispy beef.

It’s a little sickly so don’t serve too much of it. Very tasty though.

Deep fried crispy pork (serves 4):

2 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 egg, beaten

6 pork loin steaks, sliced into skinny pieces the size of your little finger

1 teaspoon dried marjoram

300ml chicken stock

1 litre vegetable oil

  1. First make the batter. Mix the flour, paprika and baking powder together with a pinch of salt. Stir in the beaten egg and add enough water to slacken to the consistency of double cream. Pop in the fridge until ready to use.
  2. Put a frying pan on a medium heat, and a pan with the vegetable oil on a very high heat. On a large chopping board sprinkle salt, pepper and marjoram. Roll the pork shreds in this mix so they are well coated. Add a splash of oil to the frying pan then fry the pork in batches. If you’ve cut them small enough you should only need to cook for a couple of minutes on each side until they are white all over.
  3. While the veg oil is getting smoking hot, add about a teaspoon of flour to the frying pan and stir well. Deglaze with the stock and allow to bubble away while you deep-fry the pork.
  4. Once the oil is smoking, dip the pork in the batter and straight into the pan. It will go golden brown in about 30 seconds, so fry in batches and drain on kitchen paper. Sprinkle with sea salt and serve with the reduced chicken stock sauce.
Categories
chocolate cocoa cream egg ice cream rosemary

chocolate and rosemary ice cream

Heston Blumenthal has recently created a range of ice creams for Waitrose, including chocolate and rosemary ice cream. I got the chance to try this, along with popcorn ice cream at Waitrose’s Summer party held at the V&A. I was mesmerised by the taste, deeply rich and chocolatey, but with a smooth herbal note. It’s reminiscent of choc-mint ice cream as it provides a similar mentholesque flavour, but remains distinctly rosemary-y.

At the event I also realised a big dream of mine – to meet Heston. OK, we didn’t swap phone numbers or make plans to go see Pirates 4. But I did manage to tell him what an inspiration he is to me and how much I enjoy his work. He seemed genuinely appreciative, not merely saying thanks and walking off but keen to express his gratitude.

Gushing aside, I had to try and recreate that ice cream flavour that I’d sampled. I was looking to marry that rich smoothness with a warm herb flavour. After some experimenting I’m confident that I’ve nailed it. It’s chocolatey, creamy and really interesting. It would be a good one to wheel out when friends are over for dinner as all the prep is well beforehand and you only need a little to satisfy. It’s really nice with crushed pistachios. A quick tip – this needs a good twenty minutes defrosting to get smooth and easily scooped, so remove it from the freezer just as you serve the main meal.

Be warned: bring your whisking arm with you.

You can probably make this with an ice cream maker but I’ve never owned one so I can’t help you there. A lot of people go for the ‘ break it up with a fork several times during freezing’ but it’s never made any noticeable improvement to me, so I don’t bother.

Chocolate and rosemary ice cream (makes about 600 ml in volume):

40g cocoa powder

1 large sprig of rosemary

500 ml whole milk

125g dark chocolate (about 70% cocoa solids)

¼ teaspoon vanilla salt

6 egg yolks

100g caster sugar + 6 tablespoons caster sugar

100ml double cream

  1. Put the milk into a saucepan and pop over a medium heat. Roll up the rosemary but leave it intact (this friction breaks the surface of the herb and causes it to leak more oil). Whisk the cocoa into the milk as it heats, and keep whisking until the milk just reaches the boil. Take off the heat.
  2. Melt the chocolate. You can use a bain marie for this if you like but personally I find it less faff to use a microwave on low power. Zap it for 2 minutes at a time until smooth.
  3. Whisk the egg yolks and 100g sugar together until a pale ivory colour and thick. Add the hot milk to the yolks gradually, whisking all the time. Return the mixture back to the saucepan and put back on a gentle heat. Keep on whisking and add the melted chocolate, and whisk for a further 5 minutes until thickened. Again turn off the heat and leave to one side while you make a caramel.
  4. Melt the 6 tablespoons sugar with 2 tablespoons water over a medium heat. Swirl the saucepan round to combine but do not stir. Keep it going until it turns a lovely amber colour, then add the double cream and keep on swirling. When the caramel is smooth add to the chocolate milk, again with the whisking. Pour through a sieve into a freezable container and freeze at least overnight before serving.
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