Showing posts with label pasta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pasta. Show all posts

Friday, March 25, 2016

Quick and Good Friday Seafood - Smoked Salmon and Broccolini One-Pot Spaghetti

Quick amd Good Friday Seafood - Smoked Salmon and Broccolini One-Pot Spaghetti
Quick amd Good Friday Seafood - Smoked Salmon and Broccolini One-Pot Spaghetti


It's been an almost unforgivably long time since I've posted. Sorry. I don't really have an excuse, just haven't gotten around to it. So for Good Friday I thought I'd post a quick and really simple seafood dish that tastes amazing.

This is the most frequently occurring dish in our house at the moment. And for the last, oh, month or so. It is divine and oh so easy to make. It helps that Lance has been hot-smoking salmon like there’s no tomorrow. And that I wholeheartedly support this habit. But most supermarkets and delis have some good hot-smoked salmon options available for sale these days for if you don’t have yourself a Lance. You only really need 1 fillet for this 4-person dish as the flavour of the smoked fish is quite strong and penetrates the cream so well. Smoke and fat are best friends, (think smoked butter, smoked cheese, smoked brisket) so it makes sense that the cream benefits from the smoke as well. And the whole thing cooks in one pot. Seriously. I’ve heard tell of one-pot-pastas but finally braved it myself and now there’s no going back. Especially with this specific dish. If it’s more than a week since we’ve had it, Lance reminds me that there’s smoked salmon in the house. And it tastes super fancy and complicated. It will impress the socks off people when in reality, you’ve cooked a bit of onion and garlic, then popped everything else in the pan and walked away until it’s cooked.


 Oh, and this works just as well with asparagus!


Quick amd Good Friday Seafood - Smoked Salmon and Broccolini One-Pot Spaghetti
Quick amd Good Friday Seafood - Smoked Salmon and Broccolini One-Pot Spaghetti
Quick amd Good Friday Seafood - Smoked Salmon and Broccolini One-Pot Spaghetti



Smoked Salmon and Broccolini One-Pot Spaghetti

500g dry spaghetti
2 cups fish stock
3 cups water
1 cup cream
4 heaped tsps. prepared horseradish
1 bunch broccolini, sliced into 3cm lengths
1 hot-smoked salmon portion
2 tsp pink peppercorns
1 brown onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
Parsley and red chili flakes to serve (optional)



Heat a large, deep-sided saucepan to medium and add a splash of olive oil. Add the onions and sweat for 5 minutes, or until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for a further 5 minutes. Add the pink peppercorns, the fish stock. water, cream and horseradish and stir to combine. Check the seasoning, but make it a little less salty than you ordinarily would. Otherwise when the liquid reduces, it'll be too salty. 

Add the dry spaghetti and push under the liquid. Raise the heat gently to bring the liquid to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and leave for 15 minutes. The noodles should be definitely soft enough to stir at this point. 

Add in the broccolini and salmon, stirring through the mixture. Cook for another 5 minutes, or until al dente. The majority of the liquid will be dissolved into a beautiful creamy sauce. Check for seasoning and serve with chili flakes and fresh parsley.
Quick amd Good Friday Seafood - Smoked Salmon and Broccolini One-Pot Spaghetti
Quick amd Good Friday Seafood - Smoked Salmon and Broccolini One-Pot Spaghetti
Quick amd Good Friday Seafood - Smoked Salmon and Broccolini One-Pot Spaghetti
Quick amd Good Friday Seafood - Smoked Salmon and Broccolini One-Pot Spaghetti
Quick amd Good Friday Seafood - Smoked Salmon and Broccolini One-Pot Spaghetti

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Chicken and Corn Gnocchi with Rum and Green Mango Sauce




Chicken and Corn Gnocchi with Rum and Green Mango Sauce
Chicken and Corn Gnocchi with Rum and Green Mango Sauce

Our mango tree that was so incredibly prolific last year, hasn’t been as fruitful this year. There are probably less than a quarter of them than last year, and we lost quite a few of those before they got anywhere near size. So when 4 green but still fairly mature mangoes fell, I decided to use them. I want my mango fix! I haven’t had a great deal of green mango dishes. Here and there there’s been green mango salads accompanying spicy Asian dishes but that’s about it. These salads are usually wonderfully tart and salty. The green mango very sour in comparison to the crazy sweetness of a ripe mango. And the salt tames the sour and brings out more of the fruit flavour.

With that idea in mind, I created this pasta. I was in the mood for gnocchi, not sure why, but I was. And I had half a roast chicken leftover from the night before’s dinner. Summer corn is plentiful and cheap at the moment, so that was going to be added. I thought I’d then round it out with a combination of ginger and coriander as a tip of the hat to the Asian green mango dishes and dark rum as a tip of the hat to the tropical feel of mango. And it worked so well! Salty chicken, sour green mango, sweet corn all working together with the rum to coat the soft pillows of gnocchi.

I only used two of our green mangoes, but I think I’ll use the other two to just repeat this dish!

Chicken and Corn Gnocchi with Rum and Green Mango Sauce
Chicken and Corn Gnocchi with Rum and Green Mango Sauce
Chicken and Corn Gnocchi with Rum and Green Mango Sauce


Chicken and Corn Gnocchi with Rum and Green Mango Sauce

(serves 3-4)
2 tbsp coconut oil
1 brown onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, mince
Thumb size piece of ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
2 green mangoes, flesh cubed
50mL dark rum
100mL water
1 tsp salt
Kernels from 3 corn cobs
½ cooked chicken, meat shredded
½ red capsicum, sliced
1 packet pre-cooked gnocchi
Handful coriander leaves, chopped
Green chilli, sliced into rings


Heat the coconut oil to medium heat in a frypan. Add the onion slices and half the salt. Leave to cook, stirring here and there so they don’t stick for around 10 minutes, or until lightly browned and caramelly. Add the garlic and ginger and cook until the garlic is translucent, around 2 minutes. Add the rum and simmer until reduced by about half and slightly sticky. Add the mango and corn and stir well to coat everything. Simmer until the corn is tender and the rum has reduced to the point where the corn is sticking to the pan in parts.

Add the water and remaining salt and stir to pick up any brown bits stuck to the pan and create a more cohesive sauce. Add in the chicken, capsicum and gnocchi, stirring well to coat in the sticky sauce and veges. Cook 5 minutes until the chicken and gnocchi are warmed through. Just before serving, stir through the coriander leaves and garnish with chilli slices.

Chicken and Corn Gnocchi with Rum and Green Mango Sauce
Chicken and Corn Gnocchi with Rum and Green Mango Sauce
Chicken and Corn Gnocchi with Rum and Green Mango Sauce
Chicken and Corn Gnocchi with Rum and Green Mango Sauce

Monday, February 16, 2015

Summer Sensations - Chipotle Crab Pasta


Summer Sensations - Chipotle Crab Pasta
Summer Sensations - Chipotle Crab Pasta


So, I did mention that our new car was amongst other activities, chosen for crabbing trips. However our first crabbing trip this year coincided with the day we picked up the Zoolander. Now, I’m not precious about a clean car – but I did want the car to be clean for at least one full day. So we took my sister-in-law’s car. It wasn’t our most successful trip, but we managed to catch enough for a feed for the 4 of us that went. I’m hoping we can go back later in the season so that all of the undersize ones have had a chance to grow into monsters!


After crabbing, cleaning off the gear and boiling up the crabs in plenty of water with a splash of vinegar and hot English mustard, we showered and finally got to bed around 5am. Then as has been tradition, Lance and I set up a shelling station in front of a tv. Then with a movie playing, we sit and peel all of the crabs. This year it took us 1 and a half movies. This equated to about 400g of crab flesh. I divided it into 2, then froze half for a later dish.


That night I cooked this very simple chili crab pasta. This pasta took it’s form from two of the things growing prolifically in our garden this summer – grape tomatoes and oregano. The grape tomato that Lance planted and lovingly waters every day has rewarded us with buckets of fruit. Some days we pick over 2 dozen! Then the flavours of the rest of the dish are Mexican, in a wonderfully fusion-food kind of way. It became like my riff on a Sopa Seca – or “dry soup”. A Mexican noodle dish flavoured with chipotles in adobo and served with sour cream and a smokey salsa. It was the perfect thing on a tired Sunday night with a lovely anejo tequila on the side.
Summer Sensations - Chipotle Crab Pasta
 Summer Sensations - Chipotle Crab Pasta

Summer Sensations - Chipotle Crab Pasta

Summer Sensations - Chipotle Crab Pasta


Chipotle Crab Pasta

(serves 4)
200g crab flesh, picked through for cartilage
One brown onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 chipotles in adobo sauce, plus 1 tbsp adobo sauce
20 grape tomatoes, roughly diced
2 tbsp chopped fresh oregano
Big knob of unsalted butter (around 100g)
50mL reposado tequila
Zest and juice of one lime
Sea Salt
500g angel hair pasta
To serve
Greek yoghurt
Jalapeno slices


Bring a pot of water with a decent pinch of salt to the boil.


Heat a splash of olive oil in a large sauté pan or wok. Add the onion and cook for 10 minutes or so until soft and golden. Add the garlic and cook a further 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes to the pan and cook until soft and breaking down.


At this point, the pasta water is probably boiling. Add the pasta.


Add the tequila and lime juice and zest and stir through, scraping up bits that might have stuck to the bottom of the pan. Reduce the liquid by half, then add the butter and whisk through to melt and emulsify into a thick, glossy sauce. Stir through the chipotles, adobo sauce, oregano and crab. Cook for 5 minutes, or until the crab is heated through.


Drain the pasta, then stir through well to evenly coat with the sauce.


Serve with a dollop of Greek Yoghurt and sliced jalapenos. And maybe a lovely glass of tequila on the side!

Summer Sensations - Chipotle Crab Pasta

Summer Sensations - Chipotle Crab Pasta
 Summer Sensations - Chipotle Crab Pasta
Summer Sensations - Chipotle Crab Pasta


Saturday, November 8, 2014

Sparkling Meals - Prawn and Squash Spaghetti with Champagne Sauce

Sparkling Meals - Prawn and Squash Spaghetti with Champagne Sauce
Sparkling Meals - Prawn and Squash Spaghetti with Champagne Sauce

Sometimes, you have multiple things to celebrate in a short space of time. Like having an award winning Chocolate Beer Jam. Or having it confirm that your recipe will be included in a cookbook. Or having a birthday. And all of those things individually might require a toast…but together, they definitely do. And sometimes, you somehow are left with a half bottle of bubbles when such an occasion arises. I am a little funny about drinking bubbles after the day I open them. Even though we have an incredible re-corking stopper, it’s just something I don’t enjoy as much after the fact. And so I was left with a little champagne (in reality, sparkling wine, but I’m gonna be fancy and call it champagne) that I couldn’t bear to waste. Well, cooking with it seems like the best use!

I’d seen (and eaten) quite a few champagne cupcakes in the last few months. Seems like quite the trend in Perth at the moment! But I wanted dinner, not cupcakes!

My next thought went to my gin and crab pasta, and then to the good deal of seafood pastas with vodka sauces over the years and thought that a seafood pasta sauce was definitely the go. But, I wanted the flavour of the champagne to shine through. It’s not as strong a flavour as the gin, so I didn’t want a thick creamy sauce, so I went with a buttery base. I added some delicious Shark Bay Prawns, and some finely sliced yellow squash for a mellow, summery addition. All complimentary, but subtle flavours. And here’s the kicker. Vanilla. Adding a vanilla bean to the reducing champagne takes this from tasty to next level delicious. It adds a sweetness that you can’t quite put your finger on, but you’d immediately notice it’s absence. Trust me on this. Then you’ll probably want to open another bottle of bubbles to drink with the dish. And you might end up with a little leftover…

This is a very simple dish with very few ingredients, so it pays for them to be good quality. I recommend using fresh spaghetti if you can, and although my champagne was day old, it was still good champagne. You can use anything you would ordinarily drink. It doesn’t have to be expensive, but given the scope of sweetness and dryness you get in sparklings, make it something you enjoy drinking.

Oh, and the last note I will add is that this dish comes together really quickly once you start cooking. I’d say it’s maybe a 15 minute meal. So prep all your ingredients first, get your pasta water boiling (especially if you have dried pasta) and then begin cooking. I used salted butter as that’s what I had, so I needed less salt than you will if you use unsalted.

Sparkling Meals - Prawn and Squash Spaghetti with Champagne Sauce
Sparkling Meals - Prawn and Squash Spaghetti with Champagne Sauce
Sparkling Meals - Prawn and Squash Spaghetti with Champagne Sauce
Sparkling Meals - Prawn and Squash Spaghetti with Champagne Sauce


Prawn and Squash Spaghetti with Champagne Sauce 

1 ½ cups champagne (sparkling wine)
2 shallots, finely diced
3 small cloves garlic, minced
1 vanilla bean
125g butter, cubed.
Salt and pepper
500g fresh pasta
250g peeled prawns
4 yellow squash, very finely sliced
Chopped parsley to serve
Red chilli flakes (optional)
More champagne to drink with it!

Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil.

In a large sautee pan, pour in the champagne, shallots and garlic and a little pepper. Split the vanilla bean and scrape the seeds into the pan, then throw the pod in too. Bring to the boil over a medium heat and keep it simmering until it’s reduced by half. Add the butter, a few cubes at a time, and whisk well after each addition to blend into the sauce. Stir well for a further 1-2 minutes to thicken the sauce, then discard the vanilla pod and add the squash slices and prawns. Check for seasoning.

Put the fresh pasta into the boiling water.

Stir the prawns and squash into the sauce well, coating in the sauce and allowing to cook through. 2-3 minutes. At this point, your pasta should also be cooked, using tongs, pull the spaghetti into the sauce, allowing some (not too much) cooking water to come with it. Stir well to coat all the noodles in the sauce and blend the cooking liquid in.

Serve with some chopped parsley and some chilli flakes, if you’d like


Sparkling Meals - Prawn and Squash Spaghetti with Champagne Sauce
Sparkling Meals - Prawn and Squash Spaghetti with Champagne Sauce
Sparkling Meals - Prawn and Squash Spaghetti with Champagne Sauce
Sparkling Meals - Prawn and Squash Spaghetti with Champagne Sauce
Sparkling Meals - Prawn and Squash Spaghetti with Champagne Sauce

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Slow Cooker Love - Lamb Ragu

Slow Cooker Love - Lamb Ragu
Slow Cooker Love - Lamb Ragu

I love slow-cooking in this weather. Especially meat. The flavours of slow-cooked meat are incredible, as is the ease and versatility of cooking a big hunk of meat. My go-to meat for slow cooking is pork. But when I saw a recipe for Italian pulled pork sandwiches I thought that a leg of lamb would suit the flavours so much better. And wondered why I hadn’t done it before. Slow cooked Italian lamb. Perfect, right? Having a weekend of baking for my brother’s Cake Club and having my parents over for dinner the same day was the perfect opportunity to give it a go. I’ve used the herbs that I add to my usual bolognaise sauce, and used tomato in the braising liquid to give it a real Italian richness.

In the morning I rubbed the meat with the herb mix, browned the meat, then left it to do it’s thing while the oven was full of biscuits. The cooling/skimming the fat step is fairly crucial, seeing as a lamb leg is quite a fatty cut.

The end result is a rich, meaty dish. A dish that warms you the whole way through. A dish that leaves you satisfied but still wanting more. Wanting a chunk of bread to clean the bowl with. A dish that serves five big eaters, with leftover lamb for Lance and I for the next two days – realistically it could have done 3 nights if it wasn’t so delicious! Sometimes that can be the best part of slow-cooked food. The leftovers make brilliant sandwich or taco filling, or poured over more pasta or couscous or your other favourite grain.

Slow Cooker Love - Lamb Ragu
Slow Cooker Love - Lamb Ragu
Slow Cooker Love - Lamb Ragu
Slow Cooker Love - Lamb Ragu
Slow Cooker Love - Lamb Ragu

Lamb Ragu

3 tbsp. ground fennel seeds
3 tbsp. dried parsley
2 tbsp dried oregano

1 tbsp. dried thyme
1 tbsp dried basil
1 tbsp pepper
1 tbsp salt
3 tsp. red chilli flakes
1 lamb leg – approx 2kg
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 tins crushed tomatoes

2 cups vegetable stock
2 cups water
1 (generous) cup red wine
1 brown onion, diced

2 tsp sugar
pasta to serve


Combine fennel seeds, parsley, oregano, thyme, basil, chilli flakes, salt and pepper. Cut a long line down the lamb leg to open it up. Rub the inside with the herb mixture, then half of the minced garlic. Pull back together. Rub the entire outside with a generous amount of the herb mix, you might not need all of it.

Heat the base of your slow cooker (or a pan if your insert can’t be heated) to medium high heat and generously coat the bottom with olive oil. Brown the lamb on all sides. 5-10 minutes per side. Remove to a plate. Add the onion, remaining garlic and 1 tin of the crushed tomatoes to the slow cooker base and cook for 10 minutes or until the tomatoes are reduced by about half and caramelized.

Add the stock, water and wine. Mix well then add the lamb back to the base.

Put into your slow cooker and cover. Cook on high for 5 hours or until the meat is falling off the bone.

Transfer the lamb to a tray and shred with two forks, removing the skin, bones and as much fat as you can. Set the meat aside. Allow the cooking liquid to cool and then skim the fat off the top of it.

When ready to serve, prepare your pasta as per cooking instructions. Put the cooking liquid back on the stove top over medium heat. Add the second tin of crushed tomatoes, half fill the tin with water to rinse it out and add that to the sauce. Add sugar and mix well. Bring to the boil, then reduce to low and simmer for 15 minutes until the sauce is reduced by a quarter. Add the shredded meat back in and stir well.

Serve with freshly cooked pasta and a side salad

Slow Cooker Love - Lamb Ragu
Slow Cooker Love - Lamb Ragu
Slow Cooker Love - Lamb Ragu
Slow Cooker Love - Lamb Ragu
Slow Cooker Love - Lamb Ragu