Chilli and Chocolate : recipes, restaurant & wine reviews, and local food heroes - A Belfast Food Blog (Northern Ireland, UK)

Tagliatelle with Bolognese Ragu

Posted: 08 March '10 by Niall

Tagliatelle with Bolognese Ragu

Last weekend I thought I’d make one of my favourite dishes, Bolognese.. A really simple meal that has a million and one recipes for it.

This is the best recipe for Bolognese that I know of and it produces a very tasty, authentic Italian meal. You’ll be surprised by a few of the ingredients – minced pork for instance, and milk too – and by the absence of garlic. The dish is delicious though, and much more flavoursome than the basic spag bol I would make during the week.

One of the most important things to remember is that a lot of Italian dishes start with the same three ingredients: celery, onion, and carrot. I think that the carrot gives a slight sweetness to the dish but, other than this, you won’t notice any discernible flavour from the basic ingredients – they just help to make a more robust and mouth-watering sauce.

The recipe also calls for Tagliatelle rather than Spaghetti. Depending on where you are in Italy, this is either complete blasphemy or the proper way to make Bolognese. For me, I have to say that I prefer the Tagliatelle – it feels much more authentic as it lends itself to the “mix the sauce through the pasta” approach and holds more of the sauce than Spaghetti would.

Making Bolognese Ragu really is a weekend job though as it takes over three hours to cook – but it’s worth every minute.

You can see more photos here Image 1 Image 2 Image 3 Image 4 Image 5 Image 6

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

400g minced beef
400g minced pork
100g pancetta, roughly chopped
100g onion, finely chopped
100g carrot, finely chopped
100g celery, finely chopped
2 tins of chopped tomatoes
1 glass of dry white wine
500ml fresh milk
200ml of chicken stock
3 bay leaves
Pepper and salt
500g Tagliatelle

Method:

Place the pancetta in a large, deep saucepan with some olive oil on a low heat until the fat has melted and the pancetta has a nice golden colour.
Add the onion, stirring until the onion is translucent.
Add the carrot and celery and the bay leaves and keep cooking until the vegetables start to soften and get some colour.
Place the minced meat in a bowl and add some seasoning. Mix the meat together with your hands.
Increase the heat to just above medium and add the minced meat. Keep cooking and stirring the mixture until the meat has browned.
Pour in the white wine and stir through the mixture, cooking the ingredients until the wine has evaporated.
Reduce the heat and add the chopped tomatoes, mixing them through the meat.
Leave the mixture on the heat for at least 2 hours. Check your sauce regularly during this time – if the tomatoes reduce too much just add some beef stock. By the end of the two hours you should have an intense, thick tomato sauce.
Now, add the milk and some chicken stock, stirring them through your sauce. Leave this mixture over a low heat for another hour.
Remove the sauce from the heat, season to taste, and leave to rest.
In a separate saucepan, add some water and a good pinch of salt and bring to the boil.
Add your tagliatelle and cook until the pasta has softened.
Drain your pasta and add several spoonfuls of your Bolognese Ragu, mixing the sauce through the pasta.
Serve with some grated parmesan.

Enjoy!

Rating: 5.5/10 (2 votes cast)

Tags: italian food, pasta, recipe

Categories: Beef : Featured Post : Italian Food : Main Course : Recipes

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Restaurant review – Nando’s, 24 Ormeau Avenue, Belfast

Posted: 04 March '10 by Niall

Nandos, Ormeau Avenue, Belfast

After walking past the shiny and new Nando’s on Ormeau Avenue almost everyday since it opened I was looking forward to venturing in to what the menu was like. With Kelly incapacitated at the minute, the task fell to fellow Chilli-and-Chocolatier Eamann and myself.

The restaurant is a good size, and the decor helps this sense of space with an uncluttered style – plenty of glass and bright lights interspersed with potted plants and art – which makes you feel that you have a little more room to breathe in what can become a busy restaurant. We managed to get a table on the mezzinine and had the Nando-experience explained to us by the friendly waiting staff as we sat and started to work our way through the menu.

Since this review we’ve been back a couple of times, but the procedure for ordering your meal is still slightly annoying: having selected your meal from a fairly dis-organised menu, you have to go to the tills and order your meal yourself. Now, this mightn’t sound too onerous but, weighed down by coats and baggage, you begin to wish that the waiter would just take your order at the table. I saw a table of ten people take time to gather all of their stuff just to traipse downstairs and order their meal. It’s not a fatal flaw, and truth-be-told it did create a relaxed and informal atmosphere, but it’s a black mark in my book.

The menu itself is a little limited – four or five basic nibbles to start your meal, lots of chicken (obviously!), with a couple of veggie and meat options too. Realistically though, if you don’t like chicken, Nando’s probably isn’t the place for you. Your chicken comes with a choice of marinades – from the Extra Hot to Lemon and Herb or Mango and Lime (you can also have it without a marinade) – which you select when ordering your meal. Eamann and I both like our spicy food so we went for the Hot sauce.

Our hoummus starter was with us in no time, served with slices of warm pitta to dunk. The hoummus itself is quite good – chunky and with good flavour – but the peri-peri drizzle makes it so much better.. fiery and spicy. The amount that you get is also deceptive – there was more than enough for two people in this portion – although you will be squabbling over the last piece of pitta to mop up every morsel.

The chicken pittas weren’t a disappointment either, stuffed with double-breast fillets, youghurt and peppery rocket salad. The flavour of the meat was really good – chargrilled to perfection, moist and succulent. Again, the portions were extremely good and took some time to finish. The fries were decent too, although I thought that the peri-peri salt was a bit of a waste. The marinade on the chicken really did give the meal a lot of flavour – however, you’re fully encouraged to bring bottles of sauce down to your table, so Eamann and I thought that we’d try the Extra Hot sauce for the purposes of journalistic research. I can report that there is a delicious lime tang.. shortly before your tongue and lips go numb and the fire starts in your throat.

I’d forgotten to order some grilled Halloumi cheese which, when it’s on the menu, is a must. Deciding whether to leave my meal to go to the tills again or not, our waiter mentioned that he could take our order if we needed anything else. The Halloumi duly arrived and rounded off a very tasty meal.

I had two bottles of a Portuguese beer called “Sagres” which Kelly and I had tried on our hols last year. While the beer was enjoyable it was a little expensive – the bottomless fizzy drinks that Eamann had the sense to order are a great choice and you will get through several glasses, particularly if you go for the hotter sauces!

Starters:
Hoummus with peri-peri drizzle	£3.10
Mains:
Double breast fillet in pitta (inc. fries) x2	£9.75 ea.
Sundries:
Grilled Haloumi Cheese	£1
Peri-peri salt for fries	£0.10
Drinks:
Sagres beer x2	£3.15 ea
Bottom-less Coke	£2.10
Total:	£32.10

Our verdict:

Restaurant-chains usually aren’t our favourite places to eat, but Nando’s does what it does well – tasty food, served quickly, and is fairly inexpensive (considering the price you normally pay for eating-out in Belfast).

The food in Nando’s feels quite healthy too. All of those fresh salads and the chargrilling means that you certainly won’t leave with the sluggishness and guilt you might experience after other quick-dining alternatives.

Our main courses were with us in around 20 minutes from the time that we ordered – so it’s a great option for a mid-week meal after work when cooking for yourself just seems like too much hassle.

As I’ve already said, we’ve been back a couple of times which is as good an endorsement as we could give!

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Nando’s
24, Ormeau Avenue,
Belfast
BT2 8HS
T: 02890 434442
W: www.nandos.co.uk
You can also see Nando’s, Ormeau Avenue, Belfast on Google Maps.

Other information

Jane Hardy in the Sunday Life (Feb 14) mentioned that the chicken in Nando’s was free-range. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case – the chickens that Nando’s use are sourced mainly in the UK and meet the Assured Chicken Production standards which means that they are battery-farmed, albeit with better conditions than used to be the case.

Rating: 10.0/10 (2 votes cast)

Tags: belfast restaurants, restaurant, restaurant review

Categories: Northern Ireland : Restaurant Reviews : United Kingdom

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Flour-less Chocolate Cake

Posted: 01 March '10 by Niall

Easy flour-less chocolate cake

As another weekend drew to a close, I thought that Kelly and I deserved a treat before getting back to the daily grind. When it comes to treats in our house, that means chocolate.

Here’s a recipe for a rich, moist chocolate cake.. And it’s easy. Three ingredients, that’s all!

It’s also a flour-less cake, making it suitable for coeliacs.

You can see more photos here Image 1 Image 2 Image 3 Image 4 Image 5 Image 6 Image 7

Ingredients

450g of dark chocolate, roughly chopped
150g of unsalted butter – and a little more for greasing the cake dish
5 large eggs, separated

I’d also recommend some whipped cream and/or some ice-cream to serve with the cake – it’s so chocolate-y that you’ll need it!

Method

Preheat your oven to 375F/190C.
Take a saucepan, half fill it with water, and put it on a medium heat.
Place the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set it over the saucepan of simmering water, making sure that the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water, stirring the mixture as it melts.
Remove the chocolate mixture from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
Butter the cake dish and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two large bowls.
Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks are formed and the whipped egg-whites do not move as you tilt the bowl (you’ll see that Kelly bravely volunteered for the age-old test for telling whether egg-whites are ready – if you can hold the bowl upside-down over your head without getting covered, they’re ready!).
In the other bowl beat the egg yolks together.
Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate, stirring lightly until the chocolate and egg yolks have mixed together.
Using a metal spoon, fold in some of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, followed by the remaining egg-whites when this first amount has been thoroughly folded in. When folding use light, circular motions with the spoon – do not mix – the idea is to keep air in the mixture. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter.
Pour your cake batter into prepared cake dish. The batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way up the sides.
Bake for 25 minutes -the top of the cake should have a firm crust, like the top of a brownie.
Remove the cake dish from the oven and allow it to cool for 10 minutes or so before trying to slice or un-mould the cake.
Serve with cream and/or ice-cream.

Enjoy!

Rating: 7.4/10 (5 votes cast)

Tags: chocolate, coeliac, dessert

Categories: Biscuits and Cakes : Dessert Course : Featured Post : Recipes

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We visit ‘Clydesdale & Morrow’

Posted: 26 February '10 by Kelly

Clydesdale and Morrow

Niall and I recently visited Clydesdale & Morrow, Belfast’s only fromagerie. It wasn’t our first time there – we go there when we need a particular cheese for a recipe, or as a treat for ourselves – but this time we thought we’d tell you all about it.

When we first walked into the Lisburn Road shop we were greeted by one of the owners, Antoinette Morrow – and by the smell of all that cheese which is like a tangible, marvelous assault on your senses. The shop is small but packed to the rafters with lots and lots of goodies, far too much to take in at first glance. It’s a real foodie’s dream – you’ll find yourself spending some time just looking around the store, just as we did.

What we particularly liked was that they stock a good range of British and Irish cheese – although there are plenty of continental varieties too. All of this choice might make selecting your purchase difficult, but help is at hand – Antoinette and Anne are very passionate about their stock and clearly enjoy talking to their customers. You’re also encouraged to ‘try before you buy’ which is a great way of making sure you choose the perfect cheese. You’ll also find lots of different types of biscuits, crackers and chutneys, perfect for that after-dinner treat.

You can catch up with Antoinette at our wine tasting night on March 12th, but until then here is a taster of how and why she got in to the world of cheese…

Kelly: Who are “Clydesdale & Morrow”? What are your backgrounds?: Antoinette: Anne Clydesdale and I have worked together since 2001 when Antoinette joined BIC Systems, one of NI’s most successful indigenous IT companies, and where Anne was already working as one of the company’s directors.
Kelly: How did you make the decision to open a specialist cheese store? What was your inspiration?: Antoinette: We both shared a love of good food and wine and in late 2007 saw an opportunity to indulge in this passion on a commercial basis. Inspired by Sheridans in Galway where customers can combine their purchases with a glass of wine in the winebar above the shop, we initially thought to replicate this set-up. Unfortunately, licencing costs in Northern Ireland ruled out this option but, undeterred, Anne and I still saw an opening for a specialist cheese shop.
Kelly: Your site mentions “artisan cheese” – what does that mean?: Antoinette: As far as possible, we try to stock cheeses that are made in small, family run dairies where the provenance and quality of the milk is guaranteed. Sometimes, we have to opt for more commercial cheeses but we still endeavour at all times to stock high quality products.
Kelly: You’re Belfast’s only fromagerie – did you see a niche in the market? Two years on, have you noticed a growing interest in food in the public?: Antoinette: There are a few delicatessens in Belfast selling cheese, but we wanted to bring a new experience to customers. We pride ourselves on our knowledge of the cheeses we stock and encourage people to taste and experiment with difference cheeses in a relaxed atmosphere. We believe this is one of the reasons why our reputation has grown within and beyond Belfast.
Kelly: How open are most people to new tastes?: Antoinette: People love to experiment and, again, it is down to the unpretentious and relaxed nature of our customer service.
Kelly: Is there much knowledge about the selection and serving of cheese out there?: Antoinette: For the most part, people know the rule of thumb in terms of selection for a cheeseboard – a hard, a soft and a blue. We just help customers be a bit more adventurous. However, there are no hard and fast rules – good quality cheese that the customer enjoys is more important than sticking to specific rules.
Kelly: Where and how do you source your cheese from?: Antoinette: I would love to say that we travel around Europe choosing cheeses from artisan cheesemakers but, unfortunately, we would not make any money at all! We depend on a few trusted suppliers in Ireland and the UK to provide us with quality cheese and other artisan foods.
Kelly: Your site mentions “wedding cheese cakes” – what are they? Have you been commissioned to make many?: Antoinette: This is an offering which has met with great success and we regularly recieve commissions. A cheese wedding cake is definitely a talking point. We consult and advise the couple on what cheeses would suit within their remit and budget – some cheeses are more suitable than others. We suggest appropriate decoration and accompaniments and deliver to the venue.
Kelly: What are your favourite cheeses?: Antoinette: Wow – that’s a difficult one. I adore blue cheese and, to be honest, a really good Stilton – Colston Bassett or Stichelton for instance – is hard to beat. However, I also love flavourful mild cheeses like Ossau Iraty, a Basque sheep’s milk cheese. Or, Ardrahan, a fantastic Irish washed rind cheese. Or….I could go on!
Kelly: Which accompaniments would you choose to go with them?: Antoinette: We have a fabulous range of crackers, from the locally made Ditty’s Oatcakes to crackers with Fig or Fennel – all of which are great with cheese. We also stock fantastic chutneys from small producers in Ireland and England.
Kelly: Are there any tips you could give about creating the perfect cheeseboard?: Antoinette: A cheeseboard can be an informal and sociable ending to a dinner party with everyone hacking away at a selection of perhaps three large pieces of cheese. Or it can be more elegant with small portions laid out on each guest’s plate – again three to four pieces. The cheese should be chosen to represent a balanced range of cheese types, levels of flavour and milk types (goat, cow, sheep).
Kelly: To your mind what are the greatest difficulties and joys in owning a business and a specialist cheese shop in particular?: Antoinette: Probably the greatest difficulty for us in the past year or so was starting a business in the middle of a recession. We are so grateful to our customers for supporting us during this time and for spreading the word about what we do. The most enjoyable part of the business is talking to and establishing relationships with customers, tasting cheese, introducing new cheeses, tasting more cheese…!