Pappardelle with creme fraiche, parmesan and asparagus

Kelly’s love of Italian food knows almost no bounds, and one of her favourite chefs is Theo Randall. I’d have to agree – his dishes always seem so flavoursome, often quite simple, and smack of authentic Italian cooking. Perfect for the home cook.

With the publication of his new book Pasta there’s now a great resource for some of his best recipes. This is one of our favourites which appears typically simple, but which delivers a satisfyingly tasty meal – Pappardelle with crème fraîche, parmesan and asparagus.

Made using egg yolks, crème fraîche and Parmesan, the sauce is particularly rich but the asparagus is a great counterbalance, cutting through the robust flavours and adding a fresh dimension – grassy and slightly bitter. The asparagus is also a fantastic visual ingredient – little shards of apple-green amidst the deep yellow of the pasta and the creamy-gold of the glossy sauce.

I’ve tinkered with the recipe a little, preferring the thick ribbons of pappardelle to tagliatelle and changing some quantities to match what was readily available at the supermarket. I’ve also used a little lemon zest and juice to give the final dish a little kick.

Serves 4 as a main course or 6 plus as a starter.

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Ingredients

• 300ml crème fraîche
• 2 egg yolks
• 150g parmesan cheese, freshly grated, plus extra to serve
• 500g fresh pappardelle (you could use tagliatelle)
• 200g young asparagus spears, trimmed and finely sliced at an angle
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 lemon, zested and squeezed

Method

1. Put the crème fraîche, egg yolks and a tablespoon of lemon juice in a large bowl and set it over a pan of simmering water, making sure the water does not touch the base of the bowl.
2. Whisk vigorously with a balloon whisk until the mixture is the consistency of yoghurt and then sprinkle in the grated parmesan, whisking continuously.
3. The sauce is ready when it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon – Check the seasoning and then leave to one side.
4. Put the pappardelle and asparagus in a saucepan of boiling, slightly salted water and cook until both the pasta and asparagus still have a little stiffness to them. It should take between 3 and 5 minutes.
5. Drain the pasta thoroughly and add the sauce – as much as you want, but remember that the dish really doesn’t need to be swamped in the sauce – tossing the pasta to mix the sauce through.
6. Serve with some freshly ground black pepper, some lemon zest and more parmesan.

Enjoy!

Goat's cheese salad with roast peppers and rocket

Even with the changeable weather, it’s far to warm to even think about those casseroles and stews that were such a feature of our winter menu.

Grilled Goat’s Cheese Salad is a great Summer-time option and good as either a starter or a light main course. This recipe comes from our cookery class at La Cucina Caldesi last year – a delicious, flavoursome combination of tangy goat’s cheese and sweet roast peppers.

Serves 4 as a starter, or 2 as a light main course

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Ingredients

• 150g x 2 of Goat’s cheese (we used Fivemiletown Cooneen Goat’s Cheese here)
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• A handful of fresh parsley, minced
• 2 red peppers
• 2 yellow peppers
• 1 lemon
• 80g packet of Rocket
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Good olive oil

Method

1. If you are using a gas stove, skewer a pepper and place over the flames, rotating the pepper until the skin blisters and chars. If using a grill, grill the peppers until you get the same result. As soon as the pepper has blackened, place the pepper in a cellophane bag and seal it, setting the bag aside. Perform this process for each pepper.
2. After 10 minutes, open the first cellophane bag and remove the pepper. The pepper should be soft and the stalk/seeds easily removed. Using your fingers rub the charred skin from the flesh and set the cleaned pepper aside. Repeat this step for each pepper.
3. Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3.
4. Slice the roasted peppers into tapering 2cm-wide slices and place these segments into a deep bowl.
5. Add the minced garlic, the zest from a lemon, the minced parsley and enough olive oil to cover the peppers in oil.
6. Set the covered, marinating peppers aside for the duration of the recipe.
7. Remove a thin slice from the top and bottom of the goats’ cheese log to reveal the creamy cheese.
8. Slice the remaining goat’s cheese into 2cm deep discs (we just cut the Coonen log into two).
9. If you are using a blowtorch, place the discs in an oven-tray and flame the top of each disc until the cheese has a deep brown crust. Alternatively you can use a non-stick frying pan to brown one side of the cheese – if cooking the cheese like this, no oil is needed in the pan.
10. Place the goats’ cheese into an oven tray, brown-side upper most, and place in the oven. Be careful at this point – watch the cheese as it cooks – you want a soft cheese but not a runny one. When the goats’ cheese begins to bubble at the base of the cheese, remove the tray from the oven.
11. Place a handful of the rocket onto your plate and arrange the roasted pepper segments on top of the salad leaves, making sure that you get plenty of the minced garlic, lemon and olive oil.,/li>
12. Using a spatula, carefully lift a disc of goat’s cheese on to these pepper slices.
13. Sprinkle the dish with some freshly ground black pepper and serve.

Enjoy!

Other information

I think that either the Domaine Sainte-Eugénie Corbières Rosé 2009 or the Picpoul de Pinet would be perfect with this tasty salad. Just wait for the sun to come back and get the corkscrew out!

Making Crema Catalana for Eamann's birthday

Kelly and I wanted to celebrate fellow Chilli and Chocolatier Eamann’s birthday in style this year, but couldn’t decide on which restaurant to book. It was then that inspiration struck – we’d throw a Spanish tapas party!

We both love the tapas bars in Barcelona (although the Catalans call tapas “pintxos”) – the dishes are small and easy to eat, just perfect for a party. With great timing we also noticed that we were being followed on Twitter by Orce Serrano Hams, a business run by ex-pats Iain and Gayle from their home in Andalucia where they source and export Spanish delicacies. After a few quick emails we had our centre-piece – a whole fore-leg of Serrano ham!

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After whetting our appetites with some salted almonds and chilled sherry earlier in the day, we all sat down and stuffed ourselves silly with the tapas dishes in very un-Spanish fashion. Kelly and I served:

• Wafer-thin slices of Serrano ham
• Salt cod croquettes
• Chorizo and manchego tortilla
• Spinach tortilla
• Meatballs in tomato sauce
• Morcilla and fried pepper on baguette
• Mushrooms and aioli on baguette
• Chilli and garlic prawns
• Chorizo braised in red wine

We finished the party with individual Crema Catalanas – very similar to Creme Brulee, but with a hint of orange in the custard. With a fire extinguisher to hand we all had a go with the blowtorch, searing the sugar-topped custard to produce a crunchy layer of toffee.

You can download the Chilli and Chocolate tapas recipes here.

Feliz Cumplanos, Eamann!

Other information

We bought our fore-leg of Serrano ham and a sweet Chorizo Redondo from Orce Serrano Hams. You can click here to visit the Orce Serrano Ham website.

I managed to find a chef’s blowtorch in The Cook Stop on Bruce Street in Belfast. You can click here to visit The Cook Stop website.

Beetroot salad with rocket and mozzarella

After watching Giorgio Locatelli’s “Pure Italian” for some inspiration, we made beetroot salad with mozzarella and rocket at the weekend.

This is a great starter either for a dinner party or a quick and easy mid-week meal. Not only does it look bright and colourful on your plate but it tastes so fresh and clean. The flavours go really well together: the peppery rocket, the milky mozzarella, and the earthy beetroot with wonderfully sharp vinegar vinaigrette – fantastic!

You can of course use the jarred beetroot but, honestly, the fresh stuff tastes much, much better. Make sure you get some good quality buffalo mozzarella too as you will definitely taste the difference.

Be warned though – beetroot is incredibly messy.. Our kitchen looked like the set from a Tarantino movie when we’d finished.

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Serves 2-4

Ingredients

• 4 unpeeled beetroot
• 6 tsp red wine vinegar
• 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
• 100g rocket
• Buffalo mozzarella (we bought the smaller pieces so we could add as much as we wanted)
• Black pepper

Method

1. Scrub the beetroot, removing any woody areas or roots.
2. Put the beetroot in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring the water to the boil and then simmer for 40-50 minutes until tender. Remove the saucepan from the heat and leave it to cool.
3. When the beetroot are cold, remove them from the liquid with a slotted spoon, making sure to keep the liquid for later.
4. Peel and slice the beetroot into 1/2 disks and reserve the skin. Put the beetroot slices into a bowl and sprinkle with 2 teaspoons of the red wine vinegar and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and leave to marinate.
5. To make the vinaigrette put the beetroot skins into a food processor along with 2 or 3 tablespoons of the beetroot cooking water, 2 teaspoons of vinegar and 2 tablespoons of olive oil and process until the mixture is smooth. Scrape the mixture into a bowl and whisk in the remaining 2 teaspoons of vinegar, the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil, salt and pepper.
6. Spoon the vinaigrette on top of the sliced beetroot.
7. Arrange the beetroot slices around the serving plate and pile the rocket leaves on top. Place the mozzarella in the centre. Drizzle the mozzarella with olive oil.
8. Sprinkle with several grindings of black pepper and serve.

Enjoy

Cream of Chicken and Vegetable soup

This is a yummy recipe and is made almost weekly in our house.

It’s also a great way of getting our daughter Sophie to eat her veggies.

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Serves 4-6

Ingredients

• 2-3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 chicken fillets
• 1375mls chicken stock
• 1 onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 carrot
• 1/2 parsnip
• 1lb potatoes
• salt and pepper
• 250mls double cream
• 1 tbsp chives

Method

1. Prepare chicken stock.
2. Heat oil in a pan, remove fat from chicken fillets and seal the top and bottom of chicken fillets in the pan.
3. Add a cupful of the chicken stock to chicken and simmer until chicken has cooked through (This normally takes around 10 minutes).
4. Meanwhile chop up onions, garlic, carrot, parsnip and potatoes into small pieces.
5. In a separate pot, fry onion and garlic in a tbsp of olive oil until soft.
6. Add remaining vegetables to the pot with the garlic and onion in it, season with salt and pepper, add remaining chicken stock and boil for 25 minutes.
7. Remove Chicken fillets from the pan, cut into small pieces and set aside.
8. Add the left over chicken stock to the pot with vegetables in it.
9. When the vegetables have softened remove them to a blender and blitz until they have turned into a puree.
10. Add this back to the pot along with the double cream, chicken pieces, and chives.
11. Reduce the heat and allow the soup to heat through (around 30 minutes or so).
12. Serve with brown bread.

Enjoy!

Rocket salad with parmesan and balsamic vinegar

This really isn’t a recipe, but you will thank me for sharing it with you if you don’t already know about it.

Although you only need three ingredients for this salad, the quality of these three elements is very important.  We use a mature Parmigiano-Reggiano, wild rocket, and a good quality balsamic vinegar – all of which are easily found in your local supermarket.

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Serves 4

Ingredients

• 50g parmesan cheese
• 100g wild rocket leaves
• 4 teaspoons of balsamic vinegar

Method

1. Rinse the wild rocket and shake well to dry – place the rocket leaves in a bowl.
2. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and toss the salad leaves.
3. Using a sharp knife cut wedges chips of parmesan into the salad, working your way back from the thin end. It’s important that the chips aren’t too thin.
4. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Other information

Bio-store, which you can find at the market in Belfast’s St. George’s Market on Saturdays, are now carrying some fantastic balsamic vinegar from Modena, with more varieties to come.

Scallops with black pudding and cauliflower puree

This was a dish that we first tasted in Clenaghan’s in Aghalee and we loved it that much that it’s become a favourite treat in our house.

The delicate flesh and sweet flavour of the scallops goes surprisingly well with the rich, spicy rounds of black pudding, and the cauliflower puree provides a subtle base and creaminess for the whole dish.

The secret to perfecting this recipe are the quality of the ingredients: fresh scallops and Clonakilty black pudding are a must. We usually buy our scallops from the Northern Ireland Fishermen’s Federation stall and the Clonakilty black pudding was bought from the Greenmount Farm Shop – both of which are in the City Food and Garden Market in St. George’s Market on Saturday mornings.

I usually slice the scallops along the middle to make two. There’s no reason to do this other than they make for an easier mouthful, and it looks like you’ve double the scallops on your plate!

I’ve also added some curry spice to my cauliflower puree to emphasise the sweet flavour of the vegetable and bring another dimension to the recipe. Cauliflower makes a fantastic canvas for other flavours too. So let your creativity run riot and add whatever you like to the puree – grated nutmeg and even mustard work well.

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Serves 2

Ingredients

Ingredients: Seared scallops with black pudding

• Half a Clonakilty black pudding, cut into rounds that are about the same size as the scallops
• 6 scallops
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Splash of olive oil

Ingredients: For the cauliflower purée

• 1/2 a small cauliflower
• 100ml (6 tbsp.) cream
• 150g (10 tbsp.) butter
• A good pinch of curry spice

Method

Method: For the seared scallops with black pudding

1. Take a sharp knife and slice where the orange scallop roe (also called “coral”) meets the scallop. There is also a small membrane which runs around the scallop and should come easily free once the roe has been removed.
2. Brush your frying pan with olive oil and fry the black pudding on a medium heat until both sides have become crisp. Transfer the black pudding to a plate lined with kitchen paper and keep warm.
3. Rub the scallops with a little olive oil and season them with salt and black pepper.
4. Increase the heat of the frying pan until the oil smokes slightly.
5. Place the scallops in the frying pan and cook – one minute on each side should do. Each side of the scallop should have a nice golden crust.
6. Pat the scallops dry on kitchen paper.

Method: Cauliflower puree

1. Boil the cauliflower in the milk until the cauliflower has become soft.
2. Put the cream and cauliflower into a food processor and blend until smooth.
3. Pass the mixture through a sieve.
4. Cook the butter until golden brown and add to the puree, along with the curry spice.
5. Season to taste with salt.

To serve

1. Place a piece of black pudding in the centre of each serving plate with a scallop on top.
2. Pipe or spoon a little of the purée in between.

Enjoy.

Other information

Clonakilty black pudding comes from County Cork. Produced by Edward Twomey from an old Harrington family recipe, and just crumbles in your mouth with the most delicious, more-ish flavour.

You can visit the Clonakilty black pudding website here.

You can also read more about St. George’s Market, Belfast here.

Parmesan Chicken Goujons

Firstly, i would like to apologise for being a bit lazy about adding new recipes. I have been extremely busy since the end of November between shopping in New York and the lead up to Christmas. But i’m sure i’ll be forgiven when i share some of the new recipes that i have picked up recently.

I also have to write a few reviews on restaurants that i visited while in New York and also in Dublin during the lead up to Christmas.

The chicken goujons are a definite favourite in our house. These are one of my daughter Sophies favourite foods. They are really handy and can be made in advance. I made them recently with chips and mushy peas but they also go well with mashed potatoes and broccoli and parma ham.

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Ingredients

Parmesan Chicken goujons

• 600g chicken breasts
• 50g flour
• salt and pepper
• 2 eggs beaten
• 100g breadcrumbs
• 50g parmesan cheese
• 3 tbsp oil (i used goose fat recently and it was yummy)

Honey mustard dip

• 250ml creme fraiche
• 1 tbsp grainy mustard
• 1/2 tsp honey
• 1 tsp dijon mustard

Method

Method – Parmesan Chicken goujons

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees
2. Cut the chicken fillets into finger sizes
3. Place the flour and salt and pepper into a bag
4. Place the eggs into a bowl and beat with a fork
5. Place the breadcrumbs and parmesan into another bag
6. Toss the goujons into the seasoned flour, then remove and shake off excess flour
7. Dip into beaten egg
8. Toss into breadcrumb and parmesan mix and lay themk unto a plate
9. Cook in the oven for 20 minutes turning once and serve with honey mustard dip

Method – Honey mustard dip

1. Mix all of the ingredients altogether and serve. Note, depending on your taste you may want to add more honey or more mustard.

Enjoy!