Creamy Tomato, Chilli & Prawn tagliatelli

Prawns and chilli are as good together as tomato and basil, so fuze the four ingredients and you've got a serious taste sensation that packs a punch.This delivers, there's no doubt in that but I'd suggest you discover your chilli tolerance by adding in half what I've suggested, and taste before adding the rest, or more if your palate likes it. I sprinkled mine with more flakes before serving, as I love the kick.

I've potentially two dishes in one here, as the base sauce for this is a simple tomato sauce, which, when tossed through pasta, mozzarella, and torn basil is just such a wonderfully simple clean dish.  It's like pasta was invented for it.

Serves 4
Ingredients:
For the basic tomato sauce:
Knob of butter and splash of olive oil
2 shallots, finely chopped
3 fat garlic cloves, crushed
2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
I dessertspoon of muscavado sugar
2 tins of chopped plum tomatoes
I teaspoon of dried basil (or if you can get it fresh, even better- 3 tablespoons, chopped)
Season to taste

2 tablespoons cream (or creme fraiche)
500g  raw prawns
1 heaped teaspoon dried chilli flakes

Method
Over a very low heat, sweat the onions and garlic in the oil & butter until soft. Turn up heat and add balsamic and stir continuously until reduced by half.

Add sugar and tomatoes and bring to a simmer. Reduce for about 15 mins. Add in basil and season.

This is my basic tomato sauce as I mentioned above.

Continue the dish by adding in the chilli, cream and prawns. Cook for a couple of minutes until the prawns turn pink.

Toss through freshly cooked tagliatelli and garnish with fresh basil leaves.

Busy people- why not double the tomato basic sauce recipe and freeze it? Healthy fast food. Can't beat it with a big stick! 

I tell you what I want what I really really want.....

"Chilli con Cronin" 

aka

Chilli Con Carne

"Feel my breath mammy" says my 4 year old as he breaths on me like the fiercest dragon in Limerick. Yeah, our chilli is spicy and we love it! 
When I was weaning him as a baba, I slowly introduced the mildest curries to his diet, determined that I wouldn't spawn a fussy eater. It worked. (kinda) Tj's favourite food, hands down is Chilli Con Carne, or Chilli Con Cronin as I named it years ago, (my maiden name, but that's another story) and I dont scrimp on the chilli, Theres little point, there's creme fraiche or a dollop of Greek yogurt for the bantom weights. My Chilli's got punch. I guess everyone's got their own version, mines evolved quite considerably from my teens when my version of chilli was leftover bolognese with tabasco and kidney beans thrown in. This IS perfected, if I urge you to try any recipe from My blog, try this. It will be the best you've ever tasted. A bold statement, but then again, I'm very bold. 

I've loads of oregano growing in my garden,
you could use dried or fresh coriander would
be good too.

Ingredients
500g of best quality round mince
1 onion, finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, crushed
3 fresh big red chillis, deseeded and chopped
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of ground coriander
1 teaspoon of smoked paprika
1 dessert spoon of dark brown muscavado sugar
2 tins of plum tomatoes chopped
1 tin of kidney beans, drained
1 large bunch of fresh oregano, chopped
1 oz of dark chocolate 70% min (don't ask, it works)

** Use big heaped teaspoons of the spices

Method

Heat a splash of oil in a heavy saucepan and gently fry onions, chili and garlic until soft. Turn up heat and add mince and cook until nicely browned. Add salt, sugar and spices and keep stirring for about 2 minutes to cook off the spices.

Inhale. Its something else. 

Add the tomatoes and bring to the boil, reduce heat and allow to reduce to your liking. I don't like to reduce too much, about 20 mins is fine for me. 

Finish with beans, chopped oregano and chocolate. The chocolate to me is nearly as important as the chilli, it brings a depth to the dish that I can't articulate. Just do it. You'll note the difference but it won't taste chocolatey.

Serve with rice, tortilla chips, a sprinkle of cheddar and a dallop of creme fraiche or Greek yogurt. 

If you're not happy, take it up with tj.

Nachos-Cinema style

Processed cheese is key

As we are on the mexican theme, I thought I'd throw in a wild card. Some of you may be disgusted, others intrigued. But this is unadulterated Food Goo pleasure. I did a few food experiments to try and perfect the nacho sauce, but I couldn't figure out how putting a bucket full of cheddar just didn't seem to give it punch. It wasn't 'plasticky' enough. And therein lies the answer. Plastic cheese! Ok, obviously not literally, but processed cheese is the key to this sauce. TJ goes bananas for it, but due to it's obvious calorific and processed qualities, this is a guilty pleasure and rare treat. The tumeric is purely for colour as it needs to be vibrant to imitate those cinema night indulgences. 

It's bright and silky

Gooey Nacho sauce (makes enough for about 6-8 people)

2 oz butter

2 ox plain flour

1 teaspoon of tumeric

1 pint of milk

200g of processed cheese. (I used Charleville slices)

salt & pepper to taste (surpringly, I needed quite a bit of salt)

Method

Melt the butter, add the flour and tumeric and stir for a couple of minutes until the flour has cooked. add the milk and stir continuously with a baloon whisk until the sauce thickens. Add the cheese and season to taste.

Preheat the oven to about 200 degrees. Put the torilla chips in the hot oven for a couple of minutes to warm through. Serve with the Gooey Nacho sauce.I like it with firey jalapenos, Tj likes it with some salsa. You could also serve it with sour cream and guacamole, refried beans or a cold beer and a sombrero if the mood takes you.

Griddled Rib-Eye steak with Béarnaise sauce

I rarely order steak in a restaurant, mainly because why risk it when you can cook it exactly as you want it at home? Everyone has their favourite cut of steak, mine was fillet, but after being introduced to rib-eye, it wins hands down every-time. The beautifully marbled steak has an awesome flavour and the melt in the mouth texture, so I decided to cook this as a treat for my folks and 4 year old boy, tj (he demolished it) on Sunday. Here's the recipe:

Griddled Ribeye steak with béarnaise sauce, roasted vine cherry tomatoes and asparagus wrapped in serano ham. Serve with really posh chips (see previous recipe) 

Serves 4
4 best quality angus ribeye Irish steaks, room temp, lightly seasoned and rubbed with olive oil. (Nb, oil the steak, NOT the griddle pan or smoke city will ensue) 
Bunch of asparagus spears, wrapped in serano (or streaky bacon)
Vine cherry tomatoes

For the béarnaise sauce 
One tablespoon of finely chopped shallots
One tablespoon of chopped fresh tarragon
Sprig of thyme
1 bayleaf
2 1/2 tablespoons of white wine vinegar
2 egg yolks, mixed with a little water
4 oz butter
Salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 220

Firstly prepare your asparagus. Snap them at the end and they will naturally break where the woody part starts. Wrap in bacon, place tomatoes in roasting pan too. season with salt & pepper. Set aside

Prepare posh chips if using, and put them into a really hot oven until golden and crispy.

You can add the roasting pan of asparagus and tomatoes for 10 mins at the end, that's all they need. Limp asparagus? No thanks!

Heat a griddle pan until really hot. Place the seasoned and oiled steaks down and sear, turn 90 degrees to get a nice crisscross pattern on the steak. Allow steaks to rest between two warms plates. See cooking guide below. I like mine bloody and squishy... Sorry! If you like it more medium/ well done, I'd suggest searing with a high heat and then reducing the temperature to avoid it becoming charred and bitter.

Preparing béarnaise 
The key to this sauce, like hollandaise is to have a very low heat and a good heavy saucepan. I use a gas hob and have discovered a way to have the heat on a tinny winny flame, which means my sauces pretty much never split. If you are nervous, have a glass of ice water to hand, and add a teapoon or two in if you think it's splitting. This might save it.

Method:
Add the shallots, herbs and vinegar into heavy saucepan over a medium
Heat and cook until the pan is almost dry. Turn the heat down to the absolute minimum. Add the egg and water mixture and stir until thickened. Add the butter, bit by bit until you have a gorgeous thick, silky tangy béarnaise sauce. This cannot be reheated, but it can't be kept warm over a bain Marie or over a very low heat for a few minutes. I'd be nervous to leave it longer than that.

Serve to really appreciative friends and family. This is a lovely treat, a celebration of the steak dinner and not an onion or mushroom in sight. 

Steak Cooking times:

The times given here are a guide only and refer to a steak that is approximately 2.5cm or 1" thick. Thicker steaks may require a longer cooking time, and vice versa for thinner steaks.

Rare: 1-2 minutes per side - rest for 6-8 minutes

Medium rare: 2-2.5 minutes per side - rest for 5 minutes

Medium: 3 minutes per side - rest for 4 minutes

Well done: 4.5 minutes per side - rest for 1 minute

Ham & Pea Risotto

A cheap dish that tastes expensive 
I'm a risotto addict. I love the cooking of it, and moreso I love the eating of it.  I think risotto has earned an unfair reputation that it's a difficult dish, where you have to stir non stop and you end up with a dead arm. Leaving it for a minute or two makes no difference, maybe that's too relaxed for the purists, but hey, the end result is always good. This is a yummy mid week dish, it's so simple and everyone will love it. 




Ingredients
Serves 4-6
300g of arborio rice (I like the tesco ingredients brand)
2 shallots, finely diced
2 garlic cloves crushed
2 oz butter
Glass of white wine
1 1/2 pints of chicken or veg stock
2 small packs of smoked bacon lardons
Frozen peas (have no idea of weight common sense should prevail here)
A handful of best quality grated Parmesan
freshly grated nutmeg

Method 
Use a heavy saucepan. Melt the butter on a low heat and add the shallots and garlic, cook very slowly, for about 10 mins. Turn up heat, add the lardons and fry until lightly browned

Turn the heat to medium and add the rice, stirring continuously for about two minutes, until the rice is totally coated in the buttery wonderfulness.

Add the glass of wine and stir until almost absorbed

Add the hot stock in, one ladle at a time, allowing the stock to be almost totally absorbed before adding the next ladle, stirring (almost) continuously. Repeat this process until all the stock is used.

Add the peas,Parmesan and nutmeg. Season to taste (will prob need no salt what with bacon and Parmesan)

Turn off the heat and cover with lid and allow to stand for 2 minutes. This makes the risotto even creamier. The consistency should be similar to that of creamy porridge, don't be afraid to add some hot water if it seems too thick.

Top with more grated Parmesan

As comfort food goes, this is up there! 

Really Posh Chips

I'm not a spud fan per se, could never embrace the "balls of flour" concept. If you eat with your eyes, why would floury balls be enticing? Anyway, moving on, rooster spuds would frequent most in my press because of their handiness for mash or wedges. I don't own a deep fat fryer nor do I want one, so my chips always come from the oven.... These chips have a certain 'je ne sais quai" 


Baked once, no soaking, palava free... 

Serves 2 posh people
2 large rooster spuds, I like to cut them into straight cut thick chips, wedges are far too common
2 garlic cloves, squished 
One sprig of rosemary, leaves picked
A decent shake of salt and freshly cracked pepper 
A good glug of extra virgin olive oil
A generous sprinkle of grated Parmesan.

Preheat the oven to the highest setting. Mines 220

Toss the ingredients, put them
In the oven, shake them around a couple of times

Ready in 25 mins. 

Get in. 

5 minute Pasta with Sage, toasted Pinenuts & Parmesan

Ok, so I race out the office door at half 5, take the 30 minute journey home, collect TJ. I get it in at 6.15pm, then there's the operation of getting school bags, shopping, handbags, dinosaurs and toy forklifts out of the car. Maybe empty the dishwasher. Maybe. Do I want to face into preparing a dinner that involves 14 saucepans and skidding around the kitchen? .....I think not.

The smell of sage brings me back to
 my early twenties..Ahem

I saw a recipe on the online edition of the New York times and adapted it to make it my own. Sage caught my eye as I've loads growing in the garden and until now, had no real use for it rather than sage & onion stuffing if I'm honest. Now I've discovered the real depth of flavour of sage I'm excited about experimenting more.

Sage is so easy to grow, has a beautiful flower in the summer and our Irish climate is ideal for a healthy perennial crop. The leaves are pretty and soft and have a grey green hue and have quite a peppery aroma. I'm so thrilled to have discovered this herb is not one dimensional like I had previously thought.

I thought the roasty flavour of toasted pine nuts would fuse with the fragrant sage, and oh boy did it....! This combo of flavours would probably be pretty good with a risotto bianco, why not try your own?

Sage, toasted Pinenut &

The flavours fuse like magic

Parmesan Spaghetti

Enough fresh Spaghetti for 4

2 oz of butter

1 shallot, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed

one good bunch of sage leaves, torn

one small bag of pinenuts, toasted 

3 heaped tablespoons of grated proper Parmesan (packet stuff is banned, ok!)

1. Put on your pasta and cook as per the packet instructions

2. In the meantime, melt the butter on a really low heat and add the shallot and garlic and cook very slowly until translucent.

3 Turn up heat and add torn Sage leaves, cook on a high heat until butter starts to foam.

4. Add one cup of cooking water from pasta, and cook on a high heat until reduced slightly.

5. Add parmesan, this will give a luscious creaminess to sauce

6. Toss through cooked pasta with toasted pinenuts and top with more parmesan if desired.

This dish is really light and has an autumnal feel. Hold back on the butter & parmesan if you want to keep the calories down, but where's the fun in that?

The magic of Mushrooms

I have that memory, the one where I'm 7, in my pink wellies and Kylie Minogue t-shirt, and I'm with my dad in a field and we've 8 Arena bags filled with field mushrooms. It was late summer 1988 and the mushroom wealth was never to be repeated. We had grilled mushrooms with every meal, and boy did we savour them. But there was such a glut that year that my mam made mushroom ketchup, and I can still taste it's intense mushroomyness. She made about 30 bottles, and gave them out as gifts. We retained a few ourselves, and had them for a couple of years (they only got better) It was so concentrated and delicious and what I'd give to have a bottle in my press today. I will call on my mothers recipe if such a monster crop presents itself in the future.

I know there are people out there who are repulsed by the humble shroom, but for everyone else, I've outlined three tasty mushroom recipes that give the noble fungi the royal treatment it deserves. 

Mushroom soup

500g mushrooms, chopped 

(field are best, otherwise, try flat capped)

100g onions, chopped

I clove of garlic, crushed

1oz butter

1 oz flour

1 pint of chicken or veg stock

1 pint of milk 

sprig of fresh thyme (you know at this stage thyme is my 

favourite herb, but honestly, it's made for mushrooms)

1 bay leaf

squeeze of lemon 

salt & Pepper

Cream, fresh thyme leaves and truffle oil to garnish

Melt the butter in a heavy pan, and fry the garlic and onions on a low heat until translucent. Turn up the heat and add the mushrooms, thyme and bay leaf and cook for 5 minutes. Add in the flour and stir to make a roux. Keep this stirred for a couple of minutes. (This gets rid of the raw flour flavour) Add in the milk and stock and keep stirring until thickened. You could adjust the ratio of milk to stock. I actually prefer no milk, and all stock, but it's a matter of preference. Blitz with a hand blender if you like a smooth finish. Season to your liking and drizzle with truffle oil, fresh thyme leaves and a little cream. This freezes very well.

Roasted courgette & Mushroom Risotto

Risotto is always something I thought was a painstaking task, but I actually love cooking it now, it's very therapeutic and pretty much foolproof. I cannot stress how fantastic the combo of the roasted courgettes was with the mushrooms. It totally worked. mmmmmm...think I'll do a Nigella on it and have some leftovers. 

4 courgettes, halved length ways, drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice

2 garlic cloves, chopped finely

a few basil leaves

300g of wild mushroom mix 

(or dried porcini-follow packet instruction)

1 tablespoon of Olive oil

2 Oz butter

2 shallots, finely diced

300g arborio rice, rinsed

small glass of white wine

If Marco Pierre likes them, so do I

pint of veg stock (the knorr jelly stock cubes are in fact, perfect, I make stock occasionally, but life is too short)

3-4 tablespoons of decent Parmesan, grated.

Mushroom & Courgette was a surprisingly
fab combo.

First, put the courgette topped with oil, lemon juice, garlic and basil into a preheated oven (200 degrees C) bake for about 40 mins until soft

For the risotto, melt the butter in the heavy saucepan and add a splash of olive oil.  Gently saute the shallots until translucent. Turn up the heat, add in the rice and coat in the buttery shallots for a minute or two, until the rice is completely coated.  Add in the wine and KEEP stirring. (this is the therapeutic part) add in the stock, a ladle at a time, allowing it to absorb until adding the next ladle. Continue this until all the stock is used (add more water if needs be) The consistency should be creamy and the rice should be nicely andante. 

In a frying pan, heat a glug of olive oil and add the mushrooms when the pan is hot. Cook for four or five minutes until golden brown. Toss them into the risotto along with the Parmesan, chop the courgette and add these also. Season to your liking.

Stuffed Mushrooms 

with slow roasted tomatoes, basil, honey Goats cheese, wrapped in bacon.

I slow roasted some tomatoes during the week (70 degrees oven, 6 hours, garlic,olive oil, seasoning) and their seductive sweetness had to be celebrated with some of my favourite ingredients. These were awesome.

Layer slices of the slow roasted tomatoes into the mushroom, basil, and goats cheese and wrap with one slice of streaky bacon. Roast in a preheated oven (200 Degrees C) for about 20 minutes or until the bacon starts to crisp. Serve with a balsamic reduction and tossed baby salad.

Am, I think I've eaten my weight in mushrooms today. Good luck!