Italians on Horseback

Devils on horseback- I had them as prunes wrapped in streaky bacon growing up- some would argue that the real "devils" are chicken livers wrapped in bacon. Angels on horseback are supposed to be oysters wrapped in bacon- my grandma make them with dried apricots.

Returning home exhausted without having shopped for real food for a while, I resorted to what I will call "Italians on Horseback". I had 6 tomatoes and a pack of bacon rashers, both of which were in need of consumption. I halved the bacon longways and quartered the tomatoes.

Our oven is broken and a mystery unto itself. These should have gone into a baking tray with a drizzle of olive oil- however, they went into a griddle pan on the hob with a generous sprinking of sage and occasional turning.

An excellent and easy supper for two with a piece of brown toast!

Pesto Presto

Pesto and pastes have been on my mind. I had a few bashes at hummus making earlier in the summer, which nearly blew up my hand blender. Great fun though! Following that I have been intrigued about making other bean pastes (apparently hummus = chickpea, so the term cannot be carried into other bean genres). White bean "hummus" sounds tasty, perhaps with paprika and garlic in vegetarian fusion food version of fabada asturiana.

Hunger and desperate times lead us back to pasta al pesto. And with fresh pesto it is so tasty! I am thinking- what about a green pea pesto?

Here is a pesto recipe (from smitten kitchen) that I would love to try:
Linguine with Tomato-Almond Pesto [Pesto Trapenese]
Adapted from Gourmet
3/4 cup slivered almonds
1 large handful fresh basil leaves
1 to 2 large garlic cloves
Several sprinkles of sea salt
6 ripe plum tomatoes, quartered
1/2 cup grated Pecorino or Parmesan
1/4 to 1/3 cup olive oil
1 pound linguine

In a large skillet, sauté the almonds in a little olive oil until toasted. Let cool, then blend them in a food processor or blender until they are in coarse pieces. (“The size of orzo,” the original recipe suggests.) Scoop them out of the processor and set them aside.

Put the basil, garlic and a few pinches of sea salt into the food processor and chop. Add the almonds back to the food processor (keeping them separate will keep them from getting too finely chopped as you get the basil and garlic to the right texture) with the tomatoes, cheese and olive oil and whirl briefly. Season it with freshly ground black pepper.

Cook your linguine until it is al dente and could use another minute of cooking time. Reserve one cup of pasta cooking water and drain the rest. Immediately toss the hot linguine with the pesto and mix quickly so that it drinks the sauce up a bit. Add more pasta water if needed. Serve this lukewarm, or at room temperature, with a glass of wine, after you get the baby to bed.

Another one that has been lingering in my mind is this- the recipe looks great and also references a walnut and kale pesto-

Fava Bean Inspiration

I bought a kilo or two of dried fava (better known as broad) beans a couple of months ago. I love beans- they are healthy and nutritious and fill your tummy. Dried pulses keep for AGES and are cheap protein. They also require forethought, soaking and boiling, which means doing them for one is just not going to happen.

But this Mexican inspired fava/ chili/ mint soup looks like a winner for a future WONDER activity and need to cook for a dozen. Heidi Swanson, one of my kitchen inspirations, doesn't pre-soak the beans, which means that this is more likely to get cooked! I love the combination of chili and mint- best known perhaps in chicken tikka with mint yoghurt. The freshness and bitter-sweetness with the spice is incredible. The cheese/ chili/ mint combo here would, I imagine, bring similar qualities.


Will keep you posted!

Let me know if you have any other fava bean recipes. I imagine that they could also make a good curry.

Huntsworth Pork Stirfry

There is nothing quite like a stirfry to use up ends in the fridge- the vegetables you bought on two-for-one or because they were cheaper by the kilo but you really only needed 500g.

I had a couple of friends coming over for dinner, and then invited a couple more, and a couple more. Which could have been 8, but ended up as four. Stirfry again is perfect here- you can add a bit of this and a bit of that, until you have the right quantity. One couple said they had a pork roasting joint that noone had time to roast, so I took it home, chopped it into mouth sized chunks and marinaded it. I HATE the idea of an animal dying to be binned. The marinade was also experimental, depending on what we had in the cupboard.

Juice of one Lime
Juice of one Lemon
glug of Olive Oil
glug of toasted sesame oil
heaped tablespoon of red curry paste
good pinch of ginger powder (fresh would have been better)
generous amount of brown sugar

The pork was marinaded for 3-4 hours in the fridge.

The cooking took 20 mins tops. Into a hot wok went the pork- there was plenty of oil in the marinade, some cashew nuts (if more people had come, we would have added more).We used up two heads of spring greens, which were just still fresh, cut into strips, one beautiful red pepper finely chopped, a not so young bunch of spring onions. There were courgettes waiting for some love. but we already had enough food. I chopped a couple of them into fine circles and stirred them into a pot of bolognese sauce I made for tonight. Extra nutrition- they will cook when I warm up the bolognese.

I had been a bit worried about the marinade- the sesame flavour have been overpowering when it was raw, but upon cooking the warm thai flavours came through and it was well balanced.

Worth doing again? Yes. Just what we needed on a Sunday night before a long week ahead!

Raw cashew nuts and peanuts are always worth having on hand to make a wok full of fried remnant vegetables into something quick delicious (and vegetarian).  This would have also been great with a sprinkling of sesame seeds.