Recipes

Not The Archers
1

After Armitage’s horror story about a decidedly iffy carbonara in Rome, I thought a thread specifically for sharing recipes might be worthwhile. I’ll kick off with the carbonara I make; less than half an hour’s work, but looks (and tastes) like you’ve been slaving for hours :wink:

SPAGHETTI ALLA CARBONARA
(from The Silver Spoon)

Serves 4
Preparation: 15 mins
Cooking: 20 mins

25g butter
100g pancetta, diced
1 clove garlic
350g spaghetti
2 eggs, beaten
40g Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
40g pecorino cheese, freshly grated
salt & pepper

• Melt the butter in a pan, add the pancetta and garlic and cook until the garlic turns brown. Remove and discard the garlic.
• Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in a large pan of salted, boiling water until al dente, then drain and add to the pancetta.
• Remove the pan from the heat, pour in the eggs, add half the Parmesan and half the pecorino and season with pepper. Mix well so that the egg coats the pasta.
• Add the remaining cheese, mix again and serve

4 Likes
2

Take one/ chicken thigh per person. Bone in, skin on.

In a sturdy pan (I use a low flatish cast iron pan) fry the chicken at hot, skin side down, then reduce the heat to medium. Do this for longer than you may naturally think … getting the skin to let out its fat and begin to crisp.

Remove pieces from the pan and add smoked bacon/lardons and sliced smoked sausage. Fry until cooked, but not frazzled. Add seasoning plus a good amount of smoked paprika. Add chicken stock and white wine.

Return the chicken (skin-side up) and add canellini & butter beans. Gently stir until simmering. Bring to a very low heat and place a lid over the pan.

Place in an oven at a low heat for an hour. Check occasionally to ensure not drying out.

10m before serving add a good glug of balsamic vinegar. Sounds odd, but trust me.

Remove the skin and if possible the bone/knuckle. Serve with good bread and a white wine robust enough to cope.

Return for more. Wish you’d made twice as much.

4 Likes
3

I was going to start a new Recipes thread, but since we already have one…

Old-Style Vindaloo

I was reading the Wikipedia page about vindaloo, and saw this, about the dish from which it was derived:

The basic structure of the Portuguese carne de vinha d’alhos was the Portuguese sailor’s “preserved” raw ingredients, packed in wooden barrels of alternate layers of pork and garlic, and soaked in red wine.

So, since I share a house with a Fish who doesn’t get on with chilli, I thought I’d try to do something similar.

We started with about 1.7kg of pork and quite a lot of garlic, certainly a full head, maybe two. We peeled and sliced the garlic, and chopped the pork into bite-sized gobbets; then made alternating layers of garlic and pork in a convenient plastic tub. Then gently poured on wine until it wass all submerged, and left it in the fridge for a week or so.

This is a component rather than a dish in itself, but we ate it by chopping up four decent-sized onions and frying them in butter; then putting them in the slow-cooker with the pork-and-garlic-and-wine on top; then scattering discs of fresh-cut ginger (about two thumbs’ worth) across the top. After a couple of hours it tasted of nothing at all, so we stirred in about a tablespoon of salt, and about half a teaspoon each of basil and oregano. I’d want to keep the salt, but I’m fairly sure other herbs would work in place of those. Eat with bread.

Done this way it came out very liquid and a bit winey-tasting for my preference (though That Fish thought it was fine); I don’t really know slow-cooker and I was thinking that a bit more of the wine would boil away. So probably you ought to hold back about half the wine when decanting it, even if it looks very dry. Or just do the cooking in a saucepan instead, in the manner of a stew or a bolognese sauce.

In terms of things people might have eaten, this might bear some relation to “pickled pork” or “vinyoo dalyge” in the Americas generally, or “garlic pork” specifically in Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago.

4 Likes
4

What? Sacrilege! Heathen! Burn The Witch!

1 Like
5

The wine doesn’t ‘cook orff’ in the slow cooker, as it doesn’t actually boil away - no liquid boils away

Use far less than you think is necessary.If you like, boil the remaining wine up in a saucy pan & add the very much reduced liquid to the meat later

I am liking the sound ovvit though…

Carinthia.xx

3 Likes
6

There are other ways of dealing with the surplus…

3 Likes
7

Garlicky wine. Yum.

Erm…

3 Likes
8

Not if you remember that you’re going to use less liquid before it gets involved with the garlic

Though that probably isn’t an option in this particular case.

2 Likes
9

Indeed, Joe … :clinking_glasses:

I am, tonight, poaching an Chicken - saving yer presence

It’s an FR Chicken from the Reduced shelf at the Co-op,so good quality & cost £1-50…

I will strip the meat orff the carcase tomorrow, & reduce the stock by at least half to concentrate the flavour. This will make really good stock forran soup, or sauce. If I really reduce it, I can freeze it in ice-cube trays/bags & freeze, to use when I need .

This Bird (not Birdie,:wink:) will provide 4-6 ‘meat’ meals,& 2 soups/sauces

Carinthia.xx

2 Likes
10

It really isn’t an option, joe, because the recipe is layer the meat with slices of garlic, and then pour wine over it to cover it and leave it all in the fridge for a week.

2 Likes
11

Shallower but larger container ?

Am economising on wine

Obvs…

Ahem

Carinthia.xx

2 Likes
12

There’s no real need to use less wine. As it was, when I put it into the slow cooker the wine was only just visible through the meat. In a saucepan, which I speak rather better than I speak slow cooker, it would have been perfect.

4 Likes
13

I was only trying to 'elp, Dunnock Dere…

Sodding Slow-Cookers need hardly any liquid atall, 'cos they produce so much

Think ovvit as Wine-saving…

Koff

Splutter

Looks around for An Restorative…

Ahem

Carinthia.xx

4 Likes
14

Corned Beef Hash involving sliced corned beef & onion in layers topped with garlic/mustard mash here tonight

It is smelling lovely, &I feel like one of the Bisto Kids…

Carinthia.xx

4 Likes
15

Is there really no more to it? Temperature of oven, time it might take, are the onions raw when they go in, any gravy involved, stuff like that?

4 Likes
16

No gravy

Yes, I use raw onions,& have sliced them this time , rather than chopping them.

Gas Mark 4 for 35 - 40mins until the top is crispy

It’s a ‘leftovers’ dish at Carinthia Towers , so there can be lots of variables. Grated cheese is good on top too, but I haven’t got any ATM

#mustgoshopping

Carinthia.xx

4 Likes
17

Part 2 of the corned beef hash sees the whole enlivened by a good slug of Lea & Perrins…

Carinthia.xx

4 Likes
18

Interesting how variations exist on such a simple dish.

I cube potatoes & parboil. Then cube tinned corned beef. Slice 2 onions.

Soften the onions, then add the softened potato cubes and fry on a low heat. Add the beef and put in plenty of ground black pepper, a good amount of Worcestershire sauce & some salt. A few gentle stirs & put a lit onto the pan & let it fry on a low heat. The lid keeos the moisture in & prevents it drying out.

Meanwhile beat a couple of eggs.

Toward the end, remove the lid & let it dry, creating a crust on the bottom. Just before serving separate the hash, giving a space in the centre. Pour the egg into the centre. Let it begin to set before then mixing with the hash using a wooden spatula. Once set(ting) mix the lot.

Serve, offering HP Sauce for them as do.

4 Likes
19

There you go, Armers - different ways of doing everything

There are those who add tinned Martyrs, & red wine too

I was viewed with suspicion when I joined the Carinthian Fambly 39 years ago because I didn’t make Trifle in the accepted manner…

I could write a book about Sodding Trifle… :wink:

Carinthia.xx

3 Likes
20

What did you do that was uncanonical?

4 Likes