Home made pasta with sausage and chilli tomato sauce recipe

Monday has been and gone and I was asked, after last Monday's blog, what happened this Monday? no blog? no recipe? My apologies to those who were expecting a laugh :) Here it is, the shenanigans of my Monday night dinner. Though first .......

Last week I held a little competition on Ciaran's Kitchen page, on facebook, so that I could give some of my delectable Baileys Truffles out to people who kindly support me. Simply put, when the page reach 80 "likes"(it had 59 then and over 100 now) the first person to write "I want my truffles" on the wall were sent a sample of truffles. As a surprise for the 80th person a sample of truffles were also sent. With making up a new batch to send to them, cooking breakfast Saturday morning for a dear friend of mine; french toast with goats cheese, crispy bacon and maple syrup, sausage and herb scrambled egg with freshly brewed coffee, what a great way to start the weekend :) I digress, so whilst packing up and sending out the truffles to my competition winners I also sent another package with my delightful Baileys Truffles to the manager of a trend bar in Soho, who, I learnt while I was down there having a great the other week, was introducing a "tea room" at the weekends and was looking for someone to cater them with an array of sweet desserts. I had left my Edesia Caterers business card for him with the staff member who had told me about this but thought what better way than to follow up by sending him a sample of my treats - and really? what better treats are there but Truffles!? So off they went with a cover letter and ...... fingers crossed :)

With all the hustle and bustle of the weekend's goings on - I was also treated to a dance show at Saddler's Wells, a love story through the sensual form of Tango :) - Monday's dinner was again last thing on my mind! Admittedly, it amused me. I'm sure there was some subconscious part of my mind which kept me from doing my weekly shop on Saturday so I would be faced with the challenge of a bare kitchen again. But how bare, I really was not prepared for!!

So picture with me, if you will, for a moment. Walk into my kitchen. On the kitchen table sits a large glass fruit bowl, in it are 3 perfectly ripe bananas, 4 red juicy apples, oh roughly 8 sticks of crunch celery, 1 large firm carrot, a red hot chilli and a couple cloves of garlic. In my fridge, as much to my surprise as to your shock were 1pt semi skimmed milk (for my weetabix in the morning), 2 pts of full fat milk (for cooking), 2 onions, some nutty chestnut mushrooms, half a red pepper (that most probably should go into the compost bin), a good few juice tomatoes, 2 trays of eggs, a few packs of butter and different cheeses ..... oh and 4 Actimel (my all important friendly bacteria :) ). oh and one more thing, sausages! SAUSAGES!!!!! oh good lord! what has become of me .........

Well, in my defence, the sausages I had bought from the local butcher in readiness for making breakfast for my dear friend on Saturday. A dear friend who rocked up to my door after only getting 4hrs sleep. Breakfast started, just to put some perspective on this, at the very decent hour of 10am (it was Saturday after all)

So there I was, stumped. If I wanted to make an English breakfast (for dinner granted) I was missing ingredients, if I wanted to make a bolognese ... well I had celery, the carrot, garlic and I suppose the tomatoes but erm .... what's a bolognese with out the beef!! Oh mama would turn in her grave with the thought of it!! (that's no reference to my mother of course, who is thankfully alive and well - she even posted a comment on my blog recently, which really touched the cockles of my heart). However, the thought of something Italian, maybe pasta, all of a sudden really appealed. Now I know it's not exactly summer food but let's be honest here, we create these labels like "summer food", on the assumption that we have summer weather!! Yeah, well mother natures playing funny games with us here at the moment and I wanted something warm and hearthy to go with her joke.

Out came the tomatoes, the mushrooms, garlic, an onion, the chili, olive oil, butter and the Sausages!! That wasn't too difficult, pasta with chilli tomato sauce and sausage, perfect!! Now where's my pasta? hmmm, none in the cupboard!! ah, but there is the spaghetti jar but on closer inspection it was a spaghetti jar alright and only a spaghetti jar! There was no spaghetti left in it! How could this happen?! Running out of dry goods didn't even happen during the blitz for goodness sake!! Well, I was left with the option of going down to the local shop or going hell for leather and making the pasta myself. Something crazy inside me said "make it yourself". Not that making pasta is crazy by any means however when a man is hungry a man is hungry and as any of my close friends will tell you this rule is magnified when it comes to me. Grumpy is generally the word used when I get hungry. But I was going to persevere. I had the eggs and the flour so after I quick but thorough clean down of the counter the process began.

For the pasta - this makes enough for 2
200g of plan strong flour
2 eggs
1 tablespoon olive oil

Sift flour into bowl. Make a well in the centre and put the eggs and oil in it
Using 1 hand gradually mix the eggs, oil and flour by drawing in the flour from the side of the well until a stiff dough has formed
Place dough on clean surface and kneed dough until smooth and elastic, roughly around 15 mins. When done, wrap dough in cling film and leave aside in a cool place for 1 hour
After an hour tear dough into small pieces and roll each one out until paper-thin. It is very important that you get the dough as thin as possible.
With a sharp knife cut the rolled out dough into long strips, go for the tagliatelle style
Let strips dry for at least 30 minutes before cooking.
In a large pot of boiling salted water cook the fresh pasta until al dente

For the chilli tomato sausage sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
knob of butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
6 mushrooms, sliced
500g of fresh tomatoes - skin off* and chopped, which is roughly 6/7 plum tomatoes (if using tinned tomatoes change quantity to 400g)
4 sausages, cut into thick slices

*To take the skin off the tomatoes, place them into a saucepan of boiling water, sing happy birthday really quickly or give them 10 seconds, then plunge into cold water - cut into quarters and easily peel the skin off.

Heat the oil and butter in a large pan over medium heat
Add the onions, fry for 10 mins until soft and golden
Add the sausages, fry for 5 mins until lightly browned
Add mushrooms, fry for 3 minutes
Add the chopped tomatoes, chilli and garlic
Bring to the boil and season with salt and pepper
Reduce heat and allow to simmer for 30 minutes

Pour the sauce over the pasta, mix in some chopped parsley and serve with grated Parmesan.

Yummy!! Home made pasta with sausage and chilli tomato sauce

Majadra and roast balsamic chicken recipe - the perfect Monday dinner

The weekend is over and whether it involved taming the family or untaming your friends, if you're anything like me you won't have put much thought to what to make for dinner. It is, after all, Monday, right? Right!

So I went to the ktichen this evening in full knowledge that, apart from a lot of random ingredients for baking, there was really nothing inspiring for me to choose from. There were some chicken thighs in the fridge for sure and though I do love the simplicity and basic scrumptiousness of roast chicken, this evening I wasn't quiet satisfied with the idea of roast chicken and salad - generally a Monday favourite of mine. Opening up the cupboard I stood there and just this once I wish I had thought about Monday's dinner. It's not so much that I couldn't come up with something out of whatever the cupboard had to offer it was more the fact that, it was Monday!!! and I really didn't want to think about cooking, hence why roast chicken and salad is my favourite Monday dinner :) Alas, there in front of me, well not quite as it was actually at the back of the cupboard however there was very little in it's way to block our meeting, were some lentils!! I know, I hear what you say, "lentils!!" not really something to get excited about. However, since my days of traveling to and from Israel they have a similar resonance for me as (being Irish) potatoes do. I know, I know, snigger as you may but it's all about homeliness, wholesomeness, almost comfort food - though granted most of us go for ice-cream or chcocolate these days for comfort food, as do I, but this is something with a longer last effect, this is a meal. This, in essence, is what Monday's need after all!!

Now all I needed was rice, bingo! there it was; although to no surprise as there is always rice in my cupboard - it's dried so it keeps much longer than potatoes do ;) So that was it, Majadra it was going to be. Majadra a middle eastern dish made primarliy up of rice, lentils, onion and some spices. That, with the roast chicken was the perfect answer to my Monday dinner woes.

Now, don't get me wrong, when I say it's a perfect Monday dinner I do not mean it to be bland! quiet the contrary. It can just be rather simple to put together and, as I have just figured, it's always good to have rice and lentils stored somewhere at the back of the cupboard.

This dish has many different variations depending on the country and even region within the middle east, even the name can differ - mine is an interpretation from an Israeli friend

All you need is:
Chicken thighs - I use 2 per person
Rice (I prefer brown but it's Monday, right? so what ever is there) - 1 cup
Lentils - 1 cup
Onion - 1 large cut into slices
Cumin ground - 1 tsp
Cinnamon ground - 1/4 tsp
Paprika ground - 1/4 tsp
olive oil
knob of butter
balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

For the Majadra
cook the rice (as per instructions on pack)
cook lentils (again as per instructions on pack)
Caramelise the onions - it's common to lightly fry the onion for this dish but I prefer them caramelised for  extra flavour.
Take onions off the heat and season with spices.
Mix lentils, rice and onions together and season with salt and pepper (traditionally the onions are set on top of the lentil and rice mix but again I prefer to just mix it all together, to work the flavours through
There is your Majadra!!

For the roast chicken
Place chicken thighs in a bowl, drizzle balsamic vinegar over them to coat, season with salt and pepper and mix with your hand to evenly coat the thighs.
Put thighs on to a baking tray and place a knob of butter on each thigh.
Cook in a preheat oven at 190 degrees C and cook for 40 mins

and there you have your roast chicken with majadra

Secret underground dinner parties

It's been far to long, I know. So much time has passed, how could I possible fill in all the gaps in one blog? I couldn't!! So let's just say it's been a busy few months and business, for Edesia Caterers still needs a good boost but as the age old saying goes, no pain, no gain.

So let me explain the title of today's blog. I'm finding that when you are offering, primarily, a service it's more difficult to get your message across to people. Though it still has it's challenges, granted, when you have a product it is easier to get people to notice you. You have something to give them, sell them, something they can hold in their hands, put in their mouths, taste with their taste buds. Though I have a product, that product is only accessible via a service, that service being catering. So I said to myself as I sipped my coffee one morning (it's the most inspirational time of the day for me) "Ciaran", I said, "you have to bring the people to your product to experience your service". And so with that the idea of holding secret underground dinner parties was born.

Now this is no new thing, in London it has been growing steadily over the past few years and ultimately reverts back to the day when "restaurants" actually began. The oldest running is arguably the Sobrino de Botin, Madrid, Spain Though the main difference today is that women and men can participate. Thank goodness for those women who rallied up for the first wave of women's liberation at the beginning of the 18th century. The idea is simple, a cross between a dinner party and a restaurant.

Obviously these are not your everyday run of the mill events and therefore have to be promoted in an altogether different way. "Ciaran's Kitchen" facebook page is my main way of getting the word to spread and the more underground dinner parties I do the more the word will spread - well that's the theory anyway :) so if you have a facebook account please feel free to "like" the page and keep updated with future dinner parties and general food stuff from my test kitchen. Click on the title of this blog and it will take you directly to the page.

Speaking of dinner parties, I recently got acquainted with a very intriguing young man by the name of Alan Rosenthal. He founded and runs a company call "Stewed!", which are one pot stews which are available for sale in some major supermarkets. If that wasn't impressive his first cook book, by the same name, is out in October and already on sale through Amazon. What intigued me most about Alan is, despite his success, he is an extremely modest man.  I've had the pleasure of a sneak preview of his book and must say it's a must for any kitchen, even the Irish Stew recipe was spot on. If you wish to purchase the book copy and paste this link http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stewed-Alan-Rosenthal/dp/0091938023/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274372524&sr=1-1
Anyway, so back to the story, Alan invited me over for dinner for some food talk. Now when you get two food lovers together there is a common wish to share, so I offered to take over dessert with me. Great idea until I was faced with the dilemma of what to make!! Well, to be honest, it didn't take me that long to decide. I had recently persuade my mother to part with her recipe for "Tarte de pommes a la Normande" (Normandy apple tart) with frangipane and a touch of mothers little secret. I loved this tart as a child, both for it's visual effect and sumptuous flavour. Here's a picture I took. It seemed to work a treat on Mr Rosethals taste buds and I'm sure it was the reason behind the bonding of a good friendship :) 

So that's my update for now, got to dash but will be back sooner than later for more :)