WOOD FIRED TANDOOR CHICKEN

This is so good, gorgeous sumptuous face stuffing food, great to share with family and friends.  I love cooking over a wood fire it adds so much more flavour and fun!  This is almost as good charred on a hot griddle pan in the kitchen, with the windows open!  I have married up a few inspirational recipes and found this marinade tasted as close to the authentic tandoori chicken cooked in a traditional tandoor oven that I have eaten.

I have used kashmiri chilli powder in this recipe, you can find this on Amazon or in good deli stores.  If you want a redder traditional colour like in the Indian restaurants this is achieved by adding a paprika extract known as paprika oleoresin it is commercially used and you will find it in the commercial mix of tandoori masala powders readily available.  I have made my own tandoori masala, recipe below.

 Serve stuffed in to my gorgeous flat breads that are really are worth the effort to make it only take 5 minutes to make the dough in a mixer, 1 hr to prove and around 3 minutes to cook each flatbread, these are outstandingly fabulous.

Super Easy

Marinating 1 hr - 24 hrs / Cooking time 15-20 minutes

Ingredients 

(serves 6-8)

MARINADE

5 cardamon pods de-seeded

2 tsp cumin seeds

1/4 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp black peppercorns

2 tsp  coriander seeds

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp turmeric powder

1/4 tsp cinnamon powder

1/4 grated nutmeg

2 tsp kashmiri chilli powder

1 tbsp tandoori masala powder (home made recipe below)

1 lrg tsp salt

2" piece of ginger finely grated

6 garlic cloves finely grated

300g Greek yogurt

1/2 lemon juiced

6 chicken breasts diced or 1 kg lamb leg diced

TANDOORI MASALA POWDER

1 tsp ground ginger, cardamom, cumin, coriander, paprika, salt, cayenne and turmeric.

Mix together

TANDOORI MASALA MARINADE

In a pestal and mortar or my favourite a coffee grinder, grind the cardamom, cumin, cloves, black peppercorns and coridander seeds, tip into a larage bowl and add the yogurt, cayenne, turmeric, cinnamon, nutmeg, chilli powder, tandoori masala, ginger, garlic, salt and lemon juice, mix well into a gorgeous paste and coat the chicken really well.  The longer you can leave this to marinate the deeper the flavour, 30 minutes and you will have a tandoori chicken meal but 5 hours or overnight in the fridge and you will have outstanding tandoori chicken.  Once marinated place the chunks of chicken or lamb on your skewers, if using wooden skewers soak them in cold water for 30 minutes prior to use.  If using metal skewers your chicken will cook a little quicker than wooden skewers.

To Cook Your Tandoori Chicken

Fire up your, fire pit, BBQ, coal pot or stove top griddle and to start cook the skewers low down near the coals, or on a really high heat on a griddle so as to char the chicken, don't turn the skewers until the meat has sealed and slightly charred on one side then once you have charred both sides lower the heat or pop the skewers higher up to finish cooking slowly, allowing the chicken to start resting as it finishes cooking, serve stuffed and rolled up in your flat bread with salad, fixings and harissa yogurt

ACCOMPANIMENTS

200ml Greek yogurt & 8 tsps Harissa paste mixed

Crispy iceberg salad

 1 sliced red onion tossed in dried mint

 1 sliced green peppers

2 tbsp fresh chopped coriander

Mint mayonnaise 

FLAT BREADS

500g 00 flour

15g dried yeast

50ml olive oil

10g salt

320g water

To Make The Flatbreads

Place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and either by hand or by machine with a dough hook mix for seven minutes, then dust a little flour over the dough mix and gently form into a ball, cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave in a warm area to prove for a minimum of 1 hour until doubled in size if you want to use immediately, then other options are leave to prove slowly in the fridge for 24hrs, this is what I do as it gives me much more control over time and usage, this will keep for 48hrs in the fridge ready to go when you are, just let the dough come up to room temperature before using, you can also freeze any left over dough at this stage, then when ready to use remove from the freezer defrost and once up to room temperature use as you would fresh.

 Take a tennis ball size piece of dough, dust your work top with a little 00 flour, roll into a ball and roll out a large disk no bigger than your skillet, heat to a hot heat, place the flat bread in the pan and cook for one and a half minutes on each side, best served warm but are almost as good used later the same day, to use the following day dip the flat breads in water and pop in a pre heated oven foe 3-5 minutes and Ta-Da almost as good as fresh, brilliant.

ALL AMERICAN PUMPKIN PIE WITH MARSHMALLOW TOFFEE MERINGUE

Pumpkin Pie Day 26th October

I love growing pumpkins, squashes and gourds they give a great pop of colour from bright orange to powder blue in the garden and a Jurassic plant theme, I love the large sizes and knobbly designs  but even more they yield a hearty crop that is easily stored over winter for using in fabulous soups, curry’s, roasted, gnocchi, mashed, risotto, pies, cakes and muffins among so many more great recipes.

Pumpkin Pie Ingredients

(30 oz pie filling)

30 oz roasted pumpkin purée 

550ml double cream

1 1/2 cups light brown sugar

4 tsp pumpkin spice (recipe below)

2 tsp vanilla paste

1 tsp sea salt

4 whole eggs beaten plus 2 egg yolks

Marshmallow Toffee Meringue 

3 lrg egg whites

260g caster sugar

7 generous tbsp golden syrup 

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp vanilla paste

Old Fashioned Pastry

450g plain flour

150g cold butter diced

70g cold lard diced

180 ml cold water

5g sea salt

Home grown 

Homemade Pumpkin Spice

3 tbsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp ground ginger

tsp fresh grated nutmeg

tsp ground all spice

1 tsp ground cloves

Mix together and store any left over in a ball mason jar.

Cut the pumpkin in to quarters, deseed and roast the pumpkin skin side up or down it is fine either way for 1 hour at 200 C / 400 F.  

Remove from the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes until you can handle peeling the skin off, place the quarters in to a food processor and blitz until smooth, transfer in to a large mixing bowl.

Your oven will already be pre heated from roasting the pumpkin at 200 C / 400 F Roll out the pastry and line your butter greased baking dish prick the base with a fork, add baking paper and baking beans, bake for 10 minutes then a further 5 minutes without the baking beans.

At this point add all the pumpkin pie Ingredients and whisk in to the pumpkin purée until smooth.

Pour the pumpkin pie filling in to the blind baked pastry case and bake in the oven for approx 50 minutes until the Center is still a little jiggly wobbly, remove from the oven and leave to cool.  Your pumpkin pie is done you can serve this with vanilla butter cream or…see below…

This pumpkin pie is just glorious as it is BUT…HOW ABOUT A TOFFEE MARSHMALLOW MERINGUE TOPPING ?

Best Ever Marshmallow Toffee Meringue 



Place all the marshmallow meringue ingredients in to a bowl, place the bowl over a gently simmering pan of water and whisk (I use a electric hand whisk) continuously for around 5-7 minutes until soft peaks hold, thick and glossy, if you pinch some of the meringue and rub between your fingers the feeling should be smooth as all the sugar would be dissolved then your meringue is perfect and ready to top your pie.  Dollop on and spread out with a spatula and donk up some peaks with your spatula.  If you want some caramelised curls then use a blow torch to do this.

THE BEST BRAISED SHORT RIBS

Jacobs Ladder Full Short Ribs

Glorious sumptuous melt in the mouth tender beef short ribs slowly braised in a rich beef stock reduction and burgundy red wine, a marriage of my nan’s slow braised chuck steak and my French families Boeuf Bourguignon this cut of full short ribs, known as Jacobs ladder in the UK are slowly braised with extra roasted marrow bones, mirapiox, rich reduced beef stock and a decent bottle of burgundy red wine, some herbs and seasoning and most of all time, this dish is worthy of this process and delivers one of the best most comforting sumptuous family dinner’s, left overs unlikely but in that event left overs make a great pie filling with left over gravy.  Serve these ribs with the best buttery mashed potatoes ever, 250g butter to each 1kg of peeled potatoes! Yes and sometimes I add double cream too!

My personal advice is to eat this with a spoon, so you can get plenty of gravy on your spoon along with the short ribs and buttery mashed potatoes, every mouthful a genuine pleasure.

Quite a simple one pan cook leaving the hob or oven to do all the work delivering perfection on a plate.  This is a great dinner to impress friends and family with and with very little effort for such a maximum results.

Cooking time 4 hours

Ingredients 

(serves 6)

1 whole rack of Jacobs ladder approx 3kg)

(ask your butcher for the cut)

2 marrow bones optional

2 carrots finely diced

1 Spanish onion finely diced

1 leek finely diced

1 rib of celery finely diced

6 cloves garlic chopped

50 ml olive oil

50g butter

2 ltrs rich beef stock recipe below

1 bottle burgundy good quality

4 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

3 sprigs fresh thyme

1 fresh bay leaf

10 whole black peppercorns

Sea salt and ground black pepper 

Pre heat your oven 180 C / 355 F and pop the marrow bones if using in to roast for 30 minutes.  Meanwhile heat a deep casserole dish medium hot add half the olive oil and butter then the diced onions, garlic, carrot, celery and leek, cook until translucent approx 10-15 minutes.  At the same time heat a cast iron skillet hot, toss the Jacobs ladder ribs in some olive oil and season with salt and black pepper, sear all sides of the ribs for around 45 seconds per side in the skillet creating a wonderful caramelised flavour to the ribs, remove the ribs and place in the casserole dish, take some of the stock and pour in to the skillet to capture all the flavours of the seared ribs and pour into the casserole dish along with the rest of the ingredients pop on a lid and place in the oven for 3-4 hours until the meat is falling off the bone.

Strain the stock gravy and season to taste if needed, serve the short ribs on top of glorious buttery mashed potatoes (recipe below) and plenty of stock gravy, enjoy.

Serve with This Glorious Mashed Potato

1 kg peeled halved potatoes

250g butter

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

Sea salt and white pepper

150ml double cream optional !

Simple method to ensure the best fluffy mashed potatoes, rinse the potatoes and then place in a large pan with cold water and a good pinch of salt, bring to a rolling simmer and cook until fork tender, the reason to boil potatoes from cold is to ensure the potatoes cook all the way through evenly, if you add potatoes to boiling water the outside cooks quicker than the centre which leads to soy wet mashed potatoes!  Drain and leave the potatoes to steam dry in the colander for a few minutes, meanwhile place the saucepan back on the lowest heat, add the butter to slowly soften, add back the potatoes along with the vinegar salt and pepper, mash to your choice of consistency, I’m super smooth but my husband likes lumpy!

I like my potatoes pushed through a ricer for that super smooth mashed potatoes, but for lumpy I just use my old fashion hand masher from my Nan.

Bone Marrow Beef Stock

1 good glug olive oil

25g butter

2 marrow bones

Various beef bones and knuckles from the butchers

(or left over roast beef bones)

2 carrots roughly chopped 

1 rib celery roughly chopped 

1 onion roughly chopped 

1 clove garlic chopped

1 leek roughly chopped 

2 sprigs thyme

1 bay leaf

10 whole black peppercorns

2 ltrs water

1/2 tsp Himalayan sea salt

If you are making your own stock do this the day before so you can leave the stock to very gently simmer for 8 hours to maximum the flavour.  I like to roast all the bones for 1 hour to increase the flavour and colour of the stock. But this is not necessary.  Heat the oil and butter add the carrots, leeks, onion, garlic and celery and soften for 5 minutes, place the rest of ingredients into your stock pot add water to cover the bones and leave to gently simmer for up to 8 hours, strain and return to the pan, taste and season with salt and pepper, or reduce the volume to intensify the depth of flavour.

GARLIC SHRIMP SKILLET SEARED

Garlic Prawns

Total preparation and cooking time 15 minutes

 

Ingredients 

(serves 2)

12 large wild fresh cold water shrimp

8 cloves garlic diced

100ml olive oil

Salt and black pepper

1 tbsp fresh chopped parsley optional.

Peel the prawns and remove the vein and the heads, keep the shell and heads in a sealed food bag and freeze for using another time for great stock flavour in a gumbo or fish dish.  Add the garlic and olive oil to the peeled prawns, this you can do hours in advance.  Heat a cast iron skillet Medium hot, add the prawns, oil and garlic and sear for 45 seconds then turn the prawns over and cook for a further 1 1/2 minutes, served immediately with fresh warm crusty sour dough bread to mop up ask that flavour.  Season to taste and sprinkle over the parsley if using.

GAMBAS AL AJILLO

Garlic Prawns (shrimp)

I was fortunate enough to experience a great many years in my younger adult (before children) life in Spain when my parents lived there for many years, they had their own traditional restaurant there, my husband and I being care free and young would just pop over all the time, sharing food is my families world and we have many great memories of great authentic local Spanish food. 

This gorgeous Spanish tapas of garlic prawns (shrimp) is one of the most popular tapas on the Costas, sumptuous garlic, a whole fresh cayenne chilli pepper and white wine vinegar infused olive oil cooked prawns (shrimp) served bubbling hot to your bar stool with warm fresh crusty bread for mopping up all that wonderful infused oil I can confirm this is just divine.   I like to be very generous with the portion of prawns allowing approximately 15-20 per person as this is one of those little dishes that in private will have you licking the bowl!

Cooking time 10 minutes / Optional Oil Infusing 30 mins - 1 day

Ingredients

(serves 2)

40 fresh cold water raw prawns

1 cup olive oil

15 cloves garlic sliced

2 small cayenne pepper whole chillies pierced
2 tsp white wine vinegar

1 fresh baked warm crusty baguette torn!

I like to infuse my olive oil with the sliced garlic a few days in advance for this dish, not essential but it really does ramp up the flavour.  Heat the olive oil warm, not hot, add the sliced garlic and leave to infuse for 30 minutes or a few days.  Strain the oil and reserve the garlic to one side, have everything ready to go as this is a fast cook around 2 minutes, have the crusty baguette warmed in the oven.

I cook this on a gas flame in our original terracotta dishes from Spain, place the dish directly on the heat, add the infused oil and bring to a safe bubbling simmer, add the prawns, garlic and whole pierced cayenne chilli, leave for one minute, stir to turn the prawns and cook for another 30 seconds, add the white wine vinegar, stir through and serve the hot terracotta bowl bubbling hot on a heat proof plate immediately with the warm crusty baguette to tear and soak up all the lovely garlic oil and enjoy.

TOAD IN THE HOLE

Yorkshire Pudding Batter

Fabulous traditional English pub grub and a staple in our family and friends lives, light crispy Yorkshire pudding with outdoor reared Cumberland sausage from Cumberland in Cumbria just below Scotland that are flavoured with herbs and spices but predominantly with pepper.  Served with creamy buttery mashed potatoes, a ratio of 250g of butter to 1 kg of potatoes and 150ml double cream, yes that’s right and finished off with a caramelised onion gravy.  A wonderful dinner loved by everyone.

Prep time 20 minutes / Resting time 1 hour / Cooking time 45 minutes

Ingredients

(serves 4-6)

The Yorkshire Batter

200g plain flour

200g eggs

200g milk

1 large pinch of sea salt and white pepper

Toad in the Hole Sausages

12 Cumberland sausages (herby peppery)

3 tbsp of beef dipping

Gravy

1 glug olive oil

1 tbsp butter

2 large spanish onions sliced

1 ltr chicken stock

300ml Maderia or apple cider

50g butter

1 tbsp heaped Branson pickle or HP sauce

Best Ever Mashed Potatoes

1 kg floury potatoes, Maris piper or Yukon gold

250g salted butter

150ml double cream

15ml apple cider vinegar

Salt and pepper

The Batter & Sausages

Make the batter first, I like to leave my batter to rest on the side at room temperature for at least half an hour and up to 4 hours.  Alternatively make the batter the day before and leave in the fridge to rest overnight, bring out 1 hour before cooking and just give a quick whisk.  Pre heat your oven to 200 degrees C, place you sausages in a roasting tin with the beef dripping and pop in the oven for 15 minutes, at this point turn up the heat to 220 degrees C for five minutes, then really quickly open the oven door and pour the batter in to the roasting tin around the sausages, do this as fast as you can and pop back in the oven, I have got this down to 20 seconds, but don't rush and burn yourself!  

Leave the oven at 220 for five more minutes then turn back to 200 degrees C, for the last 15 minutes of cooking time.  This is not totally neccessary and if you are not in the kitchen during the cook or have to divide your time with the family, then just keep the oven at 200 degrees at all time.  The reason I pop the heat up is I find I can get a better rise in the batter.

Under no circumstances, well apart from burning the house down, do NOT open the oven door until the final 3 minutes of cooking time is up, at this point just open the oven door very slightly, this old little tip ensures a crispy Yorkshire crunch.  Serve immediately with the onion gravy and gorgeous buttery mashed potatoes.

Mashed Potatoes 

Put your peeled and quartered potatoes in a large saucepan of water, add a good pinch of salt and bring to a rolling simmer cook until fork tender, drain and leave to steam dry in the colander for 5 minutes, season with salt and pepper, add the pack of butter and cream to the pan and gently melt the butter, take off the heat, add the potatoes and apple cider vinegar, mash to your choice of smooth or with lumps, my family like lumpy and I’m a smooth girl!

The Gravy

Meanwhile to make a fabulous gravy, gently pan fry the onions in the oil and butter for 20 minutes until soft and caramelised take of the heat and leave to one side, bring the stock up to a rolling boil and reduce by half, add the Maderia and reduce by 1/3, now whisk in the butter on a lower heat.  If you want to thicken the stock gravy further add a little cornflour slurry and start by adding a small amount at first, whisk and cook for a few minutes before deciding to thicken further or not.  Taste and season with salt and pepper or more butter and add to the onions pan, keep warm until needed.

WOOD FIRED SEARED SKIRT STEAK STUFFED TACOS

CHILLI CUMIN & GARLIC MARINATED SKIRT STEAK

Hanger marinated skirt (Fraldinha) steak seared and stuffed in to tacos with all the usual suspect fixings!  This cheap cut of steak is very often over looked but cooked over high heat really fast and served no more than rare, blue even better it's a super juicy succulent tasty cut of beef.  To add even more flavour I've marinated the steak with a spice mix inspired from wood fired Cowboy cooking, Brasilian barbecue and Mexican cumin flavours.

Marinating time minimum 4 hrs-24hrs / Cooking time 10 minutes 

Ingredients 

(Serves 2-4)

Marinade 

5 cloves garlic

1 tsp toasted cumin seeds

60g red chillies

1 tbsp fresh oregano 1/2 tsp if using dried

3 tbsp mirin 

2 tbsp red wine vinegar 

60ml olive oil

The Steak

500g approx skirt steak

1 glug olive oil

1/2 tsp Himalayan sea salt

(Brazilian amount 2 tbsp) !

1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1/2 lime

1 bunch fresh coriander torn

Fixings

Soft corn tacos

Hot chilli sauce

Seared pineapple

Fresh coriander

Red onion

Slaw

Fresh chillies

Guacamole

Place all the marinade ingredients in a blender and blitz to a smooth paste, reserve a couple of tbsp of the marinade, in a glass dish or food bag cover the steak with the remaining marinade place in the fridge to marinate infusing all the gorgeous flavour in to your steak.

Remove the steak from the fridge around half an hour before your ready to cook so that the steak is at room temperature, this ensures a juicy tender steak as the steak has relaxed.  Fire up your wood fired oven or heat your stove top skillet very hot, if you can cook over or in a wood fired oven it really does add so much more flavour, roughly scrape off some of the marinade, now the Brazilian bit is to heavily sprinkle the steak with Himalayan salt and pepper this would be knocked off just before serving which is why if you've ever been to Fogo de chao now you know why you don't need salt!  We're not knocking the salt of as I have lowered the amount cooked with.  

Drizzle the olive oil over the steak, never add oil to the pan as this over heats the oil and it smokes, place the steaks in the hot hot skillet, or on the stone cooking floor of your wood fired oven, leave do not touch for one and a half minutes, turn the steaks over and cook for a further one minute, remove the steak from the skillet or wood oven immediately and leave to rest for 5-10 minutes, bush the reserved marinade over the steaks and slice on the bias, pour over the resting juices a beautiful self made sauce, a squeeze of lime and finish off with a sprinkling of fresh coriander enjoy.

Stuff wrap and enjoy this lip smacking juicy flavoursome steak with your choice of fixings, I love a sweet sticky chilli sauce and seared pineapple with my tacos.

WILD FOREST MUSHROOM SOUP

A gorgeous autumnal mushroom soup, rich in flavour with Guinness and a little bit decedent with a touch of cream and butter, wild forest mushrooms, porchini, shiitake and chestnut mushrooms give this soup a hearty fill.  I cannot stress enough never pick your own wild mushrooms, I always buy through a professional supplier and I like to use a combination of fresh and dried mushrooms for a more intense flavour.

This soup if left chunky makes a great mushroom ragu, just add another tin of tomatoes and serve over spaghetti with Parmesan, I make a double batch and that’s dinner done for another day.

Ingredients 

(Serves 4)

MUSHROOM STOCK

50g butter

50ml olive oil

1 Spanish onion diced

4 cloves garlic chopped

1 carrot diced

1 rib of celery diced

1/2 leek diced

1/3 cup dried wild forest mushrooms

1/3 cup dried porchini mushrooms

1/4 cup dried shiitake mushrooms

500ml hot boiled water

MUSHROOM SOUP

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp butter

1 small onion diced

2 cloves garlic chopped

800g fresh chestnut mushrooms finely chopped

1 tbsp vegetable stock concentrate

1 can of Guinness

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tbsp tomato ketchup

1 can Mutti popla tomatoes

Sea salt and black pepper

2 sprigs fresh thyme

Himalayan sea salt

White pepper

300ml double cream

This is a two layer cook, first make the mushroom stock, pour the boiling water over the dried mushrooms and leave to soak for 30 minutes, heat the oil and butter medium hot, add the rest of the ingredients and soften with out colouring for 10 minutes, add the soaking dried mushrooms and their stock, bring to a simmer for 10 minutes, reserve a couple of tablespoons of chunky mushrooms to one side then using a stick blender blitz the rest smooth.

In a new sauce pan heat the oil and butter, soften the onion and garlic, add the mushrooms and soften add the Guinness, stock, thyme and tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce and ketchup, bring to a gentle simmer and cook medium low for 30 minutes, season with salt and white pepper to taste, blitz smooth.  Serve with a table of the reserved chunky mushrooms in the middle of your serving bowl and a swirl with double cream for extra richness.

HOMEMADE RAVIOLI STUFFED WITH RICOTTA MASCARPONE AND SPINACH SERVED IN A NUTTY BUTTER AND CRISPY SAGE LEAF SAUCE

GLUTEN OR GLUTEN FREE 

I made this pasta with 00 Caputo gluten free flour for me and with 00 Caputo wheat pasta flour for the rest of the family, recipe works brilliantly with both Caputo flours

This dish brings so much joy to my mouth, smile and heart, a special dish that I make for my mum, the light pillows of ravioli stuffed with a ricotta and mascarpone spinach filing that is rich and subtle tossed through a generous amount of beautiful nutty sage butter then finished off with crispy butter fried sage leaves makes every spoonful just wonderful.

Prep time 30 minutes / Resting time 30 mins - 2 hours / Cooking time 5 minutes

Ingredients

(serves 4)

The Pasta

200g Caputo 00 flour or Gluten free Caputo flour

2 large eggs

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp Himalayan sea salt

Semolina for dusting

Spinach and Ricotta Filling

150g spinach

150g ricotta

75g mascarpone 

1/4 tsp grated nutmeg

1 lrg pinch sea salt

1 lrg pinch fresh ground black pepper

1 egg beaten for egg wash

Sage Nutty Butter

200g salted butter

12 small sage leaves

Fist make the pasta, evenly mix the flour and salt and tip out on to your worktop in a pile, make a well in the centre.

Using a fork whisk the eggs then start to flick the flour in to the eggs, do this from the inside of the well so as too keep the outside wall secure to stop any egg running out on to your work top.

Flick the flour into the beaten eggs while whisking in.



Keep adding flour in to the beaten eggs until the eggs won’t run when you take the barrier wall of flour away then bring together with your hands or pasta scraper to form a dough ball.

Once you’ve formed a dough ball knead for 10 minutes until soft and smooth, form into a ball and leave to rest in a glass bowl for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours at room temperature.



Leave the dough to rest at room temperature in a floured covered bowl for 30 minutes and up to 2 hours.

Spinach and Ricotta Filling

Bring a pan of salted water to a simmer, add the spinach and cook for 1 minute, drain and leave to cool then squeeze and squeeze the spinach until no liquid is left in the spinach. finely chop and then mix with the rest of ingredients except the egg.  

Divide the pasta in to 4, if you have a pasta machine shape the pasta as wide as the pasta machine, start on number one on the rollers, dust your work top generously with semolina, run the pasta through the rollers  up to number 4, dusting the sheets each time with semolina the lay out in rows.  If your rolling by hand as the Italian Nona’s do the heavily dust your worktop and share the pasta dough roughly 5”wide then roll out long and thin but not paper thin as you want the pasta to hold the filling but not to be thick as this will result as chewy.

As you can see the pasta sheet is thin but not super thin, I went to number 4 out of 8 on the pasta roller settings, you need to repeat this process with the next three portions of pasta so you will have 4 sheets of pasta lined up, tops and bottoms.



I like to use a small pioneer woman Ree Drummond scoop to portion the spinach and ricotta mix on to the sheet of pasta, paint the egg wash all around the ball of filling and edges of the pasta sheet, next lay the next sheet on top, you can do this as a row or individual.

Lay the whole sheet or individual sheets of pasta on top of the filling, cupping your hands around the filling squeeze out any air and gently hug the top sheet of pasta around the filling.



Once the pasta is sealed around the filling using a pasta cutting wheel or stamp to cut the shaped the pasta which also helps seal the pasta sheets together ensuring no water will enter the ravioli.

I usually use a old antique pasta wheel to cut my ravioli but I couldn’t find it !  So I used my old ravioli cutter which worked out brilliant and actually gave a better crushed seal from the cutting.

Cooking the Ravioli 

To cook the ravioli bring a large pan of boiling water to a good rolling simmer, add a tsp of salt, drop in your ravioli’s and cook for 2 minutes, drain and leave to steam for 1minute.

Meanwhile place the butter in a pan medium low heat and melt, pour off the clarified butter (clear liquid) over the ravioli’s in your serving bowls reserving leaving behind the milk solids (milky white in the butter) behind in the pan.

In a hot pan fry the sage leaves face down in more butter for 2 minutes, the butter will turn light brown and be infused with a nutty flavour and crisp the sage leaves, pour over the finished ravioli’s and enjoy immediately.

HOMEMADE PASTA WITH A TOMATO MARSCAPONE SAUCE

There is nothing better than fresh homemade pasta it is a whole other level of flavour and texture, the pasta also soaks up more of the flavour from the sauce making every mouthful a joy.  It’s great fun making your own pasta and very easy too, just 3 ingredients creates delicious fresh pasta in just 15 minutes.

Prep time for pasta 15 minutes / Cooking time for sauce min 20 minutes

Start the sauce while your making the pasta

(low and slow simmer of sauce up to 2 hours)

Ingredients 

(serves 4)

The Pasta

200g Caputo 00 flour or Gluten free Caputo flour

2 large eggs

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp Himalayan sea salt

Semolina for dusting

Tomato Mascarpone Sauce

I small onion finely chopped

3 cloves garlic sliced

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp butter

2 tins of Mutti popla chopped tomatoes

1 tbsp tomato ketchup

Good pinch of Himalayan  sea salt

Good pinch fresh ground black pepper

150ml double cream

2 tbsp mascarpone

4 tbsp finely grated Parmesan

Fist make the pasta, evenly mix the flour and salt and tip out on to your worktop in a pile, make a well in the centre.

Using a fork whisk the eggs

Start to flick the flour in to the eggs, do this from the inside of the well so as too keep the outside wall secure to stop any egg running out on to your work top.  Flick the flour into the beaten eggs while whisking in.



Keep adding flour in to the beaten eggs until the eggs won’t run when you take the barrier wall of flour away then bring together with your hands or pasta scraper to form a dough ball.

Once you’ve formed a dough ball knead for 10 minutes until soft and smooth, form into a ball and leave to rest in a glass bowl for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours at room temperature.



Leave the dough to rest at room temperature in a floured covered bowl for 30 minutes and up to 2 hours.

Cut the dough into 4, roughly roll out to the width of your pasta roller, generously dust your work top with semolina and the dough, starting on roller gap number one run the pasta through to create a sheet, I went up to number 3 on my rollers for a not to thin tagliatelle.  If your manually using a rolling pin like the Nona’s in Italy then roll out the pasta to your desired thickness, roll the pasta sheet up and starting on the end where you can see the coils thinly slice the pasta with very little pressure so as not too stick the pasta together to create your tagliatelle.

The Sauce

Heat the olive oil and butter medium hot, gently soften the onions and garlic keeping them translucent for 10 minutes, add the tomatoes, ketchup and simmer for 10 minutes or up to 2 hours on a low heat, the longer you simmer the more intensified the flavour of the sauce, add the cream and mascarpone and season to taste, for a smooth sauce blitz the tomatoes before adding the cream.  Keep the sauce warm while you cook the pasta.

To Cook Fresh Pasta

Bring a large saucepan of water to a rolling boil, add 1 heaped teaspoon of sea salt, drop in your pasta and cook for 2 minutes, drain, reserve 2 tbsp of the pasta water, add the pasta water and pasta to your hot sauce, stir to coat well and serve, a fine grating of Parmesan is a reflection finish to this dish.

CANARIAN WRINKLY SEA SALT POTATOES AND MOJO ROJO SAUCE

PAPAS ARRUGADES

These beautiful wrinkly crispy ish sea salt potatoes are native to the Canary Islands I remember the first time I had them on Lanzarote way back in the 1990’s slightly crisp chewy salty wrinkly skin leading way to a salty creamy soft potato centre, I was hooked!  The Flat Boat restaurant, a old double garage that just had a white wash over the breeze block walls, tables and chairs, a bar and open kitchen owned and run by 4 local fisherman brothers who fished during the day and cooked and sold what they caught every evening from their Flat Boat garage restaurant, their wives and family were the cooks and waiting staff, it is a fantastic honest all about the freshness and localness of the food place.

These were a keeper from that day onwards and served with the most amazing native Mojo Rojo or Mojo Verde sauce, I was on a mission to learn how to cook them make the sauces which are simple but so flavoursome, this was also the first place I was served Aioli and again I could not get enough of it.  Several local cookbooks came home with me along with the lesson on how to cook these potatoes from fisherman Pepe’s lovely wife.

Cooking Method

Originally these potatoes were cooked in sea water, but nowadays they are cooked in heavily salted water.  You simmer the potatoes in the salted water and reduce the water until evaporated where you then leave the potatoes to slightly crisp and wrinkle in the dry salty pan, this creates the chewy slightly crisp salty skin giving way to the salty creaming potato centre.

Ingredients 

1kg Canary new potatoes

1/4 cup of Himalayan sea salt 

1 1/2 ltrs of cold water

Place all the ingredients in a saucepan bring up to a simmer and reduce the liquid, you will end up with salt sludge in the bottom of the pan once all the water has reduced, check the potatoes are fork tender cooked the turn the heat down and leave to cook a for a further 5 minutes with the lid on, careful not to burn the salt or potatoes, that’s it serve with a mojo or aioli sauce, recipes below.

Mojo Rojo (red)

100ml olive oil

6 garlic cloves

2 red peppers diced

1 tbsp sweet paprika 

1/2 tsp cumin

1 red chilli optional

1 slice sour dough bread torn

50-100ml red wine vinegar

Sea salt

Mojo Verde (green)

1/2 cup parsley or coriander

100ml olive oil

6 cloves garlic

2 green peppers diced

1 tbsp sweet paprika

1/2 tsp cumin

1 red chilli optional

1 slice sour dough bread torn

50-100ml red wine vinegar

Sea salt

Place the garlic, peppers, olive oil, paprika, cumin and chilli in a food processor and blitz to a smooth sauce, add the torn bread and 50ml red wine vinegar and a pinch of salt, blitz again to a smooth sauce, taste and add more vinegar and olive oil to your taste, maybe more chilli for a hotter sauce or more garlic.  You can make this the day ahead and store in the fridge, bring out of the fridge 1 hour before using and stir well once the olive oil in the sauce has come up to room temperature.

AUBERGINE MASALA CURRY

I am not the biggest fan of aubergines, I think I like them but then on my first mouthful my taste memory remembers the over oily and slightly bitter flavour of my families favourite brindle bhaji Indian side dish.  Having a great growing season this year with our aubergines producing a glut I was determined to create a Indian aubergine dish that I also loved, I started with changing the over oily greasy texture and bitterness of the aubergine first then by adding crispy turmeric roast potatoes in to a gorgeous spiced tomato masala infused with curry leaves is where I ended up, this gave me a fragrant lip smacking moorish aubergine masala.

A little shout out to the best tomatoes in the world apart from my homegrown sungold goes to Mutti Popla San Manzano, these tomatoes are honestly canned which packs in the fullest flavour, there is no other tinned tomatoes I will use, these tomatoes lets the quality of the product speak for itself which lets your food sing.

Prep time 15 minutes / Cooking time 1 hour

Ingredients 

(serves 4)

60ml olive oil three times

1 lrg onion sliced

2 large aubergines

500g King Edward potatoes peeled rough diced

2 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp fenugreek seeds

2 curry leaves

4 cloves garlic grated

2” ginger grated

1 tsp turmeric

2 tbsp tomato purée

50ml tamarind water

1 tin mutti popla chopped tomatoes or 8 fresh toms chopped

4 tomatoes quartered

200ml vegetable stock

Himalayan sea salt 

Fresh ground black pepper 

Fresh coriander

2 fresh sliced red chillies optional

Mango chutney 

Pre heat your oven to 200C / 400F.  Take the aubergines and peel stripes off the skin alternatively leaving half of the skin on, dice into medium chunks, toss in a 60ml of olive oil and season well with salt, spread out on a roasting tray and roast in the oven for around 30 minutes until coloured up and partially crispy, this adds a sweeter flavour to the aubergine.  During roasting open the oven door a couple of times to allow the excess steam out from the moisture of the aubergine this will allow the aubergines to crisp up and not roast soggy.

Meanwhile bring a pan of seasoned water to a simmer, par boil the potatoes until just tender, drain gently, toss through a pinch of turmeric from the tsp, sea salt and pepper leave to steam dry for 10 minutes, place 60ml of olive oil in a roasting pan and pop in the oven to heat up while the potatoes dry.  Once the aubergines have cooked remove from the oven and reserve to one side, add the potatoes to the hot oil and toss to coat completely roast for 30 minutes turning over half way through.  Use this roasting time to make the masala ready to add the hot roasted potatoes as soon as their ready from the oven.

In a saucepan toast the cumin, mustard and fenugreek seeds, add the remaining 60ml of olive oil, add the onion and soften translucent for around 5 minutes, add the ginger, garlic, turmeric and curry leaves and cook for a further five minutes next add the tomato purée and cook for 3 minutes then add the tamarind, tin tomatoes, fresh tomatoes and reduce until thick, add the vegetable stock and simmer until most of the liquid has reduced, toss through the aubergine to heat up then season with salt and pepper to taste and fresh coriander, add the fresh chillies if using, now toss through the hot crispy roast potatoes and serve immediately with mango chutney.