Pasta with Sardines

This is so totally out of order it's niggling at my brain.  Partly, this is because I recently did a cleanup of my phone photos.  And now I can no longer find (as in, I'm pretty sure I deleted them because they no longer exist) the photos I took of the meal I was meant to post about today.  So I'm just going to have to make that one again (ooh, tough) and tell you all about this other one instead.  This was part of my carb-loading before the City2South run. 

From the Jill Dupleix book Good Cooking: the new essentials, it's really meant to be Bucatini with Sardines.  I tried to find bucatini.  I don't think the food stores in my local area have heard of it.  Well, maybe they have, but the closest I could find was fat spaghetti.  Not very fat, mind you, but not the super skinny stuff.  And as the little blurb at the top of the recipe reads along the lines of make do with what you've got, I thought (slightly) fat spaghetti would have to do.

Ingredients:
400g bucatini (fat spaghetti)
sea salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 garlic clove, smashed (my favourite way)
1 tablespoon salted capers, rinsed
1/2 teaspoon dried chilli flakes or cayenne
2 anchovy fillets, chopped
300mL passata, or 400g tin tomatoes, drained and chopped (I always buy diced tomatoes so I just used the whole thing)
300g tin sardines or tuna, drained (I used sardines)
1 tablespoon pine nuts, toasted (forgot to put these on)
1 tablespoon roughly torn parsley (very approximate measurement here, and I put it all on my plate)

Method:
Cook the pasta - you all know how to do this.
Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over a low heat, and add the garlic, capers, chilli flakes and anchovy fillets, stirring.  Add the tomatoes, stirring well, and simmer for 5 minutes.
When the pasta is almost ready (this was the first time ever I put the timer on to cook pasta), drain the sardines (if not done already) and roughly chop.  Add to the sauce and gently heat through.  Drain the pasta, reserving a few spoonfuls of the water, and add the pasta to the sauce, tossing well.  If dry, add the reserved hot pasta water.
Scatter with the toasted pine nuts (...or not...) and torn parsley, and serve in warm pasta bowls.  Or just, you know, bowls.

In the book, it says it serves 4.  Ha. Ha. Hahahahaha.  I had one large serve the night before the run.  I had a recovery-carbs meal - another large serve - the night after the run.  It served 3 of us for dinner on the Monday (not girly serves, either).  And another 3 serves later... And we're up to 8.  I added bits of protein to each option, but still - double the expected amount.  Wow.  Next time I would probably reduce the amount of pasta but keep the sauce the same - I like to have a bit more sauce in the ratio.  But this is a nifty way to eat some unattractive fish without thinking about it!

Sausage and Parsnip Risotto

Parsnip is quite possibly my favourite vegetable.  This current box of vegetables was the first that has contained any though (after about 15 months of deliveries).  Having eyed this recipe (from Jill Dupleix's Good Cooking: the New Essentials) for a couple of years, I was thrilled to be able to cook it tonight. 

Ingredients:
2 parsnips
1 onion, peeled
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 Italian pork sausages
4 rosemary sprigs
350g arborio rice (about 2 cups)
150mL light red wine
1.2L hot chicken stock
1 tablespoon tomato puree (paste)
1 tablespoon finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon freshly grated parmesan

Peel the parsnips, slice thickly and cook in simmering, salted water for 10 minutes.  Drain and set aside.
Halve and finely slice the onion.  Melt half the butter with the olive oil in a heavy pan, add the onion and cook for a few minutes until softened.  Skin the sausages and pinch small portions into the pan.  Fry until well browned, then take out half the sausage and set aside.
Add the rosemary and rice to the pan and stir until well coated.  Add the wine and allow to bubble for 2 minutes, stirring, until absorbed.
Add a ladleful of stock to the rice, and stir until it is absorbed.  Add another ladleful and stir constantly (but calmly) with a wooden spoon until absorbed.  Continue this process for around 15 - 20 minutes until the rice is cooked and still creamy.
Add the tomato puree, sliced parsnips, reserved sausage, remaining butter, salt and pepper, parsley and parmesan.  Heat through and serve.

This is described as 'the culinary equivalent of a blazing fire and cashmere cushions'.  I concur.  Of course, I didn't replicate this exactly...  I bought the ingredients from memory, and obviously had a different recipe in my head so bought 'inexpensive fruity red wine' instead of light red wine (I wonder which recipe it was though?!).  Not being a wine connoisseur though this didn't really make a difference to me.  I also forgot all about the rosemary, so used some dried marjoram instead - acceptable, but I'd love to use rosemary next time.  I'm not a sausage-eater so I feel really out of my depth in that part of Woollies.  'Italian pork sausages', if present, were not labeled in that way, so I settled for chorizo sausages (I have another recipe waiting for them).  Next time I probably wouldn't use sausage but I'm loving the parsnip and red wine elements. 

I don't normally tell everyone what my future posts will be, but tomorrow is the day for drinking coffee.  CafeSmart cafes are donating $1 for every cup sold to grassroots services helping people who are homeless.  Can drinking coffee get any better?!  Look for your nearest participating cafe here.

Yesterday's photo:

Computer tantrums last night stopped me posting a daily photo.  I had this salad for lunch and it was just so pretty!

Today's photo:

I looked out randomly today and saw the trees on the next street lit up from the sun.  I ran upstairs with cameras and only managed to get 2 shots before the light changed and we were back to normal clouds.  Even so, I still missed the golden tree. 

Lime and Coconut Macaroons

I mentioned in the Sweet Soy Omelette post that I love lime.  I don't, however, love coconut.  I've found that coconut-lovers are shocked by this, but anyone not enamoured of the stuff can see my point.  So this Jill Dupleix extras recipe (from Good Cooking: the New Essentials) was yet untested by me. 

There have been 3 limes sitting in my fruit bowl for a couple of weeks at least, languishing because I've given up alcohol for Lent - no more G&Ts for me for a while.  Which is a good thing.  Today, looking for inspiration for something new, I was flipping through this cookbook, and spied this recipe.  I had all the ingredients so made them this afternoon.

So, so easy.  I was still hesitant on account of the coconut, but wow - delicious!  I had a little of the mix left after filling a baking tray and even that was yummy.  Once cooked, I thought I should probably taste-test before writing about it - drool.  Light, but with a chewiness that I adore in baked goods.  Plus limey brilliance.  These will definitely be baked again!  After all, I still have 1 1/2 limes and a whole lot of coconut...

Recipe:
Use your hands to mix 100 g caster sugar, 150 g desiccated coconut, 2 egg whites, 1 tbsp grated lime zest and 1 tbsp lime juice to a thick paste.  Press into a flat square, 1 cm high (I did this part on a piece of foil).  Cut out small rounds (or any shape), and bake on a tray at 170C/Gas 3 for 12 - 15 minutes or until lightly golden (mine were ready in 10 minutes).

Sweet Soy Omelette

This is from a Jill Dupleix recipe book (Good Cooking: the new essentials).  There are a few double page spreads of a focus ingredient used in different, quick recipes, and I'd just skipped over them, except for the lime page.  Mmmmm lime....  But back to the soy.  Needing a quick dinner tonight, the soy omelette said, Try Me, and I did.  Everyone else listens to the illustrations in cookbooks, right?  Yeah, I thought so.

Beat 2 eggs with 1 tsp soy sauce and 1 tsp mirin.  Heat 1 tsp oil in a wok, swirl to coat, add the egg mixture, swirl again, loosen the sides, and you're good to go.  Can be rolled and sliced to add to fried rice, soups, or stir fries (as pictured).  It is delicious. 

As you can see, mine is a little darker on the underside.  This is what happens when you take photos while cooking.  It's looking good, put the camera down, and suddenly it's gone all crispy.  Be warned.