Slow Cooked Lemon & Courgette Pasta

Hi,

I am growing my own courgettes for the first time, and they are yielding a lot  - a LOT - of crop!

So I am having to start to think of different ways of using them to keep them interesting! Below is a recipe for a pasta dish I made the other night.

I used two courgettes, one was cooked down as a sauce base and the other lightly cooked to retain its fresh flavour.

Lemon & Courgette Farfalle

Cooking time 30 mins.

• 2 Courgettes

• 1/2 Lemon (Juice)

• 6 Mint Leaves

• 1 TSP Dried Oregano

• 50g Grated Parmesan

• 2 Garlic Cloves

• 1 Small Red Onion (1/2 Large)

• 200g Farfalle (or other pasta)

• 200ml Stock

Method

1. Slice the onion and start to sweat on a medium heat in a pan (we want a light caramalisation to start). Add in the Garlic (chopped up) and cook for a further minute before adding one of the Courgettes (cut into quarters length ways, then slice as thinly as you can - the aim here is to cook this into an almost puréed consistency). Get some colour into the Courgette s before adding Oregano and then covering with stock.

2. Get a pan of water on for your pasta and season heavily. Slice the remaining courgette into ribbons on a Mandolin (if you don't have a Mandolin, I would recommend cutting julienne).

3. Keep topping up the base sauce to prevent Courgettes catching in the pan. When the Courgette's are starting to breakdown (about 20 minutes) put pasta into the boiling water (put a timer on for 1 minute less than the recommended cooking time).

4. Once pasta is in the water add the Lemon Juice and grated parmesan to your sauce base.

5. Keep an eye on your sauce adding spoons of pasta water when needed to prevent it catching (this will also season, so you may need to change to adding water fr the tap to prevent over seasoning). When timer for pasta goes off drop in your Ribbons of Courgette to the pasta water. And add mint chiffonade (thinly sliced) to your sauce.

6. As soon as courgettes are translucent (30-60 seconds) drain pasta and immediately add to sauce - the Farfalle will trap some cooking water - cook out the dish on a high heat stirring constantly until you have a consistent sauce covering pasta (about 30 seconds) and then serve!

This dish would be great with some toasted pine nuts, or fresh dressed rocket on the top, or maybe a little cream running through the sauce!

Have a go and let me know how you get on, did you make any tweaks?

Whilst you're here check out my YouTube channel, slowly filling with content!

Thanks/bye

Rob

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Banana & Rum Soufflé

Hey,

So I don't know about you but there is only so much Banana Bread I can eat, and now I'm all smoothied out too!

Good News - I am going to share a recipe for some Banana Soufflés I made not so long ago.

Soufflés seem to have an air of mystery about them, or people believe that they are much harder to make then they really are. All a Soufflé is, is air and structure. Air to lift it up and make it fluffy, and then something to capture the air and give the Soufflé structure.

Most Soufflés use a pastry cream or fruit pureé for the structure and all Soufflés use egg whites to provide the air.

The only thing you need to be careful with when making your structure mix is the fat content - you see fat breaks down egg whites, so a high content will weaken your structure (creating a recipe for a blue cheese Soufflé still gives me nightmares!).

It is also important to note that fat can prevent you whisking your egg whites to a peak; due to this it is highly recommended to use a glass or metal bowl, as plastic can trap fat and may be the cause of failed attempts.

So I had brown banana's and decided to make up some Soufflés for after tea (or dinner depending on your north/south divide). A dash of rum beacause... I like rum! You can exclude the rum if that is your preference, but I would be careful if you decide to increase the amount as this may ruin our precious structure!

I used this recipe from Eric Ripert as a base, it  made enough for 4 x 125ml ramekins. I simply swapped out the lime juice for some Rum and a squeeze of lemon juice.

First grab hold of all the ingredients!

You need a lot less sugar than you might think - ripened bananas have plenty of natural sugars, and you don't want to make your Soufflé sickly sweet!

I added the Banana, Rum, and Egg yolk and blended together to form my structure base. I was unsure of using the egg yolk due to the fat content, but it added a nice bit of richness to the Soufflé. I didn't add any cornflour to my pureé as there is enough strength with the bananas and egg, but cornflour can be added to mixes for additional rigidity, however that comes with more weight which will result in less height in the final Soufflé bake.

You then need to whisk your egg whites, when they start to form peaks, slow down the mixer slightly and and gradually add sugar until it is all combined and you have beautiful glossy peaks.

You will then need to butter your ramekins and line them with caster sugar before combing your two mixes.

Mix 1/3 of your egg white into your structure mix until fully combined, then fold in remaining egg whites until fully combined, be gentle and take your time.

Once you are happy you can't see chunks of egg white and you have a smooth mix spoon it into the ramekins and give each one a light tap (hard enough to settle the mixture, but not so hard as to deflate it - think a gentle door knock) on the counter top to settle the mix. Then run thumb around inside edge and dust with icing sugar.

Place Soufflé in the oven on a flat tray - they should take between 8-12 minutes in a pre-heated oven. This is the perfect amount of time to caramelise some banana to serve with your souffle, simply dust with sugar and get into a non-stick pan!

Once the Souffles have risen, and the tops are golden brown they are ready to serve, get them onto the table as quickly (and carefully) as you can, with a good scoop of vanilla ice-cream and a couple of slices of caramelised banana - yum!

Really hope you have a go at this recipe, I think I may revisit this and try cooking out a banana puree first to intensify the flavour!

Recipe for Soufflé

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened 
• 3 dessertspoons sugar for pureé
• 1 dessertspoon sugar for egg whites
• 1 ripe banana
• 1 dessert spoon rum
• 1 large egg yolk 
• 2 large egg whites
• 1 tea spoon lemon juice 

Extra Caster sugar used to dust Ramekins. Optional extra Caramelised Banana + Sugar for garnish.

separate.

Anyway please watch the below short video of this recipe - like, comment, and subscribe!

Thanks/bye

Rob

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Houmous or is it Hummus... Chickpea and Tahini dip!

First things first, how the devil am I supposed to spell it? It had not previously occurred to me that the spelling of one of Britain's (if not the most) loved dips would be so contentious!

I have the spelling of "Houmous" so deeply ingrained I don't know if I can convert to writing Hummus, and it all seems to stem from translation from Arabic not being straight forward due to differing alphabets.

Personally I would be on board with Hummus as it seems to tie in more closely to the dishes origin...but as previously alluded too, I think I have Houmous in the veins!

Now you may be wandering why you'd want to make something that is so readily available in store...and the answer is the same as every other dish you make; it. will. taste. better!

The best part about making Houmous at home is that you can play with the flavour profile, want a little extra garlic kick? Go ahead an put another half clove in! Want some spice running though? Add 1/2 tsp of Cumin!

You get the idea!

The recipe I used is below (and a quick video if you're not sure on how to make this simple and delicious dish).

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by PrettyGoodFood (@pretty.goodfood) on Feb 3, 2019 at 5:04pm PST

Recipe

1 x Tin of chickpeas*
1 x Lemon Juice
1 x tsp Tahini
1 x tsp Salt
3 x tbls Olive Oil
1 x Garlic Clove

*If you are confident I would highly recommend using your own cooked chickpeas - but be warned that you need to prepare in advance!


Method

This is the easy part, put all together (only use half the lemon juice to start) in a blender and blitz up into a smooth paste - add water a little at a time to loosen the mix to the right consistency and remember to check your seasoning (add more lemon juice if needed - the juice should lift the flavours not over power them, so stop adding juice before the lemon becomes too strong!)

Anyway please watch the below short video of this recipe - with some home made Flatbread if you want to create a nice antipasti (like, subscribe - we all know the youtube drill!).

Thanks/bye
Rob
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