Pasta Puttanesca (à la Sophie Dahl)

This is a great, easy pasta dish. Just to pre warn, if you don't like fish, then this is not for you! The dish contains anchovies, which I think give a lovely salty taste and it just kind of makes me think I'm in Italy, having dinner in a lovely seaside town, eating delicious fishy tomato chilli pasta. This (as the title may give away!) is from Sophie Dahl's Miss Dahl's Voluptous Delights, a book I have mentioned numerous times (mainly for the amazing banana bread!). The recipes in the book are so fresh and for the majority of the time, healthy as well. Of course, this is a pasta dish, so it's not terribly nutritious but it's a great tasting sauce and really spruces up some plain penne!


Serves 2 people (but just double up these portions for family sized!)

Ingredients

200g of penne (I used rigatoni but any kind of pasta should work!)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped
1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
400g tin of chopped tomatoes, drained
4 anchovy fillets
1/2 teaspoon of soft brown sugar
150g black olives, pitted
2 large tablespoons of fresh chopped parsley (I used dried to sprinkle over the top which still gave a lovely fragrant taste. Fresh would however be better here in my opinion!)

Ok, this recipe is in 2 easy steps!

Step 1, is the saucy sauce! In a pan, heat the olive oil and fry the garlic and chilli until mildly browned.


Add the tin of chopped tomatoes.



Sophie recommends using a pestle and mortar here to grind the anchovies, which would be the most sensible choice. I just used the back of a fork and squished them in their tin, then added them to the tomato sauce mix.


Let the sauce simmer for a further 20 minutes. Add the sugar.

Step 2, cook the pasta as directed in some salted water. Once the pasta is cooked and drained, add it to the tomato sauce with a spoonful of the salty pasta water. Add the black olives and coat the pasta well with the sauce.




Serve with a generous grating of parmesan and parsley. Buon appetito!

Aubergine Parmigiana (Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights) with lemon basil chicken

So it's been a while since I've posted but I'm planning to get much more into cooking, recipes and blogging. I'm currently trying to make (time permitting) one or two dinners a week at home and any lunches or cake making that I do can be thrown into the mix too, hopefully generating one or two posts a week.

I made this Aubergine Parmigiana last week and thought I'd blog about it today! This is from Sophie Dahl's book, Miss Dahl's Voluptous Delights, which I've mentioned numerous times on here, mainly for the fail-proof banana bread recipe and the lovely French onion soup.

I first tried this on my own when my parents were away, and felt exceedingly content having made this for the first time and enjoying it and feeling proud! This is the third time I've made it now and it is definitely a good wholesome dish. There is quite a bit of preparation but oven cooking time is relatively short (20 minutes) So shouldn't cause too much hassle for a weekday evening.

Since I've made this a few times, I didn't reference the book so much and just used whatever measures I thought were right, so the recipe isn't going to be word for word what's from the book, more like a mix of two wordings. Hope you enjoy!

Ingredient List

3 medium aubergines

Sea salt

Olive oil

1 onion, sliced

2/3 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped

3 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes

1 tablespoon of soft brown sugar

Salt and Pepper

Balsamic Vinegar

50g of fresh basil

3 large balls of mozzerella

A good grating of parmesan, I'd say around 150g-200g

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Slice the aubergines lengthways into medium slices (around 1cm)

Lay out onto an oven tray (you may need two for all of the aubergines!) and sprinkle with sea salt. This draws out the bitter liquid from the aubergines. Leave for 20 minutes.

After sprinkling the aubergines with salt, start on the sweet tomato sauce. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and add the onion and garlic, gently sweat them and stir.

Do not overheat the pan and try to keep on a low heat. Add the chopped tomatoes and brown sugar, season and stir, stick the lid on and leave to simmer for around 20 minutes.

Whilst this is simmering, drizzle some olive oil over the aubergine slices and pop them in the oven for 15 minutes.

During this time, I usually slice the mozzarella balls, grate the parmesan and chop up the basil.

Now comes the time for layering up the ingredients! Take the aubergines out of the oven and take the tomato sauce off of the heat.

Grease a large baking dish with some olive oil. Arrange a layer of aubergine slices at the bottom of the dish. Sprinkle with some basil.

Add some mozzerella slices.

Then pour over some of the tomato sauce and then a generous sprinkling of parmesan.

Keep going until all of the ingredients are used up.

After finishing all of the layers, top the dish with more parmesan and basil and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

I served this with lemon basil chicken, which my sister kindly marinated and sorted out for me whilst I was preparing the parmigiana.

Lemon and basil marinade

Olive oil.

Bay leaf.

2 garlic cloves, chopped.

Basil leaves, chopped.

Zest and juice of 1 lemon.

Arrange the chicken on an oven tray and drizzle the marinade over the top. Keep in the fridge with foil over the top for a while before making the parmigiana, a few hours if you can. Then about 15 minutes before popping in the parmigiana, put the chicken in the oven as it takes 30-40 minutes, depending on the type of chicken breast.

I have to apologise for not including a picture of the parmigiana as a whole when it came out of the oven. I think I may have been a tad too eager! Although here is the meal served up altogether.

French Onion (Oignon!) Soup

I made this a little before I went on holiday, we had absolutely no food in the house, well by my account we had no food. Actually, when I looked hard enough there were enough ingredients to concoct a simple soup recipe. I first tried this when my sister made it, and intially thought it would be quite difficult, however when I actually looked at the recipe and had a go at making it, I was surprised that for something so tasty and rich, it requires very few ingredients. It does require time though so that could be seen as the downside, however its rich, buttery substance and overall simplicity in terms of ingredients does outweigh the one and only negative.

I used Sophie Dahl's "Voluptuous Delights", which I have mentioned before and there are definitely a few other recipes I want to make from it. I have a made an aubergine parmigiana from this cookbook before, which was absolutely delicious!

Now she insists that this isn't typical French onion soup, because of it not including the pile of bread and cheese on top. So we are working more with an onion soup but to me, it still seems full of depth, like a lot of French cuisine has.

Ingredients

3 large yellow onions (I use less if just cooking for myself, maybe 2 small onions.)

1 tablespoon of butter

Slug of olive oil

2 litres of stock - she says you can use a mixture of chicken and vegetable. However beef is the traditional choice. Despite this, I used vegetable! (I use less, again if just cooking for myself, maybe around a litre. Depends how much you want for leftovers!)

1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar (this can be an optional choice)

Salt and Pepper

100g grated cheese - anything melty and rich will do, Gruyère or Parmesan are the yummy choices she provides.

Preparation Method

Roughly chop the onions. In a large saucepan, melt the butter with a few glugs of olive oil on a low heat. Make sure it doesn't burn. Swish the buttery mixture around to ensure the bottom of the pan is covered.

Pour in the onions, mix them into the oil with a wooden spoon and sweat gently for about 40 minutes. Keep the saucepan lid mostly on and at a low simmering heat. Towards the end of the cooking, you can remove the saucepan lid and turn up the heat slightly, you want the onions to brown and caramelize.

When the onions look golden and brown, pour in the stock mixture. Turn the heat down low. Then, she adds the magic ingredient, as I would call it. Balsamic Vinegar. She is completely right in saying that it adds a sweet earthiness.

Let it simmer for another 15 minutes and season with salt and pepper if needed.

Decant into bowls and generously grate cheese over the top.

The best banana bread!

Ok so this is called “the best banana bread”, because I believe it to be the best banana bread RECIPE that I have used. I haven’t gone through a whole lot but when I tried this, there was a definite difference to the texture, density and taste of the bread. It was more squidgy, very soft on the inside but crispier almost and harder on the outside – like an actual crust! And the banana pieces were still in chunky pieces which tasted lovely! There is the addition of a whole tablespoon of vanilla extract in this recipe which I think, and others who have commented, makes a difference in the taste.

I made these yesterday when I had friends over to enjoy cheese, crackers, banana bread and brownies (recipe coming soon). Had a lovely lovely time, playing table tennis and chatting till pretty late.

So this recipe is from Sophie Dahl’s cookbook “Voluptuous Delights”. A wonderful cookbook which is separated into seasons, sharing recipes that are more appropriate to cook depending on the season and also depending on the vegetables and fruits in season.

So this is the banana bread recipe which above all, is ridiculously simple!

Ingredient list –

75g soft butter (plus a little extra to grease the tin)

4 ripe bananas (I usually just use however many I have, have used 2, 3 and 4 in this recipe and it hardly changed anything!)

200g brown sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda/baking powder

1 pinch of salt

170g of flour

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/Gas 4. Grease a 23x13x6cm/9x5x3 inch bread tin.

Mash the bananas in a bowl and put to one side.

Mix the butter, sugar, egg, vanilla extract in one big mixing bowl. Add the mashed bananas and mix.

Add the bicarbonate/baking powder and salt and then mix in the flour last. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 1 hour.

So, so simple! And perfect to enjoy with a warm cup of tea, on a rainy day curled up on the sofa.

messy muffins

Have just put in a batch of white chocolate chip and cranberry muffins, got a bit messy as usual when I pour the mixture into the cases as it goes all over the tin! 

muffins de-messed and oven ready ^

Sophie Dahl's lovely cookery programme is on tonight, which I am looking forward to. Last weeks was great, she made a very delicious looking roasted tomato soup with double baked cheese and chive potatoes which I am hoping to make soon, just when I always want the soup I realise I'll have to wait for the tomatoes and onions to roast and then make something else because I'm too hungry and impatient to wait!

I'm loving listening to Eliza Doolittle at the moment, her music is so plinky plonky, sweet and summery with a bit of London attitude thrown in there for good measure. The Skinny Genes video is adorable as well, I really like the way she is styled in this and how the outfits pop with the other colours in the video. 

So I'm going to enjoy a bit of the doolittle before the muffins are ready.

Love FF x 

beautiful kitchenwares

   I've been daydreaming a lot about my perfect grown up kitchen, one with all the right appliances to use with any recipes, but not high-tech ones, oldy worldly-esque appliances. With arranged flowers in a watering can on the side and one of those deep deep white bath looking sinks. Sophie Dahl's kitchen on her programme makes me a tad green with envy. She has such a beautiful kitchen, even the food products she buys have lovely little patterned packaging. With that in mind I thought I'd post a few photos of some kitchenwares I really would like in the future, in my cuisine de mes rêves.

Vintage Lyons Green Label Tea Tin - Ebay - Buy Now £8.99


Vintage 1960s Orange Ringways Tea Storage Tin - Ebay 



Vintage Huntley & Palmers Biscuit Tin Olde England
- Ebay - Buy Now £8.99 


Vintage c1930 Cup and Saucer and Tea Plate Trio
- Love Miss Daisy Vintage - £15 



Cake Tin - Paperchase - £7


Regency Cake Stand - Urban Outfitters - £40 


Le Creuset Blue Traditional Stove Top Whistling Kettle
- Ebay

Love FF x

Vintage china and tea sets

For quite a while now I've been in love with vintage china-esque tea sets, especially flowery ones. Then I watched Sophie Dahl's cookery show last night (which was very lovely by the way) and she had the most amazing, beautiful kitchen and house. It looked like the cutest little place, with an outside area she could relax in and a lovely little kitchen with a cabinet full of mismatched flowery china tea cups and plates.

I've seen a lovely one (above) on one of my new favourite websites, Love Miss Daisy.

I just long for the day of having my own house, with a beautiful old fashioned style kitchen of my own, with a rustic farmhouse table, flowery china tea cups and a lovely whistling kettle brewing on the stove!

Love FF x

The Delicious Miss Dahl

I'm quite excited because there's a new cookery programme on BBC2 tonight at 8.30pm called "The Delicious Miss Dahl". Sophie Dahl cooks up some delicious recipes and the first episode is called "Selfish" - about the delights of cooking whatever you want, just for one. (Kind of perfect for me in a way! I absolutely love being able to be selfish and cook whatever I want, just for me!)

However, I'm not always selfish when cooking as I also very much agree with her in how she thinks romance is linked to food. I think it really is and I have little ideas and stories in my head how certain recipes would go with certain romantical moments. Or even how some recipes fit perfectly with certain situations, not just romantic ones. I really relate to the idea of cooking out of love for others, like friends but also a loved one like a boyfriend or partner but then I can easily slip to selfish cooking, as I explained above, both are just so joyful!

Love FF x