Search

Random Recipe

"I" - Italy - Baked Fusilli

Baked Fusilli recipe
 
Our little “Around the World for £4 or less” experiment took us to Italy this evening. What else would you cook on a budget from Italy? It had to be pasta really....
 
The Pasta should really have been Ziti which is a tubular pasta and would have held the sauce better. But we're tight, it's bitterly cold out and the local supermarket don't be a Gluten Free version anyway. Enough excuses, Fusilli did the job fine!
 
This is a recipe Sue created from two traditional recipes combined to keep it within of £4 budget. It's as traditional as possible.
 
Ingredients:-
 
Pasta of your choice ( We're not shapist here.....)
Oil (Olive if you have it. We didn't and used Vegetable Oil)
2 Onion chopped – 1 large, 1 small
3 cloves of Garlic minced
500g Minced Beef (Or Pork and Beef if you prefer)
2 tbsp Tomato Purée
1 tbsp dried Origano
1 tsp Dried Rosemary
½ tsp Chilli Flakes
1 tin chopped Tomatoes
5 tbsp Butter or Margarine
200g Cream Cheese (Philadelphia or shop own brand)
2 tbsp Basil, part to garnish
50 g Grated Italian style Cheese
100g Grated Mozzarella
1 Egg
Salt to season
 
Method:-
 
Making the Mariana Sauce
 
(1) Heat the tin of chopped Tomatoes and add the Butter, ½ tsp of Salt and an Onion sliced in half.
(2) Stir then let simmer for 15 minutes. 
(3) Remove the Onion and set the sauce aside.
 
Meat Sauce:-
 
(1) In a large frying pan add chopped Onion and Garlic to the Oil and fry until translucent.
(2) Add the Chilli flakes and Herbs and simmer.
(3) Add the mince and cook through until browned.
 
Pasta:-
 
(1) In a separate pan boil salted water, ad the Pasta and cook until Al Dente.
(2) Drain the Pasta.
(3) Add the mince mixture to the Mariana Sauce, add the Tomato Puree and a few spoonfulls of the Pasta water.
(4) Simmer for a further 10 minutes.
 
Cheese Sauce:-
 
(1) Mix the Cream Cheese and half of the grated Italian style Cheese, 1 Egg and a pinch of Salt.
 
Bringing it all together:-
 
(1) Drain the Pasta and add to the mince and sauce mixture. Stir and make sure the Pasta is well coated.
(2) In an ovenproof dish layer the Pasta mix then the Cream Cheese mix and repeat.
(3) Top off with Mozzarella and the remaining half of the Italian style grated Cheese.
(4) Bake at 180c until the topping is slightly browned and the whole disk is piping hot.
 
We served ours with a little dress salad and home-made Garlic bread.
 
 

On Facebook

Details
Category: Recipes

Crying Tiger Beef with Nahm Jim Jaew recipre, eat well on universal credit


Sometimes amongst our evening collections we get on date or out of date meat. Generally if it’s cooked well even the out of date things are good for the Foxes.

On this occasion we took a bit of a chance on this Topside Roasting Joint. It was out of date so we couldn’t pass it on. So I trimmed all the outside away to create two thick steaks. The trim will be very much appreciated by the Foxes tonight.

This was actually one of the best meals we’ve had for a long time. The flavour combinations were incredibly good!

Marinade Ingredients:-

2 Steaks

1 Tbsp of Oyster Sauce
1 Tbsp of Fish Sauce
1 Tbsp of Soy Sauce (Gluten free for us)
2 Cloves of Garlic, minced
1 Tsp of White Pepper
1 Tbsp of Brown Sugar

Nahm Jim Jaew Ingredients:-

2 Tsp of Glutinous Rice (Raw)
1 Tbsp of Tamarind Paste
3 Tbsp of Fish Sauce
1 Tbsp of Lime Juice
1 Tbsp of Honey
1 Tbsp of Chilli Flakes
2 Tsp of finely chopped Coriander
1 Shallot, diced

Method:-

(1) For the marinade mix all the ingredients and massage into the Steaks. Place in the fridge fully immersed for at least 2 hours.
(2) For the Nahm Jim Jaew dry fry the Rice until it starts popping.
(3) Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
(4) In a grinder, grind to a fine powder.
(5) Combine with the other ingredients and add to the plates as a dipping sauce.
(6) Fry your steak to your liking. We like ours quite rare.
(7) Allow to rest and then slice thinly.
(8) Boil and present your  Glutinous Rice using a ramekin to form into a tower.

We served ours with baby Sweetcorn, Mangetout and a slice of Lime. 

Details
Category: Recipes

Pancake Cake recipe, eat well on universal credit



This believe it or not, should have been a Frittata. But we had one the last time we had lots of Eggs which were short dated. So the idea mutated from Frittata, through conventional savoury Pancakes to this monster!

Gluten free Pancakes are a bit tricky to flip, but this recipe works well and will make 10 fluffy Pancakes. You can halve or quarter the quantities as required.

Ingredients:-

400g  Plain White Flour, Gluten free for us
4 eggs
1L of Almond milk
2 Tsp of Baking Powder
2 Tsp of Salt
Oil, for the pan

Method:-

(1) Mix and whisk your batter.
(2) Heat a small frying pan with a little Oil. It’s best to use this batter as soon as you can as the Baking Powder is only active for a short time.
(3) Fry on both sides until golden brown and lay on baking parchment to separate.
(4) Cook your fillings. We used Onions, Mushrooms, Red Pepper, Ricotta, Crispy Bacon and Chorizo. But that’s up to you.
(5) In an oven proof dish layer your Pancakes with your filling between each one.
(6) Dress with Cheese and place in the over at 170c until the Cheese melts.

This was much better than the intended Frittata. But man it was filling! We’ll have the other half cold with some Salad tomorrow!

Details
Category: Recipes

Cachopo recipe, eat well on universal credit

This is  our take on a traditional dish from Northern Spain - Far from traditional in our case….

Ingredients:-

4 Slices / Steaks of Rump (there’s a story about how we came by rump steak, perhaps for later….) Beaten out with a meat hammer and seasoned with Salt & Pepper
Slices of Polish Garlic Sausage
Sliced Chorizo
Sliced Emmental Cheese
Batter (Gluten free in our case)
Breadcrumbs (Gluten free in our case)

Method:-

(1) Lay one of the Steaks on a board.
(2) Layer the Cheese, then the cured Meats, followed by a second layer of Cheese.
(4) Place the second Steak over the top.
(5) Immerse in Batter so it is evenly coated.
(6) Dredge in Breadcrumbs.
(7) Deep fry at 170c until golden brown.
(8) Drain and cut diagonally.

We like our Beef quite rare. If you prefer it well done your Cheese will melt more.

Details
Category: Recipes

Battered Minted Peas recipe, eat well on universal credit

Sometimes an experiment works! This was supposed to be a food joke, but actually we both really liked them!

Ingredients:-

50g of Frozen Peas
2 Tbsp of Gram Flour
2 Tbsp of Cornflour
1 Tbsp of Mint Sauce
1 Tsp of Dried Mint
1 Tsp of Garlic Granules
1 Tsp of Baked Powder
½ a Tsp of Turmeric
Soda Water
Salt & Pepper

Method:-

(1) Mix the dry ingredients.
(2) Add the Soda Water, enough to make a thick batter.
(3) Add the Peas.
(4) Spoon into a fryer in small batches and fry at 170c, until they float.
(5) Drain on kitchen paper and re-dunk when you’re ready to serve.

Although this is an obvious sign of our (OK my) decent into madness. It’s actually well worth the effort and really tasty…...

Serve with Fish & Chips with DIY Tartar Sauce. Jobs a good un….

 

Details
Category: Recipes

Asian Style Belly Pork (With outstanding Crackling!), recipe, eat well on universal credit

We think this technique created the best Cracking from the lowest priced bit of Pork. If your Pork has ribs in, it’s wise to cut them out, you can always make spare ribs another day.

Ingredients:-

500g of boneless Belly Pork
Spirit Vinegar
Salt
Cumin
Five Spice
Garlic Powder
Pepper
Brown Sugar
Mixed Herbs

Method:-

(1) Turn your Pork skin side down and with a sharp knife cut almost all the way to the Rind at about 2 ½ Cm spacing in both directions. You should have a series of cubes stuck to the Rind.
(2) Mix Salt, Cumin, Five Spice, Garlic Powder, Pepper, Brown Sugar and Mixed Herbs into a dry rub.
(3) Rub this over the meat and specifically into the cuts you have made in the meat.
(4) Turn the Pork over and pat the Rind dry.
(6) Place in an over proof dish Rind side up.
(7) Massage Spirit vinegar over the Rind.
(8) Place in your Oven or Air Fryer at 98c for 30 minutes.
(9) Remove and massage Oil and Salt all over the Rind.
(10) Cook for a further 45 minutes at 200c.

It’s unlikely we’ll be doing the scoring the Rind thing again, this worked and tasted so much better. Crispy Crackling with tender and well seasoned meat beneath.

  1. Battered and Breaded
  2. Chimichurri Beef Casserole
  3. Chimichurri Sauce
  4. Steamed Hake with Chorizo & Olives

Social Links

Translate

English French German Italian Portuguese Russian Spanish

Latest Recipes

Latest News