Meatloaf with Spicy Tomato Sauce

MEATLOAF

Serves 4

250g minced beef
10-12 streaky rashers, stretched with the back of a knife if they’re short
4 streaky rashers, finely chopped
1 fat garlic clove, crushed
1 medium onion, finely chopped
Couple of handfuls of breadcrumbs
1 egg, beaten
Couple tbsps tomato sauce
Tsp dried oregano
Splash of Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper

• First, fry off the chopped rashers and allow to cool on kitchen paper. In the same pan gently fry the onion and garlic until the onion is translucent but not brown, allow this to cool also.
• Put your mince into a bowl add a handful of the breadcrumbs, the egg, tomato sauce, oregano, Worcestershire and seasoning. To this add the cooled onion and bacon and combine well – I find it easiest to use my hands for this. If it is still too wet add more breadcrumbs. To test your seasoning is ok you can fry off a small pattie to taste now.
• In the meantime, line a greased 2lb loaf tin or dish with the remaining streaky rashers leaving some overhang on the edges of the dish. Spoon in the mince mixture, spread it out and press it down firmly and cover over with the overhanging rashers. Put the dish into a bain marie (basically a larger roasting dish with the water between a quarter and half the ways up the tin) and cover loosely with foil. Place into a preheated oven at 180C/fan 160C for approximately an hour and half.
• You want the mince to be fully cooked but juicy so every now and then empty out the fat that will accumulate in the dish. For the last half hour take the foil off and take the loaf out of the dish and place onto the foil on a separate tray so that the rashers colour and crisp up on the 3 sides. Let it sit for 10 or 15mins while before you slice it, it’s nicer and slices easier when cooler.
  
• I either serve this with cubed, crispy potatoes or pasta with a spicy tomato sauce. It is also nice the next day thinly sliced with a smear of the tomato sauce in a sandwich.

Spicy Tomato Sauce 

This sauce is simple. Just gently fry off some chopped onion, chopped red chilli, (as much or as little as you like only you know how much heat you can take!) and chopped garlic. Add a tin of tomatoes, couple tbsp tomato purée, good pinch of dried oregano, tbsp each of Worcestershire sauce and balsamic vinegar, couple tsps of sugar and plenty of seasoning. Let the sauce bubble away until nice and lusciously thick. Blend to a smooth and thick sauce and eat!

Some Recent dinner pics - recipes to follow

Chickpea & Vegetable Enchiladas

Meatloaf with Spicy Pasta

Spicy Pasta Bake

In the search for tasty and different lunches I decided to try a home-cooked pasta bake this week.  The previous night I cooked up some pasta spirals and mixed them with the following:

• Some passata
• Crushed garlic
• Chopped chorizo
• Finely sliced shallots
• Finely chopped mushrooms
• A big pinch of chilli flakes
• Finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
• Plenty of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

I put this mixture into a baking dish and topped with grated low-fat mozzarella and some grated parmesan. Let this cook in a medium oven until the cheesey topping is bubbling and golden brown.  

I ate some for my dinner and then put some into a lunch box for the next day.  Mr. Chops was slightly dubious that it would be nice unheated but it was a pleasant surprise.  Maybe it was because the chorizo is slightly oily but the bake hadn't lost any of its moisture and in fact, the heat had increased a little bit in terms of the chilli flakes.

Spicy Prawn Spaghetti

Sunday more often than not involves something spicy usually a curry. But this Sunday I went down the Italian route, this recipe has very few ingredients:

Spaghetti
Cooked prawns
Chilli Flakes
Crushed clove of garlic
Olive Oil
Sea salt & black pepper

Cook the spaghetti for the required length of time.  For the last couple of minutes heat a couple of teaspoons of olive oil in a frying pan add as big or as small a pinch of chilli flakes as you like. Stir it around for a minute or so then add the garlic and prawns keeping the heat moderate, you don't want burned garlic because it'll just give a bitter taste. Throw in the drained spaghetti with a little of the cooking water and add the salt and pepper. Mix everything together using two large spoons to combine the prawns with the pasta.  I ate this with a garlic pitta bread. Delish!

It's been a Long Week

Been hectic this week. What with working long days and then having to come home and study so my dinners were quick and pretty repetitive. Probably the nicest dinner I had this week was last night's. We were going out for a few drinks with friends so it had to be cooked fast, and what's faster than pasta? Forgot to take a picture but hey I had to get ready!!

Mushroom & Bacon Macaroni

Thickly sliced mushrooms, as much as you like, I used three quarters of a carton!
2 rashers, chopped into little pieces
2 shallots, finely sliced
Garlic clove, left whole but kinda smashed
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Lashings of black pepper
Sea salt
Macaroni or any other small pasta

While the macaroni simmered on the hob, I quickly dry-fried the rashers until really crispy. I removed them to drain the fat off on kitchen paper. Then I added the sliced mushrooms to the pan, let them sizzle for a minute or two and then sprayed them with low-fat spray oil. Once they were beginning to turn golden, I added the whole garlic clove and the shallots and let the whole lot cook for a minute or two until the onion had softened slightly. Then returned the rasher to the pan and a couple of tablespoons of the pasta water, the black pepper and a little pinch of salt (this depends on the saltiness of the rashers). Then I quickly grated over some parmesan. The net effect of this is that the parmesan binds everything together with the pasta water. You can let the majority of the water boil out. If you're feeling decadent (I wasn't!) add a splash to white wine and bubble it down until the alcohol is cooked out.

Add the cooked pasta to the pan, another grating of parmesan and give the whole lot a good stir. Before you chow down, grind some more black pepper over and another grating of parmesan. Don't forget to remove the garlic clove before you serve, you only need a hint of it in the background. In total, this dinner only takes as long as the time needed to cook the pasta so definitely good when you're in a hurry.

Spaghetti with Chicken & Mushrooms and Garlic Pitta

I was hungry hungry hungry tonight, therefore, dinner had to be cooked the minute I got in the door from work. Chicken breasts are great because they're pretty low in fat and they cook so quickly when chopped up or flattened. Recipe as follows:

1 Chicken breast, sliced finely

5 or 6 mushrooms, thickly sliced

Quarter of red onion, sliced

Large clove garlic, crushed, half for pitta

Spaghetti
Oval pitta bread
Salt & pepper
Grating of parmesan cheese

For the pitta bread, mix a couple tablespoons of butter with half the crushed garlic clove, salt and pepper and a pinch of dried parsely. While you are doing this lightly toast the pitta bread. It should still be soft so be careful to have the toaster on a low setting. While its still hot cut a slit in the top and put in the garlic butter, pushing it right down to the bottom so the entire interior is all garlicky and buttery.

You can reheat when the spaghetti is ready by placing it over the toaster while its switched on, the residual heat from the bottom will warm it through just keep an eye on it. This probably isn't a safe way to do it but I'm still here!!

While the spaghetti is cooking, fry the chicken in a little olive oil over a high heat, its nice if it's browned a little. Then add the mushrooms, onion and garlic and keep stirring. Throw in a few spoonfuls of pasta water and let it bubble vigorously until its almost gone. At this stage, grate in some parmesan, as little or as much as you want. The addition of the cheese with the cooking water kind of makes a creamy sauce. Once its cooked, add the spaghetti to the chicken give it a good stir and serve with the pitta bread. I dare you not to like it.

TIS BEEN BAD FOOD WEEK

Didn't do too much cooking this week. Other than a Thai-noodle soup with prawns from Nigel Slater's new programme on BBC2. Mr. Chops isn't a fan of Thai food while I adore it. I love the heat of it and that little touch of sweetness in the background. You can find his recipe on the BBC food website bbc.co.uk/food, there's a link to his show.

I've become obsessed with prawns recently. Tesco were doing an offer on frozen raw king prawns so I stocked up on a good few bags. Of course, I never remember to take them out to defrost overnight so my little tip is to put them in tightly shut plastic bag and let sit in very cold water for an hour or so. If you think of it, change the cold water a couple of times but they won't be sitting in it for that long so its not entirely necessary. Turn the bag around every now and then and eventually you'll have perfectly safe-to-use defrosted prawns. The Tesco prawns are pretty tasty too, nice and meaty.

Another fall-back cupboard dinner is pasta with olive oil, garlic and chilli. If you've a fresh chilli near the end of its life hanging around, you can use it, otherwise I used dried chilli flakes. All you need to do is cook your choice of pasta, then while its draining, use the same pot to heat up a good splash of olive oil with a very finely chopped garlic clove and a sprinkling of chilli flakes - more or less depending on how much heat you like. Just make sure the garlic doesn't burn. Add the cooked pasta to the oil mix and give it a good stir. Check for seasoning, but definitely add some fresh ground black pepper. For a final flourish add some grated parmesan, then serve. Literally from pan to plate in 15mins max! Mr. Chops likes it and he's usually not one for plain pasta, he likes a little texture added. If you have it, you could add some roughly chopped chorizo to the pan with the garlic.