Food Riot

After a week of the most self indulgent eating, it is time to let sanity return. Its time to be good and not greedy. Time to spend less too. Look at what a glutton I’ve been:

Wednesday, was out with my son, his girlfriend and my daughter: Ate out. Curry type lamb shanks  in Camden.

Thursday, stayed at home and did pork chops with pear cider and mustard sauce, crushed potatoes and steamed veg.

Friday, out with my friend Ian. Chips at the bar, greasy Chinese food served from stall near Oxford Street.

Saturday, went to Borough Market. Ate a delicious chicken Burger, bought two Lakeland wild rabbits. Cooked them in cider with honey, lemon and redcurrant jelly, served with mash and steamed vegetables. BIG helping. Bloody delicious, yet provoked the following remark from someone whose manners are simply too good to say it was horrible:  “I loved it but I don’t think I’ll be wanting it again.”

Sunday, bought a roast from Queens Park Farmers market. Served with roast potatoes (far too many), steamed carrot, broccoli, green beans, extremely rich gravy.  Delicious, but ate far too much. I felt that I was at the point of dying of being over fed, when my son asked me down to The William IV for a late drink.  I definitely should not have gone. It was too hot and I had a serious food baby on board!

So…Tonight…

I’m thinking light, I’m thinking simple.  Pasta (probably spaghetti) served with a sauce of chopped bacon (crisp fried – to be added as a garnish), button mushrooms, chopped onion, chopped peppers, tomatoes, anchovies. Garnished with fresh basil. I can’t remember whether we have any Parmesan…

How I keep things simple.

The one thing I can so easily do is over complicate a meal. I get bored and whilst waiting for something to happen in one pan, I start adding ingredients to another that is actually doing fine as it is. The Devil makes work for idle hands and I just cannot resist the urge to fiddle.

Here’s what I will do tonight to force myself to keep it all fresh and simple: I will starve myself of time. I’ll get the water on and when its boiling I’ll add the spaghetti. This will give me 9 minutes to chop the bacon and get that into its own pan, to chop an onion, a clove of garlic some tomatoes (sod seeding and skinning them), chop the mushrooms  and the peppers etc. This should take 3 minutes – I have “mad knife skillz”.  Then dump everything unceremoniously into a pan with a tiny drizzle of olive oil, heat on high and let it cook (almost stir-fry) for the amount of time it takes for the pasta to be ready.

Once the Pasta’s done. drain, stir through with olive oil, serve (modest portions), add the sauce, garnish with bacon, parmesan (if we have some) and basil. Voila!

Recipe:

• Some Spahetti
• 1 large clove of garlic
• 1 medium sized onion – rough chopped
• Some tomatoes (three? four?) rough chopped
• 1 red pepper rough chopped (mind you don’t cut yourself – peppers more than any other vegetable get their own back and turn the knife on the attacker. Bastards!)
• Some button mushrooms, halved – I have about a third of a punnet left over so that’s what I’m using. Add more if you are sitting on your own little button mushroom mountain.
• 1 small tin of anchovies sling them in a pot of fresh water for a few minutes to slightly reduce their saltiness
• Some red pesto – don’t ask me how much – live dangerously and decide for yourself
• Some sugar – go easy here its not a dessert – a pinch will do
• Some basil – fresh is best
• Some passata – passata is a tomato sauce made from fresh tomatoes without added sugar. Ketchup it ain’t.
• Some chopped bacon – Its not a bacon dish. Its a bacon-garnished dish.
• Some coarse ground pepper

Warning! If you use anchovies (I’m not saying you have to), they should provide more than enough salt. Taste, taste, taste and then decide if you REALLY need to add salt

Method

For the pasta
Pour a few drops of vegetable into the pasta water. This will help to stop the pasta sticking together. Add some salt. Pasta likes salt. Put the pasta into the now viciously boiling water. Say “Ouch!” as you get splashed by a really small drop of hot water. Set the timer for the time prescribed on the packet. If you are using that fresh floppy pasta from the supermarket, you’d better have your sauce almost cooked!

When the buzzer goes after cooking the pasta for the prescribed amount of time, act fast!  Get the pot of pasta and toss the contents into a colander that you’ve cunningly placed on standby. Pour a pint glass of cold water over the pasta to stop it cooking and to wash off the sticky starch and then toss the whole lot back in the pot. Now pour a little olive oil over the pasta and mix it in. This should take just seconds. Keep up!

For the bacon
Get the chopped bacon into a hot non-stick pan. Curse the bastard supermarkets for pumping so much water into their bacon. Make a mental not not to buy cheap bacon ever again. Leave it alone in the pan as much as possible to become crisp – a small splash of olive oil can help but if you are after getting thinner…. be wary! Once the bacon is a nice, crisp reddish brown, remove from the pan and pour onto a paper towel to absorb the excess fat.

For the sauce
Get the pan bloody hot. I hope you are using gas. Add the oil to the hot pan and look for smoke. Flames are bad. You don’t want them. Throw in the fresh, chopped ingredients when the oil is smoking a little and immediately start stirring.  Listen to the sexy, cheffy sound of sizzling (or silence if you’re using electricity, coz your pan will probably be cold). Chuck in the passata, the anchovies, the pesto and stir everything in… maybe even a slug of wine (rosé??) then let it simmer for a few minutes.

With the pasta done, you are now ready to serve:

1. pasta in de bowl
2. Sauce on de pasta
3. Garnish the saucy pasta with basil leaves and Parmesan cheese.
4. EAT!!!