my version of Nigella's carbonara

This is so simple, and yet so delish. Ready?

250g bacon, sliced and diced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 eggs, lightly beaten
loads of parmesan
spaghetti.

Put the spaghetti on to boil. While it's boiling, fry up the bacon in a little olive oil in a fry pan. When it's crispy add the crushed garlic and stir. Now, drain the spaghetti, leaving about 1/4 cup of the cooking water.

Remove pan from heat and add the spaghetti to the pan and toss in the eggs and stir, stir, stir until it becomes all creamy. If it needs thinning, add a small amount of the pasta cooking water and stir again.

Finally add parmesan and lots of cracked pepper, and serve.

Seriously.

That's it.

Spanish chicken recipe

I've been cooking variations of this for yonks. So simple, yet delish.

8 chicken pieces, with skin on. Ask your butcher to chop up a chicken for you - easier than doing it yourself really

2 chorizo sausages

1 spanish onion

3 Kipfler or similar waxy potatoes

1 red, yellow, or orange capsicum

six cloves of garlic

1 tsp or more smoked paprika 

1 lemon, cut into wedges

salt and pepper

Italian, flat leaf parsley to serve

Place chicken, skin-side up in the bottom of a lightly-oiled baking dish. Cut chorizo into bite-sized chunks and pop in between the chicken . Cut the capsicum into 1 inch chunks, cut onion into quarters, and quarter the peeled potatoes. Arrange all ingredients artfully around each other and sprinkle with smoked paprika. Dust with a good, generous pinch of salt (Maldon or Murray Pink Salt are my faves) and grind over plenty of black pepper. 

Cover with foil and bake in 180 degree fan-forced oven for 15 minutes, then remove foil and bake further 10 - 15 minutes until potatoes are nicely browned and the chicken's cooked through. Sprinkle with a good handful of roughly chopped parsley and serve with a nice green salad. 

This serves three to four people quite nicely thank you.

slow cooked chilli con carne recipe

Okay, this has just been popped on to cook, so I thought I'd best write the recipe while it's fresh.

Ingredients.
2 small-med onions (I used one purple and one brown), finely diced
1 red capsicum, finely diced
1 carrot, finely diced
a couple of cloves of garlic, finely diced
500g mince
1 tin tomatoes
1 tin kidney beans, drained
a slug of red wine
a slug of tomato sauce (or tomato paste - I was all out today)
2 bayleaves
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp cumin powder

Method
First of all heat up your heavy based frypan. Then add a slug of olive oil and let it heat up. Turn the heat down and add the vegies and stir. Let soften for about 15 mins. Add spices and cook for one minute. Remove from pan and add mince, break up and let it brown.

Add the wine (1/4 cup-ish) and let alcohol cook off (2 mins). Add tinned tomatoes. Fill tin with water and add that to pan. Stir well and add tomato sauce and bay leaves. Bring to boil, add a lid and turn onto a low-heat to simmer.

Cook for around three hours. Add a tin of drained kidney beans 30 minutes before you're ready to serve. Stir well and adjust the seasoning to taste. Before eating, stir in two squares of dark chocolate and season to taste with salt and pepper. Add sweet chilli sauce if it needs more of a kick.

Serve with rice, corn on the cob, guacamole and some burritos. A dollop of sour cream or natural yoghurt's yummy too.

I've cooked this in my Le Creuset french oven, but it's just as good in a slowcooker. Just brown the meat and vegies and then tip it all into the slow cooker. You might need to use less water, probably only half the tin as it won't evaporate in the slow cooker like it does in a normal pot. Don't forget to cut a piece of baking paper the size of your slow cooker, wet it and place it on top of your chilli before adding your lid. I swear by this for non-dry meat.

Enjoy (especially you Melissa and PTT x)

caramelised pork recipe

Ingredients:
One pork fillet, large enough to feed your family
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
2 tablespoons sunflower oil
1 tablespoon of lime juice
A few drops of fish sauce, to taste
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 dessertspoon of sweet chilli sauce
Udon noodles or rice
Asian greens

Mix all ingredients together and then marinate the pork fillet at room temperature for up to an hour (or until it comes to room temperature). Rub the marinade all over the pork to get it all sticky and well-covered.

Heat frypan until it sizzles. Pop in pork, turn the heat down to medium and cook on all sides until it's golden and cooked medium rare (or to your taste if you prefer pork cooked through). You might need to add a splash of water and cover the pan to get the pork to cook through. Don't worry, it just makes for extra sticky sauce!

Take the pork out and rest for up to 10 mins. Cook up some udon noodles and wilt some asian greens in the frypan you cooked the pork. Add a little water to deglaze the pan and the remainder of the marinade with some extra garlic and soy if needed.

Slice the pork into 2cm thick slices and serve on top of noodles and greens. Pour sauce over.

You can top with some crushed roasted peanuts and a few slices of chilli if you're feeling impressive and don't have littlies.

Use this recipe as a base and add more or less of your fave and less-fave flavours.

Enjoy.

chicken with 40 cloves of garlic recipe

What do you do when you have too much garlic? Make a much-longed for Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic {and later, kick yourself that you hadn't made it sooner!}

First, melt butter in a heavy-based pan and add equal amount of olive oil.

Season a range of chicken pieces with skin-on. I used two Lillydale packs and removed the wings and popped them in a ziplock bag with a honey soy marinade for another dinner. Then adding a few pieces at a time, skin-side down, brown the chicken skin. Then carefully turn and brown underside. Then remove and set aside.

Deglaze the pan with a hearty sloosh of brandy. I'm guessing I used about 1/4 cup. And add the chicken pieces, skin-side up. Then break up the garlic cloves and shove them around the chicken, tucking in tightly - don't remove skins, you can squish the garlic out when it's cooked.. Strew with thyme stalks and then add enough white wine to almost cover {probably half a bottle.}

Pop on the lid and gently simmer for around 45 minutes. Then, remove the chicken, turn up the heat and reduce the sauce by half {oh. my. god. the sauce! tis delish!}. When sauce is thick, buttery and just bloody beautiful, add the chicken, pop on the lid and allow to heat through.

I served on a bed of creamy mash with loads of garlic bulbs on the side. Squooshed with a fork the garlic was creamy and just so divine mixed in with the mash and a forkful of chicken. Sorry for the crap last photo - too much steam and I was too desperate to eat.

Undoubtedly the best chicken dish I've ever cooked.

Seriously.

With a lightly dressed green salad on the side it's the perfect summer meal. Green beans, a winter feast.

Make it this week.

simple roast chicken stuffing

Normally when I'm roasting a chicken I'll just go with a simple lemon, cut in half, and stuffed in the cavity. Sometimes, if I'm so inclined, I'll also add a few sprigs of thyme. But last night we were having a salad with our roast chicken, and I had some baby roma tomatoes that were on the verge of semi-drying themselves, plus some breadrolls that were too stale to use. So I made this stuffing.

Hello yumminess.

I roughly tore the breadroll into small chunks then put it in the bowl. To this I added half a finely diced red onion, a few quatered baby tomatoes and a few slices of shredded parma ham. I topped it with some fresh thyme leaves, salt, pepper and the juice of half a lemon. I smooshed it all together with my hands then stuffed the chicken with it.

Oh my.

This made a simple salad rather spesh. I had some roasted baby potatoes leftover from the night before, so while I rested the chicken, I threw them in the cooking juices and popped them back into the oven. Guess how delicious they were...

pickled pork recipe

Now, I'd never even heard of pickled pork until a few weeks ago when I stumbled upon it in Coles. Spying a wee package of Norfolk pickled pork I thought I'd give it a shot.

So should you.

Ingredients:
1.5kg pickled pork
1 onion, finely sliced
2 cups white wine
2 cups chicken stock
A good splash of brandy
2 tblsp brown sugar
A few sprigs of fresh thyme

Take the pork out of its wrapping and pat dry with kitchen towelling. Season with pepper and olive oil then sear each side in a heavy-based pan.

Then toss in some sliced onions and cover it all with the wine, stock and brandy. Add the brown sugar and fresh thyme, bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover.

Simmer for up to two hours then remove the meat from the stock. Let the meat rest while you boil the sauce to reduce it. Serve with roasted potatoes - or mash - and greens. Slice up this deliciously tender meat {it's reminiscent of corned beef - but so much yummier}. Pour the sauce over the top.

Should you have any leftovers, please eat them on a crusty roll the next day with a caramelised onion relish.