tomato chicken pappardelle

Lily and my favourite pasta at the moment is pappardelle, big wide ribbons of deliciousness.
This is a simple sauce which is just my sweet tomato sauce  that I use for just about everything.  I did add 2 tablespoons of tomato paste to the sauce to add more depth of flavour (but not essential).  The key to the sauce is to make sure you reduce it right down so there is no liquid left.

For this recipe I used

• 3 serves of pappardelle
• 2-3 tablespoons of tomato sauce - you don't need much
• 1 chicken thigh chopped
• 1 tablespoon of finely chopped italian parsley
• parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper 
• olive oil

Put your pasta on first.  Cook your chicken in a large fry pan (so that you can add the cooked pasta to the pan).  Next add the tomato sauce, then the pasta, followed by the parsley.  Add some pasta water to loosen it up a bit.  Toss it all around, serve in it your favourite bowl and add some olive oil and parmesan cheese and black pepper.

Other recipes that use my basic sweet tomato sauce can be found here and here on pizza, here with spicy lamb and lebanese bread and here, with meatballs and couscous.

chicken bacon,lettuce,tomato mini rolls

Chicken, bacon, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise in pre- bake mini rolls.  YumYum...how can you not love these.  Heavenly combination with warm soft chewy rolls...

blue cod with prawn salsa

This is what we had for dinner last night.  The blue cod came courtesy of my sister and brother in law.  It came from the Chatham Islands and for those who don't know, the Chatham Islands are 800 km east of the South Island of New Zealand..
It is the most devine fish I have tasted, dense and sweet.
It was simply panfried in butter and olive oil and light dusted in flour before hand.  I used cornflour for Finns.

For the salsa put together what ever you have in fine dice.. I used


1 orange pepper
1 yellow pepper
8 tomatoes
2 avocados
1 fiercely hot green chile
1 mango
1 tablespoon of finely chopped coriander
zest of 1 lime
250g of chopped cooked prawns


The dressing was a combination of palm sugar, lime juice and fish sauce.
The salsa goes really well with corn chips too...

This is my ultimate favourite dinner...
actually some shoe string fries and some aioli  on the side and it would be perfect,  oh don't forget the wine...

photos by Jacob

tomato confit

By now you probably know that I love tomatoes and I am so glad they are out there in abundance.  They are so summer.
I also love flavoured oils and one great way to create your own is to confit with olive oil and that is what I have done with these tomatoes.

Slice the tomatoes in half on top of some fresh rosemary, thyme and a bay leaf in a small baking dish along with a couple of garlic cloves and a fine sprinkle of salt and sugar.  Then pour some good olive oil to just cover.
Cover with foil and and bake for about an hour at 180 C.  Just long enough to become squashy.

When cooked remove the skins.  I added these to pasta with basil and parmesan cheese along with some of the confit oil and plenty of maldon salt and pepper and some fresh thyme.

They would also be nice squashed on some toasted bread with goat cheese.
The left over oil would be great to make crostini or perfect for salad dressing.

spring salad

We had this salad for dinner with our usual Sunday lamb.  The lamb was simply bbqed with rosemary and garlic.  The photo above is before the dressing is added

For the salad you will need

• asparagus
• courgettes (finely sliced and fried in a dry pan)
• broad beans ( I used frozen ones.  Just pour boiling water over and let them sit for 5 minutes and then slip off the outer skin)
• tomatoes
• basil
• mint (finely chopped)
• red pepper (finely sliced)
• feta cheese (crumbled)
• balsamic dressing

Put together  as much or as little of the above as you like and then toss with the dressing

sort of kedgeree...

Actually I made the curry powder (previous post) because I felt like this dish for breakfast on Sunday morning.  I can eat any types of food any time of the day and any left over dinner to me is the ultimate breakfast.
Anyway there was some left over plain white rice in the fridge from the previous nights dinner and I felt like something savoury and spicy, so kedgeree came to mind, not that I have made it before or actually eaten it either.
Well I started looking at some recipes and realised I did'nt have the main ingredient which is smoked haddock.  Well that wasn't going to deter me and I thought tuna from a can would be a reasonable substitute.  I was pleasantly surprised, very tasty.  I love eggs and tomatoes so it couldn't be wrong.
Probably a dish you don't want to eat at work as it has the winning smell combination of eggs, fish and curry.

For my adapted recipe from Jamie Oliver, you will need

• 2-3 cups of cooked plain white rice
• 1 small tin of lite tuna  (or preferably use smoked haddock or even smoked fish would be better)
• 1 finely chopped onion
• 2 cloves of finely chopped garlic
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped ginger
• 2 tablespoons of curry powder
• 1 tablespoon mustard seeds
• 4 chopped tomatoes
• 4 soft boiled or hard if you prefer eggs
• 1 handful of chopped coriander

Start by frying the onions in some butter on medium heat then add the garlic and ginger and gently fry till they have softened.  Next add the curry powder and mustard seeds and mix together to get a good paste.

Next add the rice to the pan and mix through the spice mixture till well coated and warmed through, followed by the tuna, tomatoes, coriander and eggs and there you have it.

spicy lamb with lebanese bread

I made this for myself and Jacob for lunch using the left over lamb from the night before.
I chopped up the cold lamb from the fridge and fried in a pan with a big pinch of ground coriander, cumin, and sweet smoked paprika and salt and pepper and some olive oil.

I heated up a lebanese bread ( I like the 'Jabal brand - you can get it from most supermarkets)
in a large cast iron fry pan with no oil.  It only takes a couple of minutes on both sides.

Then I put down a layer of sweet spicy tomato sauce (just add some chilli to it) on the bread, then the lamb and what ever vege you have.
I used lettuce, red onion, red cabbage, tomatoes, coriander and mint and topped it off with some yogurt sauce.  The flavour combinations go so well together, really delicious.  You could make it vegetarian and use hummus instead of the lamb if you prefer.
Jacob ate his like a loaded pizza and I used less filling and folded mine over in half.

ham, eggs and tomatoes

This would have to be one of my favourite breakfasts.  Ham, poached eggs and tomatoes.  Yumm.  Yes I know I am a pig and have 2 eggs on 1 piece of toast, but I'd rather just have 1 slice of toast and not compromise on the eggs.

Beefsteak tomatoes

                            

Went out to Pukaki Rd in Mangere Auckland last week and picked these magnificent tomatoes.  Just some good olive oil,  a rub of garlic on the toast a sprinkle of Maldon sea salt and a few basil leaves.  So simple, so delicious.