Spiralizer Week: Day One: Puttanesca Sauce

My middle sister gave me a Spiralizer for Christmas, so I decided that this week would be Spiralizer Week, and every day I would do a different recipe from a beginner's Spiralizer recipe blog: a nice way to ease back from all-salads into slightly more filling food, while hopefully still shedding a few Christmas pounds. We started off well with this "spaghetti" alla puttanesca. You could, of course, make it with normal pasta, and it might fill you up for a little longer.

Ingredients

• 1 clove of garlic
• 2-3 anchovy fillets
• 400g can of chopped tomatoes
• 1 tbsp capers, chopped if they are large
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 2-3 tbsp chopped parsley
• 1/4 cup sliced olives
• 1 tsp chilli flakes (optional)
• 2 zucchini, spiralized into thin noodles

Method

Crush the garlic into a frying pan with a little oil (use olive, or if you prefer, anchovy oil from the jar) and snip in the anchovy fillets, then fry over a low heat until the anchovy has dissolved and the garlic has softened. Pour in the tin of tomatoes and add the parsley, capers and olives; season with chilli flakes, if using, or black pepper. Simmer for about 10-15 minutes or until liquid from the sauce has completely evaporated.

Once the sauce is dry, add the zucchini noodles, and cook until they have *just* softened and enough water has come out to make the sauce a little liquid. Stop cooking immediately and serve the noodles with the sauce.

Microwave Hollandaise Sauce

The asparagus season has started, new potatoes are out, and salmon is fresh and tasty at the supermarket, so what better accompanying sauce than a home-made Hollandaise? I have never made one before but they're notoriously difficult, so I looked for a microwave recipe. This one worked first-try, and I made 2/3rds of the website quantity, which gave generous helpings for two people.

Ingredients

• 125g butter
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tbsp lemon juice (about half a lemon), well-strained

Method

Put butter in a small pyrex bowl and microwave for 10-30 seconds, until the butter is soft, and no warmer than 45C. In a separate bowl or ramekin, mix the yolks and lemon juice. Add this mixture to the softened butter and combine well. Microwave on high, stopping to whisk every 10 seconds, which will feel very frequent but is necessary. Suddenly the sauce will thicken as the yolks cook: don't overbeat or overcook beyond a good consistency.

Kangaroo Bolognese

Continuing my theme of using kangaroo mince in everything, I tried out a kangaroo bolognese. Like the mousakka, it was actually an improvement on the original, because of the leaner, tastier quality of the meat. Without all the fat from typical beef mince, the sauce no longer has that thick layer of red oil which coats and stains everything. Instead it's pure bolognese heaven -- fantastic on pasta or as a component of classic lasagne. I seem to be the only one in the universe who insists on mushrooms in bolognese, but whatever. It's not a real Italian sauce anyway, so I can put whatever I like in it!

Ingredients

• 1kg kangaroo mince
• 2 brown onions
• 2 carrots
• 1-2 sticks celery
• 500g button or smallish mushrooms
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 6 rashers bacon (back or streaky, either is fine)
• 680g tomato passata or 2x325g tinned tomatoes
• 150g tomato puree
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp dried red chilli flakes (optional, but I strongly recommend them)
• glass of red or white wine
• 1 cup milk or half a cup of cream (optional)

Finely dice the onions and fry with the kangaroo mince, breaking it up and stirring until the mince is brown and the onions are soft. Meanwhile, dice the carrots, finely dice the celery, and cut the small mushrooms in half, or slice them if they are larger. Crush the garlic and snip or cut the bacon into 2cm-long strips. Add the carrots, celery, mushrooms, garlic and bacon to the onion and mince, stir well, and cook until the mushrooms have softened.

Add the tomato ingredients, herbs, wine, and chilli flakes if using. Rinse out the tomato jar or cans with a cup of water and pour into the sauce. Stir until combined, then partly cover and simmer for 2-4 hours, until thickened and delicious. If the sauce starts to dry out, add a little water and completely cover, but don't reduce the cooking time.

Five minutes before serving, add the milk or cream. If you want to keep the bolognese in the fridge and reheat it later, or use it in a lasagne, I suggest not adding the milk or cream until you do come to serve it or use it, as it will keep better.

Salmon and Runner Bean Pasta

This is the sort of crazy yet strangely delicious thing I create when I get home just twenty minutes before my evening telecon with Cambridge.

Ingredients:

• a generous handful of runner beans
• a couple of ripe tomatoes
• a handful of fresh oregano, finely chopped
• a cooked salmon fillet (I suppose tinned salmon might work!)
• a 75g--100g tub of really good pesto
• packet gnocchi

Slice the runner beans into cm-thick diagonal pieces and put on to steam. Chop the tomatoes and fry in a preferably non-non-stick frying pan. After  a minute or so, when they release some liquid, add the oregano. Set the gnocchi on to boil. When the runner beans are done and the tomatoes are well-softened and starting to dissolve, drain the beans and pop them in with the tomatoes. Turn off the heat and flake in the salmon. Season well with black pepper. Cover and allow the flavours to mingle. Meanwhile, drain the gnocchi, return to the pan and stir with the pesto. Serve the gnocchi topped with the sauce. I found it didn't even need parmesan!

Bangers with Apple Sauce

I really don't think I'll spell out the details on this one. Apple sauce is just a peeled, cored apple, chopped roughly and cooked in a pan for a couple of minutes, until mashable. Then whisk it around with a fork for a minute or so and you're done! Great at the end of the week when you've run out of energy and, apparently, food.

Romesco Sauce

Saturday's an easy day for me to cook fish as I have time to cycle to the fishmonger, which lies in the opposite direction to the market where I do the vegetable & meat shopping. So after buying lots of great vegetables, including a bucket of tomatoes for $3, I headed over to the fishmonger thinking that I would get some fish that would go well with a recipe I found online for Romesco sauce. Luckily they had some red mullet fillets going quite cheaply, and they're awesome for the barbecue. Sophie's BBQd potatoes clicked into place as the best carb to go with, minus the garlic as the sauce is pretty strong. Perfect summer evening fare, before a trip into town to see Place des Anges flying live over the rooftops of Perth.

I slightly modified the sauce recipe because I don't like the taste of raw garlic, and I didn't have any hazelnuts. I'm also lazy and couldn't see the point of blanching the almonds. This made enough for about eight people, so we had a dollop each with dinner and have been eating the rest spread on bread and vegetables for lunch. Lovely!

Ingredients:

• 6 medium-size ripe tomatoes
• 1 head garlic, sliced in half crosswise 
• olive oil
• 1/2 cup whole almonds
• 1/2 or a whole red chilli, to taste
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar 
• 1 slice stale bread

Cut the tomatoes in half equatorially, and place cut-side up in a large roasting dish. Slice the head of garlic in half the same way, and place each half in the middle of the roasting dish, cut-side up, so they are surrounded by tomatoes and in the centre of the oven. Drizzle or brush generously with olive oil and roast for 70 minutes at 200C, until the tomatoes are very soft and going golden brown around the edges. If the garlic shows any sign of burning, put the halves back together. Leave the tomato and garlic to cool properly - at least half an hour.

While the oven is still hot, lay the almonds and chilli on a baking tray and pop them in for 7-8 minutes. Set a timer so they don't burn! Remove the chilli from the tray and soak in boiling water from the kettle for ten minutes.

We're getting really good at making
these potatoes :)

When the tomatoes are cool, pick them up one half at a time, and pinch off the skins. (Eat them if you like, they're delicious!) Drop the rest of the tomato, seeds and all, into a food processor (off). Squeeze the roasted garlic out of their wrappings into the food processor, and discard all the papery skin. Add the salt, vinegar, almonds and soaked chilli, discarding the water. Add about half a cup of olive oil. Blend on medium for 40 seconds or so, then check the sauce - it should be starting to emulsify. If it is very runny, add some of the bread and continue to blend. It should be spoonable, not fluid, and coarse, rather than completely smooth.

BBQ Challenge Week: Day 3: Pork Chop and Sweet Potato Wedges with Apricot BBQ Sauce

Stone fruit are great at this time of year, but even I was challenged to use up a whole kilogram of apricots - but at $3 they were too much of a bargain to ignore. Eventually I got round to making something of them - a sweet and acid barbecue sauce which worked perfectly with a juicy pork chop and yummy toasted sweet potatoes. The key to the pork is to barbecue for just a few minutes each side, and stop as soon as the juices are no longer red. With the sweet potatoes, roast them indirectly for twenty minutes before turning on to a hot flat plate to brown up. The barbecue sauce takes an hour to make so it's a good idea to make it well ahead, or just have a starter ready to take the edge of your hunger off.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg apricots, pitted and halved
• 2 large tomatoes, halved
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 white onion, chopped finely
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard

Place all ingredients in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for an hour, stirring every fifteen minutes. Once it starts to stick to the bottom of the pan, it's ready. Strain it through a sieve, pushing the semi-liquid through with a large metal spoon and scraping the underside of the sieve every so often. Use immediately or refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 4 weeks.

Satay Sauce

This is a brilliant sauce for grilled chicken - but it works with any barbecued meat or vegetables. Just marinade them in some citrus juice and soy sauce for up to 24 hours beforehand, skewer and grill, then serve with this great sauce and some rice and salad. This is enough for a barbeque with eight people.

Ingredients

• 1 white onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• half a thumb of ginger
• 1 tin of coconut milk
• 1 red chilli (optional, or deseeded if you like)
• juice of three limes
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp dark brown sugar
• 3 tbsp light soy sauce
• half a jar of crunchy peanut butter

Finely chop the onion and fry in vegetable oil over a very low heat for 10 minutes, then crush in the garlic and finely dice in the ginger, and fry gently for a further five minutes. Blend everything except the peanut butter together in a blender. Remove and smoosh in the peanut butter, in order to retain the crunchiness. Taste and adjust flavours as necessary - you may like it sourer (more lime or lemon juice), sweeter (more sugar), runnier (more water) or more peanut-y (guess!).