The Truffle Trilogy Part Three: Truffle Linguine

Here it is, the third and final part of my trio of truffly delights! This is actually my personal favourite of the three recipes. The strong truffle taste was simply divine when coating the pasta - enjoy (I know I did!)

 Ingredients (serves 2):
Enough dried Linguine for two
One whole Black Truffle (once again shaved with a fine grater)
3 finely chopped garlic cloves
1 finely chopped white onion
Truffle Oil
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Pinch of Salt
Freshly ground black Pepper
Plenty of freshly and finely grated Parmesan Cheese

Method:

1. Put the pasta on the boil. Add a glug of each oil to a wok-style pan on a medium heat. 
2. Add the chopped onions and fry for a minute or so before adding the garlic. Add most of the shaved truffle.
3. When the linguine is al dente, drain it but add a little of the pasta water to the pan when you add the pasta itself next. Make sure the pasta is covered in the oil mixture - adding more if necessary - and stir in the salt, pepper and a little Parmesan.
4. Make sure everything is evenly distributed throughout and serve with more Parmesan grated on top and decorate with truffle shavings. An elegant yet simple dish!

 Serve with a nice dry, perfectly chilled Italian White Wine!

The Truffle Trilogy Part Two: Porcini and Truffle Risotto

Part Deux of the Truffle Feast! This is the most substantial meal of the trio - in fact I seem to have inadvertently created a full day of truffles with Part One as breakfast, Part Three as Lunch and this recipe as dinner, or tea (whatever you like to call it).

Ingredients:

Enough Arborio or Carnaroli rice for 2 (I used some Arborio that was already mixed with some dried truffle)

Packet of dried Porcini (I used about 70g)

1 Whole Black Truffle, shaved

About 1 pint and 1/2 Chicken Stock (you can use vegetable if you wish but I think the chicken compliments the mushroomy flavour)

Pepper

A good handful of finely grated Parmesan cheese

Butter

1 Onion, finely chopped

1 Garlic Cloves, finely chopped (I didn't use much garlic here as I don't want it to overpower the mushrooms)

Dash of White Wine

Add the stock, one ladel at a time.

Method:

1. Firstly, the dried mushrooms need to soak for at least 15 minutes. After that add half of the mushroomy water to your stock and chop the Porcini, leaving two-four whole for decoration later.
2. Heat a knob of butter in a large pan/wok on a medium-high heat. Add the onions, chopped Porcini and garlic and fry for a few minutes. Also add a dash of wine. Whilst doing this also bring your stock to a medium heat on another burner.
3. Add the rice to your large pan and make sure it is coated in the buttery/oniony/mushroomy mixture. You can add a little bit of truffle oil at this point too if you like.
4. Begin adding the stock, one ladel at a time (see the picture above). Make sure each ladel of liquid is completely incorporated into the mixture before adding the next. Also make sure you have a radio or something to listen  too whilst doing this as it will take about 20-25 minutes.
5. When done the rice should still be a tiny bit saucy (I think I didn't add enough stock to mine). Take off the heat and stir a little Parmesan, most of the truffle shavings, some freshly ground black pepper and another good few nobs of butter through the Risotto.
6. To serve, plate up and sprinkle over truffle shavings and a little Parmesan and decorate with Porcini. Mushroom-tastic!

The Truffle Trilogy Part One: Truffled Eggs

Hello and welcome to the The Truffle Trilogy! As a present I bought Paddy a jar of 3 truffles, so I've come up with three simple recipes to show them off! The first, truffled eggs, we ate for a breakfast before attending Ladies Day at York Races. We had them in the garden with Champagne and it was lovely!

Ingredients (serves 2):

4 farm eggs

splash of milk

1 Whole Black Truffle (Shaved - I used a fine grater)

Salt and Pepper

Handful of freshly chopped flat leaf Parsley

Truffle Oil

Method:

1. Heat the oil - a good tbsp of - in a pan on a medium heat.
2. Lightly beat the eggs with a splash of milk.
3. Pour into pan and gently whisk as the egg begins to cook and scramble.
4. Add half the shaved truffle, salt, pepper and most of the Parsley.
5. You want the eggs to still be quite moist and juicy so keep a close eye on them, it doesn't take long until they're done. When they are serve on either a lightly toasted thin slice of brown bread, or as in my case, on one of last night's homemade chapatis, for something different. Sprinkle the remaining truffle shavings and parsley over the top and finish with an extra couple of squirts of truffle oil and some freshly ground black pepper. Delicious.

Mozzarella Chicken Supreme with Spring Onion and White Wine Linguine

This was a bit if an impromptu tea that turned into a new recipe for the blog. I was really fancying chicken and we also had two Mozzarella balls that needed using in the fridge. We didn't have that much else in so I managed to come up with this! It's actually a much simpler recipe than it sounds and it worked out very tasty - especially the sauce which is a new creation of mine!

Ingredients (serves 2):

2 Chicken Breasts

Mozzarella, sliced (I used 2 balls but one would be enough as long as, unlike me, you don't eat it as you cook along!)

1 Onion (finely chopped) A leek would also work well instead

5-6 Spring Onions, finely sliced

3 Garlic Cloves, finely chopped

2 Oxo Stock Cubes, chicken flavoured

About 1 tbsp Plain flour

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

White Wine

Chicken Stock 

Small drop of White Wine Vinegar

Enough Linguine for two, boiled until al dente

Broccoli (optional accompaniment)   

Butter

Method:

1. Make a paste with some Olive Oil, crushed Oxo cubes and a little salt and pepper either with a Pestle and Mortar or your fingers in a bowl and set aside.
2. Begin the sauce by lightly frying onions (not the spring onions yet) in some butter - just a medium size nob. Use a deepish pan with a cover or lid. Add the garlic and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the flour and either whisk or quickly stir while turning the heat up a little. Add the white wine - a good glug - and cook off the alcohol. Add some chicken stock and white wine vinegar to bring the level in the pan just enough to cover breasts when in pan. You can use just stock or just wine here according to preference.
3. Flatten each breast between sheets of cling film using a rolling pin. Heat up a griddle pan with a little oil and wrap flattened breasts around a few bits of mozzarella. Rub paste into the outside of the chicken breasts. Place each breast onto the griddle and fry for just about a minute on each side until just browned. This will seal the meat.
4. Place the breasts into the simmering sauce (ensuring that the liquid just about covers the breasts), cover and simmer on a low-medium heat for 15-20 minutes or until the meat is cooked. When cooked remove the Supremes and individually wrap tightly in foil - this allows them to retain all the tasty juices.
5. Meanwhile, prepare the pasta and any accompaniments, as I say I used broccoli. Turn up the heat a little on the pan of sauce. When everything is just about ready and the sauce has thickened stir in the remaining mozzarella, spring onion and season to taste.
6. Toss the linguine in the sauce and use tongs to serve onto a heated plate, unwrap the Supremes and place on top. Pour over remaining sauce left in the pan. Add any accompaniments and serve!

Tuna, Pea, Onion and Cheese Spaghetti

Here is a simple yet tasty supper or lunch. This was another of my 'store cupboard suppers' as I created it with what I had left in the fridge. It turned out very tasty!

Ingredients (serves 2 with a little extra for the fridge):

Tin of tuna, drained

4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

4-5 spring onions, sliced

1 small red onion, finely sliced

About 50g soft cheese (or whatever's left in the bottom of the tub!)

Green Chilli, finely chopped (optional)

Grated Italian hard cheese (Parmesan, Grana Padano, Pecorino etc.)

Handful frozen peas

salt, pepper 

Dash of olive oil

Spaghetti (or Linguine) boiled until al dente

Dash of white wine

Handful flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

Method:

1. Cook the pasta and heat the oil in either a frying pan or wok.
2. Add the red onion to the oil and fry on medium for a few minutes. Now add the garlic, chilli (if using) and peas. Fry for another couple of minutes before adding the cheese to the pan and a dash of white wine.
3. Turn up the heat a little and when the cheese has melted a bit add the tuna, spring onions, parsley, a sprinkle of hard cheese and season with salt and pepper.
4. Once heated through toss in the spaghetti with a little pasta water. Serve and garnish with hard cheese, parsley and a grinding of fresh black pepper. Bon Appetit!

Cava and Valencian Orange Leopard Cakes

This is another of my sallies into cake baking. I shan't write the recipe out as it is just the same as the Honey and Sicilian Lemon Cupcakes (see back catalogue) with a few changes. I used Valencian Orange flavouring instead of lemon and I used Cava to bind the cakes instead of milk/honey. These cakes actually went better than the lemon ones, the consistency was softer. I made a marble effect in the cake by colouring a small amount of the cake mix orange with a mix of yellow and red food colouring and swirling it into each individual cake. My icing actually went better this time, I think I used too much butter last time. I also bound the icing with cava and flavoured it with Valencian Orange flavouring.

Before going in the oven I swirled in some orange cake mix.

The marbled effect before icing.

Cakes now iced, time to decorate!

I chose to decorate with edible silver balls and mini candied orange jelly slices.

Delicious!

Plaice Goujons served with a Salsa Verde in a Potato Basket

I've had a break from cooking recently as I've been working and I went to Berlin. So for my first recipe in a while I decided to try something interesting. I came up with this recipe myself and this is the first time I've attempted potato baskets. I'd probably try and make them a little bigger next time and grease the tins with oil rather than butter as a lot of them stuck - but thankfully 2 out of 8 turned out okay! This was delicious and an easy one to spice up by just adding spices and/or chopped chillies to the potato basket mix and Plaice batter!

Ingredients (serves 2):

2 Plaice fillets (filleted and sliced into goujons)

1 Egg (beaten)

Breadcrumbs

Plain Flour

2 Large Potatoes

Olive Oil

Salt

Pepper

Pinch of Paprika, Cayenne and Turmeric

Sunflower Oil (for deep frying)

1 Lemon (cut into wedges)

For the Salsa Verde: Handful of capers, generous handful of parsley, very generous handful of basil, pinch of Mint, pinch of Rosemary, Salt, Pepper, dash Extra Virgin Olive Oil, dash White Wine Vinegar, one green chilli (deseeded).

Method:

1. Make the Salsa Verde first to give the flavours time to intensify. Basically, just blend all the ingredients for it together, adding more oil to get the desired consistency. It should be like a dip. Put in the fridge.
2. Now for the potato baskets. Peel and grate the potatoes raw then put the grated potato in a muslin cloth and squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Pre-heat the oven to about 180 degrees, then well combine the grated potato in a bowl with salt, pepper, spices and Olive Oil. Grease a muffin tin or ramekins and shape baskets into it. Make sure there are no gaps so the salsa can't leak out later on. Bake in the oven for about 30-40 minutes or until golden brown.
3. For the goujons pre-heat the sunflower oil in a deep frying pan (be very careful as hot oil can be very dangerous). While the oil is heating coat each goujon first in flour (sprinkled with salt, pepper and spices), then in the beaten egg and finally in the breadcrumbs. 
4. Check the oil is hot by dropping in a breadcrumb and seeing if it sizzles. Lay the goujons in individually, laying them away from your person. These will only take a minute or two each to cook depending on their size. When the breadcrumbs turn a dark golden brown they should be done. Lay the goujons on a piece of kitchen roll to drain away excess oil.
5. To serve, place the goujons in a nice stack, place a warm potato basket to the side and fill with Salsa Verde and place lemon wedge on top.  Serve alone as a starter portion or with a side salad/green beans as I did to make a full meal. A green delight on a plate!