Tuna pasta like we used to make but better!

Tuna pasta should always be with spirals. Large spirals. I thought I had spirals, then when I got home I only had penne. Reasonable substitute but not quite the same.
I suppose if you can't get spirals you could try it with shells. (or penne was still delicious).

We used to make this as kids with just onion, tuna, tomato, oregano. We would always stir in a glob of philly cream cheese to cream it up at the last minute. I have fancied this up a touch.. but it still has the delicious honesty and simplicity of always. I had bought some spinach to chuck in to "health" it up - but decided against it because I didn't want to add too many flavours. You could add peas if you want to make it a complete meal with greens included.

I like it with parmesan cheese on top which goes against all the rules of cheese and seafood pasta. But parmesan is so salty and delicious so try it with parmesan!

This was pretty spicy. Spicy delicious. You could cut down the chilli if you want. But dinner without chilli is not so exciting.

Quick. Cupboard. Food. Delicious. Easy.

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 brown onion, roughly chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced

1 long red chilli, finely sliced

2 tbsp of chopped oregano

3 whole anchovies

150g button mushrooms, sliced

A good glug of white wine

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 can of cherry tomatoes, drained

185g tin of tuna in springwater (get the best quality tuna you are happy to pay for - it really makes a difference)

2 tbsp chopped parsley

Glug of cream, scoop of philly cream cheese, scoop of mascarpone, scoop of sour cream

Spiral pasta, cooked

Gently saute the onion and chilli in olive oil until soft but not coloured. Turn down the heat and add the garlic, 1tbsp oregano and anchovies. Mash up the anchovies with your wooden spoon then cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook until soft. Pour in the wine and reduce slightly. Add the tomato paste and cherry tomatoes. Cook for 10-15 minutes (or 5 if you are in a rush) until the flavours combine nicely. Add the tuna and break up gently, leave it in decent sized chunks. Cook for 3-5 minutes, or until the tuna is warmed through. At the last minute you can melt in your creaminess, add your remaining herbs and mix well.

Serve in a big bowl mixed up with your pasta. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Chilli chilli mahi mahi spaghetti

Adam caught lots of beautiful Mahi Mahi.

Day 1: Sashimi. Fresh mahi mahi dipped in horseradish and soy sauce. Amazing. Best sashimi ever.

Day 2: BBQ mahi mahi. Beautiful.

1 week later: defrost frozen mahi mahi for chilli mahi mahi spaghetti. Super hot. Super flavourful. Super delicious. Substitute any other firm white fish (or prawns, squid, mussels...)

1 large fillet fish chopped into nice large chunks - it'll break up a bit when cooked so cut it a bit bigger than the size you want to eat

3 birdseye chillies, finely chopped

1 long red chilli, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely sliced

4 anchovy fillets, chopped

2 fresh tomatoes, finely diced

1/2 cup white wine (we used beer as all out of wine! - still delicious)

1/2 cup chopped basil

1/4 cup chopped parsley

Plenty of salt and pepper

Fettucine or spaghetti - use nice quality pasta for this. Cook according to packet directions in salted water

In a pan heat a good couple of glugs of nice olive oil and about 1 tbsp butter over a gentle heat. Add the garlic, chillies and anchovy fillets. Cook nice and gently for 2-3 minutes or until the anchovies melt - give them a bit of a squash, and the garlic and chillies are nice and fragrant. Add the tomatoes and cook for another few minutes or until nice and soft. Add the wine and the fish. Cook gently for 3-5 minutes or until the fish is just cooked. Season well with salt and pepper (might already be salty from anchovies).

Just before serving stir through the pasta, the herbs and another good glug of olive oil. Don't add too much pasta for the amount of sauce you get - you want a good sauce to pasta ratio!

You will enjoy this - it is delicious.

Make sure you are generous with the olive oil and butter and seasoning!

It is actually pretty hot - so you could potentially tame back the chilli if you need to. But I like it like this.

mmm yum pasta with clams and chorizo with cider and make sure you have some bread to mop it up

this is seriously good

Make it now. Don't worry if it isn't dinner time, you will enjoy this any time of the day.

Make it for someone you love or someone you want to love you because it is that good.

Thank you again to Gourmet Traveller for this recipe.

As usual I cannot stick to the recipe, so have posted it with the changes I made.

I halved the amount of clams to make this for two, but kept the other ingredients in the original ratio to end up with a delicious soupy pasta. The sauce needs to be mopped up with bread. The flavour is too good to waste.

I made it for two people, but there was enough for a third person (male) and I think he was satisified.

Serves 2 generously

2 tbsp olive oil

1 spanish onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

2 tsp chilli flakes

1 fresh hot chorizo sausage, chopped

2 large ripe tomatoes, chopped

Juice of half a lemon

3oomL cider (we used pear cider)

600g clams, soaked for 15 minutes in fresh water

1/4 cup parsley, roughly chopped

Pepper and salt, to taste

Cooked Angel hair pasta

Fresh bread and butter, to serve

Heat the olive oil in a large pan. Gently saute the onion, garlic and chilli until softened. Add the chorizo. Cook until brown (5-7 minutes). Add the tomatoes and cook until thickened (6-8 minutes). Add the lemon juice, cider and clams. Bring to the boil, put a lid on top, then cook for 6-9 minutes or until the clams are open. Stir through the pasta and parsley and enjoy.

fish pie is nice in rainy cold windy weather

This is my rendition of Jamie Oliver's fish pie. From his ministry of food book.

Delicious.

It sounds strange and looks strange before it is cooked. It is great once cooked.

Eat it in cold weather with tomato sauce.

Maybe put some green stuff on the plate to go with it - salad, beans, peas.. your choice (or just be lazy and eat pie by itself)

I do not like food that has had all the flavour sucked out of it in the interests of being healthy, gluten free, lactose free etc. This meal is actually super healthy and doesn't sacrifice flavour for the healthy factor. Yay. It is also gluten free (amazing).

Serves 6-8

300g salmon, skin removed, cut into bite sized chunks

300g smoked cod fillet, skin removed, cut into bite sized chunks

150g peeled and deveined prawns

1 carrot

1 bulb fennel

2 stalks celery

150g cheese (I used 80g cheddar and 70g parmesan), plus extra for sprinkling

1 tbsp grainy mustard

1 red chilli, roughly chopped

Zest of 2 lemons

Juice of 1 lemon

Handful of chopped flat leaf parsley

A large handful of baby spinach leaves

800g potatoes

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Cut the potatoes into chunks and put into a pot of salted water on the stove. Bring to the boil then simmer until tender. Drain well. Mash the potatoes, add a good glug of olive oil and plenty of salt and pepper.

Grate the carrot, celery, fennel and cheese. Mix with the mustard, chilli, lemon juice and zest, parsley, baby spinach and seafood.

Pile the mixture into a large casserole dish. Smooth out gently. Pour over the mashed potatoes. Make a nice spiky design on top - this will help it go crispy. Sprinkle over extra parmesan cheese.

Bake on a tray in the oven for 40 minutes or until cooked through. Yum.

take a little squid and put it in a salad (carrot salad!)

Grating. What isn't better when grated than chopped or whole? Grated cheese - better. Grated apple - better. Grated carrot - amazing. Grated chocolate - pretty tasty.

So.. grated carrot salad with middle-eastern-ish flavours and grilled squid. Pretty damn special.

Thanks again to smitten kitchen for the inspiration.

Sorry that the picture is so rubbish.. maybe, one day i will fix it. Maybe not!

Try this.

Tonight

This served 3 of us

3 large carrots, grated

2 tbsp flat leaf parsely, chopped

2 tbsp mint, chopped

100g feta, crumbled

3 tbsp flaked almonds, toasted in a pan until delicious and golden

2 large squid, tentacles included cut into bite sized pieces and scored

2 tbsp olive oil

2 crushed cloves garlic

1 tsp caraway seeds

1 1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 1/2 tsp harissa (find it in your gourmet deli)

3 tbsp lemon juice

Pita bread and rocket leaves to serve

In a pestle and mortar combine and bash the garlic, caraway, cumin, paprika. In a small pan mix together the oil, garlic paste and harissa. Heat over very low heat until fragrant. Pour into a small bowl. When cool-ish add the lemon juice and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Pour a couple of tbsp of dressing over the squid. Marinate at room temperature for 10-20 minutes (or not at all depending on how time pressed you are).

Mix together the carrots, herbs, almonds and feta.

Fry the squid in 1tsp oil over very high heat until just cooked. Dress the salad. You will probably not need all the dressing.

Serve the squid over the salad with pita bread and rocket leaves. Delicious

Suck out the brains prawn curry with home-made chappathis

Craving satisfied.

Now that I no longer feel like curry I can start thinking about other foods. Or can I? This was so amazing I think I could eat it every night of the week.

Please leave the brains in your prawns when you cook them. Then when you eat them (with your hands) rip off the head and suck out all the sweet prawny goodness.

Thank you Jamie Oliver - I love this curry.

You only need half the sauce to serve four people. Freeze the rest for another day.

Feel free to substitute grilled chicken or fish or vegies for the prawns. But please try the prawns as they are seriously good. And make sure you suck out the brains.
3 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp brown mustard seeds

1 tsp fenugreek seeds

3 long green chillies, seeds removed and finely sliced

2 thumb sized pieces of ginger, chopped roughly

1 handful of fresh curry leaves (now plant a curry tree - you won't regret it)

3 onions, whizzed in the blender until roughly chopped

2 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp chilli powder

6 very ripe delicious tomatoes, whizzed in the same blender until roughly chopped

400mL coconut milk

16 very delicious fresh tiger prawns, unpeeled

Serves 4

Put the oil in a large pan over high heat and then pour in the mustard seeds. When they start to pop add the chillies, ginger, fenugreek and curry leaves. There will be some spluttering and spitting. Fry for 2-3 minutes or until deliciously fragrant.

Add the chopped onion and cook for 4-5 minutes or until starting to go golden. Add in the turmeric and chilli powder and fry for a minute. Now add the tomatoes and coconut milk. Simmer for 10-15 minutes or until a nice thick consistency, like thickened cream.

In a separate pan heat a tbsp oil. When very hot add the prawns. Cook for 1-2 mins on each side or until coloured. Pour over half the hot curry sauce (freeze the rest for another day). Put a lid on it, make sure it is simmering and cook for 2-3 minutes or until the prawns are just cooked.

Serve on a plate with chappathis. Do not give people a fork - give them a finger bowl instead.

Chappathi

This is a rough recipe. You really need to do it by feel.

1 tbsp olive oil

Generous pinch of salt

~1 1/2 cups flour

Warm water

In a bowl mix the olive oil, salt and flour. Gradually add warm water and mix with your hands until you get a soft dough. Knead gently for 2 mins.

Preaheat a dry pan over high heat (or bbq or grill pan). Rip off walnut sized pieces of dough and roll until nice and thin and vaguely circular. Place into the hot pan. Cook until bubbled up and starting to blacken slightly. Turn once and cook second side until blackening. Remove from heat and if you are feeling indulgent butter generously.

No excuse for not making these - everyone has flour, water, salt and oil in their house.