Cheesy chicken pasta bake

The great thing about this recipe is that you can estimate the quantities.  This was deliberately very simple; a warming cheesy pasta bake without any bells and whistles.  You can use this as the basis for a cheese pasta bake and include any other ingredients that tickle your fancy. 

Ingredients

1 chicken fillet

Penne pasta - about 300g dried.

Cheese - couple of handfuls of grated cheese.  Different types is good.

Butter

Plain flour

Milk

Whole grain mustard

Nutmeg

Salt

Pepper

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Cut the chicken into pieces and fry until cooked.

Cook and drain the pasta. 

Make a roux; melt a couple of knobs of butter in a pan, and when bubbling add two or three spoons of flour. Whisk it in.  Slowly add milk and keep whisking until you end up with a thick, smooth sauce.  Add grated nutmeg and a teaspoon of whole grain mustard and whisk through.  Season with freshly ground pepper and salt.

Take off the heat and add half of the grated cheese.  

 

Mix through, add the chicken and stir through the cooked pasta, spreading the pasta out in a oven-proof dish.

Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top of the pasta, and now it's ready to go in the oven - for about half an hour on about 160 (depending on how good your oven is, and if it's fan or not).

 

It's ready when the cheese is golden and bubbling.

 

 

Chicken and prawn risotto with mushrooms and rocket

I bought some chicken fillets cheaply (5 large fillets for £5) and then bought some reduced prawns and reduced rocket.  Clearly, a risotto was crying out to be made.

Ingredients:

2 chicken fillets (£2)

approx 275g arborio rice (about a £1.  Stock cupboard.)

Prawns (reduced to 49p)

Rocket (reduced from 99p to 49p)

Leeks

Mushrooms (approx 50p)

White wine 

Chicken/vegetable stock (about a pint/500ml)

Lemon

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Cut the chicken into pieces and fry in oil until browned a little and cooked.

In another pan, fry chopped leeks with a little garlic and the mushrooms.  Add a glass of white wine and reduce.  Make up the stock.  

Add the rice and stir through the vegetables until translucent.  Then proceed to add the stock, half a cup at a time, stirring as much as you can.  When most of the stock has been added and the rice is on it's way to being cooked, add the chicken pieces and the prawns (they were cooked).

When the rice is cooked (you may need to add less stock than you made, or a little more water), squeeze the juice of half a lemon into the risotto, stir through some rocket and twist some black pepper to taste.

Serve, with more lemon to squeeze.

'Economy Gastronomy' Spaghetti Bolognese

I'm not a huge fan of spaghetti bolognese.  That's because I've eaten lots of bad versions - usually far too much tomato puree based sauce and giant chunks of celery.  When I bought some reduced mince I decided to finally try to make this classic.  I figured that the rest of the ingredients were cheap, and I was right.  What's also great about this recipe (which is based on Allegra McEvedy's Economy Gastronomy braised mince/ragu recipe) is that you can include or omit whatever you like, and you can make a little mince go a long way with a lot of vegetables.  Every time I've made this, it's included at least 5 of my '5 a day'.

You can include - or omit - bacon lardons, garlic, herbs, carrots, mushrooms, leeks, tobasco.  You really have to have onion, red wine and stock (and obviously mince).  Flavouring, like Worcestershire Sauce, can be played with (eg use HP sauce or soy sauce or balsamic vinegar instead if that's what you have) and the tomatoes can be plum, chopped, fresh, passata - anything. 

This is a 'slow food' recipe - it takes at least an hour to simmer the braised mince, and then another 45 minutes to make the ragu itself.  But there isn't much work in it at all - you can leave it to simmer on a low heat after you've done all the prep.

Ingredients:

Mince (about a pound or whatever you have got)

Onions

Leeks

Carrots

Mushrooms

Red wine

2 tins of plum/chopped tomatoes

1 1/2 pints of beef stock (750ml)

Worcestershire sauce or similar (see above)

Herbs

Garlic

Oil for frying

Spaghetti

Chop the onion and brown with some garlic and herbs if you have them - chopped fresh rosemary or dried mixed herbs.  

Meanwhile brown the mince by frying it on a high heat in batches.  You don't need to cook it, just get a nice crusty colour on it.

Add the mince to the onion, add a pint of beef stock and a tin of chopped tomatoes or passata.  Slug in some Worcestershire sauce and let it simmer for about an hour,

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Now you are about to make the ragu.  Chop another onion, shallots or a couple of leeks (my favourite to use here) and fry with some bacon bits or lardons if you have them.  Here I like to include sliced mushrooms and sliced carrot pieces.  Fry these all in a little oil and then after a couple of minutes add a large glass of red wine.  Let this fry off until the pan is nearly dry.  

Then add the mince to the pan, with another tin of tomatoes or passata (I like to use both - tomatoes first, then passata at this stage) and half a pint of beef stock.  Let this simmer on a low heat until the consistancy is right for you - about 45 minutes or an hour.  Towards the end, taste and season - perhaps some fresh ground pepper or spicy tobasco to give a little kick.

Prepare the spaghetti and serve topped with cheese.