Classic Spaghetti Bolognese

Spaghetti Bolognaise

According to UKTV Food's 'Market Kitchen', Spaghetti Bolognese is the UK's favourite dish to cook at home. I can see why; it's pretty simple to make and can feed an army with relatively inexpensive ingredients. Can you really go wrong with a Spag Bol? I suppose it depends on your taste-buds. It may in essence be a relatively quick meal to create, but 'quick' does not always do the bolognese justice.

I take up to 90-minutes to make mine. I have been known to caramelise my onions in butter and at the end of cooking I will add cream or mascarpone. Not only does this make the meal very fattening, but it also makes it very heavy. Indulgence is one thing, but go too far and this dish could leave your dinner-party guests curling up next to the cat for a little snooze.

A bit of history: The dish originated in Bologna, Italy, and was generally made with green tagliatelle, as opposed to the the classic spaghetti we are all used to. It was a modest dish of pasta with ragu and it didn't contain as much tomato as we use today. My preference is to use a fresh pasta, but any good dried pasta works well too. The Italians often add a number of other ingredients, as I do, but for my Classic Spag Bol I wanted to keep the fat content down and return to the original meat and tomato flavours that have made this dish so popular. 

Other authentic ingredients might include pancetta, celery, chopped sausage or liver, and red wine. I've tried it with Chorizo, but found it a little overpowering.

Method: Chop up some carrots into 3-4mm thick discs and boil. Then set aside.

Take 1x large white onion, 1x large red onion, 4x cloves of garlic; chop them up and add them to a pan containing 2x tablespoons of heated olive oil. Brown the mixture and then turn the heat right down and cook for about 10-minutes until it's all soft. Remove from the pan and wipe the pan down. Add another tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and, once hot, add 750g-1kg of good lean beef mince. Brown the mince and then mix in 2x beef stock cubes and a generous amount of tomato puree plus a good splash of light soy sauce. Now season and add some chopped fresh or dried parsley. Add in the cooked carrots and a large portion of sliced button mushrooms. Lower the heat and let this all cook through until the mushrooms have reduced. Now add 4x cans (1.6kg) of chopped tomatoes; mix through and cover. If the heat is low enough I would now simmer this for 30-45 minutes. (Original Ragu's were simmered for up to 5-hours!) What happens is that the tomatoes melt down into a lovely sauce. If you find the bolognese still a little dry, add a 1/4 to a 1/2 cup of warm water. At this stage it would be good to taste the bolognese, as it can be quite tarty; just add a few splashes of cold milk to soften the flavour.

Serve with pasta of choice, adding salt and olive oil when cooking your pasta to flavour and stop it sticking.

Accompany with garlic bread and a sprinkle of grated parmesan on top.

Cost: Probably about £10 for the lot, but when you consider this will provide two large portions as well as up to half a dozen for freezing, it's great value for money.

Plenty for the freezer

Savoury Beignets

Plain Cheddar Cheese Beignet

Beignet [bε.ɲε] - literally French for Donut. 

They are usually made from deep-fried dough with a filling made from fruit or vegetable. With mine I've opted for a savory version.

Method: After reviewing a dozen recipes, I settled on James Martin's. It doesn't contain as many of the ingredients found in the original Cafe Du Monde - New Orleans version, but it does serve as a great 'quick-up' dish. 

Simply add water and butter, with a little sugar to a pan; bring to the boil, add the flour and beat it into a firm dough. Remove from the heat and beat in some finely grated mature cheddar and a couple of eggs so that you have a paste. Season well with salt and pepper, then spoon into a pan of hot oil and fry for five minutes.

with Mushroom

with Chorizo

I've tried three varieties; plain cheddar, mushroom and chorizo. 

Cost: Very much based on the limits of your imagination. This is one of those dishes where you'd expect to have most, if not all of the ingredients, in your store cupboard.

Home Economics

Not since the second world war, and I'm not quoting from personal experience :-) have people genuinely considered how to keep the costs of their weekly shop down; Not counting past recessions where deep fried chips became the order of the day, driving the current trend in obesity. In reality we are a million miles from the black-market trading of groceries which was common-place in the 1940's, but we are mindful of the rising costs of particular items due to a plethora of international issues and incidents. Therein lies one of our first problems, or dependencies; imported food.

I like spring onions; also known as scallions or salad onions; I'm always amused to see that they have come from as far away as Mexico. How hard is it to grow these in the UK? Green-thinking aside, the cost of transport is going on my shopping bill... or is it?

This week's fruit and veg shop: Spring Onions (Egypt), Broccoli (Spain), Apples (France), Bananas (Ecuador), Grapes (Chile or India), Mushrooms (Poland), Carrots (Israel), Leeks (Turkey)

I did look to see if they had any UK varieties, but sadly not.

Are the only UK-grown greens the "Organic" variety; which are invariably more expensive? With limited exceptions, almost all of these greens can be grown all year round. Is it about economies of scale in the producing countries or is it simply because in the UK everything is over-priced and under-quality, due to a greedy labour-force and high-taxing Government.

To help combat the economic hardship in the new millennium I'm trying my hand at growing-my-own; modestly starting with the much loved Spring Onion (Allium fistulosum L.), albeit a Japanese variety called Tokyo Bunching

Onions often referred to simply as Negi. 

These seem pretty hardy; certainly no problems with this year's mild spring weather. More to follow (hopefully) once I pull my first crop.

Chicken and Leek

Not too dissimilar to the Pork Pan Fry dish. I used chicken thighs for this and found the flavour and texture to be much better than chicken breasts, although it does take longer to prepare.

Chicken and Leak

Method: Skin and bone the thighs, dice and then coat the chicken in seasoned flour. Pan fry with a good amount of olive oil until cooked through, adding a couple of cloves of chopped garlic near the end. Remove from the pan.

Fry some leeks and red onions in olive oil at a low heat until caramelised. Return chicken to the pan and then slowly add a 1/2 pint of veg or chicken stock, cooking through until there's only a little gravy left.

Served with long grain rice.

Cost: This is the good part; I picked up 800g of thighs for under £2. Once skinned and boned I was left with 465g of tasty meat.  Less than half the price of chicken breasts and a much tastier part of the chicken. Easily under £1.50 per serving.

Pork Pan Fry

A simple Sunday lunch of pan-fried pork and mushrooms, with asparagus and mash. Finally got the opportunity to use some of the Rosemary growing in my garden. Glad I didn't use too much as it does give a very distinct flavour.

Apologies for the poor quality images - shot on my 2mp mobile phone.

Method: Place the cubed pork into a bag or mixing bowl with the finely chopped Rosemary, add a tablespoon of flour and seasoning; coat well and add to the pan containing a good amount of heated Olive oil. Brown the meat and remove from the pan. Sauté some mushrooms and garlic with a little oil, then return the pork to the pan. Gradually add 1/2 pint of veg stock and bring to the boil. Add some mash and veg and lunch is served!

Cost: The asparagus accompaniment pushes the cost up, but assuming any green veg will do, the cost per serving is about £1.50 (OK, so I got the pork at a good price; £3 for six medallions - it pays to shop around!)

Vegetable and Pasta Bake

This may officially become Katie's favourite dish; spaghetti, cheese and broccoli (yep, she loves her greens!) I added asparagus and petit pois to keep the green theme going.

Vegetable and Pasta Bake

Method: Cook pasta, adding broccoli and asparagus for five minutes at the end of cooking and the petit pois once drained. Whip up a cheese sauce with milk, flour, butter and cheddar; throw it in with the drained pasta and veg. Add a layer into a large oven dish.

Pan fry a chopped onion with a tin of tomatoes and layer over the pasta. Add the final layer of pasta veg and some grated cheese on top. 5 mins under the grill and viola!

Cost: It really depends on where you shop, as prices vary wildly out there, but I would say about £1.50 per large serving.