Pasta Madre

Well The Woo's Birthday Weekend is over but what a lovely time we had!

Saturday morning we decided to head for Tunbridge Wells for an antique plate hunt around the Chazzas (Charity Shops for the uninitiated!). We'd been recommended a small restaurant in Camden Road by good friends Sue and Nick and decided to try it out for an early lunch.  What an absolute find was Pasta Madre!

This is a small place with only a dozen or so covers and the kitchen is set on a sort of mezzanine arrangement at the back of the seating area.  We arrived at noon and were seated at the foot of the kitchen area.  There's a counter running the length of the shop with a delicious assortment of cakes etc on display for sale.

Our lunch menus arrived. The waitress was delightful.  We saw that there was a selection of stuffed arrancini on offer as starters but we couldn't decide what to go for. Our waitress explained that a portion was two pieces but readily suggested that they could do us a shared taster plate with a selection of arrancini for us to try.  We went for that option straightaway...bargain!

One was mushroom...yummy; one was a sort of cheesy thing, super yummy; our joint favourite was stuffed with a ragout sauce and it was absolutely delicious!  What a start to an unexpectedly delicious lunch experience!

For the main Woo had the pasta bolognese and I opted for the ricotta and spinach ravioli in a sage and butter sauce.  Gobsmacked!  Gorgeous homemade ravioli, packed full of flavour and the sauce was indulgently buttery with beautiful kicks of sage leaves.  I almost licked the plate clean!

The chef was most attentive, served some of the dishes herself and was exceptionally keen to please.  I would heartedly recommend this lovely restaurant.  Great food in a wonderfully family atmosphere.   Great value too!  We will certainly be back!

Grazzi Mille!

Eggs in bed

It's my Woo's birthday weekend but I was the one treated this morning with breakfast in bed.  Ducks eggs on toast with a sprinkle of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. What a great way to start the day!

Baked Camembert

We decided on a light supper this evening.  One of our favourites is baked Camembert and we usually have one languishing in the fridge.  There are loads of ways to do this simple dish but this is our favourite.

Take the cheese out of its box and unwrap it.  Return it to the box and place on a baking tray.  Slice a garlic clove into 8 - 10 pieces and make the corresponding amount of incisions in the top of the camembert with a sharp knife.  Insert the garlic slithers into the cuts.  Drizzle with a little white wine and let it run into the cheese.

Bake in a 180* oven for about 20 mins.

We have ours either with crudités or, tonight's choice, toasted pitta bread and grapes.

Take it out of the oven...and eat!

Roast vegetables

One of our favourite ways to eat vegetables is roasted in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  All we do is cut the vegetables into manageable sized pieces, throw them into a roasting dish; usually with a whole head of garlic cloves (unpeeled), sprinkle with sea salt, add a good lug of olive oil and an equally good lug of balsamic vinegar and then mix it all together using God's spoons (your hands!)  Into a 170/180* oven for about 30/40 minutes with a quick stir round about half way through and that's all it takes.

These vegetables go well with all sorts of things; this evening we're having spatchcock poussin with a salt and pepper crust.  This is an ideal combination because it all takes more or less the same amount of time in the oven.

This evening we're having red onions, courgettes, corn on the cob, chicory and red pepper...with the garlic of course!  There's nothing like squeezing the roasted garlic pulp out of its paper covering straight into your mouth.

Other vegetables you could use include aubergine, pak choi, green beans, spring onions.  The list is more or less endless and the choice and mix is entirely yours.

Give it a go and let me know what you choose and how you get on!

Quick and easy gravy

We love our gravy in this house and my Woo is the domestically acclaimed 'Queen of the Gravy'.  She has a touch of genius when it comes to the final seasoning that gets everyone who tastes one of her magical concoctions absolutely rave about it!

However, this is my quick and easy gravy recipe for use when you're having pie and mash, cottage pie or something similar which needs a bit of sauce to finish things off.  It uses a stockpot so it's blatant cheating, takes no time to prep and just cooks away on the hob until you're ready for it.

In a pan soften a finely chopped onion or shallot in about 25g of butter.  I always use unsalted butter as I prefer to add my own salt to taste.  Boil a kettle and add 600ml of boiling water to a stockpot in a jug/bowl/whatever.  Top up to a litre with the wine of your choice and pour the lot into the softened onion.  Cook on a medium heat for half an hour or so and then pass the whole lot through a sieve into another pan.  Don't forget to scrape all of the mushy onion gorgeousness from the bottom of the sieve.

Carry on cooking the sieved gravy until it's lovely and thick.  If you're in a hurry just add a little cornflower mixed with cold water to the pan and stir until it thickens.  Either way it tastes good and any leftovers can be frozen or kept in the fridge for use another time.

Don't forget to taste and season before serving, though!

The choice of stockpot/wine is yours and depends what you're pouring it on; beef or lamb needs red wine, chicken/vegetable/fish is better with white but it's your gravy, your rules at the end of the day.  If you're cooking a roast this gravy works well as a base which you can mix with all the cooking juices to turn the whole thing into a culinary delight.

PS this gravy recipe works even more effectively if you drink wine and listen to cheesy music whilst cooking.  We've got Simon an Garfunkel on Amazon Prime as we speak and it's working a treat!

Going to the dogs!

I thought I would take this opportunity to introduce you to our pack.


This is our beautiful Standard Poodle; Flora.  Flora is 14 years old, almost blind and mad as a box of frogs.  We think she's a bit like 'Patsy' in AbFab.  We love her dearly, though.  She struggles a bit with her mobility these days but she still gives it a go running after the youngsters.  At the moment she's being walked separately from the others as it's a bit muddy over the fields and she's not great at keeping upright but come the Spring she'll be well and truly back with the pack.




This is our 7 year old Giant Schnauzer, Freya.  She's a huge lump of a thing who thinks she's a lap dog but we love her to bits.  She is the gentlest, loveliest dog you could ever wish to meet.  The Woo actually calls her 'Best Dog in the World'!  Her favourite occupation is running after Bobby on a dog walk; barking loudly and incessantly.  I'm surprised the poor little bugger isn't as deaf as a post by now.  We nearly lost her to GDV the year before last. She had to have emergency surgery and it was really touch and go for a while but she pulled through and you wouldn't know now how close a call it was.

...and so to the aforementioned Bobby; our English Springer Spaniel.  Bobby is a 6 year old rescue dog and was originally mine before I met Woo.  You wouldn't think that now as she is his firm favourite and the only time I get any attention is either when she is out, busy or I have food!  Bobby is a renowned thief who will steal any food, any how, any where...he has actually been witnessed stealing whole cheeses from the breakfast bar during one of our famous (or is it notorious?) cheese and wine parties.  A loveable rogue about sums this one up.

Angel was our first Greek immigrant.  We fell in love with her on our second trip to Skiathos in June 2014.  She was found starved and with a broken leg; tied up outside the wonderful Skiathos Dog Shelter on the island.  I was lucky enough to fly out and collect her in the July and bring her and four other dogs back to the UK via Germany.  It's a long story...maybe to be told another time.  Angel is now very much part of the family and, as you can see, a lot better of than the poor starved thing that was abandoned outside the shelter.



Finally we come to Kouki.  Named after the beautiful Koukinaries Beach on the island; she came to us in the early summer last year.  We holidayed there, as usual, in June and fell in love with her at first sight.  She's as bright as a button and within a few seconds on her first walk with us identified which pocket I had the treats in and spent the entire time trying to mug me!  Kouki has what I would describe as an 'independent spirit' - she's a right little minx!!  She's probably an even more prolific thief than Bobby and we have had to completely 'Kouki-proof' the kitchen cupboards, the shoe cupboard; in fact we can't leave anything, literally anything, lying about.  It's like having a two year old child in the house.  Kouki's two main claims to fame are - teaching the others how to chew through six cans of dog food and eat the contents - and climbing up onto the breakfast bar and eating some chicken which had been left there as a trap.  We actually caught her on the kitchen Mac which had been cunningly turned into a CCTV camera by The Woo!



So that's our pack.  We might be completely mad having five dogs (and the cats - don't even get me started on the cats!) but they fill every day with joy and we love them to bits.

PS If you want to find out more about the Skiathos Dog Shelter and the wonderful work done by Jan, Lee, Bob, Lou and their volunteer helpers you can search for it on Facebook.

Lobster night

Woo and I usually have a couple of frozen lobsters tucked away.  We pick them up for a fiver each whenever we see them in Lidl.  They're small but good for things like lobster thermidor or a pasta dish but I tend to buy fresh live ones from Billingsgate Market if we're feeling particularly foodie!

We decided to get a couple out of the freezer at the weekend with a view to a lobster night this evening,  Sam's in as well and he's up for a bit of spicy grub so I'm doing my version of aragosta del diavolo (Devil's Lobster).

I started things off earlier today by making the lobster sauce that I will add to the tomato base later.  First off I cut the two defrosted lobsters in half and took out the meat from the tails and claws.  This was cling filmed and bunged in the fridge.  I broke up the shells into a bowl and turned my attention to the hob.  In a large pan I softened one sliced onion in about 50g of butter.  I then added a tablespoon of tomato puree and cooked it all out for a minute or so.  Into the pan then went the lobster shells, 500g of fish stock and a glass of white wine.  Once this was warmed through I added a good lug of brandy and flambeed it to get rid of the alcohol.  Everything was brought to the boil and then the pan was covered and left to simmer for about 30 minutes.


It was all left to cool for a bit and then I used a food processor to blitz the whole lot up; shells and all.  This was then passed through a sieve to leave an unctuously rich lobster sauce which I will use to boost the diavolo base later.

At this stage you could just add the chopped up lobster meat, season and simply serve stirred through some spaghetti, linguine or even tagliatelle - the choice is yours and it makes a great light supper as the sauce can be made during the day or the day before and simply reheated with the lobster meat in it.

But now to the main event!

I like to batch cook sauces as it makes great economic sense and also is a great labour saver if you're a bit pushed for time or fancy a night off cooking and just want to eat from the freezer.  Freezing stuff isn't cheating - its all still home cooked from scratch and I know exactly what's gone into anything I make!  This quantity of sauce will serve 6-8 people so I will take out what I need for us and then freeze the rest.

In a large pan I softened four big fat finely chopped cloves of garlic, a couple of teaspoons of chilli flakes and a teaspoon of dried oregano in about six tablespoons of olive oil.  I then added a tablespoonful of tomato puree and cooked it out for a minute or so.  Into this then went a couple of shot glasses of brandy and the whole lot was cooked until the alcohol had evaporated which took a couple of minutes or so.  Lastly, in went a can of chopped peeled cherry tomatoes, a couple of bay leaves and the tomato can full of water.  The water will cook out and leave a lovely thick sauce.

The whole lot was brought to the boil, covered and then left to simmer on a low heat for 30/40 minutes.

I used cherry tomatoes because I think they add a sweetness which complements the lobster and work well with the robust heat of the chilli flakes but a simple can of chopped or plum tomatoes is just as good.  I make no bones about it, though...this is a fiery dish and not for the feint-hearted!  If it's too hot for you when you do a final taste before serving just run a little cream through the sauce before it's stirred through the pasta.

After half and hour I added the pre-made lobster sauce to the pan and carried on with the slow simmer.  At this stage I also put a pan of salted water on to boil for the pasta.  I'm using linguine this evening because the slightly thicker, flatter surface takes up the sauce really well but the choice is yours...the pasta rules are only hard and fast if you're Italian!

In ten minutes or so the two sauces were heating up nicely and thickening well so I decanted half off into another pan and set the remainder aside to cool down prior to freezing.  I then added the chopped up lobster meat and 300g of cooked prawns.  A few minutes cooking to heat the shellfish through and then I drained off the pasta and stirred it through the diavolo sauce until it was well and truly coated.  Into bowls with a garnish of chopped parsley and we were good to go.  Chunks of crusty bread on the side and job's a good'n!