Post-Pub-Pasta - anchovy, parsley and onion

I have to admit to having a couple of mardy fits over food after alcohol related fun. It's so ingrained to reach for the carbs, pizza, burger etc! It wasn't my finest moment when I angrily told my husband off in the middle of a field for not appreciating his pizza enough at the lattitude festival! (In my defence I was on my umpteenth portion of rice and something!!)

This is where gluten free pasta can be a life saver.

There a a million versions of this dish all over the internet. I simply sweated a white onion off, added four anchovies out of a jar, added cooked pasta and a generous amount of parsley. Heaven.

The hardest thing about this is the patience needed when drunk to cook the onion slowly ;)

Feasting with Floyd - lamb kebabs + stuffed peppers with raita

Recipe taken from 'Floyds India'

I love Keith Floyd. And I love the tone of his cookery books;

"Whilst I have done my best to ensure that al the recipe's in this book work, I must tell you that as I cooked them - and indeed I have cooked every single recipe that appears in this book - I did not have the luxury of a fitted kitchen....One day I would be cooking with dried cow dung in a hole in the ground, another burning my wrists whilst attempting to slap Indian bread into a searingly hot tandoor oven.....What I am trying to say is, please approach these recipes with a good common sense attitude. All the measurements, timings, temperatures quantities etc, etc, are very approximate. If, say, a recipe calls for a tub of yoghurt, but two just in case you need a little more. Do not slavishly follow the quantities of the spices for the masalas; you might like it hotter, in which case add more hot spices; you might like it a little milder, and so on and so forth.....It is not possible to say that a lamb curry takes exactly 45 minutes. If you happen to be using very young tender lamb it may only take fifteen, if you are using some tough old mutton it may be an hour and a half. The thing to do is periodically taste and see how it is getting on. Anyway, I wish you very happy cooking and a contented tummy."

The ingriedients list is quite long but Floyd says, "If you cannot get some of them, do not be discouraged, just leave them out and do the best you can."

Makes about 20 kebabs

500g minced lamb

for tempering
3 teaspoons ginger paste
3 teaspoons garlic puree
3 tablespoons of brown onion paste *
1 tablespoon grated fresh coconut
2 tablespoons natural yogurt (I used soy yoghurt)
2 tablespoons of cream (I missed this out, obviously)
2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon ground black cardamon
1/2 teaspoon ground mace
1 teaspoon crushed poppy seeds
1teaspoon red chili powder
3 tablespoons gram flour
1 tablespoon fresh chopped mint
1 tablespoon fresh chopped coriander
1 teaspoon ground papaya
salt and pepper to taste

* ginger and garlic puree are self explanatory I think, but brown onion paste is simply onions fried until golden brown and blitzed. A lovely undertone of flavour that I will definitely use again.

Mix it all together and shape into kebabs, complicated ;)

(I could not get ground papaya, and I used green cardamon and not black. The recipe survived fine.)

Roasted stuffed peppers

I used what I had in the fridge basically - white onion, green beans, carrot and sweetcorn sauted in the masala mix, mixed with sultanas and stuffed into the peppers. The recipe called for cashew nuts and paneer, but seen as my husband is allergic to nuts and I cannot eat dairy I missed those out. I don't think the recipe suffers at all.

masala 

1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon garlic puree
1 teaspoon ginger puree
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
salt

According to Floyd a raita is any of the following in any quantities, yoghurt, mint, tomato, grated cucumber, chill, pineapple, spring onions, beetroot - anything you fancy!

By this measure I made a very boring mint and cucumber one with soya yoghurt and plenty of salt.

Navajo Breakfast

Taken from 'Jamie's America'.

This is a one pot breakfast of epic proportions. Slow cooked red onions, crispy smoked pancetta and red skinned apache potatoes.

The original recipe is served with an egg scrambled into the mix, sprinkled with cheese and in a toasted wrap. Oh and don't forget the cayenne!

My husband had the works but I have to be honest, potatoes and pig meat - I didn't feel like I was missing out in the slightest!

Autumn tacos with onion, squash and chorizo

Recipe from 'Mexican Food made simple' by Thomasina Miers.

Hardly any adaptation needed here. I replaced the citrus juices for the pickled pink onions with white wine vinegar, that is all.

It was gorgeous!

Taco filling

1 clove garlic
sea salt and black pepper
4 tablespoons olive oil
1kg butternut squash cut into cubes
1 chili de arbol (I used generic supermarket fresh chili as it was all I had)
250g cooking chorizo cubed
2 shallots
1 tablespoon fresh chopped oregano.

Roast the squash and the chili in the oven until it starts to get colour on the edges. Fry off the shallots and chorizo, add the squash and chili and the oregano and seasoning before serving.

Pink pickled onions

2 red onions, thinly sliced and blanched for ten minutes
1 fresh scotch bonnet chill
juice of one orange and 2 limes (I substituted white wine vinegar here)
salt and pepper
chopped coriander leaves to sprinkle on top before serving.

Blanch the onions add the sliced chili and add just enough liquid to cover. Leave to steep for as long as possible. Will keep for a few days.

The tacos, clearly, were out of a packet. I'm human. ;)

Lets talk bodily functions

So, it's like this.

For about four years I've had an increasingly problematic digestive system. Manifesting itself in violent diarrhea, painful cramps and smelly wind.

Glamorous, hey?

After a long virus related illness and a course of antibiotics, the diarrhea  became so frequent and so disruptive that is started to impact on my life in a big way. Try as I might,  I could no longer seem to get anywhere modifying my diet. So, when my GP muttered the acronym 'IBS' at me without even looking up, I went to see a very expensive, non NHS,  private  nutritionist.

Firstly, my poo got sent to America, and I found out I had absolutely none of one of the friendly gut bacterias absolutely necessary for healthy digestion. This has been blamed on 'modern life' including repeat courses of antibiotics as a child, and the contraceptive pills ability to suppress the bodies natural balance.

Then, along with taking various enzymes, probiotics and vitamin supplements I was advised to exclude all gluten, dairy, citrus and corn/ maize from my diet. Whilst I waited for some food sensitivity blood test results.

Eight weeks later I got the blood results in addition to looking at information I recorded in food diaries and 'transit' tests.( Again glamorous to the very end) The only thing I got back in my life was was sweetcorn! I was shown to have immune reactions to legumes, eggs, dairy, rice, brazil (borderline) and peanuts (borderline), bananas (borderline), soya (borderline), chili (borderline), bananas (borderline) and wheat (borderline).

Er. My already restricted food groups just got a whole lot smaller.

I LOVE food. I LOVE cooking. I LOVE eating out and socialising over food. I do read my cookery books in bed. Im not ashamed to admit I cried. 

To stop myself from falling into a pit of misery I'm going to try and be positive. So here I will document the recipes of the feasts I still manage to have. And the ways I've got through this without going stir crazy.

And let's get this straight from the outset. I come from the Jay Rayner school of food enjoyment, greedy, unapologetic and delicious.

There might happen to be insights on MY personal digestive health and food intolerances, and how I might eventually get cured (my nutritionist assures me this is entirely possible) . This blog will also however, feature quite alot of pig meat, a fair bit of alcohol, and an insatiable appetite.

You have been warned.