Keep cool

A quick post for a quick recipe guaranteed to keep you cool during our long hot summer - frozen yoghurt!  Two or three ingredients and a blender, that's it. And yes, before you ask, I borrowed this from Jamie Oliver.

Berry Frozen Yoghurt
1 packet (350 - 500g) of frozen mixed berries (straight from the freezer)
1 tub (500mL) Greek/Plain/Vanilla Yoghurt
1 - 2 tablespoons Honey (optional)

1. Place the frozen berries in the blender.  Add all the yoghurt.  Blend till combined.
2. Taste and add a bit of honey if it's too tart.  This will depend on the mix of berries you choose and the sweetness of the yoghurt.
3. Pour immediately into a container with a lid and put straight in the freezer.  

You can eat this straight away or later after it's really frozen. However, due to the high water content of the berries, it does freeze really hard if left over night before using, so will need to be left to soften a little before serving.

Other ideas
Try Mango and lime instead of berries.
Add a leaf or two (no more) of mint to the berries when you are blending it up.
Serve with mini pavlovas or fruit salad.
Pour into some ice cube trays, ice block or small jelly moulds, to add to drinks, smoothies etc.
Eat straight from the blender???


Follow us on Instagram and Twitter @oitcfood

How do you like your chilli?

Labels lie!  In spring last year, I bought two small chilli plants.  The labels said medium hot.  I beg to differ.  Each chilli I have pulled off both bushes are powerpacked little firecrackers, whether red or green.  They make my lips tingle, eyes water and mouth be on fire for a good ten minutes, and that's just from one tiny piece, no membrane or seeds!  Don't get me wrong, I like chilli's to a medium-hot point, but these are turning out to be so far off my scale it's ridiculous.  I'm now scared of my own chillis!

My evil chillis!

I've done a bit of research into why some chillis are hotter than others.  The three key factors are soil, temperature and moisture.  And mine seem to tick all the heat boxes - well-draining soil (mine is sandy - I live near the beach!), in direct sunlight, and it's been dry.  So despite my daily watering, I haven't been able to tone them down.  I have to admit that I just can't eat them.  So, anyone who loves hot hot hot chillis let me know and I'll dig up the plants and give them to you.  I'm serious!

Which leads me to the recipe below.  I set out to make a Matriciana sauce for pasta.  This is generally prosciutto/speck/bacon, tomato and chilli.  Luckily for me, from experience, I've learnt to taste a small bit of every chilli I cook with, to gauge the heat factor.  After one tiny piece of a chilli from my garden, I knew that would be all I could put in the sauce, if I actually wanted to be able to eat it.  So I adapted your traditional Matriciana sauce, to include Sopressa (salami with peppercorns in it).  Using the Sopressa added the necessary pepperiness to the sauce, without the overwhelming nature of my home grown chillis.  To be quite honest, I was quite happy with the result!

Rose's Matriciana (Serves 2)
1 rasher bacon
4 - 6 slices shaved/thinly cut Sopressa (or other salami)
1 golden shallot (or small onion), roughly diced
1 - 2 cloves garlic, crushed
100mL (approx) red wine (whatever is hanging around, as long as it's not sweet!)
3 - 4 fresh tomatoes, deseeded, roughly chopped (or tin of chopped tomatoes, drained, reserve the juice)
Spaghetti/Fettucine etc
Fresh Basil and Parmesan, to garnish

1. Put a pot of water on to boil.  Add a pinch of salt.  Once boiling, add pasta and allow to cook to al dente.
2. Remove the rind from the bacon and place in frypan on medium heat (the rind that is).
3. Roughly chop the bacon and salami and add to frypan, once the fat is rendering.  Cook slowly till bacon starts to colour.  Remove from pan and set aside.
4. Add diced shallot and garlic to pan, over low heat. Allow to cook slowly, till onion is almost translucent.  Then, splash in the red wine and allow to reduce by at least half (just let it bubble away).
5. Add the tomatoes and stir to combine.  Once these are mixed in, throw the bacon and salami back in.
6. Drain pasta (reserve about 1/2 cup of the water).  Add pasta to sauce (in the pan) and toss (use tongs) to combine. If the sauce looks a little dry or thick add some of the pasta water (or reserved tomato juice if using tinned tomatoes).  Stir to combine.
7. Garnish with freshly chopped basil and grated parmesan cheese.

Other Ideas
If you have reliably medium heat chillis (or other chillis to your taste) then finely chop one of those and add instead of the salami.  If you do this, then use two rashers of bacon instead.
Use dried chilli or chilli flakes, omit salami and use double bacon (as above).
Add a few tablespoons of cream to the sauce at the end.
A few olives never go astray either!

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter @oitcfood

Summer Salad

Here's a quick and tasty summer salad.  I have deliberately not given quantities, as it's more of a throw together to your taste kind of a salad - aren't they all?  It'd be great to hear your summer salads - please leave a comment below. 

Chorizo and Avocado Salad
Crusty bread
Chorizo
Cherry Tomatoes
Avocado
Lettuce

Aioli or Creamy Garlic Salad Dressing

1. Tear or cut up the bread into smaller crouton sized pieces.  Drizzle some oil in a non-stick pan and cook the croutons till they are showing a little colour.  Remove croutons and set aside.
2. Slice the chorizo on the diagonal.  Peel it if necessary too.  Cook the chorizo in the same pan as the croutons.  Don't add anymore oil, there'll be enough in the chorizo.
3. Whilst the chorizo is cooking - slice the cherry tomatoes in half.  Halve the avocado and remove it from the skin in one piece.  This works best by sliding a dessert spoon carefully between the skin and the flesh.  Be gentle!  Once it's out slice it diagonally too. 
4. You can use whatever lettuce you like.  I would suggest a crunchy cos or iceberg, as you want that firmer texture.  So peel your lettuce apart, rinse and pat dry.  Tear into more manageable pieces, if it is large leaves.
5. Once the chorizo is almost finished cooking, throw in the cherry tomatoes.  Allow these to cook till the skins start to blister (a little) and the flesh starts to break down a little.  See the picture to know what I mean.
6. Add a little bit of warm water to the Aioli, to loosen it a bit, so you can drizzle it at the end rather than dolloping it.
7. Time to assemble - place the lettuce, avocado and croutons in a large bowl.  Top with chorizo and tomato, and pan juices (most important!).  Finally drizzle the Aiolo (or Creamy Garlic Salad Dressing) over the top.

Other ideas
Instead of Aioli, use a balsamic reduction (pour half a bottle of balsamic vinegar into a wide pan and let it bubble away till reduced by half, store in a jar till you need it).
Shave same parmesan cheese over the top.
Depending on how spicy your chorizo is - add some dried chilli or chilli flakes.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @oitcfood

Welcome back!

It's now been over 12 months since we started this blog - yay!  It's quite a satisfying feeling to make the 12 month mark.  Even though we had some very quiet patches blogwise, it just meant we were having the opposite in our real lives, as we all do.  So stay tuned over the next few days for a number of posts as we catch up on our Summer holiday eating!  Looking forward to where 2013 leads us.  Hope you are too!

PS We're on Instagram and Twitter now too.  Follow us @oitcfood