Chicken with Lemon and Rosemary

This is ridiculously easy to do and guaranteed to please - if you want to use a 'Brai pack' chicken (Spinneys' 1kg chook all cut into breasts, thights, legs and wings) then you can feed two and snack on leftovers the next day - just cut back on the other ingredients.

OK, the HDR shot is dead. Here's a traditional snap taken in the time honoured camera-top flash in the kitchen tradition!

This goes majestically with a rough sweet potato mash or a tomato and onion salad.

Ingredients

• 4 chicken breasts on the bone
• 2 bulbs garlic
• 4 sprigs rosemary, cut up
• 1 lemon, cut into 1/8th slices
• 25g Butter
• Olive oil

Heat the oven up to GM7/22oC/425C.

Spread the butter over the chicken pieces and place them in a baking tray along with the lemon pieces, cut up pieces of rosemary and garlic cloves (leave them in the skins!). Drizzle a splash of oil over the whole lot and a dash of sea salt and black pepper, then slip 'em into the hot oven and leave 'em for 35-40 minutes to cook, crisp and brown.

Now you just have to quaff a cheeky chilled pinot grigio and read a good book while you wait!

Penne with Cauliflower

Sometimes a recipe is so simple that it seems almost pathetic. But eating something that is all about one simple extraordinary flavour is what good food is all about. Important here is the freshness of the ingredients. Freshly grated cheese, (never the stuff in the green can) and black pepper straight out of the mill. Good quality olive oil.

This can be mushy cauliflower with macaroni or it can be something superb, depending on your ingredients and how you treat them.

Serves 6.

You will need:
125 ml EVOO
5 Cloves garlic, crushed
1 Head cauliflower, cored and separated into florets.
500g Penne pasta
125 ml flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
125 ml feshly grated parmesan cheese.
Salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste
Red pepper flakes to taste.

In a large sauté pan, heat the olive oil. add the garlic and cook gently until softened and lightly coloured. Add the cauliflower. Season with salt & pepper, stir well and cook until softened, about 15 minutes. Lower the heat, and simmer until the cauliflower is very tender, about 10 minutes more. It will break up a bit, that's fine. Meanwhile cooke the penne as per the instructions on the packet. Drain the pasta and add to the cauliflower, stir in the parsley and red pepper flakes and toss for a minute over high heat.

Serve topped with the grated cheese.

Honey Lemon Glazed Chicken with Fregola Sarda

A possible result of the remarkable tides of culinary influences and ideas that wash the shores of the Mediterranean, fregola sarda is a relatively obscure Sardinian pasta - a similar idea to the north African rolled wheat-balls that we know as couscous. Some poor, misled bastards may only recognise the latter in its retailed form as Ainsley Harriott’s Couscous. I feel sorry for them.

There's another Mediterranean similarity in Lebanon's 'mughrabiyeh' or Palestine's 'maftoul', also little rolled balls of wheat about the size of a black peppercorn, although not toasted like fregola. Both are served traditionally as a filling accompaniment to meat, especially chicken.

Fregola sarda, then, are rolled balls of durum wheat semolina (pasta to you, mate) which are then toasted to give a distinctive and wholly delightful vignetted brown colouring ad a totally unique flavour, earthy and rich. It’s good old fashioned peasant food and, like so many good old fashioned peasant foods, is only now available in ‘artisan’ delicatessen packets. You can get it through the Internet, specialist stockists or, if you live in Dubai, from the little shop of rare delights that graces the Grand Hyatt hotel’s Panini, probably one of the nicest places in the city to have a casual and excellent coffee, sandwich and cake.

Fregola sarda should not be confused with ‘pepe’, the little pasta balls that make up one of the many (and confusingly named) varieties of ‘soup pasta’ the Italians are so fond of – although it can be used in that role (where it adds a certain cloudiness and a lovely thickness because of the loose starch that clings to the little balls of pasta after they’ve been rubbing about in their packet). It’s more distinctive than that – it’s great as a salad ingredient in place of orzo, for instance; it makes a smashing base for little piles of roasted vegetables and can be served in warm risotto-like mixtures, replacing the Arborio.

Fregola Sarda pasta

Here it’s a base for a Mediterranean-style marinated chicken breast, although if you want to serve two, you can ditch the chicken and just serve the warm mixture of pasta, bacon and courgette.

I love grilling meats – it’s by far my favourite treatment for chicken breast and striploin steaks – and I always line the grill pan with foil to save on washing up but also to collect the juices. It helps if you push the foil down between the bars.

A note on toasting pine nuts. I like to toast pine nuts in a small, dry frying pan, tossing them with such gay abandon that excited archaeologists exploring the far-flung and darker corners of my kitchen often discover long-lost pine nuts.


Ingredients

• 4 chicken breasts

Marinade

• 50 ml honey
• 50 ml vinegar
• 50 ml white wine
• 2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Sliced zest of ½ lemon

Fregola Sarda

• 150 fregola sarda pasta
• 2 courgettes, chopped
• 25g pine nuts, toasted
• 25g parmesan, grated
• 2 rashers smoked back bacon, chopped
• 1 large shallot, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 50ml white wine

Mix together the marinade ingredients and marinate the chicken for as long as you reasonably can – ideally more than a couple of hours.

Boil a kettle of water and put the fregola sarda in a pan with a splash of olive oil.

Grill the chicken, basting with the marinade so that it browns and crisps, turning it over after about 10-12 minutes. When it’s done, allow it to sit for a short while.

While the chicken’s cooking, cook the fregola sarda. Pour the boiling water over the pasta and cook it for 12-14 minutes, stirring occasionally.

In a frying pan, fry off the shallot in the oil, adding the courgettes, the bacon and finally the garlic. Take the pan off the heat and add the wine. When the pasta has lost its hard, chalky core and is ‘al dente’, drain it off and then pour it into the courgette and bacon mixture. Toss it all together, adding the grated parmesan and, finally, the toasted pine nuts

If you’ve timed it right, the chicken will just be done and rested for five minutes – so you can slip the pasta mixture into a warmed plate, top it with a chicken breast (and maybe pour over some of the dark, sticky juices from the grill pan), serve it up with a fine pinot grigio and Robert’s yer father’s brother!

Pesce all'Acqua Pazzo

You can do this with any kind of really fresh fish, or with shrimp. Or both. I sometimes put in some squid as well. Acqua Pazzo means crazy water, in the language spoken in the boot-shaped country. This goes well with lots of rustic Italian bread. It is easy, quick and delicioso.

Ingredients:

100 ml extra-virgin olive oil (yes, lots)

1 medium onion, cut into 1 cm dice

4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

30 ml fresh hot chiles

250 g fennel, cut into 1 cm dice, fronds reserved

1 large can tomatoes with juices, squished by hand

2 cups white wine (Corvo is best, Frascati will do)

125 ml S. Pellegrino sparkling water plus 5 ml salt

16 fresh large shrimp, peeled and heads left intact, or equivalent quantity of fresh fish fillets, cut into pieces. Or a combination.

5 ml Ricard, Pernod or Ouzo.(optional)

Freshly ground pepper

Do it like this:

In a large pot, heat the oil until smoking. Add the onion, garlic, chiles, and fennel and cook 8 to 10 minutes, until soft and light golden brown. Add the tomatoes, wine, and salted water and bring to a boil. Add Pernod if using. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Add the shrimp or fish and simmer until cooked through, about 7 minutes. Don't overcook. Check salt. Pour into a soup tureen, garnish with fennel fronds or lots of chopped parsley, and serve with plenty of freshly ground pepper, and Italian bread.

Serves 4 hungry people.

Bellini

This is one of the world's classical cocktails and has also, like many of the greats in life, been subject to the most appalling abuse over the years.

The drink comes from Venice, from Harry's Bar - a place made famous not only by its legendary cocktail-inventing owner, Guiseppe Cipriani, but also its stellar clientele - people like Orszon Welles, Hemingway and Bogart gathered to quaff and scoff there. Cipriani, incidentally, founded Harry's Bar on the proceeds of lending a hard-up American businessman some cash to see him through the 1929 crash - the loan was repaid five-fold, allowing Cipriani to set up the business. So this is a great drink for a recession. That's my excuse, anyway.

Peach schnapps and champagne should never go near a Bellini, let's get that clear upfront. It's a ridiculous waste of money for a start - but also terribly unfaithful to the original. Having said that, it's hard to be truly faithful to that original as it uses white Italian peaches, which you can't generally find easily. But peach schnapps is a step too far, I feel.

The drink is made with prosecco, people. Not pop, sekt or babycham - prosecco. And reasonable prosecco can be remarkably inexpensive...

Ingredients

• 2 ripe peaches
• 1 bottle prosecco

Stone and chop the peaches, then whizz 'em in a hand blender. Strain the resulting pulp as finely as you can, ideally squeezing it through some nice, clean muslin, so that you end up with a thick, buttery and smooth pulp. This should be made fresh as it'll discolour with time and take on a brownish tinge as the peach oxidises. I find a splash of lemon helps, but you can't use too much as you'll taint the sweetness of the peach.

Divide the pulp between four decent-sized champagne flutes. I find 1 tsp of pulp in a hotel sized flute is about right - the larger Ritzenhoff glass pictured was a good 2 tsp of pulp. The 'official' recipe is 1 part pulp to 2 parts Prosecco but I do find that's too much peach. Fill the glass 1/3 with Prosecco - it will fizz up a bit. Give it a good stir to mix the peach pulp in with the prosecco and then top up the glass.

10 Serve
20 Repeat
30 GOTO 10

Risotto

Right! That's enough American food! Time to bring things back to the 'old continent'!

This is not the only risotto on The Fat Expat – HMHB’s prawn number is linked here – but this is how I likes it and should be a pretty foolproof approach to a dish that many people find a little intimidating. Like most rice cookery, it's a great deal less fuss than they'd have you believe. Whoever 'they' are - the same people that tell you not to eat potatoes with your roast or that wine is bad for you or whatever other mad fad 'they' have decided to burden us with.

This one is actually a ‘rizi bizi’, but you can play about with ingredients based around the basic principle, which remains the idea of frying the rice with onion and garlic, adding wine to cook and soak into the fat grains of Arborio rice and then cooking the rice in a good, rich stock that’s kept hot throughout the cooking process.

You need a fat-grained Italian rice like Arborio. Don't blame me if you do something daft like trying this with basmati...

Ingredients

• 215g Arborio rice
• 900ml good chicken stock
• 150ml white wine
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 70g smoked lardons/pancetta cubes
• 150g peas
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp truffle oil
• 50g fresh parmesan, grated

Put the stock in a pan and heat until it’s just about to start bubbling. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a covered frying pan over a medium heat, adding the onion and cooking for a few minutes to soften. Add in the lardons (or pancetta or other small cubes of smoky stuff you have to hand, garlic and rice and stir fry for another couple of minutes, then add the wine. Keep stirring the mixture until the wine soaks into the rice, another couple of minutes. Now ladle some of the stock into the rice mixture and give it a stir. Repeat this every time the rice mixture looks like drying out, it’ll take something like 20-25 minutes for the rice to be cooked – you’re aiming for ‘al dente’, so that there’s still some bite in the grains, so do check it frequently towards the end of the cooking time. About 15 minutes in, add the peas and the truffle oil. When it’s done, add in the parmesan and serve immediately.

Can you cook a risotto and reheat it when you want to serve it? Everyone says no, but I've tried turning off the heat when the frozen peas go in, adding the rest of the stock then reheating it later on when I'm almost ready to serve it and I've got away with it. Purists the world over are screaming blue murder, I know. But sometimes you do just want to 'get away with it', no?

Chicken Parcels

Exciting name, huh? I love these. They’re great mid-week cookery, but smart enough to serve at a dinner – simple, virtually foolproof, achingly tender chicken with a nice, Italian flavour and absolutely minimal effort. In short, we like!

Ingredients

• 4 chicken breasts
• 12 slices pancetta (or 4 of parma ham)
• 16 basil leaves
• 25g pine nuts, toasted
• 25g parmesan cheese, grated
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped

Put each chicken breast flat on a piece of cling film and fold the film over so that the breast is encased and then beat the living daylights out of it with a tenderising hammer. Don’t overdo it or you’ll smack a whole in the fillet. Try to make each blow directional so that you have a nice flat piece of chicken about 10-12 cm wide. Repeat until the four chicken pieces all give up and let you play with the trainset.

Mix the pine nuts, garlic and parmesan, then spoon this down the centre of each chicken piece. Add the basil leaves to this, then wrap each chicken piece in pancetta/parma ham.

Preheat the oven to GM6/200C/400F.

Brush a dish with oil, add the chicken parcels then cover with a loose layer of tinfoil (you can use baking sheet if you prefer) and pop into the oven for 15 minutes, then remove the covering and cook for a further five minutes. Serve on a bed of crushed tomato accompanied by lots of freshly cooked pasta.

Uber-Tomatoes

Almost sun-dried, but not quite – packed with flavour, still juicy and, well, uber-tomato! These slow-baked cherry tomatoes are great on canapés, served as a garnish, crushed to make a fast tomato base for dishes and used in any number of ways to add a little ‘Wow!’ of flavour.

Get a packet of cherry tomatoes and halve them, lay them out on a foil-lined baking tray and sprinkle them with sea-salt, pepper and a drizzling of incredibly fine EV olive oil. Bake at the lowest possible oven setting (the 'plate warmer' setting) for at least an hour, ideally two. Leave in the oven to cool down. These will keep for a good while in the 'fridge, particularly in an airtight container.

Focaccia with Herbs and Garlic

Now this will impress the guests!

Once you have started on the pizza baking put aside a good sized ball of the pizza dough and after the first rise as described give it a good knead for about 5 minutes and then shape it into a rough rectangle shape and lay in on a baking tray lined with paper.

Cover with clingfilm and leave in a warm place for about 45 minutes.

In a small bowl combine 3 tbsp EV olive oil, 2 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary and 2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped.

Preheat your oven to 220C/425F.

Remove the clingfilm and gently press dimples all over the bread. Brush well with the oil mixture and sprinkle about 1 tsp coarse sea salt over the top.

Bake for about 20 minutes until golden brown.

Remove, place on wire rack and serve whilst still warm.

PIZZA!

Is there a dish more loved, more abused and more fought over than pizza?

As long as man has had bread they have stuffed things on top of it but pizza as we now know it is a peasant dish from Naples and probably only became a popular staple around the 1830’s. Italian immigrants took it to America in the late 1800’s but it was still a while before it caught on outside of the Italian communities.

The Americans have taken this dish to their collective hearts to such an extent that there is a genuine belief that its invention originated in the US but the popularity of pizza in America only dates back to the end of WWII.

And then came the abominations of the ‘deep pan’.

The ‘Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana’ only recognise two types of pizza; the Margherita and the Marinara. The former has tomato, mozzarella and basil, representing the three colours of the Italian flag and the latter has tomato, oregano, garlic, olive oil and basil. That’s it. No more.

And no firkin pineapple chunks either.

I still think that despite the proliferation of pizza all over the world no one makes it like the Italians. This summer we spent two weeks in the French Alps and one dreary day I piled the family into the car, drove forty minutes to the incredible Mont Blanc tunnel, paid EUR40 for a return trip, emerged in sunlight the other side in the Italian ski village of Courmayer, had a fantastic pizza the size of a wagon wheel and drove home again!

I make pizza quite often at home, more because I really enjoy the process than the children enjoy eating it. All I get when I serve it up to the little cherubs is a chorus of “oh no not this again, can’t we order Pizza Express?”

Little shits.

Anyway there we go:

For the dough you will need (this makes enough for two large pizzas):

2 level tsp dried yeast
1 tsp caster sugar
350g strong white flour
225ml warm water
3 tbsp olive oil


Combine yeast, sugar and water and stir to dissolve. The water should be about blood temperature, any hotter and the yeast won’t work. Leave to one side for about 10mins. If the yeast hasn’t become frothy start over.

Put the flour and a pinch of salt into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre, add the yeast/water and the olive oil. If you have a food mixer with a dough hook use it but if not get your hands stuck in. Once all well mixed transfer to a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough for a good 5 mins until it feels elastic, put it back in the bowl, cover with a damp cloth and leave in a warm place for about 1 hour or until it has doubled in size.

Put back on the floured surface and knead for another 2 or 3 mins or so. Divide into two (or more) equal sized balls and roll out to a thin circle. None of this deep pan rubbish at The Fat Expat you know.

Preheat the oven to 240C/475F.

Lightly oil a good thick baking tray and lay the dough on top.

Open a tin of pineapple chunks and pour them all away immediately. Then self-flagellate for at least 10mins for even thinking about it.

Add the toppings, use the Basic Tomato Sauce recipe, sprinkle the fresh mozzarella and the basil. Cook in the very hot oven for about 15minutes. Remove. Devour. Thrash the children again for being so rude.

Pasta con la Mollica

This a Calabrian recipe and the paucity of the ingredients is illustrative of the poverty that used to exist in that region of the south of Italy.

I know that most of you will look at this recipe and think what a strange combination but I really do urge you to try it. This makes a fantastic, very quick and very satisfying lunch dish and it really is quite delicious.

Breadcrumbs is another odd thing that I always seem have bags of in the freezer. If any bread in the bin has gone stale I throw it in the whizzer and stick it in the freezer. It keeps for absolutely ages and you just never know when it might come in handy!


You will need:

360g spaghetti
75g white breadcrumbs
8 anchovy fillets, drained
4 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
100ml good quality EV olive oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped fine
½ to 1 tsp dried chilli flakes.
Salt

And then you need to:

Bring a big pot of salted water to a rolling boil and throw the pasta in. Cook as per instructions but probably for around 10 minutes.

Heat half the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat and chuck in the garlic, half the parsley and the chilli flakes.

Cook for only about 30 secs and add the breadcrumbs and a pinch of salt. As soon as the oil has been absorbed and the breadcrumbs started to colour add the anchovy fillets and mash them against the bottom of the pan to break them down.

Drain the spaghetti and throw it in the frying pan. Add the rest of the oil and stir fry it for about 2 minutes to make sure it is properly coated with the dressing.

Tip into a big bowl, or four individual bowls, sprinkle with the remaining parsley and serve straightaway.

Salute!

Chicken Saltimbocca

The classic version of this delicious Italian dish calls for veal, but it is pretty damn good with chicken. I have also used flattened pork fillets and it worked well.

The Real Nick can probably tell us what the name of the dish means if we ask him nicely!

There is something incredibly satisfying eating a luscious roll of golden chicken with cheese oozing out and a sweet, strong thick sauce. This is great wholesome fare.


You will need:

4 chicken breasts (or veal or pork)
4 slices prosciutto or parma ham
100g fresh mozzarella or gruyere cheese.
8 sage leaves
2 tbsp plain flour
2 tbsp EV olive oil
25g butter
50ml marsala sherry
100ml white wine
50ml good chicken stock


And then you need to:

Lay the chicken breasts one at a time on a wooden board, cover with a sheet of clingfilm and using a rolling pin flatten it out by giving it a damn good beating. Ohh yeesssss!

Sorry, where was I?

Then lay a slice or prosciutto and a quarter of the cheese on top and press it down. Lay 2 sage leaves on top and gently roll up the fillet so that the cheese/ham is on the inside. If you need to ‘pin’ it closed with a cocktail stick.

Put the flour on a flat plate and season it with a good grind of sea salt and black pepper.

Roll the fillets in the seasoned flour.

Heat a frying pan over medium heat. Add the butter and the oil. When hot add the chicken and cook for about 3 mins on each side until golden. Add the marsala, stock and wine and cook for about 5mins until the chicken is cooked through. You can add 1 tbsp of double cream as well if you want an even richer sauce.

Remove the chicken fillets and place on warmed plates. Turn up the heat to quickly reduce the liquid left until you have quite a thick sauce. Pour over the chicken fillets and serve with mashed potatoes.

What I quite like to do is place a dollop of basic tomato sauce in the middle of a warmed plate, then put the chicken on top and then spoon over the sauce. The tomato sauce really brings a wonderful addition to the flavours.

Enjoy!

Melanzane alla Parmigiano

This makes a wonderful side dish to roast lamb and is incredibly easy to throw together. Both aubergine and lamb are still in season so get out and there and make the most of it.

If you want to jazz this up a little and make it a bit posh serve it individually by layering the aubergines, tomatoes etc in a ramekin dish. It’s the little touches you know.



You will need:

2 good sized aubergines
4 plum tomatoes
100ml basic tomato sauce
200g fresh mozzarella
50g fresh parmesan, grated
Small handful fresh basil shredded.
Seasoning


And then you need to:

Slice the aubergine into quite thin rounds and then dry fry them in a frying pan until browned on both sides.

Slice the tomatoes into rounds

Wipe the bottom of a medium-sized baking dish with olive oil and then layer the cooked aubergine on the bottom. Next layer the sliced tomatoes. Spoon over the tomato sauce, sprinkle over the basil.

Chop the fresh mozzarella into little pieces and sprinkle over the top and then sprinkle the grated parmesan.

If you are serving this individually in ramekins try and make two layers of each.

Cook in a medium hot oven (180C/370F) for about ten or fifteen minutes until cheese has melted and browned slightly.

Pasta all’Arrabiata

(The spelling of the title of this recipe has been amended under instruction from The Real Nick . I hope now that it passes muster.)

This is another fantastically easy and incredibly quick recipe, especially if you have done what I have suggested and have bags of tomato sauce in the freezer. You have, haven’t you?

A spicy, tomato-ey, herby bowl of pasta, big pile of parmesan shavings and a big glass of red wine; just heavenly!

You can play around with this recipe I often add pancetta but adding good quality pork sausages (chopped up before cooking) is also great. How about a spicy fishy stew? Add a couple of anchovy fillets with the onions and garlic, and then add some cooked prawns at the end.

You will need:

1 portion of basic tomato sauce
360g penne pasta
1 large onion chopped fine
2 cloves of garlic chopped fine
1 Thai red chilli chopped fine. Or more if you like
100g pancetta cubes (optional)
Small handful of fresh basil, torn into big shreds
Pinch of dried oregano
Fresh leaf parsley, chopped fine. For garnish
Parmesan cheese


And then you need to:

Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil. Add the pasta and cook per instructions, but probably for about ten minutes.

In a large pan over a low heat gently fry onions, garlic and chilli (and pancetta if using) in about 1 tbsp EV olive oil. Cook for about 5 minutes and then add the basil leaves. Cook for a further 2 or 3 minutes until the onions are soft and translucent but not coloured.

Add the basic tomato sauce and the dried oregano and heat through.

When the pasta is cooked drain it in a colander and then tip the pasta into the pan with the sauce. Stir to make sure it is all coated and spoon into four bowls. Sprinkle with chopped parsley, a good grind of fresh black pepper and serve with a small bowl of freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Basic Tomato Sauce

I use this sauce for all sorts of things and have bags of the stuff in the freezer at all times. Its great as a pizza topping, fantastic stirred into pasta (with some fresh herbs thrown in), I add it to casseroles, anything I can think of really. So what you need to do is quadruple this recipe, make up a huge batch, divide it into four portions in freezer bags and use it as and when required.

The amount below makes about enough to use as a pasta sauce for four people.


You will need:

1 large onion, chopped fine
4 cloves of garlic, chopped fine
1 carrot, peeled and grated
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp sugar
100ml red wine
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Seasoning

And then you need to:

In a large pan over a low flame heat a good glug of EV olive oil and then gently fry the onions, garlic and grated carrot.

After about ten minutes but before the onions start to colour add the rest of the ingredients and simmer very gently for a further 20 minutes until it has thickened quite nicely. You should have a pan full of very deep dark red yumminess.

Pour into a food processor and whizz to a very fine sauce.

Couldn't be easier!

Spaghetti alla Vongole

Another delicious dish that can be placed on the table in less than 30 minutes from getting home. I reckon this is one of my favourite pasta dishes and I am surprised every time I cook it that I don’t do so more often.

I add cream to mine which is anything but regulation and would have me tarred and feathered in Sicily but hey ho. If you are feeling very adventurous also add two plum tomatoes that have been peeled and seeded and chopped fine. Also try pancetta.

You will need:

1 kg clams
4 cloves garlic, crushed chopped roughly
1 large onion, chopped fine
1 red chilli chopped fine or ½ tsp chilli flakes
250ml white wine
360g spaghetti
A good sized handful of fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped roughly
30g butter
2 tbsp EV olive oil
2 tbsp double cream
1 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice

And then you need to:

First up put a large pan of salted water on to boil. As soon as a good rolling boil has been reached throw in the pasta and cook per instructions.

Wash the clams well in lots of running water and drain in a colander.

In a large heavy based pan (with a lid) melt the butter and olive oil over a gentle heat and then lightly fry the garlic, onions and chilli (and tomatoes and pancetta if using)

Once the onions are translucent, increase the heat slightly and throw in the clams, the wine, the cream and the lemon juice. Cook for about 5 to 7 minutes. Discard any clams that haven’t opened fully.

Drain the pasta and tip it into the pan with the clams. Chuck in the parsley. Give it all a really good stir and shake around to really coat the pasta and then serve either in four bowls or one large one for everyone to dig into.

Crab Spaghettini

Another one of June’s highlights is crab.

I am sure I am not alone in finding crab a real bore to both prepare and dress. All that work for very little reward. But isn’t it fantastic when you do finally managed to prise those little morsels from all the nooks and crannies.

Crab has such a delicate flavour that it needs very little in the way of adornment otherwise it will be swamped. I have to admit that I don’t really ‘get’ the French insistence of serving crab with homemade mayonnaise, or even a rouille, as it completely takes over and obliterates the crab. A very big surprise that I discovered recently was what a fantastic accompaniment the Thai dipping sauce, prik nam pla, is for crab. Somehow it really seems to bring out the delicate flavours.

Anyway, you will need:

4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, very finely chopped
1 red chilli, seeds and pith removed, finely chopped
4 spring onions, white parts only, finely sliced
360g spaghettini, tagliarini or linguine
Juice of ½ lemon (maybe more, taste test before serving)
300g fresh crab meat (white, or a mix of white and brown)
2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
A small handful of basil leaves

(you can also add some very finely chopped drained sun-dried tomatoes as well)


And then you need to:

Bring a large pan of lightly salted water to the boil.

Meanwhile, heat half the oil in a small pan and sauté the garlic, chilli and spring onions for 1-2 minutes: they mustn’t colour.

Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions.

Drain, leaving about 1 tbsp of water in the pan.

Tip in the garlic, chilli, onions and the oil they were cooked in. Add the chopped tomatoes as well if you are using.

Return the pasta to the pan, then add the remaining oil, lemon juice, crab and parsley, and season.

Mix thoroughly, so that the pasta is well coated, then tear the basil leaves and stir in. Serve immediately.

Tagliatelle with Gorgonzola, pancetta and toasted walnuts

This is another entry in the occasional series of recipes that shows you how to get food on the table in less than 30 minutes.

A very, very simple dish but delicious nonetheless.

You will need:

360g tagliatelle pasta
100g walnuts
50g butter
100g gorgonzola
100g lardons or cubes of pancetta
150ml fresh cream
4 spring onions, trimmed and chopped very fine.
4 fresh basil leaves, chopped
Grated fresh parmesan


Okay, follow these instructions step by step and you will be sitting down and eating in no time.

Pre-heat an oven to 180C/350F.

Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil.

Spread the walnuts out on a baking tray and pop in the hot oven. Roast for 6 minutes, remove and chop up roughly with a big knife.

In a saucepan gently fry the pancetta with a little bit of EV olive oil until crispy. Remove and drain on kitchen paper.

The water should be boiling by now so throw in the pasta, cook per instructions but probably for about 8 mins.

Melt the butter over a low heat, add the gorgonzola and then the cream and cook gently until all melted and it has become a creamy sauce.

Drain the pasta and return it to the big pot.

Add the spring onions, the basil, the crispy pancetta and the walnuts to the creamy sauce and then pour the sauce over the pasta. Give it a good stir to coat and serve.

Sprinkle with grated parmesan and some freshly ground black pepper.

Tortoni Al Cioccolato

This recipe serves 8

This is the uber-dessert, the King Solomon’s Mines of dessert – the mother-lode and the grail rolled up into an explosive, amazing, grin-inducing rush that makes freebasing look like campanology. This is class personified: a dessert so good that I guarantee you will make it again and again and again. And you’d better give The Fat Expat all the credit every time you do, or we’ll know and then things will get very, very messy for you. Kapisch?

First things first. It’s a brandy-laced dark chocolate mousse wrapped around a light creamy core of almondy ratafia biscuits. And it’s good. It’s not hard to make, but you need to follow da rules and give yourself a little time to do it. The good news is that you need, ideally, to make it the night before. The better news is that it freezes like a dream. The best news of all is that it’s ideal for making two bowls, freezing one and serving one, if you want to serve four. And the bestest mother of all news news is that it’s really damn good and has never, ever, failed to make guests go ‘ooOOOoooooh’ in a sort of When Harry met Sally sort of way. Which is always a nice way to end a dinner party.

Have a read through the recipe first so that you’re comfortable with it all. You’re basically whipping the biscuit in some cream and saving it, warming some chocolate and whipping some egg yolks into it to make a paste and then whipping some egg whites to fold into the chocolate mixture before pouring the chocolate around the biscuit/cream mixture. The result is a rich, heady dark chocolate mousse with a light almondy centre.

Don’t worry about using the maddest 99% cocoa chocolate: anything quality, over 40% cocoa is fine. Do try and use proper ratafia or Amarettini biscuits (about 2 packs of Amarettini) or, if you really can’t get ‘em, use crushed macaroons. You’re looking for crisp biscuits, incidentally, not the soft Amaretti Dolce.

If you’d like to avoid the alcohol, substitute the brandy with 1 tbsp Demerara sugar or date syrup dissolved in 2 tbsp water.

If you make this and become the most popular person in the world for a few moments, do email me and offer me all your worldly goods. I’ve opened an account in anticipation...

Ingredients

• 350g bitter chocolate
• 25g butter
• 8 eggs
• 2 tbsp brandy
• 2 tbsp strong coffee
• 425ml whipping cream
• 20 ratafias

Crush the biscuits lightly into chunks (not crumbs). Whip the cream carefully until it’s just firmed up enough to form peaks and then fold the biscuits into the cream, cover the whole lot with cling film and then save it in the fridge.

Separate the eggs carefully, making sure you don’t let any yolk escape into the whites. If this happens it stops the whites whipping properly and you will have to perform a complex purifying ritual and run naked around the house four times. I do ‘em one at a time into a measuring jug to catch each white then pour it into a roomy bowl, which is insurance against any broken yolks. Keep the yolks in another bowl.

Make your coffee. You can use a madly strong espresso if you’re a purist, or do a number with instant coffee – about 1 tsp of decent instant coffee to 2 tbsp of water should do the trick. It’s better with espresso.

Now break the chocolate into pieces and melt it together with the butter. You can do this in a bowl suspended over a pan of boiling water or, carefully, in a microwave. Either way, it’s important that the chocolate doesn’t boil and burn.

Get your electric whisk out and, using a largeish bowl, start to whisk the melted chocolate, adding the egg yolks one at a time, whisking it in well to combine well before popping in the next one. Once the mixture has become glossy, add the coffee and then the brandy. 

Clean and thoroughly dry the beaters of the whisk and then beat the egg whites without mercy until they’re just forming stiff peaks.

Now fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, using the biggest metal spoon you’ve got, a spoon at a time. It’s critically important that you do this with a light hand, so think beautiful thoughts about puppy dogs and romantic champagne sunset moments or whatever floats your chill-out boat as you scoop, fold and combine each new, quivering spoonful of egg white into the increasingly buoyant mixture in the bowl with a nice, steady rhythm that leaves no great lumps of egg-white in the mixture.

Now pour a third of the chocolate mixture into a high sided serving bowl, something about 20cm across by 10cm high, then add the whipped cream and ratafia mixture from the fridge. Pour the rest of the mixture around it to cover it and then return the lot, covered in film, to the fridge. You’ll need at least two hours of standing time – ideally overnight – for everything to set well. Then you can serve it, decorated with whole ratafia biscuits, cream whirls, shavings of white chocolate or perhaps a tasteful fibre-optic model of the Burj Al Arab.

An alternative, incidentally, is to make individual ramekins of tortoni. This is a neat way to serve it if you have deep individual ramekins.

Medzo

Medzo

Wafi City

Dubai

Tel: 04 324 4100
Email: fnb.sales@wafi.com

Medzo has a business lunch set menu which is pretty inexpensive at Dhs85 and quick to serve. For some reason, it’s not automatically offered to lunch guests which means you’re effectively stuck with the big boy’s menu if you’re hosting a largish group.

The set menu, incidentally, includes a choice of three starters from a list of delicious looking things. Be warned – you get three canapé toppings the size of your thumbnail arranged on a plate. Go for the seafood salad starter if you actually want to get through lunch before your blood sugar levels drop too low.

I’ve never seen it busy at lunch, which is a shame, because few things are more depressing than empty restaurants.

Medzo is billed as an Italian restaurant (well, as a ‘contemporary Italian menu with a Mediterranean’ twist, whatever that is), but it’s almost self-consciously chic to the point where you are in danger of missing the Italian theme: this is also true of the food, with a menu that, although it does contain ‘antipasti’ and ‘pasta’ and ‘pizze’, is heavier on pan fried this and that served with this and that mash and a glaze of balsamic somethingorother. While these make all the right noises, they don’t necessarily make for great food: it can all jar a little, to be honest.

For starters, various members of the party had: the potato soup (excellent), goat’s cheese and pistachio ‘canneloni’ (liked it), the mixed seafood salad (loved it to death) and I took the lobster and tomato soup, which was fine but didn’t leave me breathless with excitement. It had something of an identity crisis, sort of wanting to be a bisque but not having the weight, aspiring to be a consommé but not having the depth of flavour. You’ll notice I was the only one being picky here.

The mains arrived: several went for the pizza, which was enjoyed universally. But then if you can’t make a pizza, you’d really want to be shutting up shop, wouldn’t you? An order of carbonara, off menu, came as a spaghetti and was enjoyed but looked like it had spent a few minutes too long under the UV lamps: similarly, my fillet steak had spent a while sitting around, my fault for ordering medium to well. It was, again, fine but not in any way remarkable or special. The presentation, incidentally was nice, as it was for all of the main courses that came out. Three had the duck, “pan seared marinated lavender duck breast with caramelised peach, glazed carrot and pumpkin mash” and said that they enjoyed it.

The service was a little patchy: in an empty restaurant you’d expect a little more attention when you needed it and the plates came out in bursts of activity rather than one flurry. It’s slightly odd to be offered food that’s been hanging around waiting to expedited when the kitchen can hardly be busy, but that’s the breaks I guess.

It being lunchtme, we skipped desserts and slipped down a coffee instead before getting back to the hamster wheel.

As a business lunch, Medzo is not bad at all but then not inspired, either. It’s a little empty, the service is a little slow and the food is, although it presents some interesting ideas and is perfectly competently executed, not jaw-droppingly great. I’d probably go back for lunch but I’d probably skip on having that special evening meal here.