Smokey bacon spaghetti bolognese

I have cooked a lot of spaghetti bolognese over the years and I was pretty much making this one up as I went along, but it worked out great. I put plenty of smoked bacon in there at the start and that was the main flavour along with the beef. After the recent snow and ice the thyme was looking a bit forlorn in the back garden, but I put a big bunch of that in as well.

Heat a good glug of olive oil in a thick based pot. Cut the rinds off each of the 3 rashers of back bacon in a single piece. Throw these rinds into the pot and let them start frying while you chop the rest of the bacon into small pieces. Add the rest of the bacon along with 2 chopped onions. Let the whole lot fry for about 10 minutes. Then add a finely chopped carrot and 2 sticks of celery.
Next add a kilogram of good quality beef mince. This needs to be good stuff. Use cheap mince and the dish will have a greasy flavour. Break the mince up with a wooden spoon and brown it through. Next add plenty of thyme on the twigs. Give it a rinse first, but don't bother chopping it. You will just fish that out of the sauce before serving.
Add 2 tins of plum tomatoes and stir to break them up a bit. About 2 tablespoons of tomato puree goes in next. Give the whole lot a good stir and simmer on a low heat for about 40 minutes. Check that the carrots and celery are cooked through. Fish out the bacon rinds and the thyme. The sauce is now ready, but you can leave it on a low heat while you cook the pasta. I did not add any extra salt to this and just seasoned with some black pepper. when the sauce was ready I took out a couple of portions for baby dinners and then added about a small glass of red wine.

Cook your spaghetti in plenty of salted water. I used wholewheat as I think it tastes better.

Finally grate plenty of parmesan cheese on top of the sauce in the serving dishes.

O'Hara's Irish Red Beer

I had a bottle of this gorgeous brown beer last night and it was delicious to the last drop. It's not easy to find Irish beer in Ireland. I don't count the stuff made by companies like Diageo. These are international businesses driven by profit and slick marketing campaigns. They do what they do, but it's bland mass market stuff. If you don't believe me, try some beer from the Carlow Brewing Company. This is beer with taste at the top of the agenda. Savor is more a word used by wine drinkers, but this is beer that rivals the best wines for its dedication to pleasing the customer, not just emptying their wallets. 

Make sure you ask your local beer shop to get some in. Leave the freezing alcopops on the shelf. Grown up drinkers owe it to themselves.

Pea and parsnip soup with aniseed

This recipe is inspired by the excellent book by Niki Segnit The Flavour Thesaurus. I have added some aniseed to her pea and parsnip soup. The flavours all worked well together and it was dead easy to prepare.
To get the aniseed give one clove of star anise a good whack in a mortar and pestle. Then peel out the individual aniseeds, throw the husk out and crush the aniseeds.

Take 2 large parsnips and peel and chop them into large dice. Fry a chopped onion in a good glug of olive oil. (Don't use extra virgin for this as its likely to burn a bit). Add the parsnip to the fried onions and give it a good stir. Cover with about a litre of vegetable stock. I used Marigold Swiss Bouillon in boiling water. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 10 minutes or until the parsnip is soft. Then add 300g of frozen peas and the crushed aniseeds from one star anise. I am going to use a bit more of this next time, but the flavour of aniseed can be a bit overpowering, so go easy on it first time. Season with some pepper. You probably won't need any salt if the stock is salty enough, so try a spoonful first. Bring it back to the boil and simmer for about 5 minutes. Liquidise and serve.

Ideal mid week and I still have plenty of parsnips from the garden. I never do well with peas unfortunately, so frozen it has to be. Vegetarian, filling and very tasty. We had this for a light dinner for 2 people, but it would be a great lunch in smaller portions.

A Christmas plate

Turkey and ham for four days in a row :-) That's what we do in Ireland; buy the biggest ham and turkey for dinner on Christmas day and continue eating until it's all gone. Delicious, but breaks you down eventually. It being Christmas there were plenty of deli type things in the fridge to make up a tasty supper plate. A good portion of smoked salmon with lemon juice is the main event here. A little pile of capers to sharpen it up. A selection of cheeses - normally we just have sharp cheddar in the fridge, but between gifts and pre-christmas treat shopping we had a good few to choose from. Some nice unpasteruised brie, a small piece of blue cheese and a little heap of crumbly Wensleydale with cranberries. A few gerkins for bite and a selection of crackers finished the whole lot off. We had a glass of Spanish red with this. A perfect break from the big dinners of the last few days.