BLUE CHEESE CARBONARA

As I have mentioned in my blog previously, my daughter Arabella's favourite dish is carbonara - she would eat it every week if she could. I really like it but it's not my favourite. However I saw this recipe of carbonara with blue cheese in the Sunday Times magazine and I thought it had my name all over it!! It is a Jamie Oliver recipe and he does suggest adding pears to it which I left out as I hate sweet and savoury but if you like that kind of thing just add a couple of thinly sliced pears to the frying pan with the garlic and rosemary.

Here is the recipe for 3 people and it took about 15 minutes.

Ingredients for 3 people:

3 large free-range egg yolks
2 tbsp creme fraiche
100g Stilton
350g dried spaghetti (or similar pasta)
A small knob of butter
Olive oil
8 rashes of smoked streaky bacon, sliced into 5mm pieces (or thereabouts)
A few sprigs of rosemary, leaves picked and chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
Juice of half a lemon 
Rocket leaves to serve

Crack the egg yolks into a bowl, add the creme fraiche, season and whisk with a fork.

Crumble in the Stilton as finely as you can and stir in (mine was pretty lumpy but it melted when you add it to the pasta)!

Cook the pasta according to the packet's instructions in a pan of salted boiling water - mine took 8 minutes.

At the same time in a frying pan, melt the butter with a drizzle of olive oil over a medium heat.

Add the bacon and fry until golden, stirring all the time.

Then add the rosemary and garlic and fry for another couple of minutes.

Drain the pasta but reserve a couple of cups of cooking water for later.

Add the egg, creme fraiche and cheese mixture as well as the bacon, garlic and rosemary to the pasta.

Add a squeeze of lemon and some of the cooking water (add a splash at a time) and mix all together as quickly as possible.

Serve immediately with a few rocket leaves scattered on top.

This was absolutely amazing!! Pascal rated it as his favourite ever pasta dish and it could be mine too - it worked wonderfully and we also used gluten free pasta as then we don't feel so stuffed afterwards. Arabella prefers Pascal's Pasta Carbonara as she isn't a huge fan of blue cheese but she still ate the lot. The best thing about this dish is even though it was cheesy, it still tasted incredibly light. I would highly recommend it!

SUMMER HERB, FETA & COURGETTE RISOTTO

I bought a little herb garden today as I am constantly buying herbs for recipes and then having to throw half of them away. I hate the waste so hopefully by growing my own I can avoid this….but we will see…I don't have much success in keeping herbs (or flowers) alive! 

This recipe requires lots of herbs so it is perfect for summer - I used the entire pack so there was no leftovers to bin! It was very easy to make and took about 40 minutes in total.

Ingredients for 4 people:

2 tbsp olive oil
500g courgettes, halved length ways and thinly sliced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
350g arborio risotto rice
1.2 litres of vegetable stock
25g pack of fresh basil, chopped
20g pack fresh mint, chopped
150g feta cheese, chopped

Heat the oil in a large pan and add the sliced courgettes. Fry over a medium heat for 5 minutes until golden on both sides.

Add the garlic and season, then cook for a further minute.

Stir in the rice and cook for 1 minute until coated in oil.

Add the stock to the rice a ladleful at a time, stirring until each amount is absorbed.

Continue until all the stock is added and the rice is creamy and just tender - it should have a little bite to it. This will take about 20 minutes.

Take it off the heat and then stir in the feta and the herbs. I had chopped them using scissors in a mug.

Leave to rest for a couple of minutes.

Season further if necessary and then serve.

This risotto is perfect for this time of year - it tastes so fresh and summery with all the herbs and the feta reminds me of being on holiday in Greece. My husband Pascal always complains about not liking feta but he thought this risotto was so delicious and light - unfortunately my daughter Arabella wasn't such a fan as she doesn't like mint (I will remind her of this next time she wants one of my polo mints)! Still she ate it (with some extra Parmesan) and didn't moan too much. Hopefully next time I cook this it will be with my home  grown herbs!!

GREEN GODDESS SALAD

Now it is "summer" I am trying to cook more barbecues and protein based meals as it is good for the bikini body!!

This is a salad I ripped out from Olive magazine, it is called the "Green Goddess" salad after the green herb dressing which was very popular in the US in the 1970s - apparently is now having a comeback. We served it with some sausages however you could have it on it's own or with chicken or steak or fish or whatever you fancied. It took about 20 minutes to make and was really easy.

Ingredients for 2 people:

60g quinoa
100g peas
2 tbsp lemon juice
50g rocket leaves
An avocado, chopped
8 slices of smoked streaky bacon, chopped
80g feta, chopped into bite size pieces

Green Goddess Dressing:
2 spring onions, chopped including the green bits
Half a lemon, juiced
2 tbsp of mayonnaise
A small bunch of basil (about 8g), chopped
A small bunch of chives (about 8g), chopped
3 tbsp water

Cook the quinoa according to the packet's instructions - mine took 15 minutes in simmering water.

At the same time cook the peas in boiling water. Mine were frozen and took 4 minutes.

Grill the bacon according to the packet instructions, mine took about 10 minutes.

Our salad bowl has cracked :-( and so we had to improvise with a different style dish.

Once the quinoa is cooked, drain and rinse and then add to the bowl along with the peas, lemon juice and some seasoning. Top with the bacon and feta.

Then add the avocado and rocket.

Mix all together.

For the dressing just add the spring onions, lemon juice, mayonnaise, basil, chives and water into a food processor and whizz into a puree.

Then drizzle over the salad and tuck in.

This was really really good - so fresh and mouthwatering. My husband Pascal had typically turned his nose up at it once he saw it had quinoa in it but once he tasted it, he couldn't get over how delicious it was. If you don't like feta, you could use goat's cheese or mozzarella or even leave it out. The same goes for the bacon, if you are a vegetarian, you could go without. As I said at the beginning you can have the salad with something or on it's own - I think it would be a great summer lunch idea with some crusty french bread….and maybe some more cheese ;-)

COD WITH OLIVES, CAPERS & TOMATOES

I have mentioned in previous posts that I follow the 5:2 diet / the fast diet - it is the first time I have ever managed to stick to an eating plan which makes it impressive as I have been on a diet on and off since I was a 10 years old! My family used to very kindly tell me it was "puppy fat"!

Thankfully my daughter has a completely different body type to me (tall and skinny) but still I do not like to talk about diets, calories or fat in the house so when I have a fast day (500 calories) I need to be very careful about it. 

Last night I cooked this fish dish for myself but for my daughter I topped the fish with pesto and she had the olives and tomatoes on the side (she is not a fan of capers). It took about 15 minutes maximum and was very simple.

Ingredients for 2 people:

200g green beans
2 pieces of skinless cod or haddock (around 300g)
Olive oil or fry light 
1 tsp rosemary, chopped
30g green olives, pitted and quartered
2 tsp capers
8 cherry tomatoes, diced
Half a lemon, juiced

Preheat the grill and season the fish. Cook according to the instructions - mine took 12 minutes under a medium grill.

Prepare the tomatoes, capers, rosemary and olives.

About 5 minutes before the fish is ready, boil the green beans and then drain.

Then either spray some fry light (or if you are not counting calories add a tablespoon of olive oil) into a frying pan and add the olives, rosemary, tomatoes and capers for a couple of minutes. Season.

Squeeze in the lemon juice and let it bubble for a minute.

Then serve with the fish sitting on the beans and spoon over the sauce.

Such a pretty plate….and it was extremely fresh and tasty too. Very surprising as it is only 185 calories. I think the capers were the secret ingredient, they go so well with fish. Next time I might add some extra vegetables like peas and add some new potatoes for Arabella or Pascal although it is pretty perfect as it is!

THE IVY CHELSEA GARDEN, CHELSEA

The Ivy Chelsea Garden opened up last month on the old site of Henry J Beans on the King's road. I used to be a huge fan of Henry J Beans as it was where I had my first ever date (many years ago) and also the venue of many fun nights out. However now as The Ivy Chelsea Garden, it couldn't be more different…..it looks amazing! It really has the wow factor - very light, luxurious, lots of green and plenty of mirrors everywhere and the la piece de resistance is the beautiful garden and terrace at the back. 

Already the restaurant and bar are super popular and it is hard to get a table - the restaurant is open for breakfast, brunch, lunch, afternoon tea and supper. My friend Ceri and I decided to take a chance and go for an early supper on Saturday night at 6.30pm. Thankfully we lucked out (we had read that some tables for set aside for walk-ins but weren't sure if this was true or not)!

The menu is pretty vast and Ceri and I actually had to sit in silence for a bit in order to decide what to eat - so much to choose from!

For starter I had smoked salmon and crab and chive cream with sourdough toast. This was well presented and tasted very fresh however it was also extremely bland. They either forgot to add the chive cream or only added such a minuscule amount that you could not taste it. Shame as it has the potential to be a simple yet delicious dish.

Ceri's starter was much more successful - she ordered tuna carpaccio with spiced avocado, lime, creme fraiche and coriander shoots. This was incredible - the tuna literally melted in your mouth with an explosion of flavours - I will definitely be having this next time.

For mains we both went for the Chelsea Garden fishcake with creamed spinach, a soft poached hen's egg and hollandaise sauce. I have had the fishcake at the Ivy's sister restaurants and always been a fan. It was big and tasty and went really well with the hollandaise. Ceri found it heavy and too much though (she is not a little piggy like me)!

The pudding menu is a delight and we were definitely going to have something - unfortunately the restaurant had other ideas and tried to hurry us off our table despite never being given a time limit when we sat down and we had only been there 1 hour and 15 minutes! So much for the impeccable service.

Anyway I ordered the melting chocolate bombe with milk foam, vanilla ice cream, with a honeycomb centre and hot salted caramel sauce. This was phenomenal!! Probably one of the best puddings I have ever had - I cannot rate it highly enough. I will be coming back here whenever I need a pudding fix (which is often).

Ceri order the dark treacle tart with clotted cream ice cream and Jersey pouring cream. Unfortunately this was a let down as it was so cold - it tasted like it had literally just been pulled out of the fridge or freezer. Maybe it was because they wanted our table, that they didn't prepare it properly or maybe it just isn't one of their best dishes - who knows?

No time for tea and our meal was over. We both agreed that the setting was beautiful and outstanding, other than the timing incident, service was very efficient and friendly - the food was mixed however it was very reasonably priced for such a restaurant. I will be back though - I am keen to try the breakfast and the burger and I "need" to have that pudding again…..now!! Taxi!!

The Ivy Chelsea Garden

197 King's Road

London

SW3 5ED

Tel: 020 3301 0300