FULLY RAGU'Y

An Italian Beef Ragu with a casereccie gemelli shaped pasta topped with dollops of ricotta and a freshly zested lemon with finely chopped parsley. This is the dish you spend all day salivating for. This is the dish that makes you want to go for more and more and more. This is one of my favourite foods. Absolutely Delcimo! SO rich and hearty, perfect for winter and for big groups of people to feast on.  

    

This shape of pasta is perfect for the sauce, it grabs the perfectly tendor beef in its clasps and doesn't let go. Fusilli is another substitution. You can find it at good delis, and takes a little longer to cook. Actually 18 minutes.

Recipe for Beef Ragu with pasta. 

500 g Chuck beef Steak
1 brown onion
2 cloves of garlic
200g of speck or bacon.
2 carrots
1 tbsTomato paste
2 cans of chopped tomatoes in tomato juice
splash of red wine
Packet of casereccie gemelli pasta, or Fusilli.
Parley
1 lemon
smooth ricotta


Get a crock pot on the stove. Cook off the speck, then put aside.
Caramelise the beef and put aside
Cook the onion in some olive oil until they sweat.
Add the carrots and cook a little more.
Add the garlic and other ingredients that were put aside as well as the tomato paste.
Cook off for 2 mins and add a splash of wine
Then the tomatoes. cover and let it simmer for 1 hour or until the meat is tender.

Cook the pasta and drop it into the thick sauce. Season with salt and serve with the zest of a lemon, chopped parsley and big dollops of ricotta.

Wowweee this is yummy.

Caesar Pleasar!

Fill your hunger pains with a salad like no other! Caesar salad for dinner is a crowd pleaser! The crunchy croutons, that hide under tender and crisp cos lettuce leaves, give this salad it's texture touch! Not to mention the gooey egg and bacon pieces that tuck in and behind all crevices of the salad. But its the dressing that makes a statement. A lemon-tangy mayo with an anchovy spin that leaves u wanting more! It's quick and easy. So thank Mr. Caesar tonight and whip it up! Add chicken if u want some extra protein and you've got yourself a balanced healthy meal. If you serve this people will go at it with hammers and tongs.

It's a Caesar Pleasar!!!

Recipe for a Caesar Pleasar:


4 eggs
1 cos lettuce
Bacon
Good mayonnaise
Sourdough
Olive oil
Lemon
Anchovy fillets
parsley


 To boil the eggs, put the eggs in a pot of cold water bring to the boil turn the heat off and cover with a lid for 6 minutes. Then rinse rapidly under cold water or leave in iced water to cool.


Slice bacon to small prices and cook in pan until crispy
Remove bacon and add sourdough pieces and some olive oil. Cook to golden brown.


For dressing take a big spoon of mayo, finely dice the anchovy and parsley and add with a squeeze of Lemon juice. Taste and adjust accordingly


Peel eggs and assemble the salad!

Plates should look like this after salad has been consumed. 

Duck. Duck. Duck.... Juice!!!...... Cherry Juice.

The marriage of duck to sweetness is undeniable, they were made for each other! Duck a'la'orange being a well known classic! For it is ducks' yummy juicy fat, that lines its breasts and legs, that longs for sweetness. A contrast that is needed by its deliciously pink flesh which cannot be matched by much else. Here we have a breast coated in a sweet cherry sauce and fanned out onto a lip-licking salad of rocket, thinly sliced fennel and segments of flavour-squirting-mandarin. To soak up all the delicious juices i chucked in some duck fat roasted croutons, and some confit tomatoes that were cooked in the rendered duck fat. 

 Life has many simple pleasures. Duck was one of them tonight.

Cherry Duck with fennel salad:

Duck breast

Rocket

Mandarin

Fennel

Cherry-vine tomatoes

Sourdough

A nice Cherry Jam, or Some frozen sour cherries that can be cooked with sugar, water and orange peel to make your own sauce. 

Preheat oven to 180 Degrees.

Start with a cold pan. Score your duck and massage with salt and pepper

Place in a pan and turn it on to medium heat

Leave for 3 or so minutes untill the skin is golden brown and then turn it over

Cook for 1-2 mins then remove from rendered fat and place on oiled tray

Quickly chuck in your tomatoes to the fat and spoon over the oils for 2 minutes then place on the tray with the duck

Grab your sourdough and also get it in the pan to let it soak up the duck fat.

Also put it on the tray with the duck.

Put into a 180 degree oven for 10 or so minutes.

While its cooking thinly slice your fennel, and toss with the rocket and segments of mandarin. 

Dress with a teaspoon of balsamic and a good slosh of olive oil. 

Pull your duck out and let it rest for 5 minutes 

Cut up your roasted bread into croutons and plate-up with your salad.

Heat your jam in the microwave or on the stove

Slice your duck and fan it out onto the salad. Then spoon the liquid cherry goodness over the juicy meat. Chuck the tomatoes on the side. 

Grab your knife & fork and Love Your Duck.