The Recycled Cook

The Recycled Cook Penne, Chicken and Mushroom Cacciatori   Nothing quite as satisfying as a good pasta dish, for this one I used Penne pasta or quills due to their pen like shape. Cacciatori means hunter so this is basically hunter's chicken and mushroom although you  could leave out the chicken and have it as a vegetarian dish. This sauce will work with any kind of pasta but Penne was what I had readily available. Although I prefer fresh pasta or home made egg pasta I try and keep some dried pasta available too. As always these dishes it is down  what you have left over in the fridge and freezer. I found a chicken  breast  in the freezer, some mushrooms, celery, spring onions half a yellow pepper and some baby tomatoes in the fridge so built the dish around those. The first thing to do was to defrost the chicken breast thoroughly, season it well with salt, black pepper and dried oregano, rub with garlic...

The Recycled Cook Baba Ghanush Had a clear out of the fridge today and  found two seriously sad looking Aubergines (Eggplants) so thought I would use them up in a blog. What better way than to make the classic Middle Eastern dip, Baba Ghanush, (Father's indulgence) The aubergine equivalent to Humus. The first thing to do is to roast the Aubergine in their skins in a moderate oven (180°C / Gas mark 5) for about 40 minutes. Once this is done let them cool, then remove the flesh from the skins. Put the flesh in a mixing bowl and add a quarter cup of Plain Yoghurt, a quarter cup of Tahini, the juice of half a lemon, a quarter teaspoon of Cumin and two tablespoons of Sesame Oil (Olive oil will do just fine). Put all the ingredients into a blender and whisk into a smooth paste, if you don't have a blender you could make this with a Mouli too. You could blend it by hand but...