LaLa's Chorizo Pasta Linguine

When you plate this beautiful dish up to serve to your guests, it appears like you've been slaving away in the kitchen! Little do they know that it has so few (and easily accessible) ingredients and it took you next to no time to make; but they don't have to know that ;) This recipe is a fusion of my love of chorizo and Nigella Lawson's Linguine with Lemon, Garlic and Thyme recipe. So with that in mind, you can guarantee this is a fast dish to make without compromising on taste. 

Serves 4-6 | 20 minutes

Ingredients

250g sliced button mushrooms (one punnet)

2 Chorizo sausages, sliced thinly

1 250g packet pasta (thick Spaghetti or Linguini) 

2 teaspoon minced garlic*

1 Tablespoons lemon juice*

2 teaspoon dried Thyme* 

2 teaspoon dried Parsley*

Salt and Pepper to taste*

*These ingredients can vary according to the taste of the guest. Measurements provided in this recipe make for a strongly flavoured dish. 

1. Boil pasta as per packet instructions, then set aside. 

2. Fry the chorizo on both sides using a non-stick pan. When chorizo is browned on each side, keep chorizo aside but do not disregard the oil. 

3. Fry garlic, thyme, parsley and lemon juice using the chorizo oil. Then add mushrooms and continue stirring until cooked to desired state. 

4. Once mushroom is cooked, return chorizo and mix in the pasta ensuring the oils and juice coat the pasta. 

5. Serve up your Chorizo pasta to guests!

Chorizo and Scallop

As fancy as this dish sounds, it does not reflect just how simple and easy it is to cook. Using so few yet oh so tasty ingredients means you can impress the guests, or indulge yourself, in this sumptuous dish by Nigella Lawson.

Makes 8 as a starter | 15 minutes
Ingredients
1 chorizo sausage
250g scallops
1 tablespoon parsley (fresh or dried)
¹/₂ juice of half a lemon


1. Thinly slice your chorizo sausage and if the scallops you've purchased are thick, slice them in half length ways to make thin discs.

2. Heat up a frying pan on medium-high and cook the chorizo on both sides. When done, place on a separate plate but do not remove the oil from the pan.

3. Now sear the scallops in the chorizo oil on both sides.

3. Once the scallops are cooked, return the chorizo to the pan and add the lemon juice and parsley. Mix through for a few minutes to infuse.

4. When all the flavours have infused, divvy into serving portions and enjoy!

** Original recipe from Nigella Lawson's Quick Collection app - Scallop & Chorizo **

Quickie Quiche

This recipe was made by request from my husband who loves quiche. Now the only experience I've had with eating quiche are those frozen party quiches. I've never tasted a fresh quiche, let alone made one, so this was going to be quite the experience for me. Going through a few quiche recipes, I opted for the pastry-less version because I often find I don't have such an item in my freezer. I think this would be great for those nights when you really can't be bothered making dinner, yet you also don't want to settle for greasy take-away that you know you're going to regret later. So this is my Quickie Quiche recipe, which is so easy that the kids could probably make it too!

Serves 6 | 45 minutes

Ingredients

4 eggs

125g grated cheese

125g chopped bacon

100g sliced mushrooms

1 onion, finely chopped

½ cup self raising flour

1½ cups milk

1 tablespoon parsley

Spray of olive oil

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C and line your tray (quiche, baking or cake) with grease or baking paper. Dice your onions and slice your mushrooms.

2. On medium heat, fry up your onions and bacon until reasonably cooked. Then add mushrooms.

3. When mushrooms are semi-cooked, transfer the onions, bacon and mushrooms into a bowl.

4. Add the remaining ingredients into the bowl and mix through. Once thoroughly mixed through, transfer onto your baking dish.

5. Place into your oven to cook for approximately 30 minutes or until set. The top of the quiche should be lightly golden at the top. Let it to slightly cool and serve.

Notes and Variations

What I love about this recipe is its versatility; remove the ham to make it a lovely vegetarian dish, or add more vegetables for more content. You could also pour this mixture into greased muffin tins to create 'baby quiches' for parties or purely for defining serving size. See what I mean about the versatility? 

Finally quiche can be enjoyed warm or cold but remember because of the egg and milk ingredients, I tend to make sure its eaten within 24 hours of making (I know I'm a bit narky about these things) but with my son having now discovered the joy of quiche, I don't think I'll be having much difficulty ensuring it gets eaten. 

Spaghetti Carbonara

This is probably one of my all time favourite dishes. The problem is though whenever I buy this at a restaurant, it's always made so heavy that I don't feel too good by the end of the meal. Oh and the amount of excess oils! Eeek! How happy was I to find a more simpler, less heavy version of my favourite meal. 

Makes 4 | 30 minutes

Ingredients

3 bacon rashers

1 broccoli bunch

1 small onion

100g sliced button mushrooms

200mL thickened cream

3 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 packet dry spaghetti

1 tablespoon plain flour

3 second spray of olive oil

salt and pepper for seasoning

1. Make spaghetti as per packet instructions. When cooked drain and set aside. 

2. Cut bacon rashers into strips, broccoli into small florets, slice button mushrooms and dice onion. 

3. Heat up saucepan to medium heat and spray with olive oil. Add onion and garlic. When it starts to sizzle, add your bacon and mix together. 

4. Add your mushrooms and stir in. Keep on heat until the mushrooms are semi-cooked. 

5. Add thickened cream parmesan cheese and flour to the saucepan and stir to mix all the ingredients in the pan. You may want to add salt and pepper to season at this stage. 

6. Add the broccoli florets into the saucepan. Mix through and then cover with the lid. Depending on how soft you want your broccoli to be will determine how long you need to keep the lid on. I like mine soft so I leave for the lid of for no more than 10 minutes on medium heat. 

7. When the broccoli is cooked to your liking, serve with boiled pasta. 

Notes and Variations

The fantastic thing about this recipe is that it is so versatile. While not as greasy as the restaurants, the ingredients I have listed here makes for a 'heavy' meal. If you are one to count kilojoules, it is so easy to modify the ingredients. Swap the bacon for pancetta or a leaner cut of bacon (you might have to add a touch more oil just to grease up the pan). You can use gluten free pasta as well as substituting thickened cream with light evaporated milk and skim milk to replace the half cup of milk.

Home Made Sausage Rolls

I cooked these after serving dinner and the family chowed them down! Great for parties or even as a snack when watching the footy, everyone loves home-made sausage rolls and you cannot go wrong with this simple recipe.

Makes approximately 30 mini sausage rolls | approximately 30 minutes
Ingredients
1 carrot
1 onion
1 teaspoon of dried parsley
2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 cup bread crumbs
500g sausage mince
2 ready-rolled puff pastry sheets
2 egg yolks
salt and pepper to season
sesame seed to sprinkle

1. Preheat oven to 180⁰C. Peel carrot and onion and place in the food processor to be finely diced or pureed
.

2. Combine one egg, mince, breadcrumbs, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper with the carrot, onion and parsley. Then combine the entire mixture into approximately 4 batches.

3. Cut a sheet of puff pastry into two and place a portion of the mixture onto the cut pastry into a roll shape lengthwise. 

4. Beat the remaining egg and use it to brush the pastry on each side of the sausage meat mixture. Enclose the roll with the pastry, placing a tight seam underneath to seal the meat inside the pastry. 

5. Cut the sausage roll into thirds (or according to your desired size) and place a baking paper-lined tray. Brush the top of the cut rolls with egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

6. Bake the rolls in the oven for 20 minutes or until golden and cooked through. Serve while hot. 

Seared Scallops and Pork Belly with Honey, Soy and Ginger Reduction

Whenever my husband and I go to a restaurant and find this dish on the menu, it is ALWAYS ordered. We love it! Alas there was a day that I was really craving this but we couldn't go to a restaurant. So I thought bugger it, I'm going to try cooking it! With advance preparation, this dish was rather simple to make and at a fraction of the cost at that the restaurants charge us per dish, you can make extra without hurting the purse. 

Serves 4 

Ingredients

500g pork belly, skin off

12 scallops

250mL light soy sauce

2 tablespoon clear honey

25g ginger

light olive oil

1. Roast pork belly in a low temperature oven (120-140⁰C) for 3 hours. Take out and cool, then cut into block pieces.

2. Add soy, honey and grated ginger together in a saucepan, bring to the boil and pass through a fine sieve and allow to cool at room temperature. 

3. Heat a large non-stick pan and add a little light olive oil. Season pork on all sides and fry until coloured on all sides. Take out and place on a paper towel.

4. Season the scallops and put into the same frying pan. You only need to sear the scallops on both sides (so no need to overcook). Then take out and place on a paper towel.

5. Arrange pork belly and scallops on a plate and drizzle with reduction.

Notes and Variations

So simple and yet such a joy to eat. For ease, I did step one 24 hours before I planned to serve this and by doing so it made the dish less stressful to make. After completing step one, I put it in the refrigerator until I was ready to fry it up as per step 3. I think this recipe will also go well with a citrus salad, to add a bit of pizzazz. 

** Original recipe from The West Australian Life and Style Recipe: Seared Scallop & Pork Belly **