Lemon chilli prawn spaghetti with pangrattato

The pangrattato acts as a seasoning and extra level of texture. It is great on top of pasta, risotto, soups and stews.

- First boil water for spaghetti and cook according to packet instructions.
- In the meantime finely dice a couple of banana shallots (or a white onion) and fry in olive oil until softened. Then add a finely chopped red chilli (we used a birds eye chilli), and a couple of cloves of minced garlic. Leave to cook for a minute or two whilst you prepare the pangrattato.
- In a food processor (or using a knife) blitz a slice of bread (preferably a day or two old) with a clove of garlic, a tea spoon of chilli flakes, the zest of a lemon, a handful of basil, a handful of parsley and an anchovy. Add a little olive oil to loosen.
- Add some cooked or raw prawns to the shallots, garlic, chilli mix, along with the juice of the lemon which you have left. Season with salt and plenty of pepper.
- Toast the pangrattato in a frying pan until golden but not burnt.
- Drain the spaghetti leaving a little of the cooking water and stir through the prawn mixture.
- Scatter the pangrattato on top of the prawn spaghetti and serve with extra lemon wedges and chilli oil for people to drizzle over the top if they like.

Spaghetti with squid

This is simple, quick and packed full of flavour. It relies heavily on chilli, garlic and parsley so use plenty!

We like to use squid ink spaghetti from Carluccios but use regular spaghetti if you can't get hold of any. Get your fishmonger to clean and prepare the squid for you in advance so that it is cleaned and cut into rings.

- Cook the spaghetti according to packet instructions
- In the meantime, fry a diced banana shallot (or small onion) in some olive oil. After a minute or two add a couple of chillies (we used birds eye chillies).
- Once the chillies and shallot have sizzled for a few minutes add 3 cloves of crushed garlic and the zest of one lemon (keep the lemon for later) and plenty of salt and black pepper.
- Chop the parsley stalks (retaining the leaves for later) and add these to the garlic and chillies. Also add the squid at this stage and cook on a high heat for a couple of minutes.
- Drain the cooked spaghetti retaining a little (1/3 of a cup) of the cooking water. Add the spaghetti and cooking liqour to the squid, adding the juice of the lemon and the chopped parsley. We also add a glug of extra virgin olive oil at this stage.
- Give everything a good stir, check the seasoning and eat immediately.

Slow cooked Cajun beef

This is so full of flavour and really benefits from a long marinade and a long slow cooking. Use any kind of beef which is good cooked slowly... chuck, shin, skirt etc.

This makes enough for up to 4 people.

- marinade 500g of your chosen cut of beef cut into chunks in a dry marinade made up of 1 tbl sp smoked paprika, 2 crushed garlic cloves, 1 or 2 chopped chillies, 1 tea sp cayenne, 1/2 tea sp ground black pepper, 1/2 tea sp salt, leaves from a few sprigs of thyme and leaveto marinade for a few hours. If you have any 'cajun spice' mix then add 1/2 tea sp of that too but dont worry if not.


- when ready to cook, brown meat in a casserole in some olive oil and set aside

- brown a chopped onion in the same pan

- add the meat back into the pan and add 500ml beef stock and a couple of bay leaves

- cook on a low heat on the hob or in the oven for a couple of hours, add a chopped green or red pepper 20 mins before the end. Sometimes we add mushrooms too. Keep an eye on it and add some extra stock if the liquid evaporates too quickly.

I'm not sure if its particularly authentic but a mixture or parsley and coriander on top is nice before you serve it.
We serve it with rice and an extra side of tinned sweetcorn roughly blitzed in a processor with a chilli, some basil, seasoning and a splash of double cream, then heated through on the hob.

Spicy prawn and noodle fritters

Ingredients: (makes about 12)

2 handfuls of small cooked prawns

1 sheet of medium egg noodles

4 spring onions

2 medium eggs

1 small chilli

1 tbl sp sesame oil

1 tbl spoon veg oil

1 tea sp of plain flour

• Cook the egg noodles according to packet instructions, drain and roughly chop.
• Roughly chop the prawns and spring onions and add to the noodles.
• Finely dice the chilli and add to the prawns/noodles/onions, along with the sesame oil and eggs.
• Mix everything well. It should have quite a thick consistency. If it looks too wet, add a little flour.
• Heat the veg oil in a non stick frying pan or pancake pan.
• Place spoonfulls of the mixture in the hot oil and allow to cook for a couple of minutes. Turn over and cook on the other side until golden.
• Serve with sweet chilli sauce.

Chunky chilli

We adapt our chilli recipe all of the time. Sometimes we add red wine, sometimes beer, sometimes chocolate, sometimes minced beef, sometimes chunky steak… you get the picture.

This is one version we made recently which was particularly tasty with a perfect level of heat. The chillies we used on this occasion were very hot so we only needed two small ones. You can always add extra cayenne/paprika/dried chilli if necessary once you’ve tasted the sauce.

As with many slow cook dishes, this is best made the day before you want to eat it and reheated to serve.

We prefer to eat chilli with plain rice but we sometimes have it with salad, nachos, grated cheddar and guacamole. Leftovers are best on a jacket potato for lunch or on a chilli dog (the latter is especially good on returning home from the pub).

Ingredients (serves 6):

Approx 800g diced chuck steak/stewing beef
1 white onion, diced
1 red onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 pack of mushrooms, sliced
1 carrot, finely diced (optional)
2 hot birds eye chillies, finely diced
2 pointed peppers, diced
3 large tomatoes, chopped
1 can of mixed chilli beans
A good glug of beer (we used half a bottle of bud)
2 squares of dark chocolate (preferably chilli chocolate)
2 tins of chopped tomatoes

A handful of chopped coriander
A pinch of cayenne
A pinch of paprika
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

· In a large, deep non-stick pan fry the onions in a little olive oil until they start to soften
· Add the garlic, chilli, peppers, carrot and mushrooms and fry for 10 minutes or so
· In a separate pan, fry the chunks of beef (cut them into smaller chunks if they’re particularly big)
· Once the beef is browned, add it to the diced veg
· Add the diced tomatoes, chopped tomatoes, cayenne, paprika, beer, chocolate, half of the coriander and stir well. Season with salt and pepper
· Put the lid on the pan if it has one and allow to simmer on a low heat for an hour. Stir it occasionally
· After an hour add the can of mixed chilli beans and leave to simmer for another hour. Add the remaining coriander and serve.

Lemon, chilli and garlic squid

Ross cooks the squid in the smoking hot griddle whilst I watch from a safe distance with a glass of wine.

Ingredients (serves 2):

2 large squid

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 chilli, finely chopped

the juice of 1/2 a lemon

a small handfull of chopped parsley

olive oil

salt and pepper

• Pour a good glug of olive oil into a large bowl, add the diced garlic and chilli.
• Clean the squid and cut the tubes in half length ways and then in half again. Score the squid tubes with a sharp knife. Cut the tentacles into bite sized pieces.
• Add the squid, parsley and lemon juice to the chilli, garlic and oil and then season. Leave to marinade for around 20 minutes.
• Heat a griddle pan till smoking. Add the squid pieces to the pan - if there's not enough room for it all you'll have to cook it in batches.
• Turn the squid after a minute and spoon over some of the marinade. Cook for another minute or two and then serve hot.

Spaghetti with crab, chilli and watercress

Ingredients (serves 2):

spaghetti
fresh cooked crab (As much as you like/can afford! We used white meat only)
1 chilli, chopped
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1/2 a bag of watercress
olive oil
1 lemon
salt and pepper

• Cook spaghetti in boiling salted water
• Meanwhile fry the chilli and garlic in olive oil, add the crab and watercress for the last 3-4 minutes to warm them through and to wilt the watercress
• Add the drained spaghetti to the crab and watercress mixture, season with salt and pepper and dress with extra olive oil and lemon juice to taste