Boys Don't Cook

Jambalaya style One Pot  Before I even get started here I want to make it very clear I have no claim to Creole/Cajun-American, African, French, Spanish or any other cuisine that this dish has its colourful roots in. I just know it tastes great, is moderately healthy, and is a quick and hassle-free dish to always have in your back pocket! The name literally means mix up or ‘jumble’ - the dish has culinary historians connecting it with Jolof Rice, Stews, and even Paella, and as such the ingredients vary wildly.  My take uses ingredients you would also find in Valencia style Paella, simply because that’s the things I most often have in the fridge, but you can swap and change things as you like. Most sausages could replace the chorizo (although add the paprika back), and garden peas could be swapped for black beans , or okra. Oh - I’m going to say “Dutch oven” in this one, maybe, this is an Americanism I think that I’ve started using, I mean a Crock Pot, or large heavy-based, enam...

  Carbonara! I have it on good authority, from literally every Italian I have ever asked the question of (or taken to a UK based pasta restaurant for that matter!) Italian Carbonara sauce should NOT contain cream, milk, or any of the stuff that supermarkets put in the suspiciously chalk-white ‘carbonara’ sauce.  In fact it should have four ingredients: pasta, eggs, parmigiano cheese, bacon I had absolutely no idea about this, I turned my nose up at carbonara as a child because I didn’t like creamy sauces (I was a real problem eater, maybe because I didn’t know what went into food?) I didn’t like eggs, I didn’t like… well you get the idea.) It was actually the wonderful folks over at Two Chubby Cubs that opened my eyes to a real Carbonara. When I was trying to lose weight by sticking to the Slimming World diet. I swear I wouldn’t have even been able to even start that program without their brilliant blog, and I did lose a little weight as a result, but you can’t diet forever! ...