linguine with chicken in an arrabiata sauce (i think)

ok, i suppose the title requires that i preface the recipe with some sort of explanation, so here it is : like some of you may have guessed, i have a nigella lawson fetish. i adore her cooking, cookbooks, cookware... and her website! i had been looking for a decent arrabiata sauce recipe a few years back and fell upon this one, submitted by a reader, on the nigella.com website. the"i think" bit is that i'm note quite sure it's really an authentic arrabiata sauce... i've been fiddling with it for a while and this is what comes out now... it does turn out quite hot, but you can adjust the quantities... 

serves 4 - 5 people
8-12 ripe roma tomatoes (those elongated ones), chopped, chucked in a large bowl and smushed by hand (so much fun!)
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 spring onions, chopped (you can use regular onions if you wish, i just always have spring onions at hand)
1 jalapeno, minced (deseed it if you want it to be less spicy)
handful fresh basil, shredded
extra virgin olive oil
salt* & pepper to taste
2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut up in strips or cubes, whatever you prefer
1 box whole wheat linguine
parsley to garnish (optional)

1. i usually start by cooking the chicken - heat up some olive oil in a pan on med-high heat, season your chicken with salt and pepper (you can just put it in a bowl and tumble it round with your hands 'til it's all coated). cook for about 14 - 18 mins (you can check by cutting a thicker piece to see if it's no longer pink). take the pan off the stove, put it on a heat-safe surface (an oven mitt will do fine) and cover 'til you need it. 

2. now at this point, if you haven't chopped, diced and minced your other ingredients, do it now. done? great, we can move on.

3. put the salted water for the pasta to boil (i read somewhere that when cooking pasta, the water should be as salty as the mediterranean, so...). i usually use a larger pot for this as i mix in the sauce with the pasta afterward, but do as you please. when the water boils, throw in the linguine, being careful to stir around a bit so that it doesn't stick together. start checking for doneness about 2 min before the al dente cook time indicated on the packet. when it's done, drain the pasta and put it back in the pot. 

4. while the water's boiling/pasta's cooking, in a medium saucepan, heat some more olive oil on med heat (perhaps a little higher than med, but not too high as you don't want to brown/burn the garlic, making it bitter). once it's heated, chuck in the garlic, onion, jalapeno and some of the shredded basil. swirl it round a bit (about a minute), being careful of the garlic.

5. now's the time to tip in the smushed tomatoes - be sure to try to get all the juices. stir the tomato sauce, lower the heat to med-low, and let it simmer for about 12 minutes - the flavours will meld beautifully (and if you're anything like me, the smell will make you salivate)

6. add in the chicken and the rest of the shredded basil to the tomato sauce, let it sit for a couple minutes (giving the time for the chicken to absorb some flavour). taste it and season with salt & pepper to your preference. tip the sauce into the pot full of linguine, mix everything up, garnish with some chopped up parsley and serve.

note :this sauce isn't very thick and i've never been tempted to thicken it, but you could do it by either adding more tomatoes and leaving out most of the juice when you mix them with the garlicky-jalapenoey-onioney oil or adding tomato paste (but i fear that will mess with the flavour). also, some people may not want the tomato skins - that's fine, just blanche the tomatoes for about a minute and peel the skins off before mushing them up. 

*i use sea salt and ground pepper for their flavour, and table salt should do, but do try to avoid the powdery, sneezy pepper

lemon raspberry pavlova

i love pavlovas... i really do. i first discovered the dessert years ago, browing on nigella lawson's website. it looked easy and delicious, and it's been a crowd-pleaser ever since! it's basically a giant meringue topped with cream and fruit. making it has gotten even easier since i got my kitchenaid stand mixer for xmas. there are many variations on the classic pav, this is one i thought up a couple of months ago and it worked beautifully!


lemon raspberry pavlova


4 egg whites, room temp
1 1/3 cup white sugar
juice of 1 lemon
zest of 1/2 lemon
2 tsps cornstarch
1 tsp white wine vinegar
topping
250 ml whipping cream
raspberries (fresh or frozen, doesn't really matter)


1. preheat oven at 350°f. line a baking sheet (i usually use a round pizza sheet) with baking parchment (if you want, you can use a cake pan to trace a circle on the parchment to size the pavlova).


2. beat egg whites (with a whisk attachment) with a pinch of salt about 2 min, until satiny peaks form (it'll sort of look like clouds). add sugar a third at a time until stiff and glossy (when you take out the beaters, the meringue stays up).


3. sprinkle on lemon juice and zest, cornstarch and vinegar. fold in carefully, making sure everything is just combined.


4. mound the meringue on the parchement, carfully shaping it out nice and round (about 9" diameter - like a cake pan). put it in the oven and immediately reduce heat to 300°f. bake for an hour and a quarter - the outer shell should be hard, cracked and golden but the inside, still squidgy.


5. remove from oven and let cool completely (i cannot overstate the mess you will have if you try to put the toppings too soon on this one).

6. whip cream till firm - you can add anything you want to the cream for flavouring (i usually throw in a couple tablespoons icing sugar, but you can also try cointreau, lemon or lime juice, amaretto or even vanilla extract. it's up to you). invert the pav on a flat bottomed plate, mound the whipped cream on top and add the raspberries. if desired, garnish with lemon peel (although it's really not at all necessary).

remember how i said in that last post that i was going to write about the trials and tribulations of being a high school teacher? yeah, that's not going to happen. instead, if all goes according to plan, i'm going to have yet another blog about food. mostly recipes, but some general eating experiences (restaurant or home).

i'd like to state that i know i'm not being quite original (neither with the blog theme nor the recipes themselves), but striving for originality in the worlds of food and blogging is like claiming that windows 7 was your idea...

those who can't do...

ok, so i don't really plan on being an overnight internet sensation or anything, and to be quite honest, i'm not even sure about whether or not people are reading this (though i haven't been actively publicizing it either...), but i feel as though i should a) develop some sort of thematic to the blog and b) keep it up more often. i figure i may as well start with the theme as i can't guarantee i'll maintain the blog so...

WELCOME TO THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF TEACHING!

i have been a high school teacher for the past two years, and i figured i would regale all of you in cyberspace with tales of my job.

***warning : all the stories i will post here are real, but names of people have been changed to protect myself from getting bit in the ass. also, if i exaggerate (which i have been known to do), i will definitely indicate it in order to maintain some sort of credibility***

see? i said i would be horrible at this blog thing...

so it's been over 2 weeks (probably closer to 3) and i have not kept up this blog. no surprise there. unfortunately, there is no epic excuse for this - i have just been being my boring self for the past couple of weeks. except for the incident...

last tuesday night, i went to bed like any other night. i think at this juncture it's important to note that i have been living alone for the past three months (for the first time in my life) and that i'm a very very light sleeper. so there i am, sleeping peacefully, dreaming about cadbury creme eggs, days off and volcanoes when a very distinct creaking noise woke me up. i sat up quickly, my heart racing. a psycho killer was obviously in my house, out to impale me for no apparent reason (like in all those horror movies - there's always one or two gratuitous victims at the beginning who have nothing to do with the story but get killed anyways... kinda like a practice run. i was, in my mind, that practice run).

so there i was, 4 am, convincing myself that it was just the house settling and that it was nothing when all of a sudden, i heard it again - moving closer. then something moved in my bathroom! at this point, any and all rational or logic thoughts in my head were replaced by "ohmygodohmygodohmygod someone is here! after me! WHAT DO I DO?!"

what did i do?

i called 911.

that's right - i called 911 at 4 am on a tuesday night (or wednesday morning if you're picky about those things). the conversation went a little something like this (except in french) :

911 lady : 911 what's your emergency?

me : i think someone is in my appartment and wants to kill me.

911 lady : someone is trying to kill you in your appartment?

me : no no, i just think someone is here, and if they are, they must want to kill me.

911 lady : (pause) ok, so you think someone is in your appartment. where are you now?

me : i'm in my bedroom at the very back of the appartment.

911 lady : what's your address? we're going to send over a cop car.

me : 285 dominion.

911 lady : ok fantastic (pause) a car is on its way. are you still in your bedroom?

me : yes (at this point, i grabbed a small but sharp throwing knife i keep on my bedside table).

911 lady : so what makes you think someone is in your house?

me : well i woke up, heard a noise, waited a bit and then heard it again and it sounded like someone walking so i called you guys.

(at this point, i'm noticing how dumb i sound and am thinking "oh god, cancel the cop car")

911 lady : ok, and do you still hear it?

me : we-eelll... i'm walking around my appartment with a knife, all the doors are locked (jesus i'm an idiot), no broken windows, nope, i think i was wrong, no one's here! (please tell me you're calling off the cops)

911 lady : well, we're going to have the cops look the place over just in case.

me : no no, i think i'm fine, i'm really sorry that i made you go through all that trouble...

911 lady : better safe than sorry! besides, the cops are almost there.

me : really, it's ok. i'm good.

911 lady : too late! they're there!

me : can't they turn around? (puzzled silence) ok, no that's fine.

911 lady : can i ask you to do two things before we hang up?

me : sure, whatever.

911 lady : put down the knife and unlock the doors.

me : oh, right. bye.

the cops looked over my appartment, asked me a few questions (i think they were trying to assess whether or not i was on drugs) and then left, not before telling me there were SIX squad cars outside my place. i almost called in sick the next morning just to avoid the neighbours.

either way, i've determined that some sort of mutated rodent is behind all that noise - there's no way a regular sized, small rodent made all that noise. i wish i could provide you with some sort of drawing of what i'm imagining, but i lack allie brosh's mad skills. just imagine a giant rat-cat-carp-snake creature. that's what made me call 911.

zombies!!!

i know, i know.

zombies are overdone. they got too popular, spawning books and movies that are actually successful, people talking about them all the time... i get it. however, last night, i had the chance, nay, the pleasure, to play zombies!!! the board game.

at this point, i should let you know that i am both a fanatic of board games and a sore loser. my friends then thought it would be a good idea to pick on me.

the goal of the game is to not die, be the first to the helipad or assemble an army of 25 zombies. it's actually quite fun if you get to play. we named our fictitious zombie town "saulnierville station". we moved our little dudes on the tiles. we kicked zombie ass. well, they kicked zombie ass. because you see, with the cards in their hands, my friends decided to basically freeze my little army dude. that's right. i sat there. doing nothing.


did i mention i am a sore loser? well, i'm an even sorer non-player.

so what did i do? what did this "mature", adult woman do?

(no, i did not flip the table over, although i really wanted to)

i sulked like a child. i did crosswords instead. i'm horrible.

i lost (go figure), but my friends made me feel much better. we're going to record our second audiobook next saturday. i'll keep you posted.

on another note, happy easter!

how i think post-its should be used

so i've decided to write a second post today rather than grade the essays my grade 12 kids have so begrudingly written last week. i know they're expecting their marks on tuesday, but that won't likely happen. i suppose i should try and be interesting now, shouldn't i?

thursday was april fool's day. i love april fool's day. it's a great day - the one day a year i have an excuse to behave the way i do most days. you see, despite the fact that i am a twenty-six year old high school teacher, i have the maturity of a fourteen-year old boy. anywho, this was it, the day to prank the kids... here's how thatwent...

the first prank...

my first period class is a grade 10 french class, and the kids are pretty good (most of the time) - i figured they'd be gullible, but i needed something good. something with substance. i thought about telling them i was dying of mad cow disease (easily the scariest disease out there - seriously), but they wouldn't buy that. i thought about telling them there was a pop quiz (!), except i never give pop quizzes and it is probably one of the oldest tricks in the book; they'd see right through me. finally, i figured it out : i would stage a fight with a student. i found the perfect ally, justin, a kid with whom i get along most days, but doesn't really love school and isn't exactly a model student. we discussed it quickly and then waited.

the first bell rang.

the kids started filing in, finding their seats, excited about both april fool's day and easter long week-end. they were chattering away, oblivious to my plan.

the second bell rang.

i started asking them about their plans for the week-end, were they excited, blah blah blah, and then i asked them to take out a sheet of looseleaf and a pen - they were going to write an opinion letter. they weren't going to be evaluated on it yet, they could write about anything, etc. i heard some groans, and then, justin wrote on his sheet "madame est une bitch" . i yelled at him, sent him to the office. he flipped me the bird, grabbed my starbucks from my desk and spilled it on the floor, the kids gasped.

muahahahahaha. i had them right where i wanted them. some of the nicer ones started to clean up the coffee on the floor, others whispered feverishly... they were wondering what i was going to do to justin. was i going to have him expelled? was i going to break his fingers one by one? was i going to cover him with slime?

no.

no i was not.

i went to fetch him from the hallway about seven or eight minutes later, and we walked back in class together, shouting "poisson d'avril!"

i thought the kids in the class were going to riot. oh they were not impressed. they were pissed. they were livid. lasers were shooting out of their eyes. but it was worth it.

the second prank...

patt was one of my students first semester. he is now done my class, but still visits me pretty often. well, on wednesday, patt thought it would be funny to put a piece of chewed up gum on my door handle.

so i put post-its all over the windows of his car (i ran out of yellow ones, so i had to use the green...)

foreword

huh, so this is what it's like to have a blog. if you're reading this, i warn you - i will likely post once or twice and then, as it is with most things, forget to continue and then let it die with all the other well-meaning blogs ("i'm going to post every day!" last updated September 2003)

my blog title may have you wondering : "what the hell is this about?" and the answer is, i have no sweet clue. i have no goal whatsoever for this blog. none. no expectations (especially as i don't expect my commitment to it to last longer than one week). things you may or may not see on it are recipes, my thoughts, chapters of a novel i will never finish writing, rants and raves.

let's begin, shall we?

***