Welcome to my first recipe. You'll notice the photographs aren't super-professional, but that's all part of the flavour.
You will need...
- 500g of Venison sausage (or some tasty variation)
- 250g dried macaroni
- 200g of cheese - a cup or so
- Wholegrain mustard - a few tablespoons
- Honey - a few tablespoons
- Fresh herbs - basil, thyme, marjoram, parsley
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 onion
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 cup hollandaise sauce
- 3 small fresh chillies
- Olive oil
Fresh ingredients makes for a great dinner
Now, I'm all about experimenting and not getting fanatical about details where there is no need to. So if you don't have any thyme, try something else instead or throw in some dried herbs. This dish is not going to make or break based on the lack of thyme. Likewise, I cheat and use a packet hollandaise sauce, but I'm sure it tastes great using the real thing.
Getting started...
Start cooking 250g of macaroni according to packet directions, usually about 10 mins worth. Turn on the oven and preheat to 200 degrees Celsius.Grab a wok or large frypan, a grater, chopping board and good sharp knife out of the cupboard.
The meaty ingredients
Chop up the fresh herbs, garlic and onion, and add these to a hot wok or pan with a little olive oil. Keep a little basil to one side for later on. Chop the sausage into 1cm pieces and throw these into the pan.Pierce the chillies (so they don't explode) and throw these into the mix as well. These add a nice amount of heat to the dish, but you can chop them up first if you really want to burn.
Toss for a few minutes, then add 1tsp of cayenne pepper (this stuff is dangerous - don't use more than you can handle), 2-3 tbsp of honey and 2-3tbsp of wholegrain mustard.
Stir the dish until the honey melts through. Open a couple of windows so the landlord doesn't need to replace the wallpaper - the cayenne pepper has quite a smell.
Make up your hollandaise sauce from the packet or the old fashioned way, and add this to the pan. Drain and add the macaroni, which should have finished cooking by now. Give it all a good stir.
Now, one of the selling points of this dish is that the sweet honey liquid hides inside the macaroni, and squishes out when you bite it - a really lovely sensation. At this stage, you want to make sure the dish isn't too dry, so add a little bit of water to bring up the liquid content if it needs it. In hindsight, the dish in the photograph could have used a little more water.
Into the oven
Stir the remaining basil into the mix, then place your mix into an ovenproof dish - I split mine into 2 so we can freeze one for later.
Cook for approx 20 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius, until it looks like this...
Salad suggestion
This dish is quite the spicy number, so I'd suggest a nice green salad covered in yoghurt to go with this. The cooling effect of the youhurt works really well with this dish. I spent a few minutes assembling something from rocket, red capsicum, a whole cucumber and coriander. Lovely.Enjoy
This is a great meal, and not that complicated if you don't want it to be. I'm new at this, so I'd love to hear your comments.
Related Articles
- Venison Burritos (low salt)
- Fun things with Mushrooms
- Stuffed chicken breast with falafel & cashews
- Moroccan lamb skewers
- Lamb Hamburger Patties
<< Articles index | Why Jamie Oliver rocks >
Comments
post a comment
Post Comment
We welcome comments on this article, provided they have something to contribute. Please note that all links will be created using the nofollow attribute. This is a spam free zone. HTML is stripped from comments, but BBCode is allowed.
Rachel Firth - Mar 20, 2008
Hello!
I made this at the weekend. I am afraid I wasn't very true to your ingredients - used Quorn sausages (I am vegetarian) penne (no macaroni in the house - although will try it with that next time to see if I get the honey 'squish' effect!) and chipotles in adobe instead of fresh chillis, but the result was very much enjoyed by both my partner and myself.
Using hollondaise is such a good idea.
Rachel