Pea, basil and courgette rice

A simple vegetable rice for all occasions. If you live in a house with a rice-fanatic like I do you need to get busy on the rice creations. I love experimenting with all kinds of different vegetables, paste concoctions, and methods of which to cook different flavoured rice in a bid to make it a little more exciting than the usual plain boiled. I think this rice has a Mediterranean feel simply because of the basil, zingy lemon and courgettes remove it in flavour from the Indian spicy rice dishes. The basil paste I make to cook the rice in coats it beautifully and gives each little grain a lot of flavour.

Ingredients:
Bunch of fresh basil
Lemon
1 medium white onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 courgettes
3 tbsp of olive oil (a little more for frying)
250ml organic vegetable stock
250g / 9 oz basmati rice
100g / 3.5 oz pine nuts
200g / 7 oz garden peas (frozen)
Sea salt and black pepper for seasoning

For the dip:
200g / 7 oz creme friache
2 cloves of garlic
juice of half a lemon
1 tbsp hot water
1 tsp garam masal
Half a tsp cumin seeds
Half a tsp tumeric

Rinse the rice several times through cold water in a sieve, until it runs clear. Set aside.

Make the paste by putting a few handfuls of the basil, the juice of half the lemon, 3 tbsp of the olive oil, the garlic (peeled and chopped), the onion finely chopped, and a few pinches of salt and pepper seasoning into a mixing bowl. Whizz with a hand held blender, until you get a sludgy green paste.

Finely chop the courgettes into 2 cm long thin rectangles.

Get a large deep sided pan with a lid, add about a tablespoon of olive oil and get it hot over a medium heat.

Add the green paste and stir it around for 2 minutes until it becomes fragrant. Add the courgettes and cook for a minute more. Stir in the rice with the paste, add the hot stock, turn the heat down really low, put the lid on and leave for around 30 minute. Check it at 5 minute intervals, giving it a stir to make sure it isn't sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Whilst this is cooking put the pine nuts under a medium heat grill for 5 minutes or until they are just golden. Take out and set aside.

Make the dip by mixing all the ingredients together in a bowl and chilling in the fridge for 15 minutes, or until the rice is ready.

5 minutes before the rice is ready stir in the toasted pine nuts and an extra squeeze of lemon juice, a tbsp of olive oil, and plenty of salt and pepper to season. Serve in bowls with dollops of the fresh dip on top.

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Spicy wholewheat linguine with basil pangritata

Whole-wheat pasta shouldn't be resigned to the back of Gillian McKeith's store-cupboard. If you buy the good quality organic stuff it has a beautiful nutty flavour that tastes much nicer than a lot of dried white pasta you can buy. Also, the brown stuff retains many more vitamins and minerals than white pasta, which loses a lot of its nutritional qualities as the white flour it's made from goes through an intense refining process, which strips the wheat out of it.

Pangritata translates from Italian as 'poor man's Parmesan', and is a mixture of toasted bread and herbs. You do discover when you add pangritata to pasta there is no need for additional Parmesan but perhaps if you do have it in add it as the pangritata starts to disappear for extra flavour. The basil pangritata I made here with the roasted lemony and tomato sauce and nutty linguine gives this dish a gorgeous Mediterranean flavour and it's a really easy meal to bang out on a whim.

Ingredients:
4 medium sized vine ripe tomatoes
1 red onion
1 red chilli
3 garlic cloves
30g / 1 oz capers
70g / 2.5 oz pitted black olives
1 lemon
8 tbsp olive oil
sea salt & black pepper for seasoning
6 large handfuls of bread-crumbs (whole-meal preferably)
large bunch of fresh basil
400g / 14 oz organic whole-wheat linguine
500g / 17 and half oz organic passata

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C, 350 F, Gas Mark 4.

Slice the onion in to fine half moons. Peel and thinly slice the garlic and tomatoes into discs. De-seed and finely chop the chilli. Place the onion, garlic, tomatoes and chilli on a large non-reactive baking tray. Sprinkle over the capers, olives, the zest and juice of half the lemon, 2 tbsps of the olive oil and sea-salt and black pepper. Place in the oven for 25 minutes.

Whilst this is cooking heat up 4 tbsps of the remaining olive oil in a heavy-based frying pan. Once warm add the bread-crumbs, and plenty of sea salt and black pepper. Shred a few good handfuls of basil and add to the crumbs after 3 minutes. Cook together for a minute more or until the bread-crumbs are golden. Drain on to kitchen paper and set aside.

Get a large pan of boiling salted water over a medium heat and bring to the boil ready for the pasta. Whilst this is boiling go back to the vegetables (these should be about half way through their cooking time) and pour over the passata. Give them all a good stir and return to the oven for the remaining 10 minutes or so. Just enough time for the passata to warm through and to pick up flavour from the ingredients already in there.

The pasta will need about 7 minutes in the boiling water. Keep checking it though as you want it to still have a firm bite. Once cooked drain and reserve about 150ml of cooking water from under the colander.

Add the pasta to a large serving bowl, with the cooking water, the remaining 2 tbsp of olive oil, the juice and zest of the other half of the lemon, all the ingredients from the oven tray, a few fresh torn basil leaves. Season to taste and serve into 4 bowls. Sprinkle generously with the toasted basil bread-crumbs (and some Parmesan if you aren't a poor man).

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