h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Chicken and Rosemary Pasta - A87871756
Author: SashaQ - happysad - U9936370

Here's a quick little Entry that I hope you enjoy reading - I've been watching Masterchef, and it even inspired me to experiment (I'm usually a big fan of stir-in sauces, but this is surprisingly manageable)

I'll try and give this a detailed read later.

I've never seen garlic given in teaspoons. How many cloves is that and do you want sliced or crushed?

Do you really need a wok and a frying pan?

You should say fusilli are rather than fusilli is. They're plural, meaning literally spirals.

This looks fine to me .

I think I would put 2 tablespoons of rosemary instead of 6 teaspoons.

Do you recommend serving it with something, such as a salad or a lightly cooked green veg?

Hi Sasha. I've had time to do a thorough read-through of this now. A good entry!

You could mention in the introduction that this recipe will be much healthier than using a pre-made pasta sauce, because such sauces have unhealthily high levels of salt and sugar as preservatives, and should not be eaten more often than once a week. (Technically the salt is a preservative and the sugar is to hide the taste of the salt.) (The hidden message in Dolmio's slogan "When's your Dolmio day?" is that you should only eat Dolmio sauces once a week at most).

You say "Salt and pepper should be available on the table in case anyone wants to add more than is already included in the recipe." but the recipe does not seem to include any salt. Is there a line left out?

The line "serve out the meal for however many people are eating" seems a bit redundant. I'd just "serve". It's kind of assumed that if four people are eating, then you'll give food to all of them.

"If you're not having a party" -- this suggests balloons and fancy napkins. I think you might have meant something slightly different.

Thanks both

Ah, I didn't know that about Dolmio Day... I like Dolmio sauces, but I do only have them once a week, so that's not too bad. Although having watched Masterchef, they're quite fond of salt in there, even in fresh food... No wonder my partner preferred to make fresh sauce herself - she'd be proud of me for this recipe

So about the frying pan - is it allowed to start the mushrooms and onions cooking, then cut the chicken up and then add it to the wok to brown with the mushrooms and onions?

What I have done before is brown the chicken first and then add the vegetables, but we cut the mushrooms and onions really small so they cook faster and can be added after. I cut the veg up more chunky when I made this, so they needed longer.

I've made some tweaks and hopefully that answers the other points.

I've seen recipes which brown hhe chicken first, remove it from the pan onto a plate, then do the onions etc and add back in the chicken at the appropriate point. That way you don't need a second pan although you dirty a plate.

Aha I have added in an extra paragraph with an alternative method, so I hope that's OK.

Hi Sasha - could you give an indication of an equivalent in fresh rosemary, which is what many people may have rather than the dried.

To answer your question earlier, I would say that the chicken should be chopped before you start frying the mushrooms and onions, so that you can keep your eyes on the veg whilst they're frying.

And I was wondering if there could be a reference to hygiene as you are dealing with raw poultry.

I won't be trying out this recipe as described as my husband is allergic to tomatoes, but I may substitute them with cream or just use more mushrooms. I can do that this week and will let you know if it works, so that it could be included if you like.

Hi TC

Thanks for reading I've mentioned fresh rosemary (sorry I can't be more helpful than that ). I've changed the title a bit to separate out the fresh ingredients from the storecupboard ingredients.

I managed to chop the chicken and wash my hands while the mushrooms and onions were just starting to cook, so that was OK, but I've updated it to be clearer and safer

My question was about whether you could put the raw chicken in the pan with the mushrooms and onions, or whether you had to brown the chicken first before bringing it into contact with the vegetables - do you have thoughts?

I don't think I'll include any more variations on the dish apart from the fresh ingredient option, but you've given me an idea to write up my other novice fresh pasta sauce recipe, which doesn't have any tomatoes in it

I think it is very important to brown the chicken separately from the onions.

Now that's an interesting theory. I normally just chop everything, mix it up in a bowl and chuck it all into the hot fat at once. (or in portions, if there's a lot of it)

Cooking the chicken and the onions, and especially the mushrooms, together from the start would give each a flavour of the other and make for a homogenous, tasty sauce. Unless you weren't aiming for homogenousness. (?)

Perhaps we can get Sho to ask her resident .

No doubt both methods are acceptable, depending on the result you are aiming for.

The result I'm aiming for is not accidentally causing food poisoning by doing something wrong with raw poultry

That's interesting that you chuck it all in together, and I presume your digestive health has been satisfactory after that...

Off topic, but here's an article about salt and sugar in pre-prepared pasta sauces:

http://www.newstalk.com/reader/47.301/70332/0/

Is this going to be part of a 'Pasta Recipes' project?

<BB<

Not quite - these two recipes have exhausted the limits of my pasta repertoire!

I tried this out last night, but, as I said, I had to use cream instead of tomatoes. Although I used more creme fraiche than cream, which should have made a thicker sauce, and didn't use any form of thickening, the cream, as I had sort of suspected, drained down to the bottom. It tasted great, though, and the rosemary (I had a sprig of fresh rosemary left, don't have any dried) smelt gorgeous.

Frying garlic with the onions and mushrooms would have made it even better, so I'll do that next time.

Yay! Glad my little recipe inspired you to make a tasty dish. The smell of the rosemary is the thing - I find it really delicious

The salt issue was also mentioned in my other recipe A87872061 so I have added a footnote to hopefully make that even clearer.

Also, agrees with TC that the chicken is allowed to be browned in with the vegetables, so this will save washing up next time I make it... I'll think about how to tweak the Entry for the best.

Anything that saves washing up is a good thing