Carbonara

Apols, as it has been a while - CNY, guests to name but a few lame excuses. And although I took A LOT of photos, none was of the food.

As we had guests it was the usual round of eating on the tourist trail - Red Pepper, Mak's noodles (a lot), The Dragon Restaurant on Gage Street (pigs on walls - real dead ones), Dim Sum in Stanley (Shu Zhai) and Happy Valley (Sing Woo Road), Duck at Peking Garden after the light show, as well as a pizza at Simpatico and hangover Burgers at Shake 'em Buns. We need to add a few more places on to the list and remove a few others. Much as I love duck pancakes, I've had it that many times I just can't face them any more.

Amongst all this, I did manage to do some cooking - a CNY feast of Char sui, garlic pak choi, cheung fun in XO sauce and chilli prawns with chive and garlic shoots, but a favourite was carbonara - perfect for a bit of comfort eating and I usually have all the ingredients in, so it's cheap and quick too. Don't get too hung up on the exact amounts - to be honest I often do this dish to use up cream and eggs and the sad looking Parmesan that lurks at the back of the fridge.

Carbonara for two

2 teaspoons of olive oil
1 packet of pancetta (I always have some in the freezer)
4 tablespoons cheapy muscat or similar (sounds specific, but it lasts as, unlike the usual white wine, no one is tempted to drink it neat. Ever.)
1 egg yolk
1 whole egg
3 tablespoons double cream
4 big tablespoons ish of fresh Parmesan
Enough linguine for two people (bog-standard dried DeCecco is perfect)

Fry the pancetta (from frozen is fine) in a small frying pan until golden. Add the wine to the pan and let it bubble off until you are left with about 2 tablespoons of oily wine and the crispy panchetta and remove from the heat.
In a jug, beat the whole egg, egg yolk, the cheese.
When the pasta is cooked, drain and return to it’s cooking pan and stir in the pancetta and juices. The add the egg mixture and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon and serve with some crispy garlicky bread, and a green salad if you need to feel a little less guilty.

It's back to to the low fat stuff this week after all that eating - I'll keep you posted....

edit: completely forgot that I did some excellent sticky toffee puddings as well that I need to write up at some point - we're eeking out the remains from the freezer, still good - warm and sweetly date-y (the fruit) - having been quickly defrosted in the microwave without the sauce.