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The Review - FOOD & DRINK- Cooking with CLARE
Published: 3 April 2008

Cheat and prosper is Delia’s myth

Clare Latimer and her faithful friend road test some of the TV chef’s latest labour-saving ideas

I HAVE now seen three of Delia’s cooking programmes (BBC2 Mondays) and they really got my blood boiling. All the work that has gone into getting people to eat healthy quick food has just blown straight out of the window if people are going to follow her.
I made the shepherds pie with tinned mince and frozen mashed potato and gave out samples in my shop.
Comments included “revolting” and “I want to be sick”, and all bar one loathed the taste and texture. The only keen taker was my dog but I did not let her eat it! Her worst was spaghetti with tinned mince poured on top. That takes the biscuit.
She then goes on to buy tinned crab to make fish cakes. She is not talking about money so why not buy some good fresh crabmeat and freeze it until you need it if convenience is what she is aiming at? I could cry at what she is doing.
The better tack is to use frozen foods and also the “good” prepared sauces such as pesto, the pots of ready-made carbonnara and tomato sauces for pasta and even the filled pasta ravioli.
For the fun of it I tried a Sainsbury’s smoked fish pie with leeks and Mascarpone sauce and it was delicious, especially at £2.99 and no preparation at all. Serve that with a mixed salad bag with homemade dressing and you can forget tinned meat and fish.
I’m sure some the ideas in Delia’s How to Cheat at Cooking book are good but the TV programme hasn’t impressed me.

Squid ink spaghetti with seafood
I always keep a pack of mixed seafood (prawns, cockles, mussels and squid) in my deep freeze and a pack of squid ink black spaghetti in the cupboard so if friends drop in I have a ready meal in 10 minutes and this is a superb dish. Serve with a salad and you could be in any smart restaurant. A fun way to see if spaghetti is cooked is throwing a strand against the wall – if it sticks it’s cooked!

Ingredients
Serves 4
225g squid ink spaghetti
400g bag fruits de mer
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
1 medium red onion, peeled and chopped finely
1 desp olive oil
Splash white wine (optional)
3 tbsp crème fraiche
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Few drops Tabasco.

Method
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil and add the black spaghetti. Simmer for as long as instructed on the packet but normally about 8-10 minutes and then drain. Put back into the saucepan and toss in a little olive oil to prevent it sticking.
While this is cooking, put the fruit de mer in a colander and run under warm water to defrost. Dry slightly with kitchen roll to avoid making the dish too wet.
Put the garlic, onion and olive oil into a large frying pan and gently fry for about four minutes to soften the onion. Add the white wine and turn up heat to reduce for a minute. Add the seafood and fry gently for about three minutes or until the prawns turn pink. Do not overcook, as this will make the seafood tough.
Add the crème fraiche and season with salt and pepper. Add the Tabasco, stir well and serve by spooning over each portion of black spaghetti.

Your comments:

THANK you for this. Is there a difference between the paste and pulp? I have a recipe for a coconut curry tempeh that calls for a tablespoon of tamarind pulp. Should I remove the shells and large seeds before boiling? Is the paste what remains in the sieve?

Thank you for your consideration. I am intrigued but very confused about everything online about tamarind and yet I'd like to give it a shot. Basically, avoid the seeds and shells and fool around with what's in between there?
S. Scott Mazzola

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