So everyone over here talks about Jamie Oliver all the time. I have to be honest that I had never heard of Jamie Oliver before coming to Ireland. Keep in mind, I had also never heard of an aubergine, caster sugar and had no idea what it meant to sweat off onions.
In case any of you also have no idea who Jamie Oliver is…. He is a British chef, restaurateur and media personality, known for his food-focused television shows, cookbooks and more recently his campaign against the use of processed foods in national schools. He strives to improve unhealthy diets and poor cooking habits in the United Kingdom and the United States. Oliver's speciality is Italian cuisine, although he has a broad international repertoire.
When we arrived in Ireland, everyone was talking about Jamie’s famous 30 minute recipe book. As I was taking my cooking class, I became intrigued and became even more excited when I learned he had just come out with his new cookbook “Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals”. The book is so new that there is not yet an American edition with the metric measurements converted (which will definitely slow me down.) Well, with my new interest in cooking, and my limited time in my real life, I thought the book would be perfect for me. I bought the book the other day which set me back 28 Euro!
Here is the first paragraph:
I am so excited that you’re stepping into the world of 15-minute meals. The promise of this book si simple: delicious, nutritious, super-fast food that’s a total joy to eat and perfect for busy people like you and me.
What a great promise! I am ready to try some cooking. After paging through the book and having a hard time deciding what to make because EVERYTHING sounded so delicious, I decided that I am going to try (ala Julie/Julia ) to work my way through the book. Maggie had a great suggestion that I jump around a bit so we don’t eat chicken recipes for a month before having any other protein. So, I plan to tackle one recipe in each category at a time in consecutive order. Part of what we struggle with at meal time is choosing what to make. I figure if I use a systemic approach to choosing the recipes from the cook book, it will take some of the stress out of deciding what to have for dinner. I don’t plan on cooking every day (no surprise to most of you), so it will take me awhile to move through the recipes. But, hopefully, I will learn some things and help with the tough job of feeding the family.
I already have one recipe under my belt. I began with the first chicken dish:
CHICKEN DIM SUM (with Coconut Buns, Cucumber Pickle and Hoi Sin Sauce)
Serves 4: 795 Calories
Equipment needed: Food processor, muffin cases, two 25 cm bamboo steamers and wok.
Ingredients:
1. Coconut buns
1 x 400g tin of light coconut milk
2 coconut mile tins (500g) of self-rising flour, plus extra for dusting
2. Chicken, pickles and garnishes
2 x 200g skinless chicken breasts
140g mixed mushrooms
3 Tbsp hoi sin sauce, plus extra to serve
2 limes
200g tenderstem broccoli
1 cucumber
1 Tbsp rice or white wine vinegar
½ bunch of fresh coriander
3 Tbsp sesame seeds
1 x 105g pack of pickled ginger
1-2 fresh red chiles
Start Cooking:
Pour the coconut milk into the processor with 2 heaped tins worth of self-rising flour and a good pinch of salt, whiz to a dough and then tip onto a flour-dusted work surface. Roll the dough into a sausage shape and cut into 8 even size pieces, then place each one into a double-layered muffin case, and squeeze those into one layer of the steamer. Pour 5 cm of boiling water into the wok, put the basket of buns on top to steam hard.
Cut the chicken into 1 cm strips and toss in a bowl with the roughly torn mushrooms, hoi sin sauce, juice of ½ a lime and a pinch of salt. Tip into the second steamer basket along with the trimmed broccoli and pop underneath the tray of buns for five minutes until cooked through. Speed peel the cucumber into ribbons, toss in a bowl with the soy sauce, vinegar and a few torn coriander leaves, then with clean hands, squeeze and scrunch everything together to make a pickle.
Toast the sesame seeds in the frying pan until golden, then tip into a little bowl. Cut the remaining 1 and ½ limes into wedges, and serve with the pickled ginger and extra hoi sin sauce in little bowls. Serve the buns and chicken in the steamer trays, scattering everything with remaining coriander leaves and finely sliced chili.
So, as you can imagine, I did not have access to a food processor, bamboo steamer or wok. However, I was able to improvise quite well. I put the biscuits in a muffin tin and baked them in the oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. I also mixed my chicken and hoi sin sauce and baked it in the oven at the same temperature for about 30 minutes and finally I steamed the broccoli. But the recipe was a huge hit (with Lisa at least). The pickle, ginger, sesame seeds and other garnishes were lovely. I have to admit that the recipe took me just under an hour from start to having it on the table. However, I would say this is a HUGE victory for me. As Lisa can attest, some of my attempts to recreate the recipes from my cooking class can take me hours.
I will move to the beef section next and try my next recipe. It may have to wait until we get back to Minnesota!
Bain taitneamh as do bhéil
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