Cooking with Jamie Oliver
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Mr. Moore and I love to cook.
Every weekend, we gather together the fixins for a few recipes and spend a few hours making magic.
It’s the highlight of our week, no mistake about it. We’ve had a few years to practice our technique – chopping vegetables, preparing meat, cleaning counters, washing dishes, managing multiple pans on the stove. In a way, it’s like a dance – a dance done to the delicate arias of sizzling meat and the billowing aromas of simmering spices.
We recently added another resource to our recipe arsenal (this is our THIRD purchased cookbook, if that tells you anything. We’re not into having a billion resources cluttering our kitchen.)
That resource? Jamie Oliver.
Specifically, this book : Jamie’s Food Revolution: Rediscover How to Cook Simple, Delicious, Affordable Meals.
We don’t have cable tv, so we hadn’t been introduced to him via his various cooking shows. I saw the book in a store and needed only to flip through a few pages to know it was right up our alley.
Since then, Steve Hall recommended his shows to us and we’ve been working through them via our local library (did you know you can get dvds through the library? How awesome is THAT?) and we love his vivacious love for food and company. He’s a joy to watch, and his shows inevitably teach us something new about herbs and flavors and cooking.
Three incredible recipes later, I knew we’d made the right decision.
We have cooked three of Jamie’s recipes. One exactly to the recipe, one slightly off, and another … well, it was MOSTLY his recipe.
All three were fanTAStic, and all three were absolutely things we’d never have tried on our own.
Thing The First : Bacon and Cabbage.
This is the closest recipe I could find on his site, but it’s not exactly what was in his book.
In our recipe, we finely chopped the bacon and let it sizzle a bit, releasing all that lovely bacon grease into the pan. (We used thick-cut double-smoked applewood bacon – we wanted a LOT of good bacon flavor and hoo boy did we get it!). While the bacon sang backup, we pulsed an entire head of green cabbage in our Ninja, so it shredded up a treat.
Bacon finished, we added the cabbage to the pan and tossed it around so the cabbage picked up the bacon flavor and wilted just a little. We added a pat or two of butter and took it off the heat before all the crunch left the cabbage.
In the future, we’ll be adding some onion with the bacon and dropping the extra butter (we don’t think it was necessary).
Let me tell you – a few spoonfulls of that in a whole wheat pita pocket slathered with horseradish and you’ll think you’re in HEAVEN. As Jamie would say, horseradish and cabbage are best mates.
Thing the Second : Spanish Corn on the Cob
Again, this is the closest recipe I could find on his site, but it’s not exactly the same.
Though I wish we had the means to grill the corn (carefully peel back all the leaves without tearing them off. Remove all the cornsilk and then replace the leaves over the raw corn, then soak it in a bucket of cold water for a while, till it’s ready to go on the grill. The water gets up in the leaves and steams the corn PERFECTLY as it grills) but we didn’t, so we did the traditional boil/steam in a big pot on the stove.
When the corn was done, we added salt and pepper, like you normally would for corn on the cob.
Here’s where we deviated, though. The original recipe called for butter and grated parmesan, and we skipped both of those. We did use the finely chopped chile … but we also added in some onion, as well. (What? We LOVE us some red onion, folks). We rubbed the onion and chile up and down the corn – no way it was going to stay balanced while we ate, but that way a little bit of the flavor got to stick to the kernels. Periodically, we’d grab some of the lost bits of veggies and sprinkle them back on top for an extra-yummy bite.
The secret to the corn, though, IS part of the recipe. Squeeze half a lime over the corn before you bite – drizzle it nice and good.
Honey, I have NEVER had corn on the cob this tasty. It was slap-yo-mamma good, and that’s a fact.
Thing the Third : Ground Beef Wellington / Potless Pie
I couldn’t find a recipe close to this on his website but that’s okay because we made something different enough that we’re calling it a Potless Pie.
Beef Wellington, if you don’t know (and I didn’t) is a lovely chunk of beef surrounded by a gooey layer of spices and herbs, then wrapped in a puff pastry dough. When it comes out, it looks like a giant loaf of bread, but when you cut into it, you get a moist and flavorful steak dish.
Jamie’s recipe was much more appealing to me (the cook who doesn’t like difficult recipes) in that it used ground beef instead of steak, and incorporated some veggies.
We hit the grocery store to check out the frozen puff pastry and I refused to buy it. 160 calories for a sixth of a box? You’ve got to be kidding me! And not one of them without HFCS and other garbage that I didn’t want to eat. I wasn’t interested in the recipe because of the breading – I wanted all that gorgeous middle bit.
So we skipped the pastry.
Doing that allowed us to make a looser meat mixture. If it doesn’t need to slice neatly, then why bother trying to make it loaf-ish?
So we added a BUNCH more vegetables. We chopped up (have I mentioned lately how much I love my ninja? That thing is incredible. Worth every penny of it’s admittedly modest selling price.) potatoes, carrots, onion, and celery. Way more than the recipe called for.
We added it to a pan with some oil and garlic and let the carrots sizzle a bit. For flavor, we decided to go Italian (I am in love with marjoram, basil, and thyme … I almost always go Italian if I get the choice) and sprinkled in a hefty dose of dried herbs.
Once the carrots were almost done, we tossed in a pound of ground chuck (ground beef, for those of you not in the know, just means “ground cow”. Ground chuck is a ground chuck steak and if you’ve got time, it’s worth grabbing an actual chuck steak and tossing it in a ninja to make your own ground chuck and it’s fanTAstic) and let that cook up. Near the end, we scrambled up two eggs and tossed them into the mixture. The original purpose of the eggs was to hold the loaf together, but in this case it added a special something. A pinch and a half of salt and it was ready to be served to royalty!
When it was done, we just spooned the mess into a bowl and it tasted like the best beef pot pie I’ve ever had – minus the crust.
Thus – Potless Pie.
Three Out-Of-The-Park Recipes
3 out of 3 is pretty good odds for a single cookbook, I think. (And yes, we tweak many of the recipes that we try. Usually to add more onion.)
We may even end up tracking down our own copy of Oliver’s Twist (Season 1).
Much love.
We’ve got probably double your cookbook count, though half because they were gifts. However, like you, we’re big cooky types. We just use The Internet! ;)
For general, everything-you-make-looks-good with a focus on not being too crazy complicated, two blogs really stand out:
http://www.kayotic.nl/blog/ Kayotic Kitchen
and http://thepioneerwoman.com/ Pioneer Woman
Sure, that means I’ve a BUTTLOAD of scraps of paper, notecards, and stickie notes scattered around whenever I go to cook something, but pretty much everything I’ve tried from the above is verra tasty.
Marianne´s last post ..Breakfast Tacos
@Marianne
We have one black scrapbook that holds all our favorite recipes (these recipes are going to be added in this week sometime) and we go to our cookbooks as sources of consistently good recipes.
Pioneer woman is pure food porn. Her photos are incredible – but most of her recipes focus on desserts or things with a lot of butter in them. We’re not anti-butter, but we do try to keep it moderate to low in our cooking. Watching her blog is like dangling a catnip mouse in front of a cat who is trying desperately to give up the habit.
Every once in a while, someone will favorite one of her posts in my feed reader, and I’ll admit to indulging in some fantasy cooking and drooling.
Kayotic is new to me, though!
It is great that you and your husband are cooking together. My husband is not interested at all in getting into the kitchen, so the burden of preparing and choosing our meals falls squarely on me. Fortunately I really like to cook, but sometimes it does cause me frustration to figure out “what are we going to eat tonight.” Some days I just have no inspiration.
I love that in this day and age we have lots of resources on the internet for free recipes. I started out watching Food Network and that taught me a lot of great basic techniques. I still use their website sometimes for recipes. I also love Jamie Oliver and I wish he would make new “Jamie at Home ” shows! They show the re-runs on the Cooking Channel. I love how Jamie goes into this garden, throws stuff into a basket, and cooks it (sometimes over a simple fire on the ground) and it looks like an absolutely amazing meal when he is done. :)
I don’t have any of his cookbooks but many of his recipes are on the Food Network site, my favorite one of his is the butternut squash soup. There is no heavy cream in it but you would never know it. One of these days I want to try making my own pizza dough with his recipe.
A website I stumbled upon recently is Food 52 (www.food52.com). Where everyday people contribute recipes, although they are all clearly accomplished cooks and foodies. I love the photographs :) It isn’t a place to go when you are looking for something specific but it is inspirational.
And I’m with you on the pastry thing, I make my own now so I know exactly what is in it. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy a basic pie dough is as long as you have the time to make it ahead and refrigerate. Not something I eat all the time due to all the butter but really nice for special occasions.
I’ll stop now, when it comes to food I can go on and on…keep cooking and experimenting!
Another Food Network alumni that you might look in on is Alton Brown. I don’t know if his shows are out on DVD, but you CAN find them on the youtube.
The thing I like about Alton is he gets into the science and culture behind dishes, such as how yeast works – and he uses geeky science props to illustrate. Kinda like Bill Nye the Science Guy does Cooking :)
The name of the show is Good Eats, if you want to look it up, and he’s well into his 16th or so season.
PS: The book /Good Eats, the Early Years/ covers the first 10 seasons and contains a most excellent pizza crust recipe (though I halve the amount of salt).
Grimmtooth´s last post ..A Grind So Evil- Even Warlocks Fear It
Re: favorited Pioneer Woman posts
Um, that would probably be me… >.> Sorry. *koff*
Marianne´s last post ..Breakfast Tacos
I love cooking. So does Stephen, which is awesome. We don’t get a lot of time to do it together anymore because of the baby but we used to cook together all the time. Now we trade off – one person watches/plays with Olivia while the other person cooks then the person who didn’t cook washes the dishes. It works out nicely.
One of our favorites to make is Portobello Melt Dippers.
*ahem*
*recites*
Two portobello caps, sliced
Minced garlic
splash of white wine
pepper
Saute mushrooms until brown, add garlic. Cook a little bit longer. Add wine, cook until evaporated, season with pepper.
Equal parts white wine vinegar and olive oil
Half a tsp of dijon
Salt
Arugula
Whisk all of that together, toss with arugula
Four slices of your favorite thick whole wheat, nine grain, oatmeal, etc bread.
Olive Oil
Shredded Gouda
Assemble sandwiches – cheese, mushrooms, arugula, cheese (cheese acts as a glue on both sides)
Grill in a panini press or in a saute pan with a little olive oil
Cut in half and serve with tomato soup.
Makes two sandwiches.
omnomonomonomnom….
@Daria
Oh, I totally agree! I think my favorite part of his cooking show is watching him shop/forage first – then make food from it. I’m very jealous of all those lovely shops he visits!
If you really could go on and on about cooking, maybe you should start a blog! I know I’d read it! <3
@Grimmtooth
How funny, a friend of mine recommended him for the same reason this past weekend! 16 seasons though! Wow! Can you recommend a starting place?
@Marianne
*grins* You’re not the only one! Justanna and Steve Hall are also periodically guilty of making me salivate!
@Tristina
That. Sounds. Fantasmagorical.
*takes notes*
Tami´s last post ..Cooking with Jamie Oliver
Unbelievably. Fantasmagorical.
Excellent. and. Terrific.
even
<3
I'll look through my recipes and see what else I have that you might like.
@Tristina
Oh yes, please do!
You could post them on your site! (I do follow it, even if I don’t comment much) <3
I hate to sound like copping out, but S1 Ep 1, “Steak”, really highlights his core values – learning about where the food comes from, how to select it, what kind of gear to use, food prep, and just plain cooking it. It’s a little rough around the edges, but it includes most of his show elements.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KrjeJDNKUA
And then, Ep 2 – This Spud’s for You :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRdOxCqRNPU&feature=related
(Also introduces my favorite Nutritional Anthropologist of all time)
And, the aforementioned pizza ep:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BhVPgllLW8
Grimmtooth´s last post ..A Grind So Evil- Even Warlocks Fear It
@Grimmtooth
not copping out at all! I love starting at the beginning, a love which is heightened by finding out that the beginning is precisely the best place to start. <3
Thank you!
A couple of points:
First, puff pastry is pretty easy to make yourself–practically foolproof. And it can do sooooo many wonderful things. (My wife makes a puff pastry ring about 18″ across, slices it in half, fills it with a bavarian cream and fresh strawberry filling. Awesomeness.) So yeah…puff pastry. GOOD STUFF.
Second…what the hell was second? *scrolls back up* Oh yeah…for all those scraps of paper and stuff: Evernote. For Mac or Windows. Cloud storage, so even if you’re at your Uncle Lou’s, you can pull up a recipe (or whatever). Oh, even better: Android & iPhone apps, too. Yeah, Evernote: Collect everything. You can copy from a webpage, type a note, scan it, upload a photo…Even for those who hate installing stuff on their computers (Tami, I’m looking at YOU!), it’s as important to the rest of your life as Scrivener is to your writing.
Steve – Kestrel’s Aerie´s last post ..Signs of the Times
@Steve
You are not advocating the healthiness of puff pastry with your comment! (though you ARE making me want one of those strawberry bavarian cream things)
I’m not the one with scraps of paper. My recipes are very organized and gloriously random. I have yet to find a niche in my life where I would actually USE Evernote. I promise, as soon as I do, you shall get credit for my conversion. =]
Yay Jamie Oliver!
Was “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” TV show big in the US? I caught a little bit of it here on Aussie TV last month, and thought it seemed quite (heh) revolutionary. I was amazed he could continue his food “crusade” against so much hostility… But I hoped he would do well, because food education is so important.
Oh! Regarding Evernote – after installing it a bit skeptically, I found I use as a replacement for web browser bookmarks. I used to have folders and folders of bookmarks that I’d never look at, and they were a pain to use and keep tidy. Evernote notes are a lot easier to scroll through, and you can “clip” whatever snippet of information (or image) you are actually interested in, and still have the web address saved in case you need it. I’m an Evernote convert :)
@Mazil
Yay Jamie Oliver indeed!
I don’t now which of his shows were big here. I’ve been watching the Twist series via the library, and I’ve had several friends recognize him as “The Naked Chef”. I’ve not had anyone mention “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” to me, so if I had to guess, I’d say it’s not big here.
His dedication to food education is one of the things that made me fall in love with the book. I have friends who are afraid of cooking, and it took my husband over a decade to get me to eat veggies (which I now adore).
There’s been a definite gap, and I happily support this man willing to help bridge that gap!
Tami´s last post ..Cooking with Jamie Oliver
Hm! You might find the “Food Revolution” interesting. His aim was to come to the US to try and revolutionise how people saw food as well as promote healthy eating. It was interesting to see his reaction to school cafeterias, and their reaction to him!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Oliver%27s_Food_Revolution
It is interesting how we are less and less inclined to cook our own food these days. Come to think of it, I don’t remember being taught much cooking at school at all – only one class for a year and it was optional. It would be quite hard to learn the basics without support from school and family, especially if you weren’t too interested in the first place. I do love cooking though, personally, but I’ve had to read a lot (thank goodness the internet makes it so easy to find info!).
@Mazil
Agreed! I was taught to bake a little (cookies, mostly) but not really to cook. My mom doesn’t like many vegetables, and I didn’t used to, either. Box dinners was how I survived after I left home. Mr. Moore is the one who got me interested in learning how to cook real food, and his patience in getting me to like vegetables has definitely borne fruit!
Tami´s last post ..Where’d the Writing Go
I just decided to come back and see if there were any new comments here. Regarding the Food Revolution show, it was a reality show that aired many months ago in the US (I want to say it was Winter?) Anyway it was a short show, only 6 weeks, and was all about trying to change our school lunch program to get them off the processed food and onto fresh food.
I learned a great deal about what they are serving kids in schools these days and the politics behind it. But unfortunately Jamie’s program didn’t hold after he left, the schools in W.VA went back to the processed food.
@Daria
Wow, what a shame that it didn’t hold!
Reminds me of the movie Super Size Me. =[