Weekly Feedback. 28/09-03/10/2015. Jamie Oliver 'Everyday Super Food'.

This trial week of Jamie Oliver's new book was fantastic. 

Now, I remember buying that book as a payday treat to myself about three to four months ago. As I turned around after picking it from the shelves, I met the disapproving but also worried look of my partner. If you would see my collection of cookery books, and magazines which occupies a lot of shelves, surfaces, and places, you would understand the disapproving, so much so that your mind would be able to put words into that particular gaze: 'Not one more.'

Jamie's Home made Tea. 

But there was some anxiety there, in that gaze at that moment in time, for I did not pick a book called 'Comfort Food' or 'Pub Grub', any of Jamie Oliver's previous books would not have encountered that look either. That particular one had an alarm bell attached to it, or like a blue neon sign flashing repetitively which simply said: 
'Healthy'. Not his cup of tea. 

Tango on Jamie's book.

The title said 'Super Food' but the subliminal message in my partner's mind was 'healthy' and that little word came with a lot of assumptions such as boring, not fulfilling or not just filling enough etc etc etc. Well, all those myths were busted by that trial week. 

Although, choosing that book for a trial week met a lot of circumspection and worries, at the end of it, it was a massive thumbs up and someone totally won over that healthy can be excellent, full of flavours and very filling.

Sweet Potato Muffins.

The week went really well and the book will not be put on the shelf to be forgotten, it will be opened again and again. There is a lot of cool dishes in there that we haven't tried yet. The ones, we did have were very tasty. It has to be said that Jamie Oliver's recipes burst out with flavours. 

For our podium of favourite dishes this week, we came to decide that, in third position was the 'Chicken and Garlic Bread Kebabs.' They made a fantastic supper. 

Chicken and Garlic Bread Kebabs.

Being a firm second, came the 'Vegeree Not Kedgeree'.  However altered the recipe was under my hands, this was delish flavoursome. 

Vegeree.

Coming first are the Samosas, which we absolutely loved. It was awesome to learn how to do them with that tasty recipe. 

The Samosas

Pickled Eggs.

This book is very educational food or super-food wise making you conscious of what you eat in an exciting way. Jamie Oliver just pulled it off in my home with his recipes and convinced my partner that healthy doesn't necessarily means boring. He enjoyed that week truly: it was educational, myths and assumptions busting.   

To which I will conclude that from making Brunch Muffins, to Funky Pickled Eggs, passing by Tasty Samosas, I learned a hell of a lot from processes to just little tips which makes plenty of difference. 

I can only recommend that book to anyone. 

Preserve Plan of the Week. 'Blushing Pickled Eggs, Red Cabbage, Cloves and Star Anise.'

This recipe comes from 'Everyday Super Food' by Jamie Oliver. Page 238.

Book Pic

Learning to preserve, I was very happy to find those pickled eggs nugget of a recipe in Jamie's book. Anyone buying his magazine will be acknowledged of the wide range of recipes they offer, from fancy popcorn to herby homemade butter passing by chutney, jams and pickles. From the book picture, the purple edges of the eggs were intriguing enough for me to chose to learn how to do that. I wanted to know how to do pickled eggs for ages anyway. Making fancy ones was far from a stretch too far, it was just exciting. 





Bringing all the ingredients together on the kitchen counter revealed the big purple magical element in the recipe. 

The Prep.

Shredding the Red Cabbage.

And the winner is: The humble Red Cabbage. For that kind of purple, I would have thought Beetroot, because, Gosh, does Beetroot not dye everything in its path from tongue to fingers passing by chopping board? 

Pickling.

Well the dye Agent here is Red Cabbage. It is processed fairly simply, shredded, then stirred into the pickling liquid. 

Shelling the Eggs.

The entire recipe is easy to do. Hard Boiling eggs is not a biggie, shelling them is not complex either and this meant this entire pickling jar of blushed eggs was a joy to do. 

Filling the Jar.

Somehow I had that childish excitement just by filling up the Kilner Jar with the eggs, cabbage and pickling liquid. Maybe because, my pickled eggs are going to be fancy purple like in Jamie Oliver's recipe, or may be because I am starting to understand how pickling is working. The mathematics of it are pretty simple and then, the possibilities for fun and equations endless. This funky recipe just opened the doors of pickling to me in a non boring way: Priceless.  

The Result.

When those eggy wonders reached our plates, I will tell you how they fared on the taste incentive. So this post will be updated with the result at a later stage. 









For the moment the result is a jar which is picture perfect. 

Sweet Treat of the Week. 'Sweet Potato Muffins, Chilli, Cheese and Seeds.'

This recipe comes from 'Everyday Super Food' by Jamie Oliver. Page 64. 

Book Pic.

Now, you know that I am not much of a sweet tooth but that I am trying to up my skills concerning sweets, puds and desserts. Muffins are one of my must learn in my mind book. Savoury Muffins have got that trendy aspect to them which make them very attractive to the adventurous palates but mainly to the not so sweet ones like mine. Learning to do  a healthy brunch Muffin appealed to me straight away. 

Resulting Savoury Muffin.

I must confess that my choice got mixed conservative comments straight away, lots of raised eyebrows and circumspection. The book picture did not convince one that Muffins should be anything but sweet to be nice and worth consideration. So to say the least, I felt like swimming against the tide during my trial.



Pretty stubborn, I tried nonetheless to do the Brunch Muffins... Let's bring some 'outside the box' thinking at home, however cosy some may think it is to be in one, like my Big Boy Berlioz.

Berlioz. loving his boxes. 

Sweet Potatoes.

I will not play here the Fifth Symphony of Beethoven, and think that I conquered all. For it played out differently. First the oddity of the all Muffin affair drew someone in the kitchen lending a very helping hand and curious eyes. 600g of Sweet Potatoes were duly grated for me to use. 










As I have no knowledge of how to do a 'normal' Muffin, I can't compare this recipe and technique to any other, however I can tell about what the result tasted like. 

The Prep.

Putting the intriguing preparation on the kitchen counter, from the Sweet Potatoes to the Spring Onions passing by the Cayenne Chillies and Cottage Cheese, one was very interested to see how I would make Muffins out of that.

The Magical Muffin Mixture.

In the Oven.

 But with the binding of eggs and the magic of self raising flour both of us saw the Brunch Muffins rising in the oven, me with a 'I have done my very first Muffins' smile on my face and my alter ego with a WTF smirk at his lips.


The result was surprisingly light Muffins with that warm wow factor of the Chilli kick to them. From suspiciously interesting they reached the grade of four stars with someone admitting that they were surprisingly nice.  As for myself, I gave my first attempt at Muffins a high five. So reaching a home rating of four point five, this Brunch recipe of Jamie Oliver is a clear winner. We had those Muffins at any time really from Brunch to when we were feeling peckish during the week.  They worked a treat. We will do them again. 

Saturday. 03/10/2015. 'Tasty Samosas, Beef, Onion and Sweet Potato.'

This recipe comes from 'Everyday Super Food' by Jamie Oliver. Page 188. 

Book Pic

As we are partial to Samosas, it made sense for us to learn how to do them. That healthy number from Jamie Oliver was a must do. The book pic looked like we were going to have a lovely and light dinner. 

The Result.

Another good reason for the choice was a few Sweet Potatoes that needed to be used up. One of the very nice thing in Jamie Oliver's latest book is the way he highlights the goodness and health benefit of certain ingredients in his recipes. I did find it very educational. As a Sweet Potato fan, it made it easy to convert someone to eat that spud.

The Prep.

Once the preparation is done everything is fairly easy to do and follow. Apart when our Tango decided I should learn to do Samosas without looking at the recipe. 

Tango loving resting on recipe books only when you cook from them.

Frying the Mixture.

The Samosa mixture in this recipe is absolutely well balanced and fantastic: Beef Mince, Brown Rice, Sweet Potatoes, Garlic, Onion, Chilli and Coriander. It starts with frying and building up the flavours together then it is a gentle simmering for 20 minutes. The Rice cooked upon the pack instruction is added last to the mixture. 

The Samosas Filling.

Me First Samosas...

The trickiest part for me was actually forming the Samosas. My very first one was not looking picture perfect to say the least but I did improve with the practice a little.  I reckon after three or four goes at Samosas over time, I will succeed in making them look the part. However what my very first batch lacked in style, it didn't in taste courtesy of that beautiful recipe of Jamie Oliver. 

Great Supper.

This was a lovely dinner which was very filling as well: two Samosas per person like advised is more than enough. We used two Cayenne Chillies instead of one (glut but also taste oblige) which gave a fantastic tingling warmth to those babies. It is economical too for we had the leftovers Samosas for our lunch boxes. That recipe went a treat and got the high five. We will do it again at any time during a year.

Friday. 02/10/2015. 'Super Tasty Miso Broth, Chicken, Mushrooms and Wild Rice..'

This recipe comes from 'Everyday Super Food' by Jamie Oliver. Page 208. 

Book Pic

The choice to do this recipe was simple: for variety in the weekly menu, I tend to include a soup of some sort. Asian inspired broth or soup are getting a firm favourite of mine as well. The book picture looked very attractive as well. 


I must confess as a foodie, I have lots of pastes, sauces, tubes, jars, powders and stuff from all over the world, which  I almost compulsively have to have in my cupboards or fridge, where they slept peacefully undisturbed. Some rarely used, some not at all because my busy previous life didn't give me the energy to find out those recipes how to use them, and if I did find one, the courage of doing something with them. 

Miso Broth.

White Miso Paste.

Time have changed and now I open my cupboards like treasures trunks. One ingredient, I hoarded diligently most probably after having watched a program by Ching-He Huang was Miso paste. Finally I had a beautiful recipe to learn how to use that little gem. Yes, the word Miso played a great part in choosing this recipe as a must try. Used within the soup, it gives a sweet, light umami flavour.

Nori Sheet.

Apart from Miso, the other ingredient I never used before but this time had to buy was the sheet of Nori. I didn't mind the expense, even if I am using only one sheet in this recipe, for I am a big sushi fan.  Learning how to make sushi from scratch is definitely on the map for me: Big time, Big treat. I must say the taste of that seaweed sheet in the broth accompanied by the Kale worked really well.  I will use again Nori sheet that way. It was very novel to me yet impressed me. 

pickling the Radishes

Now, a very simple little process which I learnt in this recipe was invaluable to create a quick treat which was delish:  it was pickling radishes with a splash of vinegar and a pinch of sea salt. Very effective and yummy, I did that with the leftover radishes many times afterwards to snack in front of TV. Both, my partner and I were fond of those pickled radishes.  

Little rice bowls.

The only change done to the recipe was the wild rice which we could not find. So I used Red Camargue Rice instead. Those little side bowls were nice to dive into. 

The Result.

The result was very nice and very tasty, however my partner is not fond of mushroom in soups, he just find them soggy, and doesn't like the texture. I happen to love them, grin, conundrum night.  It was a three star for one and four for the other, so the recipe fared three and a half altogether. It could be done again but without those beautiful mushrooms: what is the point? The broth will lose its magical combination.  Nothing is lost, that recipe of Jamie Oliver taught me a few tricks with the radishes and the Nori sheet without forgetting how to use the miso paste.

Thursday. 01/10/2015. 'Golden Salmon Steaks, Sweet Peas and Smashed Veg.'

This recipe comes from 'Everyday Super Food' by Jamie Oliver. Page 166. 

Book Pic.

The choice of that recipe to try out this week in our home relied on my shoulders. The book's picture says it all for it is a fish number. However as I tried to promote a more balanced diet for our dinners, the choice was reluctantly accepted. 

image from www.cookeryonline.com

One problem was finding darnes of Salmon, so we had to settle for fillets or Supremes instead. But losing out on that particular cut of fish, we focused on the provenance of it instead, choosing a Pacific Alaskan Salmon. The taste of it made up for everything.

Pacific Alaskan Salmon.

Apart for the right cut which we did not find in our usual supermarket, the rest of the ingredients were easily assembled on our kitchen counters. 

Swede.

I must admit that regarding the good old Swede, it has to be in a recipe for me to start using it. Somehow in my mind, I harbour that kind of ridiculous prejudice against certain out of fashion veg. But it is partly due to the fact that I have no idea what to do with some of them. For that the palliatif is simply following easy recipes that show me how.

Making that lovely mash with Swede was interesting and a real eye opener on the use of it. That particular veg brings a lightness to the mash which was very welcomed. My appreciation of that humble root went sky high and I will definitely do that particular mash again as a handy side dish to know about. Carrots, Potatoes and Swede made a great combination.

One of our Chives early this year.

Having a garden is a blessing however small it can be. Year on year, we try to establish a comprehensive one which has as constant and almost at its heart, the culinary herbs. Our established collection, (Chives, Mints, Sages) is growing with new additions all the time like this year with Rosemary, Lavender, Thyme and Basil. Next year the plan is to introduce to the kitchen garden, Tarragon, Marjoram and Oregano. I find it so rewarding to go and pick up the herbs I need for the evening meal that I can only recommend and encourage strongly for any to try it at home. It is easy and even a windowsill can do to grow a few herbs. Fresh, herbs give that vibrant extra taste to any plate and make it sing to your palate.

Chives.

With that apology to the fresh culinary herbs, the one I could use from my garden was our established Chives. It goes so well with so many dishes especially fish ones. We love it in our house to jazz up a scrambled eggs brunch or in an omelette. It has that mild spring onion like flavour to it which works so well with many things.

To finish the dish was very easy to make and the recipe was just as well to follow. I would call it a non brainer. As for the result that fishy number had the thumbs of approval and reached a four star which means someone would not mind at all eating it again. Yeehaw to Jamie Oliver!