Jamie's 30 Minute Meals

Open your horizons with home cooking.

I take my hat off to celebrity chef Jamie Oliver for his success in turning school dropouts into chefs worthy to be employed in his restaurant "Fifteen". And I also applaud the inroads he's made in getting British schools to serve more nutritious lunches. But though I enjoy watching his TV series, "Jamie's 30 Minute Meals", I find the logic he uses to persuade his viewers to move away from takeaways to home cooking seriously flawed.

You see, there's more of what happens before the preparation and cooking process and more of what happens after. In order to cook at home, I have to plan what to cook, make out a shopping list for the ingredients I need to buy and go get them. And by cooking at home, I'll likely end up having to do the after dinner washing up as there will definitely be cooking implements that I can't chuck into the dish washer.

And all these adds-on take time.

So it actually makes better sense to persuade more of us to cook regularly by emphasizing the health benefits for doing so. When I buy takeaways and tv dinners, I've lost control on what's been added into my bought meals. Doing my own preparation and cooking empower me to regain that control. This is especially crucial if I'm big on organic produce, free range chicken and eggs, using less processed produce, and whatever else that may be my personal drivers at given points in my life.

By the way, being handy in the home in this way actually equips me with a new set of skills other than what I've been professionally trained to accomplish in my career. And this can become truly handy when I hit my mid life crisis and so definitely want a career change. Look at Nigella Lawson - she went from being a food critic to a celebrity chef on no other cluedos than that she did loads of home cooking, and did it well.

Now I'm not saying that I want to run my own tv cooking show. But cooking well at home can become the basis of an emergency career switch when I tire of teaching, writing and editing for an income during an economic downturn. Then I'll have a sound basis in starting, say, a catering business in lieu. Just look at Mrs Field's cookie business: she built a cookie empire on the one skill she knew how to do well - bake at home. And mind you, she was only a home maker before she ventured into a business of making and selling yummy biscuits.

So the crux of the matter is this: there are more crucial reasons for doing more home cooking. And I may well become surprised where this adventure will take me.

10-minutes Mains

Sunday dinners as tantalizing as the sunset.

While I luxuriate in the kitchen preparing Saturdays' dinners, the family vegges out on Sunday evenings. And that means my mains are prepared, cooked and consumed super fast - so that we can spend the evening finding out what happens next in "Torchwood - Miracle Day" on dvd.

While Italian spiced sausages (bought from Cold Storage) may grace the dinner table on such occasions, it's the occasional occasion that I resort to grilling them. Often I still prepare and cook my mains: I just make sure that the meat will be ready within 10 minutes.

Off my head, I can mention three meat dishes that I can successfully dish out within the time limit I set myself: roasted lamb cutlets dressed with a honey mustard sauce, sauteed salmon fillet that's served with wedges of caramerlised lemons and pan fried pork belly that's drenched in a sauteed orange marmalade sauce. Yes, all three takes just ten minutes. But that doesn't mean that I've compromised on flavour. Oh no, I still stand by my motto that "the test is still in the taste". And my hubby swears that these dishes are on par with recipes I slave for hours on end on Saturdays.

So the moral of today's blog entry is this: the complexity of preparing and cooking a dish is by no means a sure fire means of enhancing flavour. No, the actual trick is in using ingredients that harmonize and create that perfect balance in contrast. And that can even be achieved with just a few ingredients.

My pork dish, for example, is complimented with only salt, pepper, bay leaves and a generous splash of marmalade. The crux that takes this meat dish to the next level is in investing in a good quality jam. The best I've tried is a Duchy's, with Hediard's coming in a close second. Anything else makes this dish a complete waste of time.

Breakfast Treats

The early bird gets a hearty breakfast.

Often on Saturday and Sunday mornings hubby and I will laze around in bed till it has healthily passed 10 in the morning. Then we roll out of bed and climb into his nifty Alfa to head off for a late breakfast. And we regularly haunt four places for breakfast.

And we find that Cafe Beviamo and Toby's Estate do great granolas, while Laurent Bernard the Chocolatier dishes out a banana and blueberry crepe that is to die for. His eggs benedict are also superb, although Brunetti comes in a very close second in this department.

But once ever so often we do our own cooked breakfast. And we can whip up an absolutely mouth watering French toast, using Gardenier banana and walnut loaf as the differentiating factor. Baking the pan fried concoction is the second difference. The last is in coating the toast in maple syrup and a generous dusting of icing sugar.

Alternatively, we will whip up some scrambled eggs. My hubby's recipe has his own signature twists. He adds a generous amount of freshly squeezed orange juice to make the eggs cook even runnier. And just as the eggs are done, he liberally laces his eggs with slices of Norwegian smoked salmon.

Or I would whip up a mean omelette that's filled with snow peas, grated mature cheddar, and crispy bacon bits. The secret in my arson of cooking tricks is to add good old trusty salt to my beaten egg mixture before I pour that into the frying pan.

And if we're into appeasing our sweet tooth, there's an egg custard recipe I learned from my mum that I can whip up. Into the beaten eggs we add heaps full of Milo and an equally generous spoons full of condensed milk. And out of the steamer is a custard that's as smooth to the palate as it is to the eyes.

 

Hubby's In Town This Week

My kitchen brings a pond like calm to my marriage. 

Hubby's job in Singapore handles regional responsibilities. So most business trips take hubby away during the week days. That means I'm often a Mrs during the weekends only, dishing out sumptuous food to romantically seduce his discerning taste buds. As I always say, "the test is in the taste".  And this keeps the fires of romance coursing through the veins of our marriage (we'll celebrate our fifth anniversary this year).

But once ever so often hubby will be in town for a full week. And that's when I celebrate having all that time with him by cooking up a storm in my delightful kitchen. And it's not just the dinner for two I'm talking about. Oh no. It's about the snacks he gets with his beer when he gets home in his nifty Alfa from work. Often I'll wet his appetite for dinner with his mother's greatest recipe - that's right, Necia's absolutely heavenly cheese biscuits: where the wholesome grated texture of the mature cheddar and the contrast given by the freshly crushed garlic granules shine through ever morsel he takes.

Other times, I'll whip up an assortment of liver pates as appetizers - although those made with chicken liver are his favourite. Some times it'll be laced with slivers of garden fresh orange rinds. Other times, delicate slices of granny smiths settle down with the clarified butter that settles on top of the smoothly textured pate.

And there'll also be jugs and jugs of freshly brewed cordials sitting in our trusty fridge - just in case hubby needs a refreshing palette cleansing drink after the clock strikes nine after dusk. If time isn't a luxury for me that week, I'll whip up something quick - like a traditional home made iced lemon tea and, for excellent contrast, an ice cold lemon lime (using the local kafka limes). And when I find that the time is mine to while away at leisure, I'll stir my brewing pot to pour forth some zesty lemon barley that's first destined for the fridge.

And to accompany his refreshing after nine drinks will be the best home made Anzac oatmeal cookies he has  ever tasted. And the secret is in the abundant crushed pistachios I add into the cookie mixture. Not those that come raw though. No, I use the ones roasted in salt. And that provides the best foil to the sweetness offered by the caster sugar in the biscuit dough.

 

The Joy of Cooking

Dining out: A source of cooking inspiration.

While I've done my fair share of cooking for one - namely, myself, the joy in cooking is sharing what I've dished out. And that joy trebles when hubby and guests find my dishes a true pleasure to wolf down. So is it little wonder that when hubby's away for business, I have little motivation to cook my own meals?

I'll take those times to dine out with friends instead. And recently, I've revisited Au Petite Salute in Dempsey. And have found to my greatest delight that their souffles are still worth dying for. And this has inspired me to dish out from my oven a heavenly chocolate souffle when hubby gets back today.

And it would be a dessert he will take great delight in as he's just spent a fruitful week and a half in China. And as he'd have been taken to all sorts of Chinese banquets during his time there, he'll truly appreciate a home cooked dinner menu that draws inspiration from the west. So a succulent steak served with a peppercorn sauce will come before the delicate souffle.

And that's the ball park bench I take to planning my meals home: If he's been away in Europe, I'll look east for inspiration. So when he's been to Australia - where the cuisine draws strongly from middle eastern, European and eastern cuisines, I'll serve up some delectable African delights.

And hubby will be most appreciative that there's variety that's being served up on the home front. And the home cooked food will be an added incentive to concluding business to everyone's satisfaction at the speed of light.