IHCC Cheerio, Mate: Jamie Oliver Wrap Up

This is I Heart Cooking Clubs' last week with Jamie Oliver.  Next week launches six months with a new chef: Tessa Kiros.



Six months ago, I started flirting with Jamie Oliver.  Giving him a pinky toe test.  Reserved.  Not too much.


He surprised me with the first recipe: Garlic, Thyme, & Anchovy Baked Potatoes.  And again with 1-Minute Berry Ice Cream.


I decided we could spend more time together.  See where things went.  He brought me gifts--a chickpea salad and a chorizo omelet.


About halfway through this relationship, Jamie Oliver and I stopped seeing eye to eye.  We bickered in the kitchen.  Sometimes he wanted too much.  Baby carrots with their tops intact.  Unsalted crackers.  Sometimes I wanted too much.  Recipes that are more precise than "full whack." 


In some cases, I resented him for wasted ingredients and dishes I didn't waste my time posting about.  Maybe he resented me for refusing to trust him when I didn't puree chorizo.  I tried to make it up by staying with him another week and another and another.  He'd make it up to me with Stir Fried Corn or Homemade Granola.  Then he'd end up right back in the doghouse again.  Ours was what you'd call a roller coaster relationship. 


There were several valleys.  (But there were peaks too.)  If I had to give a grade: 76-78%.


This week I made Crunchy Garlic Chicken. 

Before getting to it, here are some of my fond memories.


My best time in the kitchen with JO was this Sweet Cherry Tomato & Sausage Bake.  I love the jammy roasted tomatoes and roasting the sausage is delicious too.  I found that we preferred using brats and doubling the herbs and garlic.  I've made it several times and look forward to next summer's cherry tomatoes.

Next would be Chicken and Leek Stroganoff.  While The Boy didn't care for it, I was smitten.  Definitely a high point.

Finishing off my top three would be this Potato and Chorizo (Andouille) Omelet w/ a Kinda Parsley Salad.  This was tasty and beautiful.  The salad on top was such a nice touch.

Runners up would be...


Summer Chickpea Salad.  I did have to alter this one based on personal taste, but it's a nice little salad packed with flavor.

Sweet Runner Bean Stew.  While I only made the bean part of this fish recipe, I was happy with it.

Banana-Berry Stuffed French Toast.  My first time with stuffed French toast.  This was easy, fun, and family-approved.

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The Crunchy Garlic Chicken this week...
Chosen because it was family-friendly.  The breading--lemon zest, garlic, parsley, and crackers smelled like a winner.  I had very high hopes.  In the end, it was okay--not great.  The family wasn't terribly impressed either.

One last thing.  I have to tell you about what else is on this plate.  Baked Sweet Potato Fries w/ Spicy Chipotle Dipping Sauce.  The recipe is from my friend Wendy @ Around My Family Table.  I make it as often as I can.  I love the seasoning on these fries and I double love the sauce.  The Boy wigs out over sweet potato fries (regular fries too).  But I make these anyway because The Husband and I can't get enough.  Here's the recipe.

Crunchy Garlic Chicken
from JamieOliver.com (click for printable)

2 skinless chicken breast fillets (about 8 ounces each)
3 cloves of garlic
2 lemons
15 Saltine crackers (preferably unsalted tops)
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
8 sprigs of fresh Italian parsley
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 large egg plus one egg white
Lemon wedges, for serving

To prepare your chicken

Cut each chicken breast into 2 equal pieces. Put a square of plastic wrap over each one and bash a few times with the bottom of a pan until they are more or less the same thickness.


Peel the garlic and zest the lemons. Put your crackers into a food processor with the oil, garlic, parsley sprigs, lemon zest, and the salt and pepper. Whiz until the mixture is very fine, then pour these crumbs onto a plate. (If using a blender, leave out the oil and chop the parsley roughly and the garlic finely. Add the garlic and parsley after the crackers are pretty much blitzed and mix in the oil once you’ve dumped the mixture onto a plate.)


Sprinkle the flour on to a second plate. Crack the egg into a small bowl, add the white, and beat with a fork. Lightly score the underside of the chicken breasts. Dip the chicken into the flour until both sides are completely coated, then dip into the egg and finally into the flavored crumbs. Push the crumbs on to the chicken breasts so they stick – you want the meat to be totally coated.


To cook your chicken


Preheat your oven to its highest temperature (475°F). Place your chicken on a nonstick sheet pan. Cook for 10 minutes, flip the chicken and cook for 5 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through, golden and crisp (no trace of pink at the center of the thickest part). You can check by making a small cut in a piece or two.


To serve your chicken


Either serve the chicken breasts whole, or cut them into strips and pile them on a plate. Beautiful and simple served with lemon wedges for squeezing over the top.

Dippin', Dunkin', Slatherin'

Late one night, I sat at my grandma's kitchen table playing cards with my aunt.  Grandma always kept cards in the kitchen junk drawer.  Still does.  We were hungry but everyone was asleep.  My aunt grabbed a sleeve of saltines from the old "Premium" tin with the blue lid and handed it to me.  I opened the plastic and took one.  Started munching.  "Wait," she said.  "You can't eat them like that."


She reached into the fridge and brought out a stick of butter.  Real butter.  At that time, margarine was all the rage; that's what we had at home. 

Grandma & grandpa were butter when butter wasn't cool.


My aunt spread butter on top of a cracker and handed it to me.  "Yeah.  Now we're talkin'," she grinned. 

And that began my appreciation for the extras.  My belief that if x is good, than it can only be better topped with y. 


My own gluttonous algebraic theorem.


My favorite condiments are Creole mustard and hot sauce.
Why, yes, I do stumble through life as a cliché.
And it's mighty tasty.


What's a chip without dip?  Or salsa?  Pancakes without syrup or blueberry sauce?  Biscuits without preserves?


Sometimes I fry fish just for the homemade tartar sauce.  Make shrimp Po'boys just for the remoulade.  Grill chicken just for the avocado, tomato, & lime relish.  Plan taco night based on a hankerin' for some sour cream. Go ahead and judge.  I don't care.  I'll own it.
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It's condiment week at I Heart Cooking Clubs.  This chick is all about dippin', dunkin', slatherin'. 

Remember when IHCC was cooking with Giada?  The lemons?  In everything?  Even egg salad (Heather, I'm looking at you!).
Has anyone noticed Jamie Oliver's addiction to anchovies?  
Seeing as how our time cooking with JO is about up, I wanted to give a final nod to his fish fetish.

Jamie Oliver's "Mind Blowing Sauce" (Bagna càuda)

I wouldn't call this "mind blowing," but I'm not saying it blowed either.  We liked it.

But not leftover.  Little hint: makes a ton.

Jamie Oliver's Winter Crunch Salad w/ Mind Blowing Sauce
from Jamie at Home, also found at JamieOliver.com (click for printable)

for the sauce
6 cloves of garlic, peeled
300ml milk
10 anchovy fillets in oil
180ml good extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
2 or 3 tablespoons good white wine vinegar

for the vegetables
a few young carrots, peeled and finely sliced
a few small raw beetroots, peeled and finely sliced
a few sticks of celery, trimmed and thinly sliced, yellow leaves reserved
½ a small Romanesco or white cauliflower, broken into florets
a bulb of fennel, trimmed and finely sliced, herby tops reserved
a handful of small beetroot leaves, if available, washed
a bunch of radishes, trimmed and washed
½ a celeriac, peeled and finely sliced

Firstly, prepare all your veg, because once the sauce is done you’ll be ready to serve! To make your sauce, put the garlic cloves, milk and anchovies into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer slowly for 10 minutes, or until the garlic is soft and tender, keeping a close eye on the pan to make sure the milk doesn’t boil over. Don’t worry if it spits and looks a little lumpy – simply remove from the heat and whiz the sauce up with a hand blender. Gently blend in the extra virgin olive oil and the vinegar a little at a time – you’re in control of the consistency at this point. If you like it thick, like mayonnaise, keep blending. Now taste it and adjust the seasoning. Make sure there’s enough acidity from the vinegar to act like a dressing. It should be an incredible, pungent warm sauce.

There are two ways you can serve this – with both you need the sauce to be warm. Either pour the sauce into a bowl and place this on a plate, with the veg arranged around the bowl, or serve the veg in a big bowl and drizzle the sauce over the top. Sprinkle over the reserved herby fennel tops and celery leaves and finish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.


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Reminder: next week (Sept. 14) will be the last Garden Variety Wednesday link-up.

In the works for October: A potluck link-up, along with some other changes.

Back to School w/ IHCC & Jamie Oliver

Besides getting to dive into the bodies of work of varied chefs, one of my favorite things about I Heart Cooking Clubs is the weekly themes.

Or, rather, that each theme is left to personal interpretation.

Or, let me just tell it straight, that we can play loose and easy with the themes and no one says boo about it. 

This week IHCC is going "Back to School."



Back to school.  Change.  New.

Shiny, perfect supplies.  That absolutely do not have anything to do with Justin Bieber.  Just so you know.
New teachers.  New friends.
Bigger shoes.  Shorter hair.
Ruling the school as one of the "big kids."
Waking up earlier.  Division.  Umm...wait.  Let's go back to that other stuff.

My pick for a Jamie Oliver Back to School dish was Chicken Korma.

Because it's change.  And it's new.  Curry isn't something we eat a lot of around here.  And by that I mean not at all.

In school, I looked forward to division.  The highest form of math in elementary school.  The type of math that had been kept a mystery for so long.  I wanted to like it.  Love it even.  But division and I didn't click.  I don't know...something about breaking things down.  The ugly feel of the word "dividing."  That obtrusive, bold bar separating dividend and divisor.  Much preferred multiplication.  Rolls off the tongue.  Results in products--very industrious.  Builds things up quickly.  Well, except that zero thing is a real bummer.

So...chicken korma...
Wanted to like it.  Even love it. 

I wanted to talk about my passion for curry, name-dropping coriander, turmeric, masala.  To be exotic.  Sophisticated.  Worldly.    

Are you familiar with lipstick on a pig?
Just call me sooie.

JO's Chicken Korma has received high praise from many across the food blogging community.  Much like the Sweet Potato and Chorizo Soup I made last week.  And like the soup, my family and I weren't into the chicken either.

While a beautiful dish, there was a flavor in it that bugged us.  Nagged us.  I expected explosions of flavor and textures, but that wasn't the case.  Especially in the bites lacking yogurt and almonds.

I know there are other styles of curry out there.  Maybe one of them is for me.

Chicken Korma
from Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution
1 3/4 lb chicken breasts
2 medium onions
1 fresh green chile (optional)
a thumb-sized piece of ginger
small bunch of cilantro
1 (15 oz) can chickpeas
peanut of vegetable oil
a pat of butter
1/2 cup Korma paste (make your own or use Patak's)
1 (14 oz) can coconut milk
small handful sliced almonds + extra
2 heaping Tbsp unsweetened coconut
salt & pepper
2 c natural yogurt
1 lemon

Cut the chicken into 1" pieces.  Peel, halve, & finely slice the onions.  Halve, seed, & finely slice the chile, if using.  Peel & chop the ginger.  Pick cilantro leaves & finely chop the stalks.  Drain the chickpeas.

Put a large pan on high heat & add a couple of glugs of oil.  Add the onions, chile, ginger, & cilantro stalks with butter.  Keep stirring it enough so it doesn't catch & burn but turns evenly golden.  Cook for around 10 minutes.  Add the curry paste, coconut milk, half the almonds, chickpeas, shredded coconut, & sliced chicken.  Half fill the empty can with water, pour into pan, & stir again.  Bring to a boil, then turn heat down & simmer for 30 minutes.  Check the curry regularly to make sure it's not drying out & add extra water if needed.  When the chicken is tender & cooked, taste & season with salt & pepper.

Serve with rice.  Add a few spoonfuls of yogurt dolloped on top & sprinkle over the rest of the almonds.  Finish with the cilantro leaves & serve with lemon wedges for squeezing over. 

IHCC: Soups, Salads, & Sandwiches

This week I Heart Cooking Clubs is focusing on Jamie Oliver's Soups, Salads, & Sandwiches.  September is our last month cooking the recipes of Jamie Oliver before we move on to a new chef. 


Starting out knowing very little (if anything of any real importance) about Jamie Oliver, I was hesitant when I found out he had been chosen.  I'll save you from my reminiscing (until the end of September).  I'll simply say that there have been some big winners and some bumps along the way. 


Like this week.  With time running out and a whole mess o' recipes to try, I picked a salad & a soup.  One was a hit.  The other...not so much.  As they say, you can't win 'em all.


I like bad news first...to end on something good.


Jamie Oliver's Sweet Potato Soup w/ Chorizo sounded like a good idea.  An excellent idea.  I live near sweet potato country and we're always looking for more ways to cook them.  And chorizo is no stranger in my house, normally making an appearance in breakfast burritos.  Which we eat for lunch.  That's just the kind of topsy turvy house I live in.


This soup has gotten rave reviews across the blogosphere, so don't pay any attention to little old me.  Until I get to the salad.  Then sit up straight.  And take notes.

Sweet Potato & Chorizo Soup, served with

Grilled Corn Cakes (Food & Wine Magazine)


To be fair, I made changes (yeah, what's new?). 
~We discovered we're not fans of curry--more on that next week.  I decided to skip the curry powder and flavor the soup with cumin and smoked paprika.
~It seemed a sin to puree perfectly good chunks of chorizo sausage (and kinda gross too, IMO), so I compromised and pureed only half of the soup in a blender.  Avoiding the chorizo as much as I could.

It was so-so.  Edible.  Not memorable.
The soup recipe can be found @ Kitchen Adventures


What was memorable was the Roasted Carrot & Avocado Salad w/ Orange & Lemon Dressing. 

Roasted Carrot & Avocado Salad w/ Orange & Lemon Dressing
from Jamie Oliver's Jamie at Home and JamieOliver.com (click for printable)

1 pound medium differently colored carrots, with their leafy tops
2 level teaspoons whole cumin seeds
1 or 2 small dried chillies, crumbled
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
4 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves picked
extra virgin olive oil
red or white wine vinegar
1 orange, halved
1 lemon, halved
3 ripe avocados
red wine vinegar
4 x ½-inch-thick slices of ciabatta or other good-quality bread
2 handfuls of interesting mixed winter salad leaves (like Treviso, arugula, radicchio or cavolo nero tops), washed and spun dry
2 bunches of cress
2⁄3 cup of sour cream
4 tablespoons mixed seeds, toasted

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Parboil your carrots in boiling, salted water for 10 minutes, until they are very nearly cooked, then drain and put them into a roasting pan. You should flavor them while they're steaming hot, so while the carrots are cooking get a pestle and mortar and smash up the cumin seeds, chillies, salt and pepper. Add the garlic and thyme leaves and smash up again until you have a kind of paste. The idea here is to build up the flavors. Add enough extra virgin olive oil to generously cover the paste, and a good swig of vinegar. This will be like a marinade, a rub and a dressing all in one! Stir together, then pour over the carrots in the pan, coating them well. Add the orange and lemon halves, cut-side down. These will roast along with the carrots, and their juice can be used as the basis of the dressing. Place in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden.


While the carrots are roasting, halve and peel your avocados, discarding the pits, then cut them into wedges lengthwise and place in a big bowl. Remove the carrots from the oven and add them to the avocados. Carefully, using some tongs, squeeze the roasted orange and lemon juice into a bowl and add the same amount of extra virgin olive oil and a little swig of red wine vinegar. Season, and pour this dressing over the carrots and avocados. Mix together, have a taste and correct the seasoning. Call your gang round the table while you toast or broil your ciabatta slices.


Tear the toasted bread into little pieces and add to the dressed carrot and avocado. Mix together, toss in the salad leaves and cress and transfer to a big platter or divide between individual plates. Spoon over a nice dollop of sour cream, sprinkle over your toasted seeds and drizzle over some extra virgin olive oil.



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I've never had roasted carrots in a salad before, but now I want them all the time.  In every salad I eat.  The combination and textures of the avocado and roasted carrots was rich and very filling.  We could have eaten this as a meal.  In fact, next time I make this, I'll use it as the main dish...it is more work than I'd normally put into a salad.  But the cumin, chile, orange, and lemon in the dressing made all of us say, "wow."  The extra work was worth it.

In true me form, I didn't follow the recipe.  Fancy carrots and lettuce aren't easy to come by this time of year.  My sunflower kernels ended up being rancid.  And I skipped the broiled bread since we were also eating bready pizza puffs.
 



  So...50-50 this week, but I came away with a great salad I know I'll make again.  (Overall the Jamie Oliver count is higher on the like/make again side.)
   Visit IHCC to see what other soups, salads, & sandwiches are being made this week.


Also visit Deb @ Kahakai Kitchen.  She has a weekly round-up of all things soup, salad, and sandwich: Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays.

Garden Variety Wednesday #12 & Running, Running, Running

Welcome to
Garden Variety Wednesday #12!
(Link up below)


Monday was back to school here.  Have been running trying to keep up with all that.  Running trying to keep up with all the upgrades/changes going on at work.  And I made a quick run out of town this past weekend. 

While I used to run daily, running doesn't appeal to me anymore. 
I have super bad knees.

So I'm just going to sit a while and combine several things this week.
My knees will thank me.


When I first started looking through Jamie Oliver's Jamie at Home cookbook for IHCC, this recipe for Grilled Butterflied Monkfish with a Sweet Runner Bean Stew stood out. 

"Sweet Runner Bean Stew" sounded and looked like something my great grandma would have made with fresh beans from great grandpa's garden.

And "runner bean" made me think of an old Creole song I like, written by Bébé Carrière.  The song has no words, but according to one story it was inspired by a young Bébé Carriere watching his grandmother being chased by a snake. In an interview, Mr. Carrière says of the song, "that was a fast piece, because a Blue Runner is a fast snake." (Tisserand, Michael. The Kingdom of Zydeco)

I just planted my beans, squeezing in a crop between tomatoes and frost.  So they aren't nearly ready. 

But I was able to find some beautiful beans from a store that carries locally grown produce.  Not runner beans, but I couldn't pass 'em up.  They looked so quaint packaged in a gallon ziploc bag.

Notes:
I didn't bother slicing the beans all skinny, skinny--just cooked them down longer. I skipped the fish part of the recipe (for now), so I can't comment on that.  I can tell you that after reading, making, and tasting the recipe, runner bean stew is nothing like what my great grandmother would have made.  But it was delicious. 

The sauce was complex and flavorful--the tomatoes, garlic, rosemary, and anchovies all worked magic together.  Even though there was no fish to sprinkle it on top of, I used the gremolata anyway (added a little bit of chopped raw garlic to it--that's how I've been schooled in gremolata). I love that stuff.  It was the final touch that made me stop all this crazy running around.  If only for meal time.

Grilled Butterflied Monkfish with a Sweet Runner Bean Stew

from Jamie at Home, printable version found at JamieOliver.com

1 1/4 pounds runner beans, trimmed
olive oil
1 x 4-ounce jar of good anchovy fillets, in oil
5 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 dried red chilli, crumbled
24-ounce jar of tomato sauce or 2 x 14-ounce cans of tomatoes, crushed
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 x 7-ounce-thick pieces of monkfish, skinned and trimmed properly – ask your fish monger
a bunch of fresh flatleaf parsley
1 lemon
extra virgin olive oil
a small bunch of fresh green or purple basil, leaves picked

Feed the runner beans through a bean cutter. If you don't have one, just run your peeler down each side of the bean to get rid of the stringy bits and then cut them into 1/2-inch pieces at an angle.

Your runner bean stew can be cooked in advance or started just before you cook the fish. Heat a large saucepan, big enough to hold all the ingredients, and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil plus the oil from the jar of anchovies. Chop 4 of the garlic cloves and fry them gently with the anchovies and dried chili until it all goes soft and the anchovies break down into a mush. Pour in the crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce and add the beans and the rosemary sprigs. Season and bring to the boil. Place a lid on the pan and simmer gently for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the beans are nicely cooked. If the sauce gets a little dry, add a splash of water and give the beans a stir.

Lay the monkfish pieces on a chopping board and slice them horizontally almost in half, so they open out like a book. Try to get them so you have an even thickness on both sides. Score the fish lightly and put to one side. To make the gremolata, finely chop the remaining clove of garlic with a pinch of salt. Next, finely chop the parsley and finely grate the lemon zest. Mix these with the garlic, give it all one last chop and put aside to sprinkle over at the end.

Heat a very large griddle pan or frying pan (or use two smaller ones). Season the fish well with salt and pepper and rub lightly with olive oil. Cook the fish for 2 minutes each side or until just cooked through (don’t be tempted to overcook it).

Take the beans off the heat, taste and season them once again if necessary. Remove the rosemary sprigs and squeeze in the juice from the lemon. Place a pile of beans on each plate and top with a piece of fish. Sprinkle over the basil leaves and gremolata. Or you could serve the whole lot on a big platter in the middle of the table – family service style!

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This week's IHCC theme is POTLUCK.  Click below to see what's showing up at the party.

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GARDEN VARIETY WEDNESDAY # 12

<a href="http://msenplace.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/mm73/blog%20badge/garden1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a>

~ Made a dish with something you nurtured in your garden?
~ Maybe a neighbor stopped by and shared some of his/her harvest?
~ Have baskets of goodies from a pick-your-own farm?
~ Found some treasures at your local farmer's market?
Share them here!

* Please don't forget to link back to Ms. enPlace or grab a button.
* Link your post--not your home page.
* Since growing seasons differ so much even across the US, old/archived posts are welcome, but please edit with a link back or a button.
* Have fun visiting other blogs!


Garden Variety Wednesday schedule:
Two rounds left

August 31
September 7

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Linking up this week with:
Make a Food-"e"-Friend Monday @ The Saturday Evening Pot
Tuesdays at the Table @ All The Small Stuff
Tasty Tuesday @ Naptime Creations
Hearth and Soul vol 61 @ Mom's Sunday Cafe
Delectable Tuesday @ Home Sweet Farm
Let's Do Brunch @ My Sweet & Savory
Turning the Table Thursday @ Around My Family Table
What's Cooking Thursday @ Feeding Four
Simply Delish @ KB & Whitesnakes Home
Potluck Friday @ EKat's Kitchen
Fresh Food Friday @ la bella vita
Friday Food @ Mom Trends

IHCC Dessert Week & Cookbook Sundays: Parfaits w/ Jamie Oliver's Granola

For six weeks at work this summer we were assisted by three high school students.
They had this amazing ability to make me feel young
       (no age limits for laughter and cuttin' up)
and old
       ("Dial tone? What's that?")
at the same time.

I told our students I'd make something on their last day as a thank you.  One of them asked for yogurt parfaits.  Very do-able, but these parfaits had to be special.  This was the best group of summer workers we've ever had.

Fresh cherries, blueberries, & bananas gave lots of color, lots of flavor.  Jamie Oliver's homemade granola made them extra special.

Notes:
I took advantage of what I had: pecans, walnuts, & peanuts.  Left out the dried fruit because I didn't have any--and there would be fresh fruit in the parfaits.  The shredded coconut was nixed since a few people I work with (namely me) don't like it.

The granola was good.  Not only did I use it for the parfaits, I also used it as a topping on muffins and as a topping on another dessert--a sort of peachy nectariney thing.

This post is for Dessert Week at I Heart Cooking Clubs.  We are currently cooking the recipes of Jamie Oliver.

Also linking this with Cookbook Sundays @ Mom's Sunday Cafe



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Jamie Oliver's Granola
from Jamie's Food Revolution Cookbook

2 cups quick-cooking oatmeal (not instant)
1 heaped cup mixed nuts
1/4 cup mixed seeds (sunflower, poppy, pumpkin, sesame)
3/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
5 tablespoons maple syrup
About 3 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 cups dried fruit

Preheat oven to 350°. Put oatmeal, mixed nuts, mixed seeds, coconut, and cinnamon on a baking sheet. Stir well; smooth out. Drizzle with maple syrup and olive oil; stir. Bake 25-30 minutes. Every 5 minutes or so take out and stir, then smooth down with a wooden spoon and put back in oven. When granola is golden, remove from oven, mix in dried fruit (roughly chop any large pieces); let cool. Serve with milk or yogurt. You can keep leftover granola in an airtight container about 2 weeks, but it's so delicious we'll be surprised if it lasts that long!

IHCC Brit Bites: Welsh Rarebit

What the heck do I know about British cuisine?
Besides the jokes that there's no such thing?

Not much more than fish and chips and Yorkshire pudding, I'm afraid.

This week we're cookin' up Brit Bites with Jamie Oliver @ I Heart Cooking Clubs.

I chose JO's Welsh Rarebit w/ Attitude.  A safe choice...what can go wrong with bread and cheese?  Of course this isn't just bread and cheese.  There's mustard, crème fraiche, chiles, and Worcestershire sauce. 

Notes:
The Husband said this reminded him a little of the top of a croque monsieur.  I can see that since a creamy sauce is spread over the top of the bread.  We all liked this dish.  Even me.  If you've been with me for a while, you know that nothing scares the hell outta me like undercooked or overcooked egg.  I did worry about that and had a lunch Plan B thought out for myself.  The egg cooked through--but not overly so.  All was good.  Except for my ability to carve cross hatches across the cheesy topping.

Are you wondering?  Those are roasted green beans.  Introduced to me by a recipe swap friend, Erika (recipe from Cooks Illustrated, Nov. 2005).  Erika is currently living in England, having her own Brit Bites experience.






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Jamie Oliver's Welsh Rarebit w/ Attitude
from Jamie's Food Revolution

2 large egg yolks
10 Tbsp crème fraiche or sour cream
1 level tsp English mustard powder
4 oz grated cheddar cheese
salt and pepper
4 Tbsp chile pepper chutney or jam, or minced fresh chile
4 3/4" slices bread
Worcestershire sauce

Preheat broiler and get it nice and hot.  Whisk the egg yolks with the creme fraiche and mustard powder.  Stir in the cheese and season with salt and pepper.  Now, either use the chile pepper chutney or jam, or chop up a little fresh chile.

Lightly toast your slices of bread on both sides.  Smear a good tablespoon of chutney onto each slice, right to the edge, followed by a quarter of the rarebit mixture.  By spreading it right to the edge, the crust won't burn.  Broil until melted and bubbling.

Divide onto plates.  With a knife, crisscross the topping and drizzle with Worcestershire sauce.

Sometimes I need to wine

There was a time, pre-Boy, when The Husband and I were really into wine.  We'd go to wine tastings (free wine, dudes!), visit wineries in the Hill Country when we lived in TX, we even stomped grapes and put our juicy footprints on t-shirts.

But when the short guy constantly walks in the room to update us on how many zombies he's killed with a pea shooter and how many times the dog has farted in the past 10 minutes...

Well, it's just hard to concentrate on the fine subtleties of wine.

So when I saw that the I Heart Cooking Clubs theme is "Bevvies Week," I had the perfect excuse to allons a Lafayette and visit one of my favorite wine shops: Marcello's on Johnston Street.  They have a great selection, always have a special going on, and the wine guy is very helpful and knowledgeable...not to mention hilarious.


I went in with my mind set on making Jamie Oliver's Strawberry Champagne, and grabbed a bottle of a beautiful-looking rosé sparkling wine.  I'll confess to the three things that drew me in: (1) it was on sale, (2) the label had fleurs de lis (as if I wouldn't fall for that), (3) it was pretty.  Priorities, people!  Just as I was second guessing my choice, Wine Guy appeared.  I think his name is Pete, but let's call him Wine Guy in case I'm wrong.


Wine Guy walked up to my husband...
WG: "Sir, is this lady bothering you?"
Husband: "Not nearly enough."
And then wise cracks all around.  Most having to do with my ability to cave under the influence.  Maybe I should have been offended.  But I wasn't.  Good times.


But back to the serious business of making a Jamie Oliver bev.  I wondered if this demi-sec wine plus sweet strawberries would be too much.  After explaining to Wine Guy the what and the why of this Jamie Oliver project (which he thought was cool, or at least pretended), he suggested using cherries.  Aha!  Not too sweet.  Don't have to worry about catching pesky seeds with a sieve.  The color of the cherries would go nicely with the color of the wine--Wine Guy's observation.  Cherries were currently on sale--my observation.  Wine Guy is pretty darn smart.

wine used:
Maréchal Touraine Demi-sec Rosé

Strawberry Champagne
from Jamie at Home, by Jamie Oliver
printable version can be found here

a leaf of fresh mint
3 large handfuls of strawberries, preferably wild ones, hulled, washed and drained
a bottle of bubbly, such as Prosecco or Champagne

This is the simplest recipe in the world and possibly one of the best Champagne cocktails I’ve ever tasted. A great way to start a summer dinner or party.
Place the mint leaf and the strawberries in a sieve. Push the strawberries through the sieve into a bowl, using the back of a spoon. (You’re not really after the pulp, just the juice.) Chill until you are ready to serve your drinks.

Divide the strawberry purée between six Champagne glasses, carefully fill with bubbly and enjoy!

~~~~~~~~
Except we all forgot one thing.  The Husband and I are not sparkling wine people.  We make racy jokes with strangers in the middle of stores and giggle while we discuss the dog's gastrointestinal issues with The Boy.

While many people would like this type of drink, for us it was doomed from the start.  Building something around an ingredient you don't much care for doesn't have a high chance of success.

~~~~~~


But on the bright side, Wine Guy introduced me to my new favorite thing: Chocolatier Red Decadance.  It's the kind of thing I dream about.  I love Wine Guy. 

He said it tastes like chocolate covered cherries and he was 100% right on.  From the first whiff, I knew I would be into this.  I so very much am.

This red wine is infused with dark chocolate.  Normally, I'm snooty about add-ins when it comes to wine.  Normally, I'd want to taste the nuances of a wine--the chocolate, the citrus, the blackberry, the whatever--and have it be from the actual wine.  But I'll make an exception in this case.  And in this case The Husband and I made an entire bottle in one evening exception. 

Hope I didn't bother him too much.

This post is part of Bevvies week @ I Heart Cooking Clubs...currently cooking the recipes of Jamie Oliver.  For more info:

I Heart Cooking Clubs: Fun In the Sun w/ Jamie Oliver

To me fun in the sun is a cookout on the deck.
Because when we have a cookout, The Husband does the nitty gritty work.
And all I'm in charge of is a fast and easy throw-together side.
Maybe two.

Like Jamie Oliver's Stir Fried Corn w/ Chili, Ginger, Garlic, & Parsley...
               and cherry tomatoes & basil for good measure.

Sounds like fun to me!

Even more fun when The Husband grills up my favorite burgers--Cheese Stuffed Burgers w/ Spicy Scallion Mayo!

Notes on the corn:
I picked JO's stir fried corn this week simply because it looked easy.  Because babe, this busy summer is putting the hurt on me.  Had no preconceptions.  No expectations.  Just a straightforward it'll put food on the table type of situation.  Well, it was really good.  I liked the cooking method.  Fast & fresh.  I liked the garlic.  I liked the chili.  I loved the ginger.  The Husband approved as well.  The Boy was thrown by the ginger since he normally only eats it in snap form.

The chili, ginger, and not completely cooked garlic all add a nice kick in the pants.  So if you don't like being kicked in the pants--or anywhere else--there's your warning.

Submitting this to IHCC's Fun In the Sun week with Jamie Oliver.
Go sneak a peek at some more fun!


Also linking with:

 Food on Friday: Ginger @ Carole's Chatter

Linked & featured at:

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Stir Fried Corn w/ Chili, Ginger, Garlic, and Parsley
pretty much from Jamie Oliver

1 1/2-2 Tbsp olive oil
2 cups corn kernels
1 Tbsp ginger
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced chili pepper
1 1/2-2 Tbsp soy sauce
handful fresh parsley (reserve small amt for garnish)
half as much basil (reserve small amt for garnish
handful cherry tomatoes, halved

Heat oil in a skillet or wok.  When hot, add the corn.  Cook a few minutes, keeping the corn moving.  Add the ginger, garlic, and chili pepper and cook a few minutes more.  Stir in the soy sauce.  Just before serving, add the parsley, basil, and tomatoes.  Stir to combine.  Garnish with parsley and basil and serve.

Mushroom Thyme

I know.  I know.  I'm a dork.
But I'm a dork who likes mushrooms with thyme.
It's time well spent as far as I'm concerned.

Plus I really wanted to play with a thyme brush. 

That right there is pretty much the reason I chose

Jamie Oliver's Thyme Griddled Mushrooms

for this week's I Heart Cooking Clubs Fire Up the Grill theme.

Instead of doing this indoors, as the recipe suggests, we used the outdoor grill.

Isn't grilling portobello mushrooms the super cool & hip thing to do?

Let's pretend that it is so I can feel better about being a goof with my title.

Notes:
Pretty good, although I was disappointed in the thyme flavor.  It didn't come through as much as I had hoped.  However, I didn't use my mortar and pestle.  Using it for anything other than grinding spices or grains skeeves me out since it's made out of lava rock.

Instead I flexed my muscles, bruising the thyme against sea salt in a bowl.
The lemon zest and balsamic vinegar at the end were a nice touch.

Thyme Griddled Mushrooms
from Jamie Oliver/ foodnetwork.com (click for printable recipe)

The thyme brush used for this is a great way to combine the thyme flavour with the mushrooms. You could use it for any other griddled vegetables or meat as well.

8 large flat field mushrooms
Bunch fresh thyme
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
Small bunch flat-leaf parsley leaves, finely chopped
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1 lemon, zest finely grated and juiced
Balsamic vinegar (optional)

Heat a heavy griddle pan on the stove. Slice the bottom off each mushroom, then place the tops on the griddle, flat side down. Wrap some string around the thyme to make a brush. Put the brush end with a large pinch of salt in the mortar and then bash, adding about 5 teaspoons of extra-virgin olive oil and the white wine vinegar. Add a bit more salt and pepper.

Using the thyme bundle as a brush turn the mushrooms over and brush with the thyme oil, keep dabbing them while they are cooking. When the mushrooms are cooked, place them on a serving plate and sprinkle them with the parsley, chilli, and lemon zest. Squeeze over the lemon juice and drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil. Add a little balsamic vinegar, if you like. 


This is my contribution to the current IHCC Grilling theme.  Right now we are cooking with Jamie Oliver.

If you'd like to know more about this project, join in, and/or view what others' have made...