Redeeming my family cook-cred with chicken in leek sauce

COOKING FACTS

Time: 25 minutes

Score: 9/10

Jamie ate it: Yeah

The last couple of efforts I've made to wow Corbey and Jamie with my slow cooker stews and bean soups have not been wildly ecstatic. So, because we're going to be out this evening I decided to cook a nice lunch, with whatever we had around.

What we did have was half a packet of leek soup mix, which I used for one of my slow cooking recipes, some chicken, a lot of onions, peppers and potatoes. Oh, and some fresh parsley.

The result as you can see was sauteed chicken and vegetables with leek sauce. I added mostly milk and water to the sauce, but also some cooking white wine.

Potatoes were boiled then mashed with chopped fresh parsley, black pepper and butter.

Not an impressive or difficult meal by any means, but was a real hit with wife and kiddo! So I'm giving this one 9/10, since Jamie ate his plate clean. Most rare.

Not that this needs much explanation but the procedure was to soften the onions and peppers on low in a frying pan, with some salt and pepper and olive oil. Then I put those to the side and fried the chicken on medium high until brown. Then in a jug I added 1/2 cup of water and milk, and about 1/3 cup of cooking white wine and added that to the chicken with the leek soup mix.

After simmering for about 10 minutes it was good to go.

Chili soup

Didn't have a lot of time or ingredients, but this turned out quite well since we made some fresh bread to go with it.

Ingredients

6 cups water

1 tsp ground cumin

4 tbsp chilli powder

salt and black pepper

12 oz can of crushed tomatoes

3 bulbs of garlic, thickly slice and crushed

12 oz can of red kidney beans

1 cup of white long grain rice

1 cup frozen peas or corn

Splash of cooking white wine

Method

Pretty much stick it all in the pot; bring it to the boil and simmer for 40 minutes.

Except the rice is best cooked separately then added near the end to stop it getting too soggy.

I made this in the morning with the bread, so that it could be just reheated when we got home after our day out.

Jamie (age 8) wasn't too keen but my wife, Corbey loved it, at least after I had dumped a fistful of shredded cheddar cheese on the top.

Justin's first Korean BBQ

I've been planning on having a go at making Korean BBQ since going to Seoul on a business trip in November, and today I finally got around to it.

We went to H-Mart off Lougheed Highway in Burnaby, which is a Korean grocery store and picked up a pot of Kimchi, some Beef ribs and Pork belly cuts (both already sliced for BBQ) and a couple of marinades.

So I barbecued the pork first out on the deck on a small butane grill, half of it in the spicy marinade and half without. The pork belly was quite fatty, and as it cooked the BBQ was pretty wild, I was in a fireball at one point wondering whether to pull the plug, but eventually the meat looked ready and once off the grill everything calmed down.

I served the meat as it was ready, with bowls of Kimchi, sea salt, sliced fresh garlic and chopped spring onions. As I suspected it was a bit too spicy for Jamie, but he loved the non-marinated meat. He liked the Kimchi though, and even drank the juice from the bottom of the pot.

Next up the Beef ribs. This was a lot better behaved on the BBQ as it was a lot more lean. The marinade I had for the beef was dark and sweet flavour, with no spice, so Jamie loved that and probably ate almost a pound of the grilled meat.

My verdict ... it's pretty easy to make Korean BBQ and Jamie quite happily will eat spicy Kimchiand raw garlic when there is grilled meat involved.

From Justin's first Korean BBQ

Easter Cooking

Having watched the first couple of episodes of Jamie Olivers' new TV show, Food Revolution, it's a good job I cooked a couple of healthy meals yesterday and planned to do the same today. That makes me wonder if perhaps most of the people watching this show will already be interested in healthy cooking and that the person that eats mostly fat and frozen food will be watching the other channel.

Anyway, this Italian tomato pasta dish I made yesterday turned out really good so I wanted to write it down.

From Easter weekend cooking

Ingredients

Can of chopped tomatoes

About 1tsp of fresh basil

Handful of Cilantro

3-4 cloves of garlic thinly sliced and chopped

Whole white onion coarsely chopped

1/2 cup of red wine

Oregano

Ground black pepper

One tin Tuna broken up

1/2 tsp of chilli powder

1oz cooked pasta (fusili or whatever)

Method

I chopped the onion quite thickly then fry it on medium eat in large lumps, which seems to leave more of the flavour in. After 5-6 minutes I added the garlic and cook that through without browning. At about ten minutes add the wine, maybe a bit of water too, and stir in the onions and the rest of the ingredients. Cook through and serve with the pasta.

From Easter weekend cooking

On Friday evening we had a selection of cooked meats, blue cheese and crackers, and a quick salad with Asian Sesame seed dressing. Does that count as cooking? Not really but it was good.

On Saturday morning Jamie insisted on Macaroni and cheese for lunch, so I made him some from a recipe I found on the internet (see link at the bottom of the post).

From Easter weekend cooking

This is pretty much the same as packet mac and cheese which he loves so much, but it's a lot lower in sodium man-made chemical nonsense. It's also got fresh vegetables in it and almonds also add a lot of good nutrients. According to the recipe it's a good source of vitamin A and D, as well as calcium.

Unfortunately, he didn't like it. In the end we had to stir hot dog in it to get him to eat any at all, which is a shame, but I tried.

http://healthycooking.suite101.com/article.cfm/healthy_macaroni_and_cheese

Jamie's Food Revolution

Got this neat book for my birthday. I've made my first meal from it, as seen below. Pretty terrible photograph as I couldn't wait to eat it but it was good.

Classic Tomato Pasta

From 2009_09_21

The recipe is from the pasta section. Jamie's revolution is to teach more people to cook proper meals, so you're supposed to make a few recipes from the book and teach them to someone else. I wonder if a blog post counts? Well I guess not since I probably can't reproduce it here anyway or I'll get sued, but it's well worth buying the book.

I made a couple of changes; I increased the amount of garlic from 2 cloves to 8, since the garlic we get here in Vancouver is pretty mild. Also I put a lot less chile pepper in (the recipe says 1 fresh red chile) because the pepper I had was a very hot green fellow!

Jamie's massive amount of enthusiasm, for not just cooking and food, but also for inspiring people to cook and to eat better, comes through loud and clear in the recipes. I love this book and I'm looking forward to the next recipe I try!