Photograph by David Loftus

After first paging thru Meals in Minutes I was not convinced the meals could be cooked in 20-30 minutes.  Jamie Oliver does say it will take practice, but he's confident that by following his specific preparation details the meals can be ready in that time period. Unlike most cookbooks, Jamie Oliver goes into detail on not only how to prepare the ingredients, but into a very specific ordering in how the ingredients should be prepped and cooked.  By following his detailed instructions, a multi-course meal could be cooked in 1/2 an hour. I shared my skeptism with my husband, who used to be a slower cook than I but has recently surpassed me in both prep speed and multitasking. His response?  Game on Jamie Oliver!

Photograph by David Loftus

Photograph by David Loftus

Looking over various recipes in the book it is clear that Jamie Oliver has put an amazing amount of effort into assuring he presents all of details needed for completing the meal in as little time as possible.  Even more impressive is that he hasn't limited the meals to simple one dish things.  Most have multiple dishes and many include desserts.  While some are a bit more higher in fat than I would prefer (using heavy cream, etc.), though in comparison to restaurant or premade food fat levels, they are not high fat.

Photograph by David Loftus

Steak Sarnie with crispy baby potatoes, cheesy mushrooms and beet salad

amazon.com

• 1 pound baby white potatoes
• 6 cloves garlic
• a few sprigs fresh rosemary
• ½ lemon

mushrooms

• 4 large flat Portobello mushrooms  (approx. 8 ounces in total)
• 2 cloves garlic
• ½ fresh red chile
• 2 sprigs of fresh Italian parsley
• ½ lemon
• 3 ounces sharp Cheddar cheese

beet salad

• 1 x 8-ounce package cooked vacuum-packed beets
• balsamic vinegar
• ½ lemon
• a bunch of fresh Italian parsley
• 2 ounces feta cheese

steak Sarnie

• 1½ pounds best-quality sirloin steak  (cut ½-inch thick)
• 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 1 ciabatta loaf
• a small handful of roasted red  peppers (from a jar)
• a couple of sprigs of fresh Italian  parsley
• horseradish sauce, to serve
• a large handful of prewashed arugula,  to serve

seasonings

• olive oil
• extra virgin olive oil
• sea salt & black pepper

TO START Get all your ingredients and equipment ready. Put a grill pan on medium heat and a large frying pan on high heat. Turn the broiler to full blast. Fill and boil the kettle. Put the coarse grater attachment into the food processor.

POTATOES Cut any large potatoes in half, then add all of them to the large empty frying pan with a good pinch of salt. Quickly squash 6 unpeeled cloves of garlic with the heel of your hand, then add to the pan. Pour in enough boiling water to cover, then cook for 12 to 15 minutes, or until cooked through.

MUSHROOMS Lay the mushrooms, stalk side up, on a cutting board. Trim the stalks and put the mushrooms stalk side up in a small earthenware dish that they fit into fairly snugly. Crush ½ unpeeled clove of garlic over each mushroom. Finely chop ½ chile and a couple of parsley sprigs, and divide between the mushrooms. Grate over the zest of ½ lemon, drizzle well with olive oil, and season. Cut the Cheddar into 4 chunks and put 1 on each mushroom.

BEET SALAD Grate the beets in the food processor. Remove the bowl from the processor, take out the grater attachment, and pour in a couple of lugs of balsamic vinegar and a few lugs of extra virgin olive oil. Squeeze in the juice of ½ lemon. Finely chop a bunch of parsley and add most of it. Stir to dress, then tip into a nice serving bowl. Scatter over the rest of the parsley. Crumble over the feta. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and take to the table.

MUSHROOMS Broil on the top shelf for 9 to 10 minutes, or until golden.

STEAK SARNIE Put the steaks on a board. Sprinkle with salt & pepper, pick and scatter over the thyme leaves, and drizzle with olive oil. Rub the flavors into the meat, then flip over and repeat on the other side. Pound the steaks once or twice with your fists to flatten them a little, then put into the screaming-hot grill pan to cook for 1 to 2 minutes on each side for medium rare, or longer if you prefer. This depends on the thickness of your steaks, of course, so use your instincts and cook them to your liking. Wash your hands.

POTATOES Check they are cooked through, and drain in a colander. Return the pan to a high heat, add a good lug of olive oil, and tip the potatoes and garlic back in. Use a potato masher to lightly burst the skins open (don't mash them though). Add a few sprigs of rosemary and a pinch of salt. Toss every couple of minutes until golden and crisp.

STEAK SARNIE Put the ciabatta loaf into the bottom of the oven. Finely chop the roasted red peppers on a large clean board. Move the steaks to the board and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Finely chop a few parsley leaves, mixing them in with the peppers and all the steak juices. Scrape the pepper mix to one side of the board. Slice up the steaks at an angle.

MUSHROOMS Remove the mushrooms from the oven and turn the broiler off. Take the mushrooms straight to the table.

STEAK SARNIE Get the ciabatta out of the oven and slice it open with a serrated knife. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil from a height. Spread over as much horseradish as you like, then arrange the arugula leaves on one half. Lay the steak slices on top. Mix and scrape the peppers and juices from the board and scatter over the meat, then fold together and take to the table.

POTATOES Tip the potatoes onto a serving platter, and put ½ lemon on the side for squeezing over. Take to the table.

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At a recent Foodie event I heard two Chefs talking, or perhaps complaining is a better term, about their recently departed Pastry Chef.  Apparently the unnamed Pastry Chef had the nerve to protest their policy of requiring she make all of her own ingredients whenever possible; including butter.  As a home baker, I can commiserate with the Pastry Chef who surely went through many, many pounds of butter a day.  While in the San Francisco Bay area making your own is a way of life for chefs, though as a home cook I felt making your own butter might be pushing the concept a bit too far.  "Isn't that what Artisans are for?", I thought to myself.

As I reflected upon this question the book "Make the Bread, Buy the Butter", by Jennifer Reese arrived.   The book combines the story of Jennifer's journey towards balancing her desire to make (or even raise) all of her food versus time and economic constraints.  As anyone who has ever made bread can attest, the cost trade off is pretty substantial (< $1/loaf homemade vs. $4 or more/loaf store bought), yet it does take time and skill. Perhaps in the case of bread baking the better term for "time" is organization and scheduling. 

The question Jennifer asks in Make the Bread, Buy the Butter pushes beyond bread into areas such as making butter, peanut butter, yogurt, pickles, and livestock raising including chickens and goats.  Jennifer tells an engrossing story which you will want to read in one sitting and then read again.  She also includes recipes for items she discusses including notes on which are best bought or made, how much less (or more) they cost than store bought, and how much effort they take.

For example, peanut butter is something I've always bought.  I've no clue why I hadn't considered making it, but thankfully Jennifer did and it turns out the homemade stuff (see recipe below) is cheaper, better tasting and easy to make.  Jennifer provides a balanced look at the "homemade life" in that she does not suggest all items be made at home.  Butter, as the title suggests, and several others are better bought she says.

While "Make the Bread, Buy the Butter" definitely made an impression on me it was not until a couple of weeks later that I fully appreciated the magnitude of what it offers me.    I decided to make a Mississipi Mud Pie for Thanksgiving dessert.  I found the perfect recipe (from Baked Explorations) except the recipe called for store bought cookies (Oreos in this case) to be used as the crust.  This certainly did not fit into my desire for a homemade Thanksgiving dinner. Yet, when I began searching my baking books I surprisingly found that all the pies and cheesecakes with crumb crusts call for store-bought cookie crusts.  To me this was madness. When I asked a fellow foodie friend she frankly thought I was crazy wanting to make my own cookies for the crust.  "Why would one you want to make even more work for yourself?" she asked.  Vindication arrived quickly, however, when I checked Make the Bread, Buy the Butter and happily found not only a recipe for Oreos but a "Make it" rating. Perhaps a homemade crust wasn't necessary but it was definitely possible and a wonderful addition to the dessert.

If, like me, you prefer to make as much as you can on your own then Make the Bread, Buy the Butter is an excellent source of recipes combined with a great story, handy reference and reality checks.  For those just starting out at exploring the homemade life, it offers a glimpse into what is possible and a guide for how to achieve that goal.

Peanut Butter

Recipe from Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese (Free Press, 2011)

amazon.com

Make it or buy it? Make it.

Hassle: Scant

Cost comparison: Per cup, homemade peanut butter is 80 percent the price of Jif.

• 1 pound unsalted roasted peanuts, shelled and skinned
• 2 tablespoons oil (preferably peanut)
• Salt

1. Put the peanuts and oil in a food processor or blender and grind until you have a creamy paste. Add more oil if necessary to thin. Make this peanut butter a little thinner than you think it should be, as it will firm up a lot in the refrigerator.

2. Salt to taste. Store in a jar in the refrigerator for several months.

Makes 2 cups

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Do you eat responsibly? 

I know it sounds like a personal question along the lines of "Are you going to eat all of those cookies?", but how much you eat is not what eating responsibly is about.

So what is eating responsibly?  It's knowing where the food you eat comes from, how it is grown, how it is raised, how it is harvested, how it is slaughtered, how it is processed and how it is transported to your kitchen.  It is the knowledge that the choices you make in selecting the food you are putting into your mouth impacts more than you.  It means that when you choose to eat something that is inexpensive you understand the hidden costs of eating it.  Simply put, like drinking responsibly, eating responsibly means you consider the lives of others in your choices.

Last month I was invited to a very special dinner in Des Moines Iowa in appreciation of the Hog Farmers who raise hogs for Niman Ranch.  The weekend long event included a tour of a working hog farm, educational presentations, a stop at the Des Moines farmers market (absolutely huge) and an awards dinner for the hog farmers.

While you might thing the educational presentations would focus on how great Niman Ranch is—surprisingly they were heavily weighted on education rather than marketing.  At the hog farm tour we learned how they ensure not only a consistent and high quality product but that the hogs are raised with care.  For example, the hog farmers must qualify to be  providers and are constantly scored on the quality of their product.  We also learned that breed, as well as how the hogs are treated, including reducing stress, are important for a great tasting piece of pork. 

On the hog farm tour we saw hogs ranging from 4 days old to several months old playing, eating and living on open ground.  And while they clearly were a bit unsettled with all of us imposing on their life, in general they seemed stress free.  We learned that the land on which the hogs are raised this year will rotate to another location next year so that the land can replenish itself while performing other duties.  This is in stark contrast to hogs raised in confinement with streams of manure cycling by and where stress is the way of life rather than the exception.  Ironically, yet not surprising in our profit driven world, we also learned that hogs raised in confinement facilities are cheaper to raise and as a result, the individual farmer may be a dying bread. 

The educational presentations continued the next day focusing on sustainability with a panel of experts from across the country discussing what sustainability is and how we achieve it.   Later that night we enjoyed a pork-centric dinner while the hog farmers received awards for the quality of their product.  Overall the weekend was very educational, and of course tasty, as we were served wonderful dishes made with pork the entire weekend.

So how does this fit in with my question of eating responsibly?  Honestly, it is the basis for the question.  A weekend of observing people passionate about the product they produce made as great an impression as the various educational aspects of the weekend.  And while I can't say I've consciously thought of eating responsibly for very long, indirectly I've been doing it for a while with my choices of eating locally, eating seasonally, shopping at farmers' markets, and making as much of my own food as possible.   Yet, I admit, until the weekend in Des Moines I bought meat at the grocery store without thinking of where it came from or why that was important to understand (beyond that higher quality meat tastes better).  I failed to ask myself was the animal raised responsibly and if not what impact does that have?  Does this mean I will never again buy meat in the grocery store without an assurance of how it is raised?  No, because sometimes we have very limited choices, sometimes money is tight and sometimes we are rushed. But, armed with the knowledge of the impact of my choices, I will try whenever possible to make a responsible choice.

I hope you will do the same and that the next time someone asks "Do you eat responsibly?" you can proudly declare you do.

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And truly the creations and recipes Gesine presents are amazing. Just browsing through the photos and recipe titles, you'll be enticed to get into the kitchen and learn to work with sugar.  But, and I can't stress this enough, you really will want to do more with Sugar Baby.  Bullock-Prado falls into my category of must-read cookbook authors; those authors for whom you want to read every luscious word, including the introduction, sidebars and, yes, every single recipe head note (perhaps even multiple times).  Do so and you will find humor, humility and honesty. You'll laugh, you'll understand why she does what she does, and you'll learn.  Sugar Baby is fun not only because of the great things you'll learn to make with sugar, but because Gesine is a fun person who has put her heart into Sugar Baby.

Nanny's Torte

Recipe from Sugar Baby by Gesine Bullock-Prado ("Stewart, Tabori & Chang", 2011)

But Nanny, she had no complaints about her new granddaughter-aside from one. It's widely reported that Nanny was overheard leaving my mother's hospital room muttering, "Why the hell did they name her that?" If I could see my Nanny again today, I'd say, "Why indeed?" And then I imagine she'd make some fudge and I'd make some cake and we'd slap them together and wash it all down with bottle of Coke and come up with a nickname for me that we could both live with, because she never could pronounce my name.

Makes 1 (10-inch/25-cm) torte

• sugar 2 1/2 cups | 500 g
• unsalted butter, at room temperature 2 cups |455 g
• large eggs 6
• cocoa powder 2 cups | 170 g
• salt 1 teaspoon | 6 g
• bittersweet chocolate, chopped 1 pound | 455 g
• Nanny's Peanut Butter Fudge (see below) 1 batch
• Sachertorte Glaze (see below) | 1 batch
• roasted peanuts 1 cup | 150 g
• peanuts, finely ground in a food processor 1 cup |200 g

1. Preheat the oven to 325?F (165?C). Spray three 10-inch (25-cm) round cake pans with nonstick spray and line them with parchment. Set aside.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fixed with the whisk attachment, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat between each addition.

3. Slowly add the cocoa powder and salt. Mix briefly, then scrape down the sides of the bowl. Mix again until the cocoa is completely integrated into the batter.

4. Simultaneously, melt the chocolate in a metal bowl over a pot of simmering water, stirring often.

5. With the mixer running on low speed, scrape the melted chocolate into the batter. When all the  chocolate is added, raise the speed to high and beat briefly. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and stir in any lingering cocoa.

6. Divide the batter evenly between two of the prepared cake pans. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until the cakes pull away from the sides of the pans and a toothpick inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean. Allow to cool completely on racks.

7. Immediately pour the fudge into the third cake pan and allow to set.

8. Turn the fudge out onto a layer of the cake and top with the second cake layer. Press gently to adhere the fudge to the cake.

9. Place the layered cake on a cooling rack that's set over a parchment-lined sheet pan. Pour the glaze smoothly and evenly over the cake. Do not use a spatula or other implement to spread the glaze over the cake. Instead, pour the glaze strategically to cover any naked spots. Manipulating the glaze with any utensils will ruin the sheen.

10. Using a set of tweezers dedicated to pastry work, arrange the roasted peanuts on top of the cake in flower patterns while the glaze is still warm enough for them to adhere.

11. Gently press the ground peanuts onto the sides of the cake.

Sachertorte Glaze

Sachertorte is a magnificent layer cake that's so damn good it has spawned a war between two pastry greats in Vienna since the 1800s: the Hotel Sacher and the confectionery haven Demel, who both claimed the dessert as their invention. Legal wrangling ensued as to who owned the rights to sell the "original" Sacher. Expert witnesses testified under oath that a second layer of apricot marmalade was never applied to the original two-layer chocolate sponge cake. And imagine the horror when it was revealed in court that margarine had been substituted for butter in one of the litigant's cake recipes. Scandal!

Notice that all the wrangling was about the innards of the cake? If it were I, I'd have sued for the rights to the fabulous chocolate glaze and let those whiners keep their marmaladeencrusted interior, because it's the chocolate glaze on a Sacher that is consistently sublime. It is shiny. It is decadent. It is fudgy. That's right. The icing for a fancy-schmancy Austrian dessert, originally created for a prince, has the same culinary origins as down-home American fudge. No wonder it's so tasty. Use it as a glaze on any cake you think could use a pretty sheen and a powerful chocolate punch. Just don't get in a lawsuit over it.

Makes enough to cover 1 (10-inch/25-centimeter) torte

• sugar 2 cups |400 g
• water 1 cup | 240 ml
• salt 1/4 teaspoon |1 g
• bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped 8 ounces | 240 g
• unsalted butter | 1 cup | 225 g
• salt ½  teaspoon | 3 g

1. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the sugar, water, and salt. Over medium heat, stir until the sugar has completely melted. Add the chocolate and stir until it is melted.

2. Clip on a candy thermometer, stop stirring, and raise the heat to medium-high. Heat to 234F (112C). Immediately remove from the heat and allow to cool, undisturbed, for about 5 minutes, to allow the glaze to thicken.

3. Pour the glaze over your layer cakes, dunk the tops of your cupcakes, or douse your petit fours. Just don't scrape the bottom of the pan, to avoid any burnt bits from separating and marring the pristine sheen of your chocolate covered
delicacy.

Nanny's Peanut Butter Fudge

My grandmother Nanny raised seven kids on her own during the Depression. Seven. On her own. During the Depression. The fact that she was able to do anything in the kitchen seems a miracle, yet she found time to perfect candies and create lasting memories of raucous sugar-pulling parties during a time when nothing should have been sweet. The recipes are simple-there wasn't money for fancy filler ingredients-but they are simply delicious. This is her peanut butter fudge. I like to get fancy on it and pour the fudge over a layer of dense chocolate fudge cake, top the peanut butter with another cake layer, cover all of that with a Sacher glaze, and then stud the sides with chopped roasted peanuts. I'll tell you how to do that on page 199. You'll probably find it hard not to eat this fudge all by its lonesome though. Just imagine having to share it among seven siblings!

Makes approximately 45 squares

• sugar 2 cups | 400 g
• evaporated milk | 5 ounces | 150 ml
• smooth peanut butter | generous 1/4 cup | generous 60 ml

1. In a saucepan over low heat, cook the sugar and milk until the sugar has melted.

2. Raise the heat to high and bring the mixture to a full boil, stirring constantly.

3. Reduce the temperature to medium-high, keeping the mixture at a continuous rolling boil until the temperature reaches 235F (113C). Remove from the heat. Add the peanut butter and allow it to melt into the milk mixture, undisturbed, for 5 minutes.

4. Working quickly, stir the peanut butter into the mixture vigorously to distribute it throughout the fudge. Immediately pour the candy into a buttered 8-by-8-inch (20-by-20-cm) dish and allow to cool completely either in the freezer or at room temperature. Slice into 1-inch (2.5-cm) squares. The recipe can easily be doubled. Store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place for up to a week.

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Whether you've searched for recipes on Project Foodie, used tags, or are simply browsing your private Recipe Box, the result is always a list of relevant recipes that warrant further exploration.  Along with the recipe name, ingredients, and link to view the recipe in its entirety, each of the listed recipes offers a number of other options--including saving the recipe to your Recipe Box, tagging the recipe, and adding your personal comments. This short guide will walk you through these various features.

A. Recipe Title:  The title of the recipe (Aebleskivers) that appears in the thumbnail image.

 

B. Save/Remove from your Recipe Box:  This button is displayed either as a green save button or an orange remove button. 

The green Save button is visible only when the recipe is not part of your existing Recipe Box. Clicking the Save button will add it to your Recipe Box.

The orange Remove button is displayed only when the recipe has already beem saved in your Recipe Box. Clicking the Remove button removes the recipe from your Recipe Box.  

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Clicking on the month will display a list of all recipes found in that specific issue of the magazine; clicking on the year will display a list of the issues available from that magazine in that particular year and the number of recipes available in each issue; and clicking on the magazine name will display an index of the publication years available for viewing for that magazine.

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Clicking on the episode name will display a list of recipes available for that episode; clicking on the show name will display the available seasons for that show; and clicking on the season will display the available shows for that season.

 

F. Ingredients:  A listing of the ingredients used in the recipe.

G. Your Rating of Recipe:  Here you can rate the recipe by clicking on any of the bubbles to denote how much you liked the recipe, with 5 being the best. 

The recipe rating is denoted by the bubble with the green dot in it.  That is, in the example above the recipe is rated 5. To change the rating to 4, click in the bubble to the left of the 4.
 
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Add Comment:  You can enter a comment about the recipe so others can learn from your experience. You must be logged in to do this, and any comments you add are visible to everyone.  If you would rather leave a private comment visible only to you, follow the process for My Notes described below.  To add a comment:

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Cooking Notes/My Notes:  Want to leave yourself a note about a recipe that only you can see?  Perhaps it's a change in the ingredients, something you would do differently next time, or details on who you served the dish to. Cooking Notes lets you do this and keep the message private. To add a note that will be visible only to you:

1. Click on Add Comment, which will open the Cooking Notes action. 

2. Enter the private note you want to keep for yourself in the My Notes box.
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If you decide you'd rather not save the comment simply press Cancel.

If you have a existing Cooking Note attached to a recipe, you can easily modify it at anytime:

1. Click on Cooking Notes, which will open the Cooking Notes action.
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Close/View Tags:  This toggles the display of tags which are shown directly below the Recipe Actions.  See below (item I) for more on the tag display.

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3. If desired, modify the pre-printed message that will be sent along with the recipe link.

4. Click on Send.

I. Tag Details/Actions:  This area allows you to add, delete, view, and rename tags associated with a recipe. For details on what these actions do, along with what tags are, see our Tips & Tricks devoted to tags.




 

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