This week was Return of the Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver. I believe that Jamie, along with Nigella, revolutionised our appreciation of food, cooking and cooking shows when they came on the scene. Jamie, in particular, was a lug of oil and a handful of this. Cooking felt more natural than in the old days of 250 ml of milk with 3/4 of a tablespoon of Tumeric. Jamie’s original Naked Chef TV show is like being on a roller coaster (literally), and trying to watch him cook is a bit of an assault on the senses. That said, the food was and remains excellent. In the Return of the Naked Chef, there are some wonderful recipes.
We cooked the great Spaghetti with red Onions, sun-dried tomatoes, balsamic vinegar and basil. Jamie uses dried pasta, but we made our own spaghetti. This really was a cracking recipe which we’ve done subsequently. Think sweet onions, balsamic vinegar sharpness, tomato richness, and the fresh basil to give a lovely little last-minute pasta supper dish. Awesome. Next up was another super simple dish – Tray-baked pork chops with herby potatoes, parsnips, pears, and minted bread sauce. This made a really great change for Sunday lunch. The pears giving a little sweetness, all crooked in a single tray and were dead easy, and the minted bread sauce cut through the fatty pork. The final awesome dish was Peter’s, Lamb Curry. This was a brilliant lamb curry, and though a tough heavy on the lime, it was delicious. Thanks, Jamie your return was fab.