Jamie Oliver - Vegies

I'm trying to convince B21 that eating more vegetables is a good thing and not something to be feared. It has been a decade long battle of grating, shredding, mashing vegies in every way possible to hide them and disguise them in the meals that he liked to/was prepared to eat. As a young adult he is now branching out and trying different foods and ways of eating. He has become very proactive about this recently as he attempts to lose the scrawny teen physique inherited from his father, to a more mature buff adult frame. Protein meals are now high on the agenda and he has joined a home-delivered protein meal group and is eating all sorts of things for lunch he would never have allowed anywhere near him in bygone years.

However he still chooses to eat a LOT of meat (i.e. will cook and eat four chicken kievs, rather than cook and eat two kievs with vegies). So before he moves out (fast approaching, so he says) I want him to see and experience vegies in an interesting, tasty and fun way, beyond the roast veg we usually live on.

So instead of just throwing on some rice to have with a chicken satay last week, I turned to Jamie Oliver for some help.

Socca pancakes with broccoli & cheese (without the pancakes!)

Ingredients:

160 g gram (chickpea) flour
olive oil
2 onions
2 cloves of garlic
220 g broccoli
1 lemon
100 g goat’s cheese
50 g Parmesan cheese
1 bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley

Method:

1. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, 2 tablespoons of oil, 200ml of water and a pinch of sea salt. Set aside for at least 15 minutes.
2. Peel and thinly slice the onions and garlic, keeping them separate. Trim the broccoli, then slice into 3cm pieces.
3. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large pan over a medium heat. Add the onion and fry for 10 minutes, or until beginning to brown.
4. Add the broccoli and garlic and cook for 7 to 8 minutes, or until the veg is tender and the onion caramelises.
5. Remove from the heat, add the lemon zest and juice and set aside.
6. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large non-stick frying pan over a medium heat. Ladle in the batter for four pancakes (roughly 8-10cm each).
7. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until bubbles appear, then flip and cook for 2 more minutes, or until golden. Repeat with the rest of the batter.
8. Crumble the goat's cheese, shave the Parmesan, then pick and chop the parsley leaves.
9. To serve, top the pancakes with the broccoli, goat’s cheese, parmesan and parsley.

My Journey with the Recipe:

No pancake - I just wanted the veg part to go with our chicken satay.

No goats cheese or onion  - I'm the only one who likes goat's cheese and we already had enough onion in the satay. 

I had a lime in the fridge, rather than a lemon. 

I prefer broccolini rather than broccoli.

It was very tasty and I will certainly squeeze lime or lemon over my broccolini more often.

B21 avoids greens like the plague but actually ate two small stalks to humour me and said it was 'okay', grudgingly.

Sweet Glazed Carrots

Ingredients:

1 kg small carrots , heirloom if you can get them
50 g unsalted butter
1 tablespoon dripping or goose fat , (optional)
6 cloves of garlic
½ a bunch of fresh thyme
2 clementines
2 tablespoons runny honey or soft brown sugar

Method:

1. Trim most of the leafy green stalks off the carrots, then peel them.
2. Melt the butter and dripping or goose fat (if using) in a large frying pan over a medium heat. 
3. Crush the unpeeled garlic with the flat side of your knife, then add to the pan turning after 1 minute.
4. Pick and sprinkle in the thyme sprigs, squeeze over the clementine juice, then add the honey or sugar and a splash of water.
5. Add the carrots in a single layer, season with sea salt and black pepper, the jiggle the pan to coat the carrots. Cover, reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, or until tender.
6. Remove the lid, then cook for a further 5 minutes, or until the glaze has reduced, and the carrots are sticky and caramelised, turning often. Serve straightaway, or reheat when needed

My Journey with the Recipe:

First I had to work out what a clementine was -

Mandarins are a class of oranges that are flatter on both ends, have a mild flavour and are very easy to peel. Tangerines and clementines are mandarins. Clementines are the smallest member of the mandarin family and are seedless. The peel is smooth, glossy and deep orange.

A clementine (Citrus × clementina) is a tangor, a hybrid between a willowleaf mandarin orange (C. × deliciosa) and a sweet orange (C. × sinensis), so named in 1902.

It's the wrong time of year for mandarins in Australia, so I settled for an orange.

And it was only at the end, as we started to eat, that I realised that I had forgotten to peel the carrots. We had all the natural goodness intact, but it made it harder for the honey glaze to be absorbed and the popped like over-cooked sausages!

Very simple and very tasty.
B21 approved.

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