Jerk Chicken

I love Jamaican food and while I'm not big on super-spicy I love the flavours of jerk chicken (I just tone down the jalapeno peppers and control how much of the seeds are in the marinade). Yanna found a recipe on the Food Network and it produced some fantastic chicken. She also made some rice and peas and pan fried zucchini.

 The result was fantastic. It reminds me more of eating in the open Jamaican air and really expresses the complex flavour mix that is jerk.

Quiche

Since I had some pie crust from my Beef Pie, I decided to make a university-student favourite: Quiche. While many students might think Kraft dinner before a quiche dinner, it's really easy to make (if you already have a pie crust -- I used to buy Tenderflake). Essentially, you're mixing eggs, milk, and your filling: ham, spinach, tomato, broccoli, or even leftover chicken. Most of your cook time is baking.

Here's a simplified version based on Joy of Cooking on page 109.

Ingredients

• 1 cup milk or heavy cream
• three eggs (may need more to fill your pie crust)
• 1/2 a small onion
• 1 1/2 cups cheese
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• salt and pepper
• Optional additions: zucchini, tomato, more cheese, mushrooms, spinach

Directions

• Paint your pie crust with egg yolk to seal it from the moisture of your egg filling.
• Mix 1 cup milk or heavy cream and three or more eggs (to fill).
• Grate half a small onion and add to mixture.
• Add 1 1/2 cups cheese.
• Add 1/4 tsp nutmeg.
• Add salt and pepper to taste.
• Mix together and pour into your pie shell.
• Bake 375 degrees F for 30 to 40 minutes (center should puff out and an inserted knife should come out clean).

I added zucchini and tomato and topped with two kinds of cheese.

A few days later I finished off my pie crust dough and made a spinach and ham quiche.

While quiche is great for making enough food for leftovers, but it's so good that it won't last very long.

This post is based on a published recipe. Please be aware that we've bent the recipes to our will. If you'd like the original recipe, have a look at the cook book linked in the post.

Beef Pie

I didn't find the pictures of British Beef and Onion Pie on page 177 in Jamie's Food Revolution very appetizing. Something about the look of the ground beef seems odd to me. But I gave it a go anyway.

I didn't have Marmite, so I think I used a mix of soy sauce and balsamic vinegar instead.

I used the Basic Pie or Pastry Dough on page 665 recipe from Joy of Cooking for my crust.

 I like the pastry crust on this pie as opposed to the potato topping on cottage (or shepard's) pie.

"Indian" Chicken and Naan

We bought a pizza stone a while ago and have been thinking about making our own naan bread ever since we saw Manjula making it on her Youtube channel. We decided to use our Biryani paste on some chicken and her naan recipe.

We just rubbed the chicken with the spice paste and stir-fried it with some vegetables. Very simple and turned out nicely (although not as good as making actual chicken biryani.

 

Our naan didn't turn out as nice as the naan we used in "Biryani" Fish. It wasn't very soft, but still pretty good. We'll definitely keep working on this recipe.

The finished product was pretty good!

Broccoli and Pesto Tagliatelle

I don't often cook Broccoli -- I generally like it steamed with cheese or in stir fry -- but Broccoli and Pesto Tagliatelle on page 46 from Jamie's Food Revolution was a nice alternative.

My potatoes were a little undercooked, but overall it was still really nice. I even had some fresh basil to top it off with.

"Biryani" Fish

One of the treasures of Jamie's Food Revolution is the notion of using Indian spice pastes as a quick rub for your fish (Quick Salmon Tikka with Cucumber Yogurt page 28). It takes so little time and it's so easy to do. Make sure you use spice paste and not sauce (I used Patak's Biryani paste). Scoop some into a bowl and use a basting brush to paint your fish (I've used salmon and steelhead trout). Then fry until cooked (takes about 1.5 minutes per side).

Biryani is a rice dish, but the spice blend still tastes great on fish with no rice in sight.

You can serve your fish on naan or pita bread with raita. The raita is as simple as cucumber, tomato, red onion, and yogurt. Add some dill, garam masala, or cilantro if you like.

Surprising Sweet and Sour Pork

I like sweet and sour pork, but the breading and sugary sauce is unhealthy. I was impressed by "My Sweet and Sour Pork" (p65) in Jamie's Food Revolution. While it doesn't look like fast-food-style sweet and sour, the taste is spot on.

My pork didn't turn out nearly as dark as in Jamie's pictures, because I replaced the balsamic vinegar with white vinegar.