Here are some tips to take the stress out of cooking, whether you're stirring up supper for your mate or hoping to impress the new in-laws:
Dinners-in-a-Bag
When Jools and I first moved to London we were completely broke, our kitchen was the size of a cupboard, and we were working opposite shifts. I didn't want Jools to feed herself on frozen dinners, so I found myself custom-making the fantastic "Jamie Oliver Dinners in a Bag," involving glorious aluminum foil.
What I would do for Jools was make up a combo at 4 p.m. as I was going off to work and write with a marker pen "25 minutes at 425 F", for example, on the foil. Even though Jools didn't like cooking, she never had a problem with cooking the bags. Now that we have our Amana range, however, it's easier than ever -- I just program the "Favorites Cycle," which lets me preset the cook time and temperature for the recipes I use most often. Here's just one version, but feel free to vary the recipe with things like grated parsnip, smoked bacon or red wine.
Chicken Breasts Baked in a Bag
(Serves two)
2 7-ounce skinless chicken breasts
1 handful of dried porcini
9 ounces of mixed mushrooms, torn up
1 large wineglass of white wine
3 large pats of butter
1 handful of fresh thyme
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
Using wide aluminum foil, make your bag by placing two pieces on top of each other (about as big as two shoeboxes in length), folding three sides in and leaving one side open. Mix everything together in a bowl, including the chicken. Place in your bag, with all the wine, making sure you don't pierce the foil. Close up the final edge, making sure it's tightly sealed and secure on the sides, and slide it onto a roasting pan. Place the pan on a high heat for one minute to get the heat going, and then bake in the middle of a 425-degree oven for 25 minutes.
When it's time to take it out, the Amana Easy Rack oven rack, with its practical U-shape design, lets you remove the pan without touching the hot rack. Then you just place the bag on a big plate, take it to the table, break open the foil, and start hearing the raves.
Bare-Bones Cooking Techniques
Here are some other bare-bones techniques I've perfected using my Amana range:
* If you invited friends to come round but they're running late, pop up to four plates of food in the separate warming oven. Your glorious food not only stays warm, but also keeps the kitchen smelling wonderful until they walk in the door.
* If your side dish is ready but you still have other things to cook, just slide the pot onto the middle of the cooktop. The "warming zone" there acts like a fifth burner, keeping it warm and freeing up the other burners so you can finish cooking.
* If your recipe's left a mess in the oven, don't fret -- the hidden bake element and smooth oven bottom make it simple to mop up spills before they become baked-on disasters. The oven can clean itself while you're in the middle of a dinner party -- just flip on the self-clean mode, pour yourself another glass of wine, and go back to your guests.
Other related posts:
- A Review of MLM Consultant Rod Cook
- Chicken Liver Marsala
- Feng Shui - Peevish Cook / Kitchen problem
- No-Cook Light Bananaberry Jam
- Convenient Foods Are Changing The Way We Cook
- Boiling - The Test of a Good Cook
- Cook Up An Oriental Hot Pot
- No-Cook Strawberry Jam
- How To Cook Hot Oil Fondue
- How to cook perfect pasta everytime
- Swordfish, How To Buy, Store, Cook And Enjoy
- love cook
- Kitchen tools for every cook-Print
- A freshly caught fish can be cooked in a thousand and one ways. Any fisherman worth his salt has his own unique way of cooking a freshly caught trout,
- How To Cook The Fish You Just Caught
- How to Cook Pakoras and Tomato Chutney
- Learn to Cook Ethnic Food at a Cooking School
- Don't Just Cook Your Steaks, Grill Them On An Outdoor Grill
- How to Cook Maya Tepeizcuinte
- Cook Yourself Up Some Dating and Romance With Single Women
- The Best Way To Cook Chicken
- What You Need To Know About Cooking Eggs
- Teach Your Children How To Cook
- Motorhome Hire – Cook your Way to a Spicy Experience
- Create A Personal Candida Cook Book And Food Journal
- How I Can Treat My Pet From Food Allergies?
- Cook from the Heart, Not by the Book
- Ways To Cook Up A Storm
- Learning to Cook In Cyber style
- Five Low Cost Ways To Cook Up A Home Based Business
- Tips for Cooking Healthy Food
- Cook Your Approach to Success
- Historical Cook and Serve Ware From Wilton Armetale
- Cook A Tender Juicy Steak
- Uses Myspace To Promote
- A MORE ENJOYABLE WAY TO COOK A BBQ
- Cook Low-Carb Long Term
- How to Teach Your Children to Cook
- Vegetarian Cook Book Recipes
- Rod Cook The MLM Watchdog Reviewed
- Convenient Foods Are Changing The Way We Cook
- A Cook Needs Good Knives
- Cooking Outdoor Utensils Planning To Cook Outdoors
- A New Website For The Home Cook
- Everything You Need To Cook Outdoors
- Save Time in the Kitchen. Cook Pasta the way Restaurant Chefs Do
- Camping Cook Ware Comes With Choices
- Learning to Cook You Are Never to Young Or Old
- Cook s Tools
0 comments:
Post a Comment