Monday, September 14, 2009
Recently, I’ve become a huge fan of Jaime Oliver. His relaxed charm is hard to resist and his cookbooks are not only a filled with mouth-watering photos of the dishes featured, they are also a pleasure to read. His style of writing is witty and personal, lacking the condescension that can at times be detected in other star chefs. His cookbooks reflect an approach to food that focuses on fresh seasonal ingredients and stresses creativity rather than technique. So, his cookbooks possess impressive photography and engaging words. But those alone do not make great cookbooks. What about the recipes, you may ask? Well, the recipes do not disappoint either. I’ve only sampled one or two of his recipes (one from Jaime’s Italy and one from Jaime at home), however I was so satisfied with the results I feel nothing but optimism and eagerness to continue to try out more of his recipes. The one I want to share today was our dinner last Thursday as well as Friday. That in itself indicates how impressed we were with the recipe as we don’t usually eat the same thing two days in a row.
Here's the dish: It's a mediterranean beef kebab seasoned with thyme, cayenne pepper, lemon zest and juice and roughly ground walnuts. I must admit to straying from the original recipe quite a bit. Jamie made it with lamb and instead of the walnuts and lemon, he used pistacchio and sumac. However, the result was fantastic. This dish is definitely worthy of being added into my growing repertoire of go-to recipes!
This is a pickled salad of parsley and red onions in lemon juice and generous sea salt. It was so yummy and a perfect complement to the kebabs.
