The fifth episode of Jamie Oliver’s 5 Ingredients, Quick & Easy Food, Channel 4 TV show gave out more recipes, this week it was Speedy Ginger Shaking Beef with Pak Choi, Crispy Squid & Lime Smashed Avocado, Pork & Cheesy Mash Gratin and an Almond, Orange and Polenta Cake.
Speedy Ginger Shaking Beef.
Mostly made in a frying pan.
- 300 grams sirloin steak
- 4cm ginger
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 1 tablespoon red miso paste
- 2 small/medium pak choi
Method:
- Pull the fat off the sirloin steak and remove/discard the sinew. Finely slice the strip of fat and put it into a frying pan on a medium high heat, to crisp up. The steak will cook in this fat.
- Scrape the ginger, there is no need to peel it. Then thinly slice the ginger, stack it back up and cut it the other way to create matchsticks. Put the ginger into the steak fat. This makes it crispy in seconds.
- Cut the steak into 3cm chunks – so it all cooks at the same speed. Use a time saving seasoning – red miso paste, which is fermented rice and soya – just 1 tablespoon will transform the taste and texture of this dish. Rub the miso paste all over all the steak pieces, give them all a good rub.
- When the ginger is golden and crisp remove it from the pan, with the crispy steak fat pieces, leaving just the melted beef fat in the pan. Keep the ginger/fat pieces.
- Throw the coated steak chunks into the hot fat in the pan. The miso will make it dark. Cook it
fast on a high heat – it will take just a couple of minutes, keep turning it. - Take the pak choi and slice them down the length into long halves. Put those into a pan of boiling water for 1 minute. Remove from the saucepan and place on the serving plate with the inside uppermost, so it can catch the juices from the steak.
- Add the honey to the steak in the frying pan and a splash of red wine vinegar. Just jiggle it all together for up to a minute.
- Pour the steak over the pak choi so the juices sink into the grooves.. Sprinkle the ginger and dark brown fat bits on top. Serve.
Crispy Squid & Smashed Avocado.
This was fried squid on a base of smashed avocado
- 250 grams fresh squid, including tentacles
- 2-3 tablespoons wholemeal flour, for coating
- Big splash of hot chilli sauce
- 1 fresh avocado
- 2 fresh limes
What to Do With That Lot:
- Put 1cm olive oil in a frying pan on a medium heat.
- Slice the squid up into 1cm slices, including the tentacles, for texture.
- Sprinkle the flour over the squid and coat the squid on all sides with the flour, cover all sides.
- When the oil is hot, drop a small piece of squid into the oil – when it turns golden it’s ready, so add all the squid. Cook the squid for 3-4 minutes until it’s really crispy and golden.
- Halve the avocado, remove the stone, peel the avocado and smash it up with a fork. Season the avocado with the zest of a lime and the juice of 1 lime. Add a pinch of salt and pepper. Give it a good old mix. Pour the smashed avocado onto the plate and smear it about a bit….
- When the squid is golden and crispy, drain it onto kitchen paper, give it a season with sea salt, get rid of excess oil and make a stack of the squid on the avocado.
- Place the 2nd lime on the side of the plate.
- Drizzle and splash chilli sauce over the top. Eat!
Food Cheats Tip: Eww, squid, I’d give this a miss 🙂 That’s my only tip!
Pork & Cheesy Mash Gratin (serves 4)
Cooks up a lot quicker than a roast dinner. Ingredients are:
- A 400 gram pork fillet, or tenderloin
- 800 grams Maris Piper potatoes
- 30 grams Cheddar cheese
- Some lengths of prosciutto
- A handful of fresh sage
Method:
- Boil your kettle. Just slice the potatoes into 2cm chunks, no need to peel them – put the potatoes into a large saucepan with the boiling water and boil the potatoes for 12-15 minutes.
- Put a frying pan on a high heat.
- Sprinkle some seasalt and black pepper onto your worktop and roll the pork fillet in that to coat and season it all the way round. Add a little olive oil to the frying pan and sear the fillet on both sides. Keep moving it around the hot pan for about 3 minutes. Remove the pork fillet from the pan and put the fresh sage leaves into the pan, just move those around the pan for a few seconds to coat them and heat them – then tip those beside the pork fillet.
- Drain and mash your potatoes. Grate 20g of cheddar into the potatoes. Season and add a small glug of oil as well as a tiny splash of water to change the texture (this makes the mashed potato become softer). Mix it all up/mash it until the potato is smooth. Spread the potato out across the base of an ovenproof dish.
- Place the pork fillet on top of the mash in the pan. Pour any meat juices over the meat. Grate a little more cheese over the potatoes, not over the meat.
- Cook under a high grill for 10 minutes. Remove the dish from under the grill and take the wafer thin prosciutto – just tear bits up, rip it, wrap it round the loin, put it where you like. Put the sage over the top and put the dish back under the grill for 2 minutes to crisp up the prosciutto.
- Serve when it’s brown and you like the look of it.
Almond, Orange and Polenta Cake.
This is a Mediterranean inspired gluten free cake. You can make it the day before, as it stays moist,
- 3 blood oranges
- 150 grams honey
- 3 large eggs
- 200 grams ground almonds
- 100 grams polenta
Note: the 5 ingredients are always “plus store cupboard” items – and this recipe uses 200ml of olive oil
Method:
- Put 200ml of olive oil into a large bowl. Add the honey, any honey, runny honey is easier. Whisk and add the eggs. Beat for 2 minutes with an electric whisk.
- Add the ground almonds, this gives the cake structure and a creamy nutty flavour.
- Add the polenta, (polenta is dried sweetcorn ground up, which is why this is a gluten free cake).
- Add the zest of all three oranges and 50ml of orange juice (approximately the juice of one of the oranges). You can do with any oranges, tangerines, clementines.
- Fold it all together, keeping the air in.
- Use a 20cm spring form tin and put grease-proof paper in the bottom so it doesn’t stick. Do this by putting a little olive oil in the bottom of the tin, then add the grease-proof paper (cut into a round shape) and push the paper into the base/up the sides 1cm.
- Pour the cake mix into the tin – it’s very wet and runny.
- Bake in the oven for 40 mins, 160C, 325F.
Glaze For the Cake:
The glaze is served as a pour over sauce at the point of serving.
- Using equal quantities of honey and orange juice (2-3 tablespoons of each), bring those up to the boil in a saucepan, then bring the heat down so it just simmers. When that has reduced to half the quantity it’ll be a syrup.
Slice the blood oranges up and serve on the side.
You can serve this fresh/hot from the oven, or let it cool.
Pour the syrup over the cake when it’s a slice on your plate.
More Recipes from The Series:
- Jamie Oliver’s 5 Ingredients Recipes: Jamie Oliver 5 Ingredients Recipes.
Jamie Oliver’s Quick & Easy Recipe Book
Jamie Oliver, 5 Ingredients, Quick & Easy Food, as seen on Channel 4.
There’s a “Look Inside” option so you can see what recipes are in the book.
ISBN: 9780718187729
There are a couple of reviews on the Amazon website, from food reviewers who have viewed a copy of the book prior to publication.
E&OE
#Quick&EasyFood