5 Minute Food Fix

GADGETS - good and bad!

What is the dumbest gadget you ever bought?(you can email if you like: foodfixemail@gmail.com )Yumi and guest-host Jennifer Wong share their thoughts PLUS - Yumi has a gadget to help your fish fillets turn out AMAZING - that you probably can use tonight at home! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Betty/Ruth Reichl's Frugal Roast Chicken

In these terrible times Yumi is self-soothing by re-watching her favourite TV show and Jennifer Wong is re-reading a tried, tested and quite wonderful food book called Sapphires and Garlic by New York Times critic Ruth Reichl (which you can read for free in pdf form here; the chapter on Betty is page 205.)In it is a fantastic and fantastically simple and humble recipe that the world-famous foodie created - for a frugal, whole roasted chicken.A FRUGAL REPAST FOR BETTY - WHOLE ROASTED CHICKENPreheat the oven to 200C.Wash and dry the whole raw chicken. Pat dry. Snip off the fatty flap of skin with scissors. Gently lift the skin on top of the breast meat, being careful not to puncture the skin, and spread out the fatty piece of skin between the skin and the breast. Prick a whole lemon 8-15 times with a fork and place it inside the chicken's cavity.Season the whole beast well with salt, pepper and olive oil.Place the chicken on a small rack and place that inside a roasting tray.Cut 4 x potatoes into 8 pieces each, 1 onion into 6 pieces, add 4 cloves of garlic to this then toss the lot in olive oil then tumble into the roasting tray with the chicken. Roast for 1 hour.Serve elegantly! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every cookbook has buried treasure

JENNIFER WONG joins me as guest host again (don't worry Simon, we miss you!) - and we talk about her amazing book 'Chopsticks or Fork?' - discovering where the name comes from! (It's pretty funny.)I have an opinion on where some of the truly buried treasures might be found in cookbooks and we unearth one from Belinda Jefferey's 'MIX AND BAKE'. (I said I'd post a link to buy it but unfortunately it's out of stock everywhere! My local library has it - good luck.)BELINDA JEFFEREY'S SUNDRIED TOMATO NO-KNEAD FOCACCIA THE DAY BEFORE:Mix the flours: 250g plain flour and 250g spelt flour, 1tsp salt, 1/4tsp dried yeast1tbs honeyStir through 500ml water and 3tbs olive oil. It will be a wet, shaggy dough. Do your best to mix well.Put it into a clean, oiled bowl, and leave in a calm spot for 12 hours.Knock it down by kneading and folding it a couple of times and then stretch out the dough to fit a baking tray. Set it aside for 2 hours.When ready, pre-heat the oven until it's properly hot 200C.Dimple the top of the dough with your fingertips, drizzle it with good oil and flaked salt, rosemary and olives (or sundried tomatoes).Bake for 30 - 35 mins.Eat on the day! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A bad food trend...and a REALLY GOOD curry oil

Simon takes a break from Food Fixing and so I rope in Jennifer Wong, host of 'Chopsticks or Fork?' on ABC, a show about food, that is also a book.Jen is funny and literate about food, especially Chinese food, so I thought: Great! Let's absolutely drag this online trend of making dumplings without actually bothering to wrap the filling in the wonton skin. You can see what I'm talking about here.It's not all ridiculous, though. From Tony Tan, we have a fantastic vegan mushroom dumplings recipe here, which also has the Curry Oil Jen was talking about. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Eat, Sleep, Bean, Repeat

Simon's Creamy Bean GratinMETHOD:2 tins of white beans, drained well, or 300g flageolet beans soaked overnight then cooked for 30-40 mins the drained and dried out wellIn a bowl, mix together these things:8 anchovy fillets4 tbs garlic oil (from last episode)1 head of garlic (from last episode)300ml creamsalt, pepper and a light grind of nutmegsplash of milkIn a gratin dish (smallish, around 25cm), lay out the beans then top with the creamy mixture and some sprigs of rosemary.Optional: Top with gruyere cheese.Bake for 15 mins and use the broiler if the top isn't going all bubbly and brown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.