Good Enough to Read: Cook with Jamie

Veteran food writer Irene Sax tells us about a new cookbook and shares healthy and delicious recipes, including one that's been lightened up with tips from the book's author. This month's book is Cook with Jamie by Jamie Oliver.

When you were making New Year's resolutions, did you vow to break out of your dinnertime rut? To vary your cooking so meals don't fly by and leave you looking for more to eat? Chef Jamie Oliver's new book Cook with Jamie can help you keep that resolution. It's Oliver's guide to making you a better cook, and it's based on the course he uses to train disadvantaged kids to work in professional kitchens. (For more information about this program check out www.fifteen.net.)

Oliver is the young, energetic, spiky-haired English bloke who used to be known as "The Naked Chef," and who, when he writes about food, makes us feel we can cook it. "Roll up your sleeves," he writes, "and let me help you." And he can, whether you're a guy who has never been in the kitchen or a busy mom who wants to get out of her chicken-breast-and-pasta routine.

As with other cooking primers, Cook with Jamie is packed with lessons. You'll learn to choose equipment, use herbs, understand meat, sharpen knives and cut vegetables into dice, slices and matchsticks. Every chapter moves from the easiest recipe to harder and hardest ones, so while you may start out pan-roasting a salmon filet, you'll soon find yourself making steamed Thai-style sea bass and sticky-fingers lobsters. Along the way you'll find plenty of delicious things to eat, from classics such as grilled chops and steamed mussels to preparations that will stretch your imagination and inspire your taste buds, like Moroccan lamb and "all-day breakfast salad."

Like Oliver, the book has a British accent. But it's modern British, which means that besides good old leg of lamb and Victoria sponge (great dessert!) it offers crostini and curries, Austrian pork schnitzel and Venetian-style fish lasagna. If you work your way through this book—even if you pick just one recipe from every chapter—you will become a better cook, just as he promises.

No-Apologies Beet Salad
This sweet, crunchy, hearty-but-light salad is, as Oliver says, a treat and a half. Just remember to wear an apron and wash your board and hands after you chop the beets or you'll have pink stains everywhere.

Crunchy Raw Beetroot Salad with Feta and Pear

Serves 4

Ingredients

4 good-sized beetroots, lovely different colors if possible, scrubbed, peeled and cut into fine matchsticks
3 ripe pears (or you could use apples), peeled, cored and cut into matchsticks
1 recipe lemon-oil dressing*
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
7 oz feta cheese
a small bunch of fresh mint, smallest leaves picked
optional: a large handful of sunflower seeds
*Lemon-oil dressing
3 1/2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice (the juice of approximately 1 lemon)
10 Tbsp best-quality extra-virgin olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

To make the lemon-oil dressing, put the lemon juice and oil into a jam jar and season. Tighten the lid and shake. Try out your dressing on a salad leaf and adjust the seasoning to taste.
Dress the beetroot and pear matchsticks in a little of the lemon-oil dressing and season with some salt and pepper. Taste to check that the flavors are balanced and lovely, and add a little more lemon juice to check the sweetness of the pears and beetroots if you need to.
Divide the salad between four plates or put it on a big platter, crumble over the creamy white feta, and sprinkle over the baby mint leaves and the sunflower seeds if you're using them. Simple, but it's a treat and a half.

Jamie's Notes
When most people think about beetroot in salads, they think of big vinegary crinkle-cut chunks from a jar and immediately say no! But remember, beetroots are only vinegary when they're pickled. When simply boiled or roasted they are juicy and sweet as you like. Raw beetroot is amazing in salads, giving you a deep, earthy, minerally flavor, lots of crunch and, of course, incredible colors! Did you know you can get golden and stripy beetroot as well as purple?

Easily Improved Pork Chops
Leave off the optional cheese garnish, and these chops will still taste brilliant. Oliver suggests serving them with sautéed Savoy cabbage and boiled new potatoes.

Old-School Pork Chops with Apples and Sage

Serves 4

Ingredients

4 9-oz pork chops, preferably free-range or organic
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
olive oil
2 good eating apples (e.g. McIntosh or Cox), unpeeled, cored and each cut into 8 wedges
a knob of butter
a handful of fresh sage leaves
optional: 3 1/2 oz good strong cheese like Stilton or taleggio

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400°F. What I like to do is to lay the pork chops out on a board and, using a sharp knife, make 1-inch-deep cuts all along the fatty side of them. It helps to render the fat out and will also make the skins crispy. Sprinkle the chops with salt and pepper.
Pour a glug of olive oil into a hot pan. Carefully place your chops in it and cook them for 2 to 3 minutes on each side until golden brown. If you need to, open out the little pieces of fat along the edge so they don't stick together.
When the chops are nearly done, lift them out of the pan and put them in an oiled baking pan. Add the apple wedges and a knob of butter to the pan and fry until lightly golden. Lay 4 wedges of apple on top of each pork chop. Dress your sage leaves in a little olive oil and top each apple stack with them. Sometimes I like to top it all off with a knob of Stilton or taleggio. Put the baking pan into the oven for 4 to 6 minutes until everything is golden and melted.