Pass it On

When I was at the library a couple weeks ago, I picked up Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food DVD. I love watching cooking shows, but I've never watched Jamie Oliver. I don't have anything against him, I just never took the time to tune in to one of his episodes. So when I spotted the DVD at the library, I thought I'd give it a fair go (as the Aussies say).

It's essentially a 4 part series where Jamie goes to this town in England called Rotherham and tries to get people to start cooking again. His goal is to teach eight non-cooks how to cook nutritious, easy meals and in turn get them to 'Pass it On' to the rest of the town. It's obvious from the start of the program that Jamie is really passionate about getting people to cook healthy meals everyday. He wants people to get off of fast food and processed food and to start cooking with fresh ingredients.

Well, the other day, Chris and I caught an episode of his latest tv show called "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution". In this show he's in the United States, specifically Huntington, West Virginia. Huntington was named among the most unhealthy cities in the USA by the Centre for Disease Control, so Jamie thought it would be a good place to bring his Food Revolution. He takes on the school lunch program and attempts to get rid of the processed foods and hoards of french fries being served to kids everyday, and introduce fresh and healthy lunches. It's a really interesting show and sheds some light as to why more and more kids are becoming obese. Either way, I recommend watching it.

In watching these two programs, it's hard not to get drawn in by Jamie's enthusiasm and passion for healthy food. And whether you like Jamie Oliver or not, you can't deny that he's trying to do a great thing by getting people to eat healthier. If you think about it, where did you learn to cook? I think most of us would answer "from watching my mum". I never had formal cooking lessons (unless you count my Foods Course in high school). But, I would always sit in the kitchen and watch my mum cook and help her out. And this is how I learned to cook. But, if the newest generation of parents aren't cooking healthy foods for their children, and the kids don't have a chance to watch their parents cook, how are the next generation of kids going to learn to cook and eat healthy? Food for thought.

Chris and I both love to cook and try new recipes. But, we don't really share our cooking experiences with anyone else. So, in the spirit of Jamie's 'Pass it On', I thought we could try and dedicate a blog post each week to cooking and healthy food. Maybe it will inspire someone to try something new.

Healthy cooking everyone!

Thai Red Curry with Seafood (from Uncle Errik...I don't know where he got the recipe from)
-serves 4-6

800g salmon, tuna, or prawns (or all 3)
60g red curry paste
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 L coconut cream
1/2 red onion (large dice)
1 red capsicum (large dice)
1 medium carrot (peeled and thinly sliced)
100g green beans (stalks removed and cut in thirds)
1 tomato (large dice)
8 Kaffir lime leaves
100mL fish sauce
100g brown sugar
1 bunch coriander (leaves picked)
1 fresh lime (cut in quarters)

• Add 50g of curry paste and 20mL of veg oil into a wok on low heat and slowly fry for 5 minutes
  
• Take remaining curry paste and rub into prawns and fish. Cover and refrigerate until needed
• Pour coconut cream into wok and stir with wooden spoon to mix into fried curry paste and continue to cook on medium to low heat
• Allow sauce to simmer and reduce. Meanwhile, prepare the vegetables as described and keep ready
• Once curry sauce has reduced by third in volume and thickened (about 20 min.), add the Kaffir lime leaves, brown sugar, and fish sauce
• At this point, turn the heat up to high and add the veggies to the sauce and cook for 3 min.
  
• In separate pan heat a drizzle of oil at medium to high heat and fry the prawns/fish on both sides for 2 minutes or until cooked
• Spoon curry sauce with veggies over rice and top with seafood. Garnish with coriander and lime. Enjoy!

We had a lot of fun making this dish. I'm a bit of a curry light weight, but I found this to be fine on my taste buds. If you're not a big curry fan, maybe cut the amount of curry paste in the sauce. I halved the recipe and we still had loads of leftovers for Chris' lunch tomorrow.

I hope that you have some time to give this recipe a try. It was really tasty and pretty easy to make. Let us know how it turned out if you give it a try.