My Wife Channels Jamie Oliver

A ways back I blogged about Jamie Oliver's latest show, Ministry of Food, in which he tries to teach a British town of 250,000 how to cook by teaching his recipes to a few folks, asking them to teach them to a few folks and so on, and so on.

My wife, inspired by Jamie's social experiment, decided to host one of her own whereby she's organized a group of her friends to share their families' favourite recipes.

Here's the email she sent out to her friends,

"So Yoni and I just finished watching Ministry of Food with Jamie Oliver.

Basically the show tries to teach people in a small town to cook by “passing it on”, whereby each person who learns a recipe passes it on to two more people and so on. Between that and seeing all these advertisements for places like Super Works in Orleans, I had an idea: What if we create our own “pass it on”? We could choose one night a month where we get together at someone’s home (on a rotation) and the hostess chooses the meal that we are going to be making together. This would give us an opportunity to:

a) hang out (more),
b) learn a new recipe that comes with high recommendations,
c) have a nutritious meal ready to serve to our families the next day

We would each be responsible for providing a list of ingredients needed for the recipe ahead of time and would bring it along, or the hostess could pick it all up and then divide the cost of the groceries amongst participants.

Let me know if you’re interested! (Can you tell I’m getting bored with our usual repertoire of meals?)."

Well today I'm pleased to report that the idea was a big hit whereby she and 6 of her friends met at our house and made a chicken curry dish that has proven to be surprisingly child and picky-eater friendly (Recipe Below). They've also already set a date for their next culinary adventure.

Maybe it's time for you and your friends to "Pass it On"?

Slow-Cooker Chicken Curry

• 1.5lbs chicken breast half without skin, cut in 1" cubes
• 1.5lbs chicken thighs without skin, cut in 1" cubes
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 medium Onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon brown mustard seeds
• 28 ounces crushed tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 head cauliflower, cut into small florets, stems discarded
• 1 cup peas, frozen, thawed

1. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions to the pan and cook until softened.
   
2. Add the garlic, chiles, coriander, turmeric, cumin, ginger, paprika, red pepper flakes, and mustard seeds and cook gently for 2 min, stirring constantly.
3. Add the tomatoes and lemon juice and mix well.
4. Puree half of the tomato-onion mixture in a blender or food processor or in the pan with a handheld immersion blender.
5. Coat the slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray.
6. In layers add to the slow cooker one-third of the Chicken (dark meat first) and one quarter of the sauce, and sprinkle with one-third of the cauliflower. Repeat the layers two more times and finish with the remainder of the sauce.
7. Cover and cook on High for 1 hour.
8. Turn the cooker to Low and cook for 4-4.5 hours.
9. During the last 30 minutes, toss in the peas, season with salt, cover and cook until tender.
10. Serve over whole-grain couscous.

Serves 10.

Per Serving (excluding couscous): 198 Calories; 7g Fat; 23g Protein; 12g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 194mg Sodium.