“Midweek chic” is how I describe this week’s recipes. This is a term that I would use to describe a lot of my food, a fine balance between restaurant technique and tips, and the practicality everyone needs to cook at home.
On a recent episode of the Louis Theroux podcast, Jamie Oliver spoke eloquently about the magic of recipes created by chefs for people at home. In his view, chefs will often have to blur the lines of authenticity in regional dishes in favour of using accessible ingredients and approachable techniques. This can often lead to flak from critics, with Jamie arguing that encouraging people to “give it a go” and get stuck into the kitchen outweighs the watering down of often centuries-old recipes.
I would tend to agree with him. There will always be a time and place for world class, authentic cuisine. But this is why we pay big money to go to restaurants. When feeding the masses at home, stick with these interpretations for delicious, practical cooking.
This week, midweek chic introduces a new way to use mince, and a simple process for bulking up a chicken breast, adding its own egg for good measure.
First up, Scandinavian meatballs, cooked in an acidic cream sauce with pickled cucumbers, dill and mash. You may be familiar with a replica version in ubiquitous Swedish store Ikea – rest assured these have added chic. Key elements include adding milk-soaked breadcrumbs to the meatballs for that softened texture and finishing the sauce with a generous spoonful of wholegrain mustard and a squeeze of lemon juice.
The mince mixture also uses half beef and half pork mince to balance the fat content, while allspice and white pepper bring the Scandi influence to proceedings. Pickled cucumber is a handy all-round recipe to have up your sleeve for packing a punch into lots of salads and dishes.
The schnitzel is a traditional dish with its roots in German and Austrian cuisine that has travelled around the world. It involves pounding a meat, usually poultry or pork, and covering in breadcrumbs before slowly frying in butter. Apart from the obvious positives of frying meat in butter, the process of lightly pounding and crumbing a meat offers more bang for your buck without compromising on flavour.
This recipe includes a simple fried egg and some garlic butter (which goes well with everything). Between the butter, egg and breadcrumbs the dish will become quite rich. To counteract this add a wedge of lemon for squeezing, and a heavy handful of wholegrain mustard to the creamed leeks on the side.
Achievable recipes to add some spark to your midweek, with a sprinkling of chic on the side.
Recipe: Chicken schnitzel with fried egg, garlic butter and creamed leeks
Recipe: Scandinavian meatballs with pickled cucumber, dill and mash
