Culinary Adventures: The Sneaky Chef
The other week I bought a $5 book called “The Sneaky Chef”. The subtitle is “How to cheat on your man (in the kitchen)”. The premise is basically that (a) men hate eating food which they know is healthy; and (b) women are still responsible for most of the meal preparation in households and hence are in a position to influence men’s health. And the best way to do this, argues author Missy Chase Lapine (yes, that is her real name), is to sneak healthy ingredients into their food.
Whilst I am not sure whether I support the gender politics of this book, it does have some interesting recipes. So I thought I’d give a couple of them ago. My progress is tracked below, with photos.
Recipe 1: Boosted Buffalo Wings.
Step One: Take a zucchini and half a small cauliflower head.
Step Two: Steam the cauliflower, then puree it with the chopped zucchini and a dash of lemon juice. The result should look like the picture below.
Step Three: Add half a cup of the puree to one cup of BBQ sauce, plus a dash of Tabasco sauce.
Step Four: Bake the chicken wings in an oven set at 215 degrees (Celsius) for about 30 minutes. Remove wings and brush with the sneaky yet healthy marinade.
Step Five: Bake wings for another 15 minutes. Serve with Blue Cheese dip.
Recipe 2: Barbell Burgers
Step One: Puree a cup of blueberries and three cups of baby spinach leaves with a dash of lemon juice. (Apparently to be a Sneaky Chef, one has to do a lot of pureeing!)
Step Two: Take a quarter cup of the puree and add it to 500 grams of lean beef mince, a quarter cup of tomato paste, a quarter cup of oat bran (another sneaky ingredient!), two teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce, and a pinch of salt. Mix it all together and shape into patties.
Step Three: Cook the patties for four to seven minutes on each side. (The recipe advised to grill them on a BBQ, but I just fried them).
Step Four: Serve on hamburger buns with optional extras (I used onion, tomato and lettuce).
And the result? Craig was a huge fan of the Boosted Buffalo Wings, but reckoned the Barbell Burgers made him feel slightly ill afterwards. (I felt fine). Perhaps it was the combination of the blueberries mixed in with the meat? Whatever the case, I intend to keep trying out the Sneaky Chef recipes.
Whilst I am not sure whether I support the gender politics of this book, it does have some interesting recipes. So I thought I’d give a couple of them ago. My progress is tracked below, with photos.
Recipe 1: Boosted Buffalo Wings.
Step One: Take a zucchini and half a small cauliflower head.
Step Two: Steam the cauliflower, then puree it with the chopped zucchini and a dash of lemon juice. The result should look like the picture below.
Step Three: Add half a cup of the puree to one cup of BBQ sauce, plus a dash of Tabasco sauce.
Step Four: Bake the chicken wings in an oven set at 215 degrees (Celsius) for about 30 minutes. Remove wings and brush with the sneaky yet healthy marinade.
Step Five: Bake wings for another 15 minutes. Serve with Blue Cheese dip.
Recipe 2: Barbell Burgers
Step One: Puree a cup of blueberries and three cups of baby spinach leaves with a dash of lemon juice. (Apparently to be a Sneaky Chef, one has to do a lot of pureeing!)
Step Two: Take a quarter cup of the puree and add it to 500 grams of lean beef mince, a quarter cup of tomato paste, a quarter cup of oat bran (another sneaky ingredient!), two teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce, and a pinch of salt. Mix it all together and shape into patties.
Step Three: Cook the patties for four to seven minutes on each side. (The recipe advised to grill them on a BBQ, but I just fried them).
Step Four: Serve on hamburger buns with optional extras (I used onion, tomato and lettuce).
And the result? Craig was a huge fan of the Boosted Buffalo Wings, but reckoned the Barbell Burgers made him feel slightly ill afterwards. (I felt fine). Perhaps it was the combination of the blueberries mixed in with the meat? Whatever the case, I intend to keep trying out the Sneaky Chef recipes.