In this special episode of The Minimalist, Mark Bittman invites Jamie Oliver to apply his culinary vision to the ordinary chicken breast.
By far, my favorite part of cooking is the knife work. It’s an art, or at least a fine craft, and there is a great deal of satisfaction to be had in rapidly and efficiently working food into beautiful form - a satisfaction not made less by the fact that a momentary lapse in concentration can turn carrots julienne into finger chiffonade.
But close behind that on my list of favorites is getting to beat the snot out of a piece of protein, a testosterone-driven technique that is necessary when making beef carpaccio, for instance. In this video, Oliver flattens a seasoned chicken breast with a frying pan using his considerable skillets... I mean, skills.
I like the little snippet of wisdom imparted by Oliver at the end: “If you’re going to eat three times a day to the day that you die, why not be good at it?” Exactly so.
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2 comments:
Hi Stephen,
I'm enjoying your blog! I love Jamie Oliver, but have minimal knife skills, myself. I have been known to flatten chicken with a cast iron skillet on occasion, so I'm familiar with that feeling of glee, at least.
I came over from LB's blog looking for your 100+ Books list. Are you planning to post it?
Oh, yes! I suppose I will have to do the 100 Books list, too, just to keep up. Actually, I should say "100+" as you pointed out!
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