Cook school confidential: quick and easy
We teamed up with chef Adam Gray to find out how to make speedy, fuss-free meals so you can spend your weeknights relaxing rather than in the kitchen.
Cook school confidential: quick and easy
We teamed up with chef Adam Gray to find out how to make speedy, fuss-free meals so you can spend your weeknights relaxing rather than in the kitchen.
If you’re reading a website like Great British Chefs, then it’s pretty likely that you regard cooking as a joy rather than a chore. But sometimes, after a hard day of work, the last thing you want to be doing is spending hours in the kitchen, only to find when you sit down for dinner it’s pretty much time to go to bed. Apart from losing out on some much needed relaxation, this can lead to heartburn and indigestion – something none of us want, no matter how tasty the food.
That’s why we enlisted the help of chef Adam Gray to host a masterclass at the Cookery School at Little Portland Street, where the UK’s top food bloggers and journalists learnt some handy tips and tricks for cooking delicious food fast. There’s no need to rely on processed foods, ready meals or cheat ingredients, so long as you have a few recipes up your sleeve.
Adam started the class by demonstrating a dish that isn’t only quick (it takes just twenty minutes to prepare) – it’s also healthy, light and full of flavour. By combining tuna steaks with an Asian mayonnaise-free coleslaw, everyone was left with a delicious meal that they’d cooked in record time.
Tuna steaks add an instant bit of luxury to any dish, take literally seconds to cook and are low in fat, making them an ideal choice for a weeknight dinner. Adam simply seasoned the steaks and flash-fried them in a red-hot griddle pan, leaving the centre raw before slicing them into strips. Tuna can be paired with all sorts of other ingredients, but by preparing a coleslaw flavoured with lime juice, honey and soy, the whole dish was given an Asian twist. The Tenderstem broccoli spears, charred in the same pan as the tuna, finished the recipe off – making sure no one was left wanting more. And because the coleslaw only needs tossing in the dressing, there’s minimal washing up after.
Once everyone had prepared and eaten their tuna salad, it was time for dessert – gooseberry fool made with Skyr yoghurt and poached gooseberries. Adam was keen to highlight the health benefits of Icelandic Skyr, and how a simple fool is one of the best ways to showcase the beautiful flavour of seasonal gooseberries. It just goes to show that with a little know-how, delicious meals can be enjoyed every day without the need to slave over a stove for hours on end.
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