Is My Tucker Pukka

I must be getting old. For the best part of the last decade, Jamie "Pukka Tucker" Oliver has been irritating the heck out of me. That whole accent and the attitude of just Bosching it in 'n' all that.

But, now I am starting to "get it." Its all about keeping it simple but flavoursome. Are people going to care if you are a little bit rough? Probably just forgive you if it tastes good. And that is the key - follow the basics, use the shortcuts and dont make food too busy or fussy or prissy or just too much hard work. Yes there is a time and a place for that but not on the day to day menu.

For example, the episode of Jamie Oliver Olivers Twist, he made pasta. Thats not the amazing thing cause we used to make pasta too. My wife was taught to make pasta by a well known restaurateur from the old country. We have both had a passion for cooking for a long time and my wife had wanted to make some pasta for a long time. She had been searching for the correct flour made from durham wheat which all the snobs in the know is a must for making genuine pasta from scratch. Someone had suggested that the best place to look might be the health shop and there they suggested giving Gino a call.

She rang and instead of just giving her some advice he was straight round home for a 2 hour hands on lesson. And no he didnt use the durham flour. A passion for pasta was found and my wife bought and wore out a couple of hand cranked pasta machines. Then she spent a whole day making pasta and all sorts of different pastas, spinach, tomato, basil. She put it up for starage and it went moldy. She was heartbroken. We still do the pasta but not as often. By the time you get the machine out, mix it, kneed it, foll it, generally muck around with it, what a hassle. Especially as for $3 you can buy generic pasta fresh from the supermarket.

So back to Jamie. Tonight he made a pasta dough from 100 grams of flour per egg. Blitz in the food processor until like rough bread crumbs. Roll out on a floured surface and thats it. Simple. He cut the dough up into small chunks and rolled out with a wine bottle until this and cut roughly with a sharp knife or rolled into a sheet, plopped on some fillings and instant ravioli. 3 minutes in boiling salted water. Toss in frypan that has some sage leaves fried in butter, a little of the cooking water. Fantastic. Great flavour, nice and easy, cant be beaten. And maybe thats what pukka tucker really is.