If you’re on the lookout for recipes to help you get a deeply delicious dinner on the table with speed and ease — and I rather think all of us fall into that category — then I need to point you in the direction of Zena Kamgaing’s Dinner Time. Indeed, “Deeply Delicious Meals” is exactly what its subtitle promises and exactly what the book delivers. Kamgaing draws on what is often called the global pantry to help bring maximum flavour in minimum time, using ingredients that those of us in the UK, at least, can find these days in the supermarket fairly easily. There’s anyway a list at the beginning of the book to help direct you to those spices, sauces and so on that will give you exactly what you need, not that you have to get all of them. So that you can decide on what to cook depending on the time you have at your disposal, chapters are organised according to how long the recipes take, and titled accordingly: '15 Minutes'; '30 Minutes'; '45 minutes'; '60 Minutes or More'; there’s also a section on Sweet Treats and a full list of menu suggestions.
It’s only fair, given this premise, that I don’t take up too much of your time, so I will stop wittering now and get straight on to my shortlist of recipes to bring to your attention. I have, of course, to mention her 5-Minute Chilli Garlic Tofu; Harissa Butter Steak Flatbreads; Broccoli Caesar Pasta Salad; Satay-ish Chickpea & Spinach Curry; Aromatic Ginger & Spring Onion Steamed Cod; Crispy Chicken Thighs with Pistachio Vinaigrette & Lemony Potatoes; Mouthwatering Sichuan Chicken; Crispy Prawn Crumpets; Numbing Cumin Lamb Noodles; Spicy Salmon Crispy Rice Bowls; Mapo Aubergine; Oven-Baked Jolloff Rice; Charred Spring Onion, Chicken & Orzo Soup; Strawberry & Elderflower Eton Mess; and Caramelised Croissants with Coffee Cream. The recipe I just had to share with you today is the Gochujang Pork Lettuce Wraps, which comes from her 15 Minutes chapter. I adore the combination of pork mince and gochujang, and I love a lettuce wrap, so I leapt on this eagerly and gratefully!
Extract taken from Dinner Time by Zena Kamgaing (Bloomsbury Publishing, Hardback, £22).
Photography © Yuki Sugiura.
