5 Minute Food Fix

It's HOT CROSS BUNS SEASON and everyone has an opinion on What To Do (and what NOT to do) with this most raisiny of buns.What are your thoughts on Simon's advice?Send us an email FoodFixEmail@gmail.com

Simon is BACK! And what a welcome return. Yumi and Simon discuss what it was like to have comedian Jennifer Wong onboard as guest host, and Yumi has some tips about what to order - and what NOT to order - when going out for Yum Cha.And if you want to make Gai Lan (Chinese Broccoli) at home? Here's Nagi's recipe. And to do it at home?1 Bunch of Gai Lan. If you can't get this vegetable, try it with broccolini, it's very good!Trim the woody ends off the green vegetable. Wash well. If any of the stems are especially thick, slice down their length.Place the gai lan in a steamer basket or plunge into a big pot of boiling water. Cook for about 5 minutes but test to make sure it's to your liking. You want it not too chewy and raw, but you definitely don't want to overcook it either. In this case I would get sexy with a timer to really make sure.Meanwhile, gently heat 4tbs oyster sauce with 2-3tbs water. Add a teaspoon of vegetable oil and 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil IF YOU CAN BE BOTHERED. Toss the cooked vegetable through the sauce but try not to make it a messy jumble: at yum cha it's all neatly laid out facing the same way and halved. Enjoy!

Special Guest Host Jennifer Wong shares a couple of great ways to make instant ramen LESS GRIM.And if you love Jen and want to see her in person, a good link to upcoming shows is here.

Both Jennifer Wong and Yumi have had experience with going viral on social media - which they've decided is low-key pointless - but it doesn't mean they're not both dead keen on trying a great hack when other food influencers recommend one...It might be as simple as using a fish weight when frying a good quality piece of fish...Or it could be this little hack as tested by Nat's What I Reckon in this video which, at time of publishing this podcast episode, has 11 million views!BTW if you wanna see Jennifer Wong in person, she has a VERY FOOD RELATED SHOW coming up at Vivid Sydney 2026. More info and a link to the Great Debate that both Yumi and Jen will be on here.

What is the dumbest gadget you ever bought?(you can email if you like: foodfixemail@gmail.com )Yumi and guest-host Jennifer Wong share their thoughtsPLUS - Yumi has a gadget to help your fish fillets turn out AMAZING - that you probably can use tonight at home!

In these terrible times Yumi is self-soothing by re-watching her favourite TV show and Jennifer Wong is re-reading a tried, tested and quite wonderful food book called Sapphires and Garlic by New York Times critic Ruth Reichl (which you can read for free in pdf form here; the chapter on Betty is page 205.)In it is a fantastic and fantastically simple and humble recipe that the world-famous foodie created - for a frugal, whole roasted chicken.A FRUGAL REPAST FOR BETTY - WHOLE ROASTED CHICKENPreheat the oven to 200C.Wash and dry the whole raw chicken. Pat dry. Snip off the fatty flap of skin with scissors. Gently lift the skin on top of the breast meat, being careful not to puncture the skin, and spread out the fatty piece of skin between the skin and the breast. Prick a whole lemon 8-15 times with a fork and place it inside the chicken's cavity.Season the whole beast well with salt, pepper and olive oil.Place the chicken on a small rack and place that inside a roasting tray.Cut 4 x potatoes into 8 pieces each, 1 onion into 6 pieces, add 4 cloves of garlic to this then toss the lot in olive oil then tumble into the roasting tray with the chicken. Roast for 1 hour.Serve elegantly!

JENNIFER WONG joins me as guest host again (don't worry Simon, we miss you!) - and we talk about her amazing book 'Chopsticks or Fork?' - discovering where the name comes from! (It's pretty funny.)I have an opinion on where some of the truly buried treasures might be found in cookbooks and we unearth one from Belinda Jefferey's 'MIX AND BAKE'. (I said I'd post a link to buy it but unfortunately it's out of stock everywhere! My local library has it - good luck.)BELINDA JEFFEREY'S SUNDRIED TOMATO NO-KNEAD FOCACCIA THE DAY BEFORE:Mix the flours: 250g plain flour and 250g spelt flour, 1tsp salt, 1/4tsp dried yeast1tbs honeyStir through 500ml water and 3tbs olive oil. It will be a wet, shaggy dough. Do your best to mix well.Put it into a clean, oiled bowl, and leave in a calm spot for 12 hours.Knock it down by kneading and folding it a couple of times and then stretch out the dough to fit a baking tray. Set it aside for 2 hours.When ready, pre-heat the oven until it's properly hot 200C.Dimple the top of the dough with your fingertips, drizzle it with good oil and flaked salt, rosemary and olives (or sundried tomatoes).Bake for 30 - 35 mins.Eat on the day!

Simon takes a break from Food Fixing and so I rope in Jennifer Wong, host of 'Chopsticks or Fork?' on ABC, a show about food, that is also a book.Jen is funny and literate about food, especially Chinese food, so I thought: Great! Let's absolutely drag this online trend of making dumplings without actually bothering to wrap the filling in the wonton skin. You can see what I'm talking about here.It's not all ridiculous, though. From Tony Tan, we have a fantastic vegan mushroom dumplings recipe here, which also has the Curry Oil Jen was talking about.

Simon's Creamy Bean GratinMETHOD:2 tins of white beans, drained well, or 300g flageolet beans soaked overnight then cooked for 30-40 mins the drained and dried out wellIn a bowl, mix together these things:8 anchovy fillets4 tbs garlic oil (from last episode)1 head of garlic (from last episode)300ml creamsalt, pepper and a light grind of nutmegsplash of milkIn a gratin dish (smallish, around 25cm), lay out the beans then top with the creamy mixture and some sprigs of rosemary.Optional: Top with gruyere cheese.Bake for 15 mins and use the broiler if the top isn't going all bubbly and brown.