Home truths

Matt Wilkinson and his wife Sharlee Gibb share their tips for fuss-free family feasting with Dan Stock

He is the UK-born, Melbourne lad who turned his high-end training into creating, among other tasty treats at his ever-popular cafe Pope Joan, the best chicken sandwich in the land. She is the “chef-wrangler” for events company curateEAT, founder of Fully Booked Women — a social community for women working in hospitality — ex-Melbourne Food and Wine Festival gastronomy manager and damn fine cook.

Together they are known as Mr and Mrs Wilkinson.

Though food rules their professional lives, Matt Wilkinson and Sharlee Gibb don’t pretend to have all the answers when it comes to ruling the home kitchen. As they write in the intro to their new cookbook:

“This book won’t tell you how wonderful and perfect our lives are; how we get up every morning and bake bread, milk the cow and forage for nuts. It isn’t all cheffy, with recipes that take hours to make. That’s because we, like most of you, are busy getting on with a little thing called life.”

It’s a welcome missive for families who are flat-out with the day-to-day but might need some inspiration to break out of the nightly “what’s for dinner?” rut.

But they do have some easy rules and pieces of advice for eating well — and getting the kids to do so, too — that work for them and their two “pintsized troublemakers, the hooligans as we like to call them”, Finn and Jay.

SIX GOLDEN TIMESAVING RULES 1Both

Sharlee and Matt say organisation is the key to happy family mealtimes. Planning what you’ll eat for the week is the best way to shop, perhaps getting inspiration to add to your repertoire from cookbooks — or, of course, Taste!

“Don’t be afraid to put your own spin on recipes by using what you have on hand rather than buying new ingredients,” Sharlee says.

“We generally talk on Sundays about the weekly meals and write down what we want to eat for the week,” Matt adds. “This helps use up things in the fridge and pantry, saves on wasting time and money on buying random foods and there is no panic time on the night of what 2Havingto cook.”

one family meal time — when everyone comes together to eat, makes life simpler for working families. “Let the little buggers eat what you eat and at the same time,” Matt says. “I find it strange when families don’t eat together. That’s the beauty of coming 3Another together at the table.”

time saver, Sharlee says, is to make double of a dish whenever possible and freezing half for another dinner. “No one really enjoys eating the same meal twice in one week, so I freeze leftovers for another week. Dishes like bolognese sauce, turkey chilli, rissoles, lentil dhal ... these are all good for a quick midweek meal after school sports,” she says.

4Matt

subscribes to the “whole roast chicken” rule of catering. Roast is dinner number 1; a stir-fry with leftover chicken is dinner number 2; and a soup making use of the bones as a base is an easy win for Wednesday5“night. Make up large batches of pesto at the end of summer, portion into single serves and keep in the freezer,” Sharlee says. Simply defrost for a quick midweek meal tossed with pasta6“and veggies. Eggs are OK for dinner,” Matt says. “Fried eggs on toast is a last-minute saver.”

THE ULTIMATE CHALLENGE:

We posed the following midweek challenges to both Matt and Sharlee: What is your ultimate family meal that can be made for less than $15 (key ingredients, pantry allowed, 2 adults 2 kids), that will be on the table in less than 45 minutes?

Using chicken

Sharlee says chicken skewers are a super simple crowdpleasing dinner.

Dice chicken thighs into 2cm pieces and thread onto skewers along with other ingredients. Marinate in a simple olive oil, lemon and garlic mix for 20 minutes, and then whack on the barbecue. If you’re organised in the morning, chop the chicken and marinate during the day.

“We often do chicken, bacon and pineapple, but you could do chicken, halloumi and cherry tomatoes or chicken, capsicum and olives.”

Matt, on the other hand, nominates substituting chicken mince into the stir-fried rice with pork dish (see recipe).

“It’s so delicious and only takes 20 mins, tops. I love adding chilli to mine.”

A vegetable dish

What’s not to love about a simple veg tray bake?

Sharlee’s veg and halloumi bake is a deliciously simple way for the whole family to get their five-a-day. Fill an oven tray with rough-cut vegetables about 3cm long — you could use pumpkin, sweet potato, cauliflower, carrot, zucchini, beets, onions, but whatever you have on hand will work.

Toss with olive oil, sprinkle a big pinch of salt and throw in a couple of crushed garlic cloves. Bake in a 180C oven for 30 minutes until soft, then add thin slices of halloumi over the top. Continue to cook for another 10 minutes until halloumi is crisp.

“I love making ma po tofu vego,” Matt says, who uses tinned beans instead of pork.

Fry off garlic, fresh ginger and onion, adding salt, pepper and Szechuan pepper to taste. Add a can of red or white beans with some water and soy, along with some corn flour to thicken the sauce. Finish by stirring in diced silken tofu.

Using fish/seafood

A baked fish fillet is impressive and deceptively simple, Matt says.

Place a (deboned) snapper fillet on a tray, and cover with a flavouring of choice. “I sometimes add harissa or black bean paste, or just simply with lots of butter and lemon,” Matt says. Add some water to the dish (100ml), cover with tin foil and bake for about 25 minutes in a 180C oven.

“Serve with a simple couscous salad, a leaf salad with some shaved fennel and BOOM!”

Crumbed fish is a winner around most family dinner tables and so it is at the Wilkinson house.

Blitz some old bread in a food processor, then season the crumbs with parmesan, salt and pepper. Cut fish fillets into small pieces (about 4cm), dip in beaten egg then the crumb mixture. Pan fry in olive oil in small batches. “We eat this with roasted potato wedges or smashed cannellini beans,” Sharlee says.

MAKE-AHEAD MEAL

Sharlee says her favourite midweek make-ahead meal is a cottage pie, with heaps of vegetables snuck into the mix. “We all love this dish and there are never any leftovers,” she says.

“I quite often make the mix in the morning before school and leave in the fridge during the day. Then just cover with mashed potato and grated cheese and pop in the oven for 30 mins before dinner.”

Corned beef, prawn dumplings to whack in the freezer — or even a duck cassoulet left sitting in the fridge for a few days — are Matt’s favourite family meals to make at the weekend for the week ahead.

LUNCH BOX HACK

For a never-fail lunch box addition, sausage rolls are Sharlee’s go-to — again with extra veg added. “Whenever I am using mince I always keep some to the side, mix in some grated veg like carrot or zucchini, an egg and seasoning. Then roll up in half a sheet of puff pastry and cook for 20 minutes,” she says. “The boys love them in their lunch boxes.”

Matt says cold pizza is his best hack, and always a trouble maker, likes to add a boiled egg into the boys’ boxes to go with it, “just so they annoy everybody with that unmistakeable eggy smell!”

“Eggs are OK for dinner. Fried eggs on toast is a lastminute saver” MATT IS GAME TO TRY SOMETHING NEW “You could do chicken, halloumi and cherry tomatoes” SHA R LEE’ S TWIST ON A CHICKEN SKEWER