The Dish-Saving Ingredient Jamika Pessoa Swears By
Jamika Pessoa is known for her ingenuity. The celebrity chef hosts The Food Network show "Let's Eat" alongside Stuart O'Keeffe and Brandi Milloy (via IMDb). The 30-minute talk show-style production offers quick cooking tips and tricks, all while taking into consideration and highlighting current food crazes and hacks found on social media. So, it could be argued that the show caters to busy, Instagram-savvy millennials, or even older Gen Z-ers, but really, it appeals to anyone looking for a quick and trending, yet also delicious, meal (via Collard Greens and Caviar).
"We want [to] make it easier for people, because a lot of times cooking can seem intimidating, or it's a lot of work," Pessoa told the Montgomery Advertiser. "So we bring in all the hacks and the tips and the tricks. ... On the first episode, I did a great date night dish." And, Pessoa has one nifty cooking hack that will please both parents and their kids.
Jamika Pessoa's secret ingredient makes cooking simpler
With Pessoa's kitchen tip, you can turn any kids' meal into one for the grown-ups, too. "It's making a meal for the kids, and then adding a sauce," Pessoa said in the interview with the Montgomery Advertiser. "And then it turns into a meal for the adults. We're trying to find ways to cut time, cut money, and just make life a little easier and have a good meal inbetween. I think that's something that everybody is looking for."
One way to execute such a recipe is to make parmesan-crusted chicken fingers for the kids, then top them with a sauce to create a chicken piccata for the adults.
Giving out one special bit of advice for new cooks, Jamika Pessoa points to her go-to ingredient as an essential one for most any recipe, as well as one that will save a cooking effort gone awry, claiming she uses it in both cakes and sauces.
"Cream cheese is an easy go-to for a quick cream sauce," Pessoa said. "You can also mix it in a batter to keep a cake moist. In my opinion, cream cheese is a superhero in the kitchen that makes just about anything better in a crunch." (via Insider)