For those in the land of the free who may not have been exposed to the world of whitely goodness that is Bill Granger, here’s a quick rundown. Self-taught cook who basically led the charge of the rise and rise of eating out for breakfast/brunch in Sydney at his ingeniously named cafe, bill’s.

There are now myriad books (all of them filled with irritatingly tasty and easy to make recipes) , a tv series (where he so seriously whores his own children it makes you wonder if he and his partner just bred them for props) and now a toothpaste endorsement (because his teeth, are whiter than the snow that Snow White’s skin resembled). He has this irritatingly positive voice, like a male version of belinda jefferys.

But the guy can cook. He also – apparently – suffers from depression and well, those of us dealing with chronic nutbagism need to stick together.

For proof of his cooking ability, the following two recipes have been so widely and resoundingly well received, that well, here they are.

If that wasn’t good enough, he also has a column in The Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Living (I know, over-achiever or what). Each week he does three recipes that are prompted by a reader’s letter. This week was something stupid about what to eat after going to the gym, as if everyone doesn’t go home and eat a jumbo bag of chips with a packet of TimTam chaser.

Anyway, this (I’ve doubled the quantities) was one of the recipes. I made it last night.

The boys (and I) just l.o.v.e.d it. You know that recipe I cooked the other week and said how you could almost feel the goodness it was giving your body as well as tasting great – this exceeded that. AND it only uses one saucepan.

Ginger and sesame rice with poached chicken

• 2 tbsp peanut oil
• 4 tsp sesame oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 3-4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 4 tsp freshly grated ginger
• 500g jasmine rice
• 1 litre chicken stock
• 500g skinless chicken breast, cut into thin escalopes *
• Finely sliced long green shallots
• Freshly chopped red chilli
• Soy sauce

1. Heat the peanut oil and sesame oil in a medium saucepan over a medium-low heat.
2. Add the onion and stir occasionally for 5-6 minutes or until the onion is soft.
3. Add the garlic and ginger and stir for 2 minutes more.
4. Add the rice and stir to coat the grains of rice in the oil.
5. Add the stock and bring to the boil.
6. Cover, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes.
7. Place the chicken in a single layer on top of the rice.
8. Cover again and simmer for a further 7-8 minutes or until rice is just tender and chicken is cooked through.**
9. Remove from heat and set aside with lid on for a further 5 minutes.
10. Serve topped with sliced shallots, chilli and drizzle with soy sauce.

Serves 4

* You can substitute the chicken breast with firm white fish fillets, which I reckon would be sensational. Oh, I have no idea what escalopes are, but I just cut it into quite thin strips.

** Not sure if it’s because I did double the recipe or did it in a saucepan too small, as I couldn’t really put it all in one layer, but this took about 15 minutes for me.

Bill Granger’s peanut butter choc-chip biscuits*

• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 tblsp butter
• 1/3 cup peanut butter
• 1 1/3 cup plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 100g choc chips
• milk

1. preheat oven on 180C
2. mix together the brown sugar, butter and peanut butter
3. stir through the flour, baking powder and choc chips
4. add enough milk to pull it all together
5. use an icecream scoop and place scoopfuls on a baking tray lined with baking paper
6. press down with a fork, bake 10-12 minutes

I’ve made them twice and each time, my thought process of “how can something be so easy taste so good” just grows and grows. Such is my incredibly deep brain patterns at the moment.

* This recipe featured on one of the episodes of his new series on the Lifestyle channel. I wrote it down from that because Felix demanded I do so, and got me paper and pen to ensure I followed through. But we kind of got distracted so there may well have been an egg in it, but I remember his mix being dry, but mine is ridiculous. Hence the milk. Normally it’s about 2-4 tablespoons.