Starting to get really Frustrated!

Hello again and welcome to my Soapbox edition of Jamie's 30 Minute Meals!!  I am really starting to get annoyed with these dishes now as I feel I need to cook them by first doing 30 mins of prep (Chop veges, make dressings and get everything ready to cook) and then spend another 30 mins actually cooking and then another 30-40 mins cleaning up!

The frustrating thing is that it doesn't have to be that way.  Last night I cooked the "Super-Fast Beef Hash with Jacket Potatoes, Goddess Salad and Lovely Butter Beans & Bacon".  Now I don't know what Beef Hash is supposed to be, so I can't say if this was "Super Fast" or not, but when I watched him cook it on the TV, his mince was cooked to a crisp and looked quite burnt in places.  Now my mince was cooking for the full 30 minutes and was in no way charcoaled like his!  Hmmm, 30 Minute Meal, I think NOT!

The Beef Hash itself did nothing for me.  Placing raw onion, carrot and celery on top of already cooked mince, meant the carrots were still hard.  In desperation, I added a little water and placed a lid on top of the frypan in an attempt to cook the carrots a little.  It worked, but the dish didn't have the same texture after that.  Also using the food processor to chop up the veg may of saved a little time, but it meant the celery was stringy and not chopped as nice as it would have been had I've done it quickly with the knife!  Flavour, nothing exciting.

The Beans however, different story.  Really yummy and buying some special streaky bacon (or finely sliced Speck) may of made all the difference.  The interesting part was cooking the beans in their own juice as every recipe I have ever read has said to drain and rinse the beans.  But Jamie was right on this one, the flavours are there, so why throw it away.  However, there was no need for the Basil.  I added heaps and you couldn't taste it, nor did it need the taste of Basil. 

Jacket Potato was another real surprise, cooking it in the Microwave and then popping under a hot grill.  Great idea and certainly speeds up the process.  The outside of the potato was brown and crispy but the inside was soft and fluffy.  Amazingly nice.  But then...just throw a dollop of sour cream on top!  What???  I had made the most amazing creamy dressing for the salad which would have been perfect for the potato!

Which brings me to the Salad.  Totally not required.  This meal was real comfort food in my opinion.  Beef Mince, Jacket Potato and Beans, all hot and comforting and I don't believe a salad was necessary. Three elements on the plate is more than enough.  The dressing for the salad consisted of avocado, sour cream, olive oil and lemon juice and was a perfect accompaniment for the potato!  So next time, no Salad, just the dressing thanks.

It saddens me greatly that these meals are working out this way.  I know I am not a slow cook as I have completed Masterchef Challenges in the same time the contestants had and I am starting to watch Jamie's shows really carefully, looking for all the cuts and editing.  I really really love Jamie.  I think the work he does is amazing and I have so much respect for him and this is why it saddens me so that this book does not delivering what it promises.  My fear is that people will buy this book and be disappointed and then not like him or buy any future books or watch any future shows that he produces and I don't want this to happen to someone who is working so hard to make a difference in the world.  I just wish he had normal people testing his recipes before publishing this book.  It seems a little rushed to me.  :-(

Back in the Land of Oz!

Hello fellow readers.  Well we made it back in one piece...thank goodness.  It was an eventful trip to say the least, but one that, in the end, was well worth it.  Would I recommend it to anyone...taking a 2 year old and an 85 year old across to the other side of the world?  Only if you are really really brave and have the best husband in the world, would I recommend such a journey.  Thankfully my wonderful son gave me the strength as did my husband, who without him, such a massive trip would not have been possible.  My Mum had the opportunity to see her Sister, Brother and Cousin in person one last time and she got to see her homeland and see how things had changed, and in some cases, not changed at all.  It was a wonderful experience that I will treasure forever.

So now we are back and we have so far had two gatherings.  Our first included our neighbours and house sitters and we put on a German feast including five different types of German Sausage (Grilled the European way over hot coals), Sauerkraut, Herring salad, German potato salad, Green salad, Fish breads (rollmops) and pretzels.  For desert we had Danish, home made Apple Strudel and of course, Gummy Bears made in Germany!

It was wonderful to share our adventures with photos, stories and food.  The food we offered reflected our time away and it seemed to be enjoyed by everyone.

Our next gathering included our other neighbour friends who could not make the first feast.  This time I decided to start cooking the Jamie Meals again and jumped right in and completed the Spanish Tapas Feast.  This meal looked too big and involved for the two of us to eat alone and my 2 year old would not have enjoyed it, so it was time to share some food with guests.

As usual, I did 30 minutes of preparation before the guests arrived and then started cooking around 30 minutes before we were ready to eat.  The meal included; Glazed Chorizo....awesome, highly recommend it.  It involved cutting up two good quality Chorizo sausages and cooking them in a fry pan for what seemed like a very long time and then add some honey and garlic at the end (but don't burn the honey like I did). 

The next dish was called Manchego Cheese with Cured Meats & Honey.  This required no cooking at all but simply placing some cured meats and cheese on a board.  This cheese however, was quite special.  I know this from the price tag!!  I purchased 150g of this special Spanish cheese and had little change from $9.00!  As it turned out, I actually needed 200g of the cheese for the recipe, but in the end, 150g was enough for the four of us. 

Part of this dish included placing some ground coffee on the board and drizzling honey over the cheese.  Jamie says..."Trust Me, it's a match made in Heaven!"  I thought this rather strange but we all decided to give it a go.  The results.....OMG!  Yep, the choir was singing.  It was unreal.  I urge you now...as Jamie did, to try it.  Get some hard cheese, drizzle over some honey and then dip it in a little bit of ground coffee.  Please tell me if you don't love it!!

Next..Stuffed Peppers.  Also awesome.  Not sure if it tasted so good because of the cheese or because the peppers are already pickled and therefore have a base flavour before you start, but a really really nice dish and very quick and easy.

Next...Rolled Anchovies.  An interesting dish and as we had just returned from Germany we had become quite familiar with eating pickled fish, this dish did not scare us!  It included getting fresh Anchovies from the fridge section of the Supermarket, something I didn't even know existed until I went looking for it.  Simple seasoning and then threading onto a toothpick with a half a cherry tomato.  Nice, but nothing super special.

Last was what Jamie calls a "Tortilla".  This included cooking the heck out of some potatoes and then throwing in tons and tons of eggs!  To me, this is a frittata and a pretty tasteless one at that.  It was partly my fault for not adding enough salt and pepper, but there were no base flavours even though the potatoes were cooked with rosemary and fennel seeds, all I could taste was egg, and I only put in five eggs instead of the recommended eight!!

So the feast included five dishes, but to me it wasn't really a Tapas.  But it was enjoyable, tasty and between the four of us we polished it all off, but would I cook/prepare it all again, probably not.  So in summary, I would say, an interesting array of food, but not really a cooking challenge, but more a clever collection of different textures and tastes that we would otherwise not eat in our everyday lives.