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.

Taking a Break

To my fellow readers, I would like to thank you for taking the time to read my Blog. I hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I have enjoyed sharing my experiences with you.

In less than 3 weeks (OMG!) my husband, my nearly 2 year old son and my 80-something year old Mum and I are off on a new adventure..a trip to Germany to see my family.

With time running out to get the garden ready for our absence, organise things, shop for stuff and get the house ready for our house sitters, time for dinner parties has been "verborten".  As we already know, Jamie's 30 Minute Meals take a lot longer and I generally do quite a bit of preparation before any guests arrive.  This all cuts in to our valuable time to get important last minute jobs done.

I really feel I have learnt alot about cooking and I look forward to enjoying some local German cuisine from different parts of the country.  My culinary journey is not just about Jamie's cooking, but looking at food in a different way and unleashing my creativity.  I also have found that I can shop a little more cost effectively and I feel a sense of pride that I can buy a raw free range chook for around $10.50 and then break it down to make 4 separate meals as well as make 2 litres of chicken stock.  How cool to have the skill to do all this and not have to pay for someone else to cut-up and package the various products.  And my herb garden is growing well, although a little dormant in this winter weather, but hopefully by the time we come back, the weather will start to warm up and everything will thrive yet again.

So...until September...I wish you happy, healthy and free range cooking and we will hopefully resume with Jamie's Tapas!!

It's NOT Asian Inspired!

My 20th "30 Minute Meal" is finally what seemed like a more normal everyday family dish which I thought Jamie would "pimp up" like he does most of his dishes.  I was looking forward to this one as it seemed really straight forward; Cauliflower Macaroni with a Chicory Salad and Stewed Fruit...what could be easier?

My first concern was the quantities of the very small list of ingredients.  A full packet of Macaroni, a full head of Cauliflower (stalks and all), a full block of cheese and a container of creme fraiche!  Yikes...there goes the diet!

But too often I have worried and been surprised and I am trying to "trust" Jamie and his recipes, so I went for it!  With Cauliflower at $1.99 a head, this one was going to be a cheap meal for a change.  I opted to drop desert, as stone fruit is not really in season at the moment and I had many other fresh ingredients that I needed to use up (fresh pears and figs from Mt Gambier).

So I proceeded and while I continued to be concerned about the lack of flavour components, I made the dish exactly as I was instructed.  Somehow I ended up with Macaroni and Cauliflower all over the kitchen and the baking dish was overflowing.  In the end I had enough food to feed a small village!

As for the salad, well I was unable to obtain the chicory even though I had seen it in the supermarket the week before, apparently it is hard to come by and is sold out within 24 hours of it hitting the shelf!  Can't imagine why as it is really bitter and not what I really enjoy eating as a salad leaf.  I bought some mixed salad leaves instead which included a few pieces of chicory, so I figured that would be close enough as the hero was the dressing rather than the type of leaves used.

The dressing was a taste sensation..awesome.  Made with fresh Basil, yoghurt, anchovies and Dijon Mustard it would make any salad a stand out.  So ten out of ten for that component.  As for the "Mac & Cheese" itself, well it was ok, but for me, a bit on the bland side.  It needed so many things such as; mustard, paprika, lemon juice, fresh herbs and about half the amount of pasta.  Some base flavours such as onions, garlic, chilli and bacon would also have given the dish some flavour.  Sure there was flavour in the topping, but with so much pasta, the flavour of the topping was lost.

We have since been eating this dish over and over again and I am pleased to say that it is finally all gone and I have stepped up my exercise a notch to work it all off!!  Unfortunately, the meal does not taste much at all when reheated in the Microwave but I am not one for wasting food although I came very close to throwing the 3rd and 4th left overs in the bin.

So with 20 meals down I still have a long way to go (50 in total) and while I have been discouraged along the way, I still feel I am learning a lot (along with Masterchef) and still want to continue.  The next meal on my list is "Tapas" and that looks really interesting and a great one for sharing with friends with a couple of bottles of wine!!  Any takers??

Chicken Green Curry

Well I have had 24 hours to cool down, so this blog may not be as firey as it would have been if I had written it last night after cooking Jamie's "Green Curry with Crispy Chicken, Kimchee Slaw and Rice Noodles"!

I have to say that this meal had me hot under the collar for more reasons than just the chillies.  Firstly, I am really getting frustrated with the amount of ingredients required for one of these meals, only to find that half of them do not really add anything to the overall dish and I now have a fridge full of ingredients that I now have to use up.  It feels like a "Masterchef Mystery Box and I now have to face an "Invention Test" to use up all the fresh ingredients before they spoil!

Ok, I'll get off my mystery box and get back to the Curry.  Firstly, let me say that the Green Curry was excellent.  Really excellent.  Made from scratch from raw ingredients, I don't think I will ever buy a Curry Paste again.  This is now the second curry paste of Jamie's that I have made and both were outstanding.  What spoiled this dish for me was all the other bits and pieces and then the serving method of a bowl and a plate.  I hate this concept cos I feel like a pig trying to eat it.  Imagine a bowl with noodles on the bottom, some long green beans in sauce and then a piece of chicken sitting on top.  It's very hard to cut a piece of chicken when it is sitting in a bowl and then you can't get to the beans or noodles underneath.

Then there was the Kimchee Slaw salad.  Now this was an interesting dish.  Full of heat and bite and crunch (even after scrunching it in your hands to squeeze out the juice!).  Along with the curry sauce, the beans and the chicken, this meal would have been lovely served on a plate with nothing else.  No noodles, no toasted sesame seeds, no cos lettuce and no bean shoots, which in my opinion added nothing to the dish. 

It feels like Jamie is trying too hard to create some banquet of food in a short space of time.  I think less is more.  Good quality food and great flavours and "Keep It Simple".  You don't need 7 different elements to make a tasty meal!

Anyway, that's my opinion and I must say that my Hubby loved the meal much more than the Masterchef Osso Bucco that I made on the weekend, so I guess you win some and you loose some. 

Til next time...

Happy cooking

Rib-Eye Stir-Fry

Another day and time to cook another 30 Minute Meal and yet another Asian inspired dish!  Rib-Eye Stir-Fry with Dan Dan Noodles and Chilled Hibiscus Tea.  My first mission was to try to find Hibiscus Tea and I gave up after looking in several speciality shops.  So this drink was omitted from my dish.  I thought about making another flavoured tea drink as I found many and varied flavours of tea, but I enjoy my glass of wine too much with my meal, so decided it wasn't really worth the effort.

Next, buy some Rib-Eye Steaks; should be easy enough.  So I go to a new local "Meat Market" that has opened nearby and look for these steaks that Jamie has explained in great detail, what they should look like.  Well it seems that butchers in the UK cut meat differently to the butchers in Australia cos when I asked for a Rib-Eye, I was shown an inch thick cut steak with a large bone, quite different to what Jamie was cooking with.  I try to explain to the butcher what Jamie had said and that there was definitely no bone.  Several discussions later, I finally walked out with two quite thinly sliced Scotch Fillets which I think is what Jamie used.  Man..it shouldn't be this hard!

Anyho..I carry on and make the dish which included spicy steaks, a platter of greens with Black Bean Sauce, some bean shoots and some noodles.  This meal was packed with punch and there were several parties going on in the mouth.  It was a great meal, albeit messy and difficult to eat, but real Yum.  I loved all the flavours on the meat which was nice and tender even though I did overcook it slightly due to the meat being thinner than Jamie's.  The black bean sauce with the greens was also great and I will use this technique again for sure.  And the whole meal washed down very nicely with a full bodied glass of red wine!

Next meal, yet another Asian dish....Thai Green Curry!  Lucky we like and grow chillies in this household!

Asian Style Salmon & Killer Jerk Chicken

The next dish on my "To Do List" was a strange looking dish with expensive ingredients which made it difficult for me to gain the enthusiasm to cook it.  The dish was an Asian Style Salmon which sat on top of a Noodle Broth with a Beansprout Salad on the side and a Lychee Dessert.

I am personally not a fan of watery broth style soups and then to put a piece of Salmon on top; well, not really my cup of tea.  But I was wrong..very wrong.  This meal was quite delicious and the broth was not as runny as I imagined it would be (I reduced it a bit more than Jamie).  The whole meal, including the side salad, was full of punchy flavours and although it was a bit messy to eat, it was worth the effort of cooking it. 

As for the dessert, well I couldn't find any Lychee's (not even canned) and with the high price of Blueberries, I gave it a miss.  My husband later told me that he does not like Lychee's, so maybe it was a good thing to leave out.  There was no real technique to the dessert, cut blueberries in half and add to Lychee's, smash up some sesame snaps and sprinkle on top!

The next meal I was looking forward to and I cooked it the following week.  Only one stumbling block with the ingredients which was getting Chicken Breast with the Skin ON!  I tried a couple of places, but decided I would buy a whole chicken and just "break it down" like they did on Masterchef!  It looked quite easy to do, so I bought myself a nice free-range chook, sharpened the knives and away I went!  Well I certainly butchered that chook!  It was not as easy as it looked on TV, but in the end I had two breasts and two thighs which I decided to turn into Jamie's "Jerk Chicken" along with Rice with Black Bean, Chargrilled Corn and a refreshing chopped salad. 

I was happy to find some tinned Black Beans in the Asian section of our local supermarket, an ingredient that I had never used before and had been previously told was very hard to find.  I made this recipe using our home grown chillies and salad and when I tasted the Jerk sauce after first blending the ingredients, my mouth was on fire and I thought this was really going to be a "killer" alright.  However, after blending, I added a little water to the blender to ensure I got all the sauce into the roasting pan.  This may of reduced the fire of the sauce as once it was all cooked, it was really really lovely to eat and not painfully hot as I had previously tasted. 

The rice was really nice also with the black beans but really really salty, even though I rinsed the beans before putting them in with the rice.  Something to note for next time.  The recipe also included some yoghurt with coriander to "put out the fire" that was suppose to be in the mouth.  I made it, but it really wasn't necessary so I put it in the fridge and used it for another dish that did need it, a Pumpkin Curry.

As for the rest of the chicken, I froze the legs and wings for another day and with the carcass, I'm proud to say that I made Chicken Stock!  With the stock I made a pumpkin risotto and a vegetable soup, both of which were delicious!  I can see the benefits now of making your own stock, but not sure I can justify the time required to do this regularly.

I have been making a lot of pumpkin recipes of late, as we grew an amazing 7.1kg pumpkin and I knew that once I cut it open, I would need to work fast to use it all up before it spoils.  So far I have made Pumpkin Soup (obviously), Pumpkin Risotto, Pumpkin & Feta Salad, Pumpkin Relish, Pumpkin, Lentils and Chickpea Patties and a Pumpkin Curry.  With only a few pieces left, I can still make either a pumpkin pie or cook a roast with some roast veg including Pumpkin.  It has been great to have the challenge of cooking different meals with this core ingredient.

So my next recipe is another Asian inspired dish using Rib-Eye Steaks and Noodles.  Should be interesting.  This will now be my 18th recipe and I have noticed that the TV episodes are being repeated already after only showing about 30 meals (interesting?).  So I guess if that's all of the TV shows, I will need to finish the book without watching Jamie make the meals first, which is fine, but you do get a lot of tips along the way, which are not included in the book. 

Til next time...happy cooking (or eating if you are my husband!)