Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals - Tapas Feast

The lack of update to the blog this weekend can be explained by what I chose to do with my weekend off – fit a new bathroom suite. All went well (other than my missing tiles, damn you B&Q!) but unfortunately this left me with little time for cooking.

Luckily, I took Monday and Tuesday off work to recuperate, and decided that, on Tuesday, I would be cooking an adventurous meal of Tapas. This coincided with the broadcast of the Tapas Feast episode of Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals on Channel 4, so I was able to settle down and watch Jamie cook before attempting the feast myself.

The feast comprises of a Spanish Tortilla, Glazed Chorizo, Rolled Anchovies, Stuffed Peppers, and Manchego Cheese with Cooked Meats. I was a bit more worried about this one; I think it was because of the large number of dishes. We took a trip into York, mainly to get the meat. Unfortunately, Henshelwood’s were not able to help, stocking… I can’t remember what it was exactly, but it was £4.95 for 100g. Looked great, but no thanks! We went to the Hairy Fig next where we settled on Serrano Ham. I also bought a few French soft drinks. I’ve developed a real taste for French style traditional soft drinks lately. Taste test to come at some point when I can get a tasting partner (the Mrs won’t drink fizzies!).

So when we got home, I turned the telly on to see how Jamie did it. Looked dead easy to be honest! All I had to do was half the ingredients as I was cooking for two… I know, lets do the pomegranate drink from another menu as well!

I then read the recipe book, and it instantly hit me that some things in the TV show were missing from the written recipe. In the TV show, Jamie puts oil in the pepper stuffing mixture; this is not mentioned in the book. Jamie also made a point of using the flower heads from the thyme; no mention of this in the book.

Nevermind, time to get started. The recipe specifies baby new potatoes for the Tortilla, but I used large new potatoes. They were much better value and I couldn’t see the taste difference being massive once chopped up and fried. I chopped the potato and added to the hot oil, tossing the potatoes just like Jamie did… man, I should be on TV! Onion was added, followed by fennel seeds five minutes later when I realised I had forgot to add them… A sign of things to come?

Then I moved onto the Chorizo. I was using the wok, as I wanted to use our small frying pan for the tortilla, as it was serving two. Straight in, keep tossing the Chorizo with the potatoes. I was surprised by how little oil came off the sausage, but this didn’t seem to present any problems.

On to the Stuffed Peppers. It was the first time I had cooked with chargrilled jarred peppers. Apart from being difficult to get out of the jar they were pretty easy to cook with. I also managed to tear one of them. The stuffing was pretty difficult to knock up with my hand blender to be honest. I think I should have added the ingredients gradually. Anyway, with a lot of shaking and tipping upside down the stuffing was finally made, although the motor of the blender was very hot by the time I was done! I opted to follow TV Jamie and add oil to the stuffing. The peppers were stuffed full like banker’s pockets, drizzled with olive oil and whacked under the grill.

Time to do the cheese board. This one was dead easy to be honest, and makes an easy target for people saying that half Jamie’s dishes are not real cooking. However, while watching TV Jamie prepare the dish, I was struck by the techniques that Jamie was trying to pass on – the laying of the meat for preparation, and the use of honey and coffee with the cheese (this worked really well by the way!).

Cheese done, and garlic added to the chorizo, and to the tortilla along with seasoning and rosemary. Then I added honey and red wine vinegar to the chorizo. The smell was divine – the sausage was really starting to look great. Until disaster struck.

Feeling confident, I was starting to coast a little. And royally cocked up by cracking an egg into the chorizo pan rather than the Tortilla! NOOOOOO!!! I rescued the situation by spooning the sausage away and letting the egg cook slightly to let it take shape. The sausage was then transferred out of the wok into a griddle pan, but I fear that a lot of the glaze was lost to the egg.

This also really threw my timing out, so I started cracking eggs into the Tortilla pan to get that cooking. Unbelivably, the peppers were not quite cooked! The Tortilla stayed on the hob until the peppers were finally ready to come out, and the Tortilla got put under the grill. OK, so the cheese and peppers were now finished. The Chorizo was about down, and was put in a dish and then put to one side. The Mrs took control of the pomegranate drink. All I had to do was give the fruit a good squeeze to make sure we got all the juice.

While the Tortilla was cooking, I started on the Anchovies. I didn’t have any cocktail sticks so served the anchovies out with tomatoes (this was only the second time I had tasted Anchovies, the first being the previous Sunday in a supermarket restaurant. I did fear them, I’m now a great fan!). I had been forced to pre-grate the lemon as the Mrs needed half of it for the pomegranate. It was very difficult to spread over the fish, and ended up, not so much lemon zest but a few dollops of yellow. Any subtle lemon flavouring was undoubtedly lost. Anyway, the anchovy fillets were garnished with Parsley, and put to one side. Another dish done!

Finally, all I had to do was wait for the Tortilla to take a full colour under the grill. This done, I added half a packet of rocket, squeezed lemon over the top… and served!

So, how was it? Well, first things first – this was not a 30 minute meal. I ended on 42 minutes. This can partly be explained the Chorizo vs egg incident, but there are still some extra minutes on there. I just don’t think our grill gives a decent performance.

And the taste? Mistakes on my part aside, pretty good! I was very proud of cooking so many items, for the first time. The Chorizo in particular was excellent, and this is something that I will be doing again. I wouldn’t say the same about the Tortilla. The Mrs said it was great but I wasn’t so bothered. It just seemed a bit… bland.

Another success for 30 minute meals… 2 out of 3 ain’t bad! 

Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals @ Amazon.co.uk

Jamie Oliver's Tapas Feast recipes @ Jamieoliver.com

The Hairy Fig

Delia Smith’s Stir-fried Chicken with Lime and Coconut with Onion Pilau, Gordon Ramsay's Griddled Pineapple with Mint

Cooking Jamie’s 30 minute meal options lately has got me in the mood for quick, decent food, and after recently writing about Delia’s Pad Thai I noticed the Stir-Fried Chicken recipe from the same book, with hardly any text instructions, and the blurb “its hard to credit that a recipe as simple and as quick as this could taste so good, but I can assure you it’s an absolute winner”. The recipe can be found here, at Delia Online, and as I've decided to single-handedly prove that Delia Smith is cool and her recipes kick arse, it was a simple choice! When I casually asked a friend round for dinner, I knew this would be a good option. Its fresh and simple, but I hoped the lime and chilli would give a tangy, exciting taste. I had been pleasantly surprised by the modified pilau rice I served up with the weekends lamb kebabs, and decided that the two would marry well. The rice is also simple to present well, which I hoped would impress. The stir-fry looked kind of white so I hoped the rice would give some colour.

To serve with, I decided on Gordon Ramsay’s Griddled Pineapple with Mint and Coconut.Gordon has something to prove in our house. He fell out of favour when the other half was making his White Chocolate Mousse, and it split on her. She was quite heavily pregnant and the time, and it led to... not exactly a breakdown but certainly an episode (luckily Nigella came to the recipe with her Mousse recipe using Marshmallows). The pineapple looked vibrant, with charred stripes across the bright yellow flesh, and I hoped the fresh flavours would fit in well with the main course. I also served the dessert with Häagen Dazs Pralines and Cream Ice Cream, which is unarguably the greatest ice cream of all time. The pineapple could be prepared in advance and left in the fridge which was extremely convenient. So, slice the pineapple into wedges, char, remove the skin, pour mint infused syrup over the pineapple, and leave in the fridge. When ready to serve, sprinkle with toasted desiccated coconut.

So, how did it go? Well, the first job was to marinate the chicken in lime zest and juice, which was easy enough. After an hour, the chicken is added to a hot wok, and stir-fried. In my typical gung-ho fashion I chucked the contents of the bowl in the wok, juice included. Unfortunately, after a short while I realised the chicken was more poaching in lime juice and its own liquid. I strained and added back to the wok, but I fear the damage was done as when I served the meat it was overcooked. Anyhow, after the meat is golden, add finely chopped green chilli, stir fry again, then add Nam Pla, chopped coriander and shredded spring onions.

In the meantime, I did the rice. I’ve decided that the onion pilau rice recipe is now mine! I have used the M&S as a guide. And unfortunately, I overcooked this as well, after worrying about the chicken! Aaaargh!

The main course was tasty enough, quite light and not too filling (no one wants to feel stuffed on a school night). Our guests were too polite to say, but both the rice and the chicken were definitely overcooked. Need to be a bit more confident next time. I think the frozen food issue has knocked my confidence slightly.

The dessert went well too, but was maybe a bit too simple. It was again fresh, although I don’t think there was enough of it (although to be fair, I had made smaller pieces and gave some pineapple slices to the boy-let. I can’t tell if he was impressed or not!). I was sceptical of how the mint syrup would work, but it was brilliant, a real gentle flavour of mint that did not overpower the pineapple. Sadly, I am an idiot, and for my final act, I forgot to sprinkle the coconut over.

Conclusion – I’ll cook both of these again, but probably just for the Mrs and I. It just wasn’t exciting enough.

Delia Smith's How to Cook Book 2 @ Amazon.co.uk

Gordon Ramsay's Fast Food @ Amazon.co.uk

Lamb Kofte Kebabs, Potatoes with Spiced Spinach and Onion Pilau Rice

This weekend I decided that I wanted to make use of the spice mixes that my brother bought me for Christmas. There were various ones from a company based in London’s Borough Market called Spice Mountain, and the one that I really wanted to try was the Lamb Kofte Kebabs. To go with, spiced spinach potatoes from the Indian Cooking School book, published by M&S. 

We made a trip into Pocklington town centre to visit the Deli (as per previous posts, Atkinson’s of Pocklington), and the butchers (again, as per previous posts W.F. Burtons) to get the ingredients – although the mince came in at an eye-watering £3.41 for half a kilo! I also wanted to take a trip to the fishmongers to get some mussels, to do Mussels in Coconut Sauce as a starter. Unfortunately I found that the shop closed at 13.00 on a Saturday. I was a bit surprised, especially as I had heard that the fishmonger was spearheading a local campaign to generate footfall in Pocklington’s shops. Nevermind, rather than the Mussel starter we would be having rice and Naan Bread.

I followed the directions to mix the lamb with 2 tbsp of the Kofte spice mix, a small slice of bread’s worth of breadcrumbs, and a finely chopped small onion, and left in the fridge to marinate for a few hours (do dry ingredients marinate?). I made a miniature finger of kebab meat for Junior, who, over the last week, has been eating his first solid foods after skipping purees under the baby-led weaning school of baby food. I have to admit, I did add a tiny dab of the spice mixture and felt a real stab of pride as I realised I was making my boy’s first curry! This also meant I got a practise in on the spinach, and served it up to my guinea pig like a child cautiously offering his first project to the woodwork teacher. He did seem to prefer the kebab to the spinach – a chip off the old block!

We put Jr. to bed and I got on with cooking for us. I had formed the mince into Kebab’s around some BBQ sticks we had in the cupboard. The Kebab’s were simply grilled while everything else was cooking. First things first, boil new potatoes. After this, the spinach was a case of frying garlic and ginger purees with half a chilli, adding spices, adding tomatoes, adding spinach and then potatoes and finally cream, all in a frying pan. Dead easy – didn’t stop me messing up though, as I forgot to add the cream. D’oh!

The rice was started as Kitchri, a recipe from the same book, but I realised that it called for lentils which I didn’t have. I decided to go onto pilau rice, but had already sliced an onion up… ah well, onion pilau it is! I shallow-fried the onion, added a tiny bit turmeric to give the rice colour. When the onion was done, I added the rice, along with water, salt pepper and a bit of Saffron, which  I realised I had never cooked with before! The lid went on and the rice was left to its own devices.

I had made a bit of a conscious decision to try and improve the presentation of my meals. I feel this really lets me down and am conscious of just slapping food on a plate and serving. A bit of an effort with garnish was in order.

So, how was it? Well, the kebabs were a touch dry, but tasted delicious. The spice mix really does offer great value for money, I think I have enough for at least 4 more servings of the same recipe, but I think I will do meatballs next time. The rice was also good, although I am not convinced the saffron added anything. After discussing the better half, we realised that she had had it since we had met, and it would be fair to say it had probably lost its taste! I think I will buy some more and use on Wednesday when friends come round. The Spinach and Potatoes were good, possibly fried for a bit too long, and sadly lacking the cream, but I cannot blame the recipe for that!

In fact, the only let down would be the Peshwari Naan that I served with the meal. In an effort to get some more authentic bread I had bought a pack from Rafi’s Spice Box but found them to be very thin and a bit tasteless. The Mrs was very polite, but is a bit of a Peshwari monster, and I knew that she agreed with me about the bread when I didn’t have to fight her for the last bit!

Indian Cooking School @ Marks & Spencer

Rafi's Spice Box

Spice Mountain

Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals - Pregnant Jools's Pasta

The first time I had had consciously had chicory was in the salad in Jamie Oliver's 'Killer Jerk Chicken' menu. Unfortunately Waitrose (get me!) only sold them in packs of two, so we decided to do something else to use the second one up. As the Mrs would be cooking, we went for something quite simple looking, as she has the Boy-let to keep an eye on during the day, when I would be at work, and we both fancied something quick.

I was eventually called through to the kitchen to find that it looked like a bomb had gone off in the kitchen. I remembered the other half had acted as an assistant while I prepared the chicken - it really looks like these recipes are lot easier if there are two of you on hand. The Mrs finished 'Pregnant Jools's Pasta, Crunchy Chicory & Watercress Salad & Little Frangipane Tarts in about 40 minutes. I wrote a haiku to describe our feelings toward the menu:

Pregnant Jools's pasta

Massive let down

Jamie write alone next time

The best way to decribe the menu would be: A too-spicy (as in, the pasta was WAY too spicy) sweet and sour pasta. With sausage meat. Sweet and Sour should be served with rice. Not pasta, or sausagemeat. My better half seems to think it might be related to our cheap balsamic, but I think there is more to the faults of the dish than this. The salad was also disappointing. I had really enjoyed the chicory with the chicken, but it just didn't work here. I think its because the leaves were left whole, and were too bitter in large chunks, but it might have been the dressing. The Frangipane tarts were the highlight of the meal, but were nothing special - like a large jam tart.

I am quite a big fan of Jamie Oliver, and desperately wanted to like this, but it was just...crap. 

Jamie's 30 minute Meals @ Amazon

Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals - Killer Jerk Chicken

Inspired by Comfort Bite’s recent blog post regarding Jamie Oliver’s “30 Minute Meals” book, I decided that this weekend would be spent testing out one of Jamie’s meals from the book. I made the effort to read the book’s introduction – quite a rarity for me, but after the feedback something which I felt would be necessary in order to give the recipe a fair test – and was interested in Jamie’s second excuse, or reason that he thinks people use to explain why they don’t cook. Jamie makes the point that its cheaper to cook his recipes than it is to go out to eat, or to get a takeaway, or even to get a ready meal. Is this really true? M&S’ “Dine in for £10” offer includes a main, desert and side, plus wine for £10. I think Tesco and Sainsbury do the same offer but try to undercut M&S. I wouldn’t know about Asda, as they are owned by the devil and I really don’t like shopping there. This is only for 2, whereas Jamie’s menus are for 4 – but I spent over £5 just on two chicken breasts (I appreciate this is particularly expensive chicken, but the recipe does require skin on chicken and Jamie tells us to use higher-welfare). If it was for 4, there’s £10 already.

I realise this does sound negative so I’ve got to point out that I do generally like Jamie’s books, and recipes – and TV shows. I have been really looking forward to giving these a go, but as per my blog introduction I am on a limited budget so cost is an issue that is close to my heart. And I’m from Yorkshire. Its what we do.

Reading the introduction also showed that we may be slightly limited in some respects with our choice of meals, because we do not own a food processor, and I refuse to buy one on the strength of one book. However, we do have a small hand-blender that does sauces etc. We just can’t do any of his chopped recipes.

Therefore, we decided on the menu “Killer Jerk Chicken – Rice & Beans – Refreshing Chopped Salad – Chargrilled Corn”. I have to confess that when leafing through the book I have not really found many of the menu's all that inspiring, but this one seemed to jump out. We had the chicken in already, the Mrs is partial to Corn on the Cob, and I remember seeing the chicken on Jamie’s TV show and fancying it then. So, this part of the job was easy!

So, we had decided which menu to test. What to test again? This was quite easy:

- How long does it take to cook?

- How much did it cost?

- How does it taste?

- Was it worth it?

I am going to come clean and confess that I did not stick to the recipes exactly: I didn’t want to buy a bottle of Golden Rum for 125 ml when I have White Rum in the cupboard, so I substituted that. I did not buy ground allspice – I assumed it was the same as five spice. It isn’t. Substituted allspice for ground cloves, ground ginger and ground cinnamon after a quick google. Finally, I was unable to get Scotch Bonnets, and just used double measurements of a regular red chilli instead. I’m also going to admit that the other half was with me to perform photography duties, and helped with keeping the kitchen in order. She also helped out when I started stressing a bit!

So, ingredients ready, pans on the hob… and we’re off! Firstly I made the cut into the chicken breasts. I wasn’t exactly clear what was required of the cut as per the books instructions but I recalled Jamie cooking the chicken and made the correct incision. This allowed the chicken to cook evenly.

On to the corn, that’s easy enough – put corn in pan of hot water. Mistake one – I didn’t have a pan of hot water ready. Her indoors came to the rescue and sorted this will I moved onto step 3 – the Jerk Sauce. I did have the ingredients for this ready, blended, and done. The chicken then went into the oven with the sauce. The rice and beans next – and again, I had no hot water for the stock. Again, sweetness came to my rescue! Dead easy – Spring Onion and Cinnamon stick lightly fried, then rice and stock added, then forget about it for 12 minutes!

The Yoghurt was again dead easy – mix yoghurt with oil, lime juice and lime zest. I think Lime might be my favourite ingredient right now, except maybe for Chorizo. Such a sweet, refreshing taste.

On to the corn, put them in the pan that the chicken was fried in… and why are those beans out?! Aaaargh, I forgot to put the beans in the rice and beans! Panicked, I chucked them in but was confident it would be fine as the beans were ready cooked. The corn finally went in the pan and started charring. On to the salad – basically, chop everything then add oil and lime.

And that’s it! We plated up, rather than leaving things in pots and pans as there were only two of us, and ate. So, how was it? I thought it was excellent! The chicken was maybe ever so slightly dry, but the rice and beans were just fantastic, and complimented the Jerk Chicken absolutely perfectly – in fact I ate the Rice and Beans again the next night as we only used half of the carton of beans. Salads are usually plain, but this one had good texture, a variety of flavours, and was dressed well. It was missing something though – an onion, which I forgot to add as I was in a rush. The yoghurt toned things down slightly when needed. Charring the corn was great and added flavour to something that I usually find a touch bland. The other half agreed, although maybe thought the chicken was a touch too hot.

And the cooking time? Well, I have to point out that I was not alone – I had a beautiful assistant tidying up behind me, helping out with any mistakes, and doing the washing up – which wasn’t as bad as I expected but still took a fair while to do afterwards. It also took me 5-10 minutes to get ingredients, pots and pans ready. All this aside, I completed the meal in – 32 minutes and 33 seconds, which I was pleased with. The time was right, the taste was great and I will be doing it again, although I did learn a lesson – next time, I will always make sure there is a kettle of boiling water available!

So why has 30 Minute Meals been criticised so? I'm not sure. I mean, it kind of does what it says on the tin - A meal in 30 minutes. I think the problem is - who is it aimed at? What market does it cater for? Jamie usually aims his books at families. Gordon Ramsey aims at Men and the younger market. Nigella Lawson's books are usually indulgent. As Jamie is pushing a new method of cooking, 30 Minute Meals is impossible to pigeonhole into the recognised categories. Its aimed at anyone - it can't please everyone.

Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals @ Amazon.co.uk

Delia Smith's Pad Thai, and the second lot of Christmas Presents

The problem with cooking in our house is that my live-in supermodel, with whom I have had a child, loves cooking equally as much as I do. No, I’m not Jamie Cullum, just trying to be cheesy and romantic.

Because we both love cooking so much, I am being forced to cheat for the first part of today’s post and let the Mrs do the cooking. I asked if we could have something from a book that was something other than a Rachel Allen or Nigella Lawson book, and was blessed with Delia Smith. Now, Delia doesn’t seem to be in fashion nowadays, and Delia’s Cheat book, an attempt to rival Jamie Oliver’s current crusade, was roundly ridiculed. However, Delia has been writing about food for over 40 years, and is the UK’s most-sold cookery writer having sold an impressive 21 million books. Wikipedia tells me that the cake on the cover of “Let it Bleed” was baked by Delia Smith. This means that Delia Smith is unarguably Rock and fucking Roll. Who would have thought?

We settled on “Pad Thai Noodles with Shrimps” from “How to Cook” and made a stop at an oriental supermarket in the centre of York, where we picked up a packet of dried shrimp, a big packet of shelled and de-skinned peanuts, and rice noodles. I noticed that they had small tins of coconut milk – perfect for us, as we only ever use half a tin anyway. Anyway, I digress. We were surprised later that day when the Mother-in-Law, a coeliac, dropped in and asked if she could stay the night, on the way home from Leeds to Birmingham. By happy coincidence the Pad Thai is gluten-free, and the Mrs got on with dinner. Unfortunately, the Mother-in-Law is not as rock and roll as Delia, and isn’t keen on hot food. The recommended 2 chillis were reduced to a half.

Despite this, all was good. At first, I couldn’t place the shrimp, but they gave a definite fishy taste. I did miss the chilli – it really would have leant some flavour, but it was still a really tasty, tangy dish. I was pleasantly surprised with Delia’s recipe, and have decided that later in the week I will test-drive the “Stir-Fried Chicken with Lime and Coconut” from the same book.

For my part, I managed to cook more than half the recipes in a book this week! Unfortunately, the book isn’t exactly a masterpiece like “How to Cook” – its more of a pamphlet, that I got with one of my Christmas presents – a Jamie Oliver Flavour Shaker! I decided that I wanted one after struggling with Fennel seeds in a pestle and mortar for too long, and it has lived up to my expectations. I made the “Rustic French rub” for Lamb steaks, and served them alongside the “Basil, balsamic vinegar and pinenut” dressed salad. The general instructions is to shake with the dry ingredients in first, and then add herbs or garlic etc, and then finally add any liquids such as oil or vinegar. I’m not great at cooking steaks, but rubbed the lamb with the French rub, and left while I made the dressing. I tried to fry on quite a high heat, and managed to get the steaks done not quite rare enough, with just a small line of pink right in the middle. Verdict – the rub was maybe a little too peppery, but was otherwise tasty, while the dressing was great. I will mainly be using the shaker to grind spices but look forward to trying out other recipes in it – any recommendations?

My final foodie Christmas present was a selection of spice blends from a company called Spice Mountain, based at Borough Market. My brother kindly bought me a pack containing Moroccan Tagine spice, Ethiopian Berbere, Goan Curry, Jerk Seasoning and Kofte Kebab flavouring, along with a little pot of something called Sumac, described as a lemony spice. My brother and I must be on the same wavelength, as I bought him a leftovers kit from Rafi’s Spicebox! I am really looking forward to the Kofte Kebab – there is a recipe for spicy tomato chutney on the back of the pack, but I think I will serve with Bombay Potatoes from the Indian Cooking School book.

Delia Smith's "How to Cook" @ Amazon (this is the copy we have, although there are many variations)

Spice Mountain

Jamie Oliver Flavour Shaker

Rafi's Leftover Kit

Let it Bleed @ Amazon

What did you get then?

The thing about having a bit of a pot-belly is that everyone knows that you are into food. After a while, you get used to your grandparents stuffing you full of cake when you go round, only for them to start asking your weight. Its like prodding you... “Here, have a lump of cake you fat git. You like cake don’t you fatty?! Look at his gut wobbling! What a disgusting fatty…”

Anyway, on the plus side, it means people know exactly what to buy at Christmas. My mother wouldn’t take me seriously when I asked for a Jamie Oliver Flavour Shaker, but I knew she wouldn’t let me down (mainly because her browsing history was saved on the Argos website). She also got, as a little stocking filler, a book called “Cooking School Indian” from Marks and Spencer, which looks surprisingly good. I’m particularly looking forward to the Sole in Chilli Yoghurt. The Mrs got me a Rachel Allen book I was after for a little while – “Rachel’s Food for Living”. It looks like good stuff – full of simpler, tasty stuff that should be easy to cook when we get back from work. The “Korean Beef with Avocado Rice” is definitely getting a try.

The Mrs herself also got two cookery books (both from myself. She did ask for one of them so its not a case of me buying presents for myself – I know what you’re thinking), Nigella Lawson’s “Kitchen” and the “Hummingbird Bakery Cupcakes and Muffins”. As always, the Nigella book is beautifully written and presented, a joy to read on its own. The Cupcakes and Muffins book is just a small stocking filler really, but is filled with a fair few ideas. The Marshmallow Cupcake recipe appeals to my outrageously sweet tooth. The mother in law also got my Better-Half a cupcake stand and an icing bag set, with seven nozzles, so I’m looking forward to those already.

The Hummingbird Bakery Cupcakes and Muffins @ Amazon

Rachel’s Food for Living @Amazon

Nigella Lawson’s Kitchen @ Amazon

Indian Cooking School @ Marks and Spencer

Escapades with processed frozen food

When I was a young lad, I managed to put myself off pizza totally for over 6 months. I’m not a food snob; I adore pizza now, along with most Junk food. In fact, I’d say a decent cheeseburger is probably my favourite meal. But I went off pizza for about 6 months after I had it for tea on a family holiday. That night, I was horrendously, violently ill, and was out of action for 3 days of a 5 day holiday. I had managed to associate one of my favourite foods with being ill. Disaster.

The reason I am writing about sickness and pizza is partly tied in with my failure to update the Cookbook Test Lab. I was aware that I had not updated for a long time, and decided that I would write about the food I was to serve for friends visiting for dinner on the Sunday before Christmas. I don’t know what came over me, but I had decided to buy some frozen party food from a small (in comparison to the big 3), but well-known supermarket that specialise in these sort of things, heat and serve. We have a habit of serving dinner late to these particular friends, whose 3-year old son tends to get a bit restless waiting. And it is Christmas afterall, everyone loves buffets.

I heated it up, all went down well. I tried some of everything. It was fine, if not spectacular. I’m sure I recognised some of the treats from work – I think the catering staff do their shopping there.

I started feeling a bit dizzy at about 8.00, but didn’t think anything of it.

By 10.00, my stomach was in overdrive.

I finally got some decent sleep at about 5.00, after being ill all night and absolutely torturing myself about giving our friends food poisoning. The one glimmer of hope was that the other half was not suffering. It was with some trepidation that I called them, and apologised… Thank the lord! They were OK! I slowly started recovering and finally last night ate my first proper meal. So had I given myself food poisoning, or caught some sort of bug? Who knows. I have to confess that I ate a prawn that I dropped on the floor, other than this I had nothing else that others did not try. I’m just so glad we did not have whisky after dinner!

The point to all this is – I have put myself off buffet food. I think I have also put myself off cooking for others. Hopefully, my appetite for cooking for the better half and myself will return along with my appetite for food generally, but I don’t like the idea of cooking for others anymore, a true simple pleasure.

I hope I lose the fear and can enjoy it again, like I enjoy pizza now.

The Weekend has landed! Thomasina Miers' Mexican Rice, Nigella's Guinness Cake, and Spanish Stew

I don’t deal with crowds very well. In fact, I don’t deal with stress very well. I’m naturally quite lazy – and I don’t mind admitting it either. Why on earth I thought it was a good idea to go into town and look after Baby Chef while the Better Half had her hair cut then, was just beyond me. I knew that the run up to Christmas made an already busy York city centre nightmarish, without considering that I’d be wheeling a youngster around. I did manage another trip to Rafi’s Spice Box in York though, and although I wasn’t too sure that they were happy to see Baby Chef’s larger buggy that we have borrowed (to deal with the snow) being wheeled into the shop, I did have a good chat about Fenugreek leaves, which I had been unable to get anywhere else. I also managed to get some Peshwari Naan, and as I have already declared that its pointless attempting to make your own without a tandoori oven, I’m hoping that this will be the most authentic we can get at home without visiting the local takeaway.

So, after I had knocked over stuff in a cosmetics shop, courtesy of a change bag slung over my shoulder, I took respite in the City Screen bar, and had coffee and breakfast. I somehow managed to get a seat, ordered at the bar, and started eating. Unfortunately, my timing wasn’t so good, and Baby Chef decided he needed to go to the bathroom. I worried for a bit, but finally decided to bite the bullet and leave all my stuff at the table to go and change his nappy. This was not an easy operation, and sadly a full change was required. We finally got back to the table, Baby Chef in a new outfit (I'll love out the pooey details, but you get the picture). Still, breakfast was good – French Toast with Maple Syrup! A change from the usual weekend’s bacon sandwich.

After trailing around for Jewellery, stressing some more, and having passport photos taken, we finally made our way to the supermarket. I broke with tradition, and visited Aldi, after hearing they had an excellent meat and cheese selection. This was to be served as a starter with bread and oil for Sunday’s first course. We got back, and found we had a leak from the water tank. Sigh. The day’s final insult arrived when the Better Half saw a mouse in the living room. I think the cat had brought it in, and has since disposed of it, but just in case the skirting boards are lined with mousetraps, making our living room look like a... I don't even know, like a bloody rat-infested derelict crack-house!

After the work’s Christmas party on Saturday night, on to cooking on Sunday morning. The first thing I did when I got up was to start making Nigella Lawson’s Chocolate Guinness Cake, from “Feast”. I had managed to get a deep 9” cake tin from Barnitt’s in York (a wonderful local's secret DIY and furniture store) the previous day, after a moment of clarity in which I actually pre-read the method! I couldn’t believe the amount of sugar and butter in the cake, or the full tablespoon of vanilla extract, but something had to take away the Guinness’s bitter tang. Anyhow, the cake baked successfully and came out looking very dark and rich – almost like the cake burnt. I’m not sure if I’m such a fan of the topping – a cream cheese and sugar concoction, but this may be because I bought cheap, half-fat cream cheese. Whoops.

For the main we were having Spanish Chicken and Potato Stew. The recipe was taken from the Channel 4 website, and is by a chap called Matthew Drennan. We had cooked it before, and knew it was simple and tasty, and that we could leave it on the hob – sold! The stew is a filling affair of Onion, garlic, Chorizo, Tomatoes and Potatoes. It went down really well, was very pleased with the end result, and everyone seemed to like it.

To serve with, I made “Green Rice” from Thomasina Miers’ “Mexican Food Made Simple”. Now, I will start with the caveat that although this did not go to plan, it was not totally disastrous and I could’ve saved it if I had put a touch more thought into the operation myself. Basically, whiz up Onions, Garlic, Parsley, Coriander and a little oil, heat in a pan, add the rice, add chicken stock, cook for 15 minutes on the hob, transfer into the oven for 30 minutes. The first problem was- the recipe told me to use far, far too much rice for the 4 people it was designed to serve. I should have spotted this myself as the “Red Rice” recipe above called for much less to serve the same amount of people. It must have been more than a simple printing error on the ingredients list, as the amount of stock to use was perfect! Because too much rice and stock had been used, the herbs didn’t seem to go as far, and my rice was not the “emerald green” that Thomasina wrote of – more of a light green shading. The second problem was that at the bottom of the recipe, it states that the recipe takes 30 minutes to cook, and this is what I worked from. However, at the end of the recipe, after mixing the herbs, boiling the rice etc, Thomasina writes that the rice should be baked for 30 minutes! So that is at least 45 minutes of cooking time! This is maybe the 3^rd recipe that I have used from the book – the previous test articles being breakfasts – and it was a birthday present, so I will persevere – but I feel that it only take the cock-up of a couple of recipes for their books to become mistrusted and relegated to the useless pile. I love Mexican food and do not want to do this, but the apprehension of cooking with the book will set in if another recipe is not as expected.

The meal was rounded off with the cake, which was rich, but tasty. Not so many comments there, but I have brought some to work. Colleagues tend not to be so polite! With coffee, we had "Peanut Butter Cups" from "Nigella's Christmas" that the other half made. I was suspicious after tasting the sickly-sweet peanut butter mix, but the chocolate brought them back down to earth, and they were very tasty indeed. An excellent finishing point to a good meal.

Thomasina Miers' Mexican Food made Simple @ Amazon

Nigella Lawson's Feast @ Amazon

Nigella Christmas @ Amazon

Matthew Drennan's Spanish Chicken & Potato Stew @ Channel 4 Food

Barnitt's of York

Rafi's Spice Box

York City Screen

Right on, Jay!

Just a quick update at the moment - as we are in the middle of cooking a loosely spanish-themed menu for guests at lunch (not a single Rachel Allen recipe among them!) -and will let you know how it goes tonight!

However,I just had to log on and post a link to Jay Rayner's latest article in "The Guardian" - in which he chastises lovers of over-cooked meat. Jay somehow sounds knowledgeable without being pretentious. I think this is due to his review of fast food outlets on Channel 4's "Food" - and a confession of affection for Burger King.

A well-done steak isn't a food choice: it's a crime @ The Guardian

Rachel Allen - Round 3! Prawn and Coconut Curry

I guess the beauty of the blog is not being tied to an update schedule. And this week, its been a good job that’s the case. And its going to get worse I’m afraid – the course material came through for my next Open University course. I don’t think its going to take up as much time as last year, but its still going to take at least 12 hours per week. Coupled with a young boy to take care of and I don’t get left with much time. The writings not the issue, it’s the cooking.

Still, I started the blog to keep my motivation and productivity up, and to practise writing. And, speaking of cooking, I have managed a fair bit this week. Again, Rachel Allen has been getting a fair old work out. The main recipe I made this week was from Rachel’s ‘Home Cooking’, and I went for a prawn and coconut Indian curry. Rachel’s blurb advertises the recipe as “a beginners curry, something to get teenagers interested in cooking”. I think this is true, to a certain extent. I do like making curry, and much prefer using coconut milk rather than liquidising onions and garlic and cooking forever. The curry recipe is adapted, as per Rachel’s recommendation, from the chicken and coconut into prawns, which I had in the freezer. To be honest, the most difficult thing was finding a lid for my wok to allow the sauce to simmer (should curry be cooked in a wok? I have to say, I think its a most verstile pan and have been known to do Bolognese in ours!). A dinner plate did the trick. The only other trouble was fish stock; I really can’t stand the smell of meat or chicken stock, so cooking fish stock really wasn’t going to work for me. The better half came up with the idea of water and nam pla. Thai fish sauce saves the day again.

Overall, it was a satisfying recipe – easy to cook, tasted fresh, and the green beans added a bit of crunch to the texture. Definitely one I’ll be doing again.

The other recipes performed for your delight this week include Toffee Popcorn from Rachel’s Favourite Food at Home (we extended its borrowing period at the library), which was simply divine. The toffee sauce stuck to fresh popcorn and stuck, then dried to give the perfect taste and texture. The recipe for spiced popcorn didn’t look so great – think we’ll be giving that one a miss.

The final recipe was baked by the Mrs. Nigella Lawson’s Intense Chocolate Cookies, from “Nigella Express” were looked up last minute on the way to the supermarket via the iPhone. Again, it ticked boxes. “Express” meant relatively easy to cook. Nigella meant tasty, for the baby group mummies. Not many came back, to my disgust, and the ones that did were reduced in numbers even further by my parents. Mama Chef’s praise was high indeed. Its tough to get Mama Chef to admit to liking Nigella recipes, but even she conceded here, and even she might be interested in the link to the recipe below. Nigella has had quite the influence on my diet today, what with cookies and then the fried gnocchi that she unveiled recently in TV. Went perfectly with Mr Brains faggots, inspired by the “guilty secrets” thread over on the UK Food Bloggers Association forum.

Finally, I finished off the hamper with a nod to Grandad. A bottle of Glenfiddich has found its way into the basket, and I’m calling it a day there.

Rachel Allen's Home Cooking @ Amazon

Nigella Express @ Amazon

Nigella's Intense Chocolate Cookie recipes @ bbc.co.uk/food

Rachel Allen: Round 2 & Christmas Hampers

I mentioned in the last update that we had not finished with Rachel Allen’s “Favourite Food at Home”, and that we were about to settle down for Chorizo and Feta Frittata. I can’t take credit for cooking the Frittata, but the other half reports “Ooh, it was dead easy!”. And the taste? Fantastic. The Frittata is obviously quite a simple dish, but the combination of Chorizo and Feta – not one I would have thought of – was excellent. The cheese was really fresh compared to the smoky sausage, and complimented each other really well. The only criticism would be Rachel’s cooking directions. An ovenproof frying-pan is specified as required, as when the bottom is browned the Frittata should be finished in the oven. We don’t have an ovenproof pan so finished it off under the grill instead. This worked perfectly.

The other half served the Frittata with Rachel Allen’s “Peas with Leeks and Bacon” from the same book. I wasn’t too sure with this – the leeks and bacon are fried off and then added to the peas and some vegetable or chicken stock. We used chicken and I’m not sure if this worked – they just didn’t taste quite right. Having said this, the other half loved them, so we’ll give Rachel the benefit of the doubt. I definitely appreciated something different being done with the peas rather than them being boiled.

The meal was all cooked last night and unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures, so I wanted to write about the Christmas hamper I am putting together for my Grandparents. Grandma and Grandad are still quite young as Grandparents go and are certainly not the stereotypical old people. Grandad used to cook in the Navy – not that he was a cook, but there was no cook assigned to his ship, so they used to take it in turns – it was in everyone’s interest that at least one of them could cook! Grandma appreciates food but has traditional British tastes.

So far, I have bought:

Cheese for Biscuits from Marks and Spencer

Belgian Chocolate Biscuits (M&S again)

Belgian Chocolate Truffles (again, M&S)

M&S Bucks Fizz

Amaretti Virginia biscuits

Lemon Curd and Orange Marmalade from York Preserves

A bottle of Lorina Old-fashioned Lemonade

Christmas Coffee from Taylors of Harrogate

Everything that is not M&S has been bought from Atkinson’s in Pocklington. This Aladdin’s cave of a deli is a hidden treat, and also supplied the basket for £9.99. The Lorina Lemonade is a personal favourite of mine, while the York Preserves jars look excellent. The last thing I can think if to put in there is decent tea – does anyone have any suggestions for teas, or any other finishing touches?

Rachel Allen's Favourite Food at Home @ Amazon

Marks and Spencer

Amaretti Virginia

York Preserves

Lorina Soft Drinks

Taylors of Harrogate

Atkinson's on Google

Rachel Allen

OK, first things first – apologies for not updating sooner, but things have been a bit crazy this weekend. We started off by having my parents over for dinner on Friday night, and needed something quick as we were kind of caught off-guard. We decided to play it safe and go for something we had done before – Rachel Allen’s Thai Sticky Chicken.

Rachel is a favourite in our house. We had never even heard of her until my mother bought the Mrs her “Home Cooking” book for her birthday. We had a flick through the book together, and were pleased to find it is 330-page beefcake of a book, complete with basics in the back, some drinks recipes, and breakfasts and Sunday lunches (the favourite meal of the week in our house). I also have Rachel’s iPhone app. I can’t decide if I like her voice or not. The blurb in her book states that she is Irish. I expected a velvet Irish brogue of a voice. Instead, RA sounds like an English Victorian school governess. I can’t decide if I like it or not! Additionally, the “clap for next step” feature of the app picks up absolutely any noise and just doesn’t work.

The Mrs has also picked up Rachel Allen’s “Rachel’s favourite food at home” from the library this week, and is cooking the Chorizo and Feta Frittata, to be served with leeks and bacon from the same book (review to follow, but the Frittata looks and smells amazing).

Anyway, we cooked the tried and tested Thai Sticky Chicken for my parents. We knew it was a winner as my Mum had previously asked for the recipe – she’s not shy on speaking her mind! We served it with mash and sugar-snap peas – “traditional Thai accompaniments” my father took pleasure in pointing out. Maybe not, but it worked. The chicken was excellent, as always, if a touch on the spicy side for all diners (perfect for me!). A big thumbs up.

My better half also made Lemon Biscuits from the ‘favourite food at home’ book – these didn’t go so well. I have mentioned I am not baker on the last update, but these looked almost too simple to me. They were quite greasy, as wor lass put more butter in than the recipe specified, as the mixture was too crumbly and didn’t bound together. She did mention that she thought she might have over-melted the butter, but I really don’t think this was the case. Anyway, too much butter made the biscuits too greasy and diluted the already subtle taste that the lemon zest leant the recipe. However, Rachel’s tip of rolling the biscuits in a layer of cling film was great – much mess saved.

So – on to Saturday. This is where I have to ‘fess up. The real reason that I have not tested more this weekend is… we got a Marks and Spencer meal deal. And do you know what? I'm not going to apologise. It was delicious! We had chicken wrapped in bacon stuffed with Brie, and stuffed mushrooms. In addition to this, on Saturday we had a three course lunch at a local pub and didn’t even eat dinner. Sunday greeted us with roast lamb at my mothers. Combine all these factors with the release of Gran Turismo 5, and before you know it, very little cooking has been done.

Monday comes round and I feel guilty – time to test Rachel a bit more. I baked the Peanut Butter and Banana muffins last night, and was very impressed, although I may have cooked them a little too long as they were not overly moist. More successful bakery practice! In fact, the Mrs had a friend and her one year old over this morning. The girls loved the muffins, and the little lad, who cannot speak yet but had been learning baby-sign, repeatedly asked for another by signing more over and over! A genuine compliment – why would a baby pretend!?!

Rachel Allen – Home Cooking @ Amazon

Rachel Allen – Rachel’s Favourite Food at Home @ Amazon

Nigella Lawson’s Feast - Tropical Chocolate Cake

This weekend I found myself with some free time. I was working during the day, so Mrs Chef had taken Junior to stay with her parents. I can’t stand cooking for one, so what to do? How to update this page? Traffic isn’t going to improve unless I can update more.

The answer was obvious – bake a cake! I can’t remember the last time I baked. I’ve finished off cupcakes, as already mentioned, but not done any of the actual baking myself for so long. I looked through the books on Thursday evening and settled on Tropical Chocolate Cake from the feast book – mainly because I had a bottle of Malibu in the cupboard that had been untouched for over a year, some cream cheese that certainly would have gone off if it hadn’t been used, and desiccated coconut that had been hanging around for a while. I made the list of other ingredients that I needed, and used my lunch break on Friday to go shopping. This is where I first got stuck – the recipe calls for coconut essence – and not a single supermarket in town had any (well, not Waitrose or Sainsbury’s – and if they didn’t, there was no way Morrison’s would have. Tesco was too far, especially after already visiting two supermarkets during lunch). A colleague at work suggested using flavoured coffee syrup, but it was too late. It turns out Jane Asher sells coconut essence but paying £6.95 isn’t realistic – and it was obviously too late – but if you were desperate, and more organised, this is what I’d suggest. Instead, I plumped for malibu and vanilla essence.

So, I got home and made a start. First, I put all dry ingredients in a bowl. Problem one – we had no light brown sugar. I could’ve swore I saw it earlier but now it wasn't there. Of course, I’m a bloke – it didn’t matter, I’d use… Demerara! Nagging doubts were in my mind but I ploughed on. Until problem two reared its head. We had a tin of bicarbonate of soda, but it had less than a quarter of a teaspoon left in it. I was about to plough on and manage with the little powder remaining, but then I looked in the cupboard and saw it – light brown sugar. With a heavy heart, I binned the dry ingredients and went to Sainsbury’s for the bicarbonate of soda.

I got back and started again. Luckily this time all was well, and I made rapid progress on the two halves.

While the cakes were cooling, I decided to make my own dinner. While in Waitrose, I noticed a pack of diced Tuna steak that had been reduced. Brilliant, I’ll have that! Of course later I realised… what do you make with diced tuna steak. I always eat fresh tuna as a steak. After a while I went for burgers. I put:

- A small bunch of coriander

- A red chilli

- A teaspoon full of Ginger

- A couple of drops of Nam Pla

- The juice of a lime

- 2 cloves of Garlic

- And an egg yolk that I had left over from the icing (I prepared the ingredients in advance) in the blender, liquidized, then added the roughly chopped tuna and blitzed a while longer. I divided the mix into six balls and squashed into burgers, then griddled. These were pretty good, but I think the lime was a touch overpowering. Maybe I’ll just add half the juice next time.

Anyhow, by this time it was getting late, and the cakes were cooled. I followed the directions for the icing and whisked the ingrednients together over a saucepan of simmering water, then spread some of the resulting icing over the bottom half of the cake. In hindsight I should have been more generous here. Then I put the top half on top of the bottom – and watched in horror as the top split. No matter, I thought, the topping will cover it.

The topping was a like bright white sloppy marshmallow, that promptly fell into the crack, leaving a chasm that looked like a treacherous mountain pass after a snow storm. I disappointedly looked at the cake and compared it to Nigella’s work of art. Nigella, I let you down. I’m so sorry. I carried on attempting to ice, and then finished by scattering the coconut on top.

I was disappointed. I’d managed to make an ugly cake, that looked so beautiful in the book. However, I’m not Nigella, I don’t have a food photographer – and it turned out to be delicious! The cream cheese and pineapple made the sponge really moist, the topping tasted like the marshmallow it resembled, and the coconut gave an interesting texture. The cake itself wasn’t overly coconutty, despite the Malibu, but the pineapple was definitely there. For the first cake I can remember cooking since school, I was pretty happy!

Feast really is a great book. Its filled with recipes designed to satisfy large parties and gatherings and is beautifully written - Nigella lovingly devotes a large paragraph to each of the many recipes contained in the book. Definitely one I will be consulting again.

Nigella Lawson's Feast @ Amazon.co.uk

HO HO...HOW MUCH?!?!

As mentioned in the short paragraph ‘about me’ to the right, I have a kitchen cupboard full of various cookbooks. My family know I will always appreciate a cookbook gift – you can tell I enjoy my food just by looking at me! Its therefore inevitable that I will receive a cookbook for Christmas, as will the other half (if I no longer call myself Chef, is she still Mrs Chef?!).

The thing about the kind of books that you get for Christmas, the aggressively marketed celebrity endorsed cookbooks, is that they are not cheap upon first release! For example, Jamie Oliver’s latest, 30 minute meals has an RRP of £26.00, as does Nigella Lawson’s Kitchen. At first glance this seems ridiculous – I mean, lets be honest, if you divide the cost of the book by the occasions that you use it, does it really offer value for money?! It was my realisation that we had hundreds of pounds worth of recipe books that do not get used that inspired me to start writing the cookbook test lab. If we make more recipes from the books, we get better value for money out of each one. Simple.

The other obvious way to get better value for money from your books is to get them at the best price possible. I’m a Yorkshireman with Scottish blood – I like to think I’m getting a bargain.

There are numerous price comparison websites out there. I tend to use billybargain.co.uk. Yes, it sounds a bit silly and cheap, which surely doesn’t endear it to the stereotypical middleclass foodie, but should you buy the books above, it immediately finds them both for half price or under. Two presents for the price of one cannot be argued with. It can also be used for DVDs and games, amongst other items.

Another tool at your disposal, and a favourite of mine, is the ‘Red Laser’ app for use on the iPhone. Go into a shop, pick up an item, scan its barcode using the phone camera. The iPhone reads the barcode, recognises the item, and goes online to get the best price available.

Good luck with your shopping this year!