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

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

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!