Jamie's 15 Minute Meals

Firstly, it's almost been a year since I last wrote on this blog, I just felt like I'd fizzled out in writing about the food I was eating and honestly, I can't even remember what I wrote about.

Let's move on to the title matter.

Jamie's 15 Minute Meals, a cookery program on Channel 4 hosted by Jamie Oliver.

Jamie Oliver, if my memory serves me right, appeared on television about 8-10 years ago, I only think this as I remember watching The Naked Chef whilst experiencing my first taste of Red Bull and eating a bag of Haribo. There was never any nudity either, which confused me at the time.

Then he started to campaign in the UK to change school dinners, which led to parents bringing bags of chips to schools and passing the contraband chips through the school's fence. He then tried to do the same in America, and was told to piss off, though in a more polite and diplomatic way I'm sure.

Now he's bringing us 15 Minute Meals week nights at 5:30pm. It was on at 5pm but timeslot was swapped with the ever popular Come Dine With Me, forcing me to miss the only reality television show I like, a show filled with sarcasm, sparkling wit and stupidity and, of course, food. Whereas 15 Minute Meals only has food. It's my opinion that this timeslot change has happened because Channel 4 must've seen low ratings at 5pm but a spike at 5:30 and assumed that that is the time that people are just sitting down and tuning in to their channel.

What is my problem with Jamie Oliver? He simply annoys and treats you like a child. The show's staging and the blatant product placement that whacks you in the face with cartoonish force.

At school I was taught to wear no jewellery whilst preparing food as bacteria can grow under rings prior to and after food preparation. Though in watching this show I see a grown man, who is a culinary teacher himself, handle raw beef mince whilst wearing his wedding ring and seeing that meat catch in it. Disgusting.

He does, on occasion, refer to using a food processor as "giving it a wazzy wazzy woo woo". I'm going to give you a moment to let that sink in. A 30+ year old man who hosts a television show aimed at adults. Does that jar you?
Tonight I saw him put what looked like a handful of salt when he said "a good pinch", yes, the guideline is 6 grams of salt a day, though I'm sure that doesn't mean all at once. I don't think he can measure.

I also think that Channel 4 have run out of money for plates, as he serves all the meals he cooks on wooden boards. He isn't Greek, so that isn't the reason.

I just can't see the appeal.

2011 Overview

I thought I'd reminisce about the food I cooked and ate in 2011.

This was the year I started cooking for my fiance, not just throwing a ready made sauce into a pan and adding mince, but making the sauce, shredding the meat.

I guess I had the thought that seeing as he had proposed to me I ought to show him that I was really wife material, though that does sound like a rather 1950's way to see the world, but I really wanted to.
I've always found baking fun, and I enjoyed food tech enough at school, there's also the fact that I love eating food from different places, that I wanted to have real fun again.
Fun, and the fact that most of the food we were eating had all sorts of additives in, that I would sleep better knowing I was giving my husband-to-be a better and perhaps healthier meal.

So, we chose a recipe for Thai salmon that I'd cook for him. We went to Tesco together, picked everything out that we needed, chose the nice cut of salmon and came home feeling excited.
I washed the fish and de-boned it, having been super squeamish about any kind of meat prior to this, I often refused to touch raw meat in any circumstance, just my knight in shining armour on hand to give the meat a clean, yet here I was, pulling tiny bones out of flesh and not having the queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach.
We'd bought a cheap plastic mixing bowl to marinate the meat in, so we made the sauce and popped it in the fridge for the allocated time.
I chopped up the vegetables and coconut, and boiled the corn, though I cheated with the rice by choosing a microwaveable thai rice, but honestly I'm messing with flesh, I can't be arsed to faff about with rice!
I used my square plates to serve as it looks so much nicer.
The result of this cooking session is the picture above.

We've been photographing the majority of the meals I cook.

Over the year I've fell in love with Julia Childs and the movie Julie & Julia, attempted to cook the following cuisines:
French
English
Irish
Mexican
Chinese
Thai
Japanese

And plenty of food that doesn't belong in a nation category.

One of my favourite memories is Boeuf Bourguinon, straight from Mastering the art of French Cooking.
It didn't go completely to plan, what with my casserole dish cracking and me not fully reading comprehending the written tasks, though in my defense it wasn't exactly clear, but I forgive you Julia.
We couldn't get the cork out of the wine bottle either. Craig pulling the cork in one direction and I pulled the bottle in the opposite, and we got it out after a 10 minute struggle, though it resulted in a large splash of red wine which went everywhere. Though I think it's rather befitting for MtAoFC to be stained by wine.
In the end I threw everything into my big pot.
I guess I learnt some lessons in cooking this, but the biggest one was to not panic when you're pulling pottery shards out of your beef pieces.

I really enjoy cooking, watching & learning, just experimenting. I look forward to more in 2012, now what to cook first?

A Little Kitchen Gadget Haul

I don't suppose haul posts are really expected, but I have to show you this.

I guess alot of you know when you have a mooch on ebay you'll see listings from China, that are really cheap, usually I would click 'UK Only' but I thought I'd give it a go.

So here's what I bought from one seller:



I know, curious, right? What on Earth are they? Well let's play a little game.

First off, yes you can see the label and it tells you what it is, albeit in broken English.

So, what is it?



It's a lid stand! Honestly, I don't know why I bought it. Probably for the novalty of it. Then again it may save my counter top from wet patches, plus it's red and I want my kitchen red.

Next, what do you suppose this happy guy does?



He's a peeler! I had to have this guy when I saw him, he just made me smile! Imagine, you have to peel a carrot or ten, that's a task right there, pull this guy out the drawer and you'll smile and get on with it, bliss.
I love the packaging too, how cute!

Finally, what is this odd contraption?



You make crisps in the microwave with it! I actually bought it for Craig to play with, because he loves potato chips, so let him play around with it.

So that was my little kitchen gadget haul, I'm still waiting for an egg seperator, so I'll show you that once it's arrived.
I may show these in use at some point.

Weekend Overview #6

25th - 27th November 2011

Friday

Craig had a gig and I was ill so there was no point to me cooking that night, so we did the next best thing, ordered takeout.

We'd heard about Just Eat for a while so we checked it out and ordered from a local chinese (I'll do a write up once we've ordered from different places on there). I had Duck with ginger and spring onions with a side of pineapple fried rice and Craig had a chicken curry.

I loved my dish but the duck was quite fatty, I like crispy duck. I'd never had proper ginger either, and it was yum! The pineapple rice was fantastic too.

Saturday

Festive menu at Burger King, had to try it. Craig had the Steak House Angus and I had the Festive Chicken Tendercrisp. Again I'll do a festive fast food review once we've sampled some more delights.
They were delicious.

I wanted to try liver, so I cooked it all nice, looked good, hell it even smelt good. I took one bite and gagged. Not a liver lover. Craig didn't like either so we chucked it out and I attempted omlettes, though I must've been having a bad day because they didn't do right either.
But Craig liked it so it was all good.

Sunday

I really cheated this night. I was so fed up I cheated and cooked coconut curry from a jar, threw in some microwave rice. But at least the turkey breast was fresh, is pre diced.

L'Omelette Brouillée

With my current obsession with Julia Child and the fact that Mastering the Art of French Cooking (volume one) landed on my door step this morning, I just had to have a go, especially after watching this video from The French Chef:



So here is a photo log of my first attempt at Julia's L'Omelette Brouillée [Scrambled Omelette].



Melt the butter, ok, frying pan is a little wider than the 7inch one cited, but let's do this!



Beating eggs, I'm good at this, beaten until the yolks and whites are blended with the seasoning. That's looking good.

I do that jerking motion that she does in the video, but it doesn't fold in on itself. I guess that's the width of the pan, maybe it will with practice?



Here's my finished result, had to fold it myself, and we didn't have any fresh parsley so I used dried mixed herbs, not quite the same, now I know why I use these in sauces and not salad. But it looks good!

So, that is my first foray into the Julia Child's cookbook world, I'm not going to do a Julie Powell, I don't think I have the stamina for that, I very much doubt I'll go near the aspics, but you may see a few of these recipes pop up on here.

So for now, bon apetite!

Weekend Overview #5

I didn't do alot of cooking this weekend as it was my friends Engagement Party.

Friday (Party)

I tried black pudding for the first time, it certainly wasn't that I expected it to be and I rather enjoyed it. I also had some delightful cheeses, apricot in cheese is always a favourite of mine, though there was a herby one and a spiced crust one too, delicious.

Saturday

Considering the German Market has opened in Birmingham, I thought I'd do a little food journalism, so we went to have a look but it was that crowded that I could barley move, let alone get my camera out for photos. I will try again though, I'm not letting that stop me, there's so much to eat there! At least I can say that the stollen cake is good, the frankfurters are amazing and the flavoured coffee smelt wonderful.

I cooked the steak in orange sauce again, not only for myself and Craig but for his mother too. They had the beef steak, I had turkey. The turkey cooked in orange was rather nice, but now I'm thinking that's a rather festive sounding dish.

Whilst in Birmingham we bought a large box of Krispy Kreme Donuts, the Snowman one is my current favourite, but then again when aren't Snowmen my favourite?

Sunday

We went to a local craft fair and I had the most delightful Toffee Apple Cupcake. It was amazing, The toffee icing wasn't sickly and the toffee pieces on top were lovely, then you bite into the soft toffee sponge, which was the perfect level of moist without being sticky and there was the apple filling.

I honestly get the feeling I could eat those cupcakes over and over. I have their business card

I did create a nice simple little noodle soup, which I am writing up the recipe for. In honesty I think this is a good leftovers recipe or one of those nice simple starters for a dinner party.


For now, bon appetite!

Ode to an Onion

Is there anything finer, really?

Right now I believe that it's my favourite vegetable. Onion is amazing, and you can't doubt that. They say a smile is universal, yeah well, I say the onion is. There is not a major food style that doesn't use an onion varient, the onion is the smile of the food world.

Not only is it a smile, but it's also the little black dress, I'm serious. Perhaps the greatest dishes contain onion, at least the one's I like best have it as part of the recipe. Time of distress and you have to whip something out of nothing? Add onion. Fried, boiled, baked the onion will never let you down.

I know I get my love of food from my fiance, my skills from my mother and grandmother, but my love from my fiance. He taught it me through (initially) fast food joints, then onto the delicious little restaurants. My first real attempt at cooking us something was when I knew I could recreate a burrito I had at Chiquitos (onion included).

It's a real testament that he'd chop an onion for me, save my mascara running down my face. Most of the time I'll let him do it, but I need to every now and a while. Honestly, I'm starting to think that onions are a running theme through our relationship, there's always onion and there's always us. Both of us love onion, hell onion soup is one of our favourite recipes.

And to quote Shrek:

"Onions have layers."

Yes, the onion is magnificent.