Jamie's 30 Minute Meals

[vernon]

Having seen one or two 30 minute meals prepared on TV, the steak sandwich swung it for me, I put the book on my Santa list.

I don't think that I will ever prepare a single meal from it.

The recipes are like scripts - in fact they are scripts and the 30 minutes does not take into account the gathering together of the ingredients and their strategic placement along with the cooking utensils to minimise wasted motion in the kitchen while multi tasking.

To get the best from the book I reckon one would have to learn the script, rehearse it several times and then go for it with a hell of a lot of washing up to do at the end. There must have been a lot of editing in the TV programs to make the recipes work. I'm sure that the end results will taste divine but the complexity of the recipes has made them non starters for me.

It promises more than it delivers. I've unwittingly contributed to its record breaking status as the fastest selling non fiction book of 2010.


It's back to my trusted:
Indian Restaurant Cookbook - Pat Chapman
Delia Smith's Cookery Course parts One and Two
18th Edition Be-Ro cookbook

 

[User482]

Well, what do you expect from Oliver. I think Nigel Slater did a quick meals type book a while back - might be worth checking out.

 

[vernon]

I was taken in by the TV programmes. I'm sure that there must have been an army of assistants to clear away the mess and do the preparation beforehand. I trusted what I saw too much.

I'm sticking with my trusted books - there's still enough recipes to explore for the first time to keep me going for quite a while.

 

[buggi]

Even Jamie Oliver admitted that it didn't include prep time and that you have to get yourself into the "zone" i.e. you have to do it like your a man with a mission and a deadline!

 

[vernon]

The package that's promoted is '30 minute meals' not 'whip yourself into a frenzy, buy half a kitchen suppliers stock, make your kitchen look like armageddon and collapse into an exhausted heap to tired to eat the meal'

The caveats are there in the book but when bought as a present pre-reading was not on the agenda. It's a disingenuous book/promotion.

Even when deconstructing the recipes to pick out say the main meal and omitting the pudding - the recipes are 'too busy' for me to want to make them. I'm not criticising the end results. They look, and apparently are, delicious. It's that I can prepare just as appetising meals with much less prep, aggravation and mess from recipes that don't need 'rehearsing'. I don't want to have to make a meal several times to master the process and gett the cooking down to 30 minutes. I want to have confidence that the recipe works first time without fuss.

I can cook under pressure - I've catered for eighty people with ten assistant chefs (15 year old schoolboys) who had never cooked before and managed to make five different curries, some raita and pillau rice and, everyone survived cut free and salmonella free.

 

[vernon]

Even Jamie Oliver admitted that it didn't include prep time and that you have to get yourself into the "zone" i.e. you have to do it like your a man with a mission and a deadline!

There's prep and there's prep.

With Jamie's recipes you not only have to prep the food, you have to prep the kitchen too.

 

[ColinJ]

There's prep and there's prep.

With Jamie's recipes you not only have to prep the food, you have to prep the kitchen too.

Jamie filmed part of his Christmas 2009 Sainsbury's TV ad here in Hebden Bridge in November 2009. He was filmed in a huge mobile kitchen on the back of a lorry. I took this picture from behind the scenes, and what can you see... yes, he had an army of young women preparing food for him and doing the washing up!

I should add that he was incredibly popular. Loads of people turned out to watch him and he spent hours wandering about in the crowd chatting to people and handing out food and drink, even when the cameras weren't rolling.

 

[martint235]

It's back to my trusted:
Indian Restaurant Cookbook - Pat Chapman
Delia Smith's Cookery Course parts One and Two
18th Edition Be-Ro cookbook

I've got stacks of cookery books but if I'm usually surprised if what I want isn't in one of these two. I'll occasionally dip into a River Cottage book if I'm doing something out of the ordinary like rabbit or veal but usually Delia's got it covered.

 

[ThePainInSpain]

Didn't bother with the book, but we now have 'Jules Favorite Pasta' at least once every fortnight. It's quick, easy and very tasty.

 

[summerdays]

I used to be a Jamie fan and have a couple of his cook books but currently Nigella, Nigel Slater and River Cottage are my hero's with a bit of Rachel Allen chucked in occasionally.

Favourite new recipe of the holidays was a bread and butter pudding made with Panettone and Muscat wine (I also came across a version made with croissants but now that I have the croissants I can't find that particular recipe!!! - the problem of having too many cookbooks )

 

[GrumpyGregry]

It's back to my trusted:
Indian Restaurant Cookbook - Pat Chapman
Delia Smith's Cookery Course parts One and Two
18th Edition Be-Ro cookbook

I've never got past the first two on that list! I sometimes do stuff a la Jamie, Gordon, etc., instead of a la Delia, by getting recipes. recipe ideas and recipe tweaks off the web and the family just moan that they want it done the old Delia-esque way.

 

[I like Skol]

Wifey bought us this book before Christmas so in the spirit of things and with a sense of culinary adventure I undertook 2 meals from it earlier this week. I am a dab hand in the kitchen as we have always been keen on freshly prepared food and even more so once we had kids so lots of experience in knocking up good healthy meals in the window of opportunity after school finishes, wifey returns from work and the kids have to go to bed.

Considering Jamie is always banging on about eating well not having to be expensive some of his recipes can be a bit pricey for the ingredients and time is more like an hour even just cooking the main dish (and that is after pre reading the script and gathering the ingredients).

1st was the Beef Hash (p210), not bad but could do with more moisture and a little longer to soften the mince, the butter bean side was a big success though as wife and kids swore they didn't like butter beans until they tried it!

Next was mushroom risotto(p66), BL**DY expensive and not very sucessful. Kids would barely touch it and even I as a mushroom lover was unsure of the result. the ingredients include Rosemary, Thyme, Parsley, Porcini dried mushrooms and fresh Oyster, Chestnut and Shitake mushrooms and a few other bits you might not have in stock. Walk into your supermarket and see how much that little lot costs!

On the whole a dissapointing book but we will steal a few snippets of inspiration from the recipes to suit ourselves. I still think Delia's cookery course books rule the roost because they are the reference library that allows you to cook whatever you want (Fresh bread, cakes, pies, roasts, etc, etc.....)

 

[SavageHoutkop]

I used to be a Jamie fan and have a couple of his cook books but currently Nigella, Nigel Slater and River Cottage are my hero's with a bit of Rachel Allen chucked in occasionally.

Favourite new recipe of the holidays was a bread and butter pudding made with Panettone and Muscat wine (I also came across a version made with croissants but now that I have the croissants I can't find that particular recipe!!! - the problem of having too many cookbooks )

I'm a Nigella fan too!
I think the croissant thingy might be in Nigella Express - incidentally, this is also supposed to be some 'fast to cook' stuff. Some of it though does depend on (eg) marinading overnight or so on. I've also just got Nigella's Kitchen and again I think it has a 'less than 30 mins' selection; although we're still working our way through the recipes....

 

[summerdays]

I'm a Nigella fan too!
I think the croissant thingy might be in Nigella Express - incidentally, this is also supposed to be some 'fast to cook' stuff. Some of it though does depend on (eg) marinading overnight or so on. I've also just got Nigella's Kitchen and again I think it has a 'less than 30 mins' selection; although we're still working our way through the recipes....

Thank you ... just found it - Pain-au-Chocolat Pudding in the index of the Domestic Goddess one. I kept looking up Croissants so missing it ... which I picked up thinking it was the Express one I'll have to substitute choc drops for the Pain-au-chocolat!

I too received Kitchen as a Christmas present from the children ...

 

[dellzeqq]

I think that Jamie Oliver's great virtue is that he 'designs' meals that have few ingredients, are reasonably simple to make and are put together so artlessly that you feel confident in the making of them, and feel able to improvise.

I make mushroom risotto - a meal I'd never have dreamt of making before young Oliver blew away the mystique. I don't use fancy mushrooms, and I do stir in baby spinach and baby plum tomatoes just before it's served (and, these days I leave out the butter, which is a shame, but my body is a temple and so on and so forth) and people like it.

And I grill butterflied leg of lamb, which is another Oliver 'simple' dish, if you have the confidence to rip open a leg of lamb. Again, I'd never have done that before seeing him do it on the telly.

So, all in all, I'm a fan.