I’ve been a rubbish blogger. I know I haven’t posted in ages! We were on holiday last week and this week has been crazy-jet laggy-busy. My inbox is out of control and I’m just flat out ignoring it! Sorry if you’ve tried to contact me.

I’ll try to get back to a normal posting routine because I well know Christmas shopping season is upon us!

For now, I’ll just congratulate Cheryl for winning a copy of Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals!

I’m giving away a copy of Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals over here. Go enter!

On Thursday we tried our third recipe from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals, meatball sandwiches with pickled cabbage, chopped salad and banana ice cream. I don’t know if I was just tired because it was almost the end of the week but I just couldn’t make myself work quickly. I also let E help me the whole time because it’s nicer having him in the kitchen with me. We clocked in around 40 minutes.

I have to say I was a bit disappointed with this meal. The meatballs were nice, even though I made a mistake and they were falling apart, and the combination of meatballs, pancetta, jarlsberg cheese and olive oil on ciabatta was gorgeous, but I wasn’t a very big fan of the pickled cabbage. And that’s not because I don’t like red cabbage, for the record. The chopped salad was fine, but the banana “ice cream” was a miss. It was made of frozen bananas, plain yogurt and honey (which actually tasted really nice on it’s own) but then you’re supposed to coat balls of the “ice cream” in chopped coconut and that was messy, awkward and took forever. Then you froze it again. It was a bit odd.

Based on the three recipes I’ve tried from this book, and it’s philosophy, I’m a big fan. I learned a few new fairly quick recipes and I think they’ll only get quicker when I cook them again. And I learned how to use my liquidiser for more prep work, which is great. But once I go back to cook some of my favourite things I’ll definitely do a bit of mixing and matching rather than going strictly by the book.

For more thoughts on this cookbook, my friend A wrote a post here.

Want to win one? Visit the first post in this series!

I’m running a competition to give away a copy of Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals over here. Stop by and enter!

Last night we cooked our second meal from the book, piri piri chicken. This was NOT a 30 minute meal! It took at least 45 minutes with E helping and the kitchen looked like a bomb had gone off afterward. And I was stressed out the whole time!

I chose this recipe because we love Nando’s. I know it’s just Nando’s, but it’s good. So the thought of making Nando’s chicken at home in 30 minutes sounded amazing.

To prepare, I watched the episode in which Jamie actually cooks this meal. But that stressed me out while I was cooking because I was thinking about what he did and realising I wasn’t fast enough and it didn’t look the same. Actually I even noticed discrepancies, like he puts olive oil in the sauce in the show but not in the recipe. And my sauce came out green while his was yellow. Why??

In the end though, despite the stress and chaos, it was a great meal. It didn’t exactly taste like Nando’s, but it was yummy anyway. I think it would make sense actually to make double of this sauce and freeze or preserve some of it so you can just whip it out whenever you like and for smaller batches of chicken. I also loved the sweet potatoes with chilies, feta and coriander and the Portuguese tarts were absolutely incredible. Those will definitely be made over and over again.

This book is nice because it teaches you short cuts, like using your liquidiser or microwave to make tasty things quickly, but at the same time, he has you zesting lemons and oranges which takes me FOREVER.I’d recommend this recipe but give yourself 45 minutes to an hour to be safe. And have a glass of wine while you cook it – you’ll be less stressed out!

To enter the giveaway click here.

I’ve been given two copies of Jamie Oliver’s new cookery book, Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals, one for me and one for you! I’m really keen to give my giveaway copy to another blogger, so I can read how you get on with the book, but that’s not a requirement to enter. If you’d like to win, just let me know in the comments and tell me your favourite Jamie Oliver recipe! I’ll draw a winner on 30 November.

Now, if you read the blog you know how much I love Jamie Oliver. His site (and cookery books) are where I head first if I’m looking for a recipe. But he’s been turning out books so frequently even I had to wonder if he really had anything new to offer. And those horrible adverts in the tube with his head on a timer – he winks at you!

When I cook dinner it usually takes a lot more than 30 minutes – and since I have so many projects going on that is frustrating.  But I really want us to eat nice meals, ideally with lots of veg (the very reason I signed up for Abel & Cole). As I read the book’s introduction I started to believe it could be possible to make amazing meals in 30 minutes and maybe it would CHANGE MY LIFE! I picked three recipes to cook this week and see if I could actually do it.

The book is “revolutionary” because of the way it is structured. Jamie gives you an entire menu – usually a main, salad or side and pudding – and then walks you through every step of cooking it in the order you need to do each task. If you can’t picture that, basically it means you’ll jump from main to pudding to main to salad to main, etc. so everything finishes at the same time. It took getting used to but I like it.

The first thing I noticed was how much I’d have to buy to cook these meals. Even with several of the ingredients already in our fridge, freezer or store cupboard, we spent quite a bit at the supermarket to get everything we needed. I suppose I could have made some substitutions – and will in the future – but I stubbornly wanted to follow all of the instructions for the review! The book would benefit if menus were organised by ingredients so you can make sure you use up the various leftover bits and pieces. Shopping lists would then naturally fit in with the menus and I think that would also save time.

Last night I cooked Pregnant Jools’s Pasta with crunchy chicory & watercress salad and (what was intended to be) little frangipane tarts. I finished the pasta and salad at the buzzer (before serving) but had put the tarts in the oven about five minutes behind schedule so that meant I was late. Yes, I used a timer! The pasta was absolutely brilliant and the simple salad was nice. The tarts were a mess (but still tasty) and I think that’s because we couldn’t find the right pastry shells. One suggestion here would be to put a list of required equipment up front so you know what to have close to hand before you start.

All in all, I think I’ll use this book a lot and the first set of recipes I tried were winners. Jools’s pasta will definitely be put into the rotation! Later this week I’m aiming to cook piri-piri chicken and meatball sandwiches, so stand by for more reviews and enter in the comments if you’d like to join me in trying out the book!

Strawberries are in season and on sale in every shop. Our amazing British strawberries need no embellishment but if you’re looking for more ways to use them, here are a few ideas!

American strawberry shortcake – The classic American summer dessert. I’ve simplified this recipe from Waitrose.

Ingredients
250g self-raising flour
50g butter, diced
50g caster sugar
100-150ml milk

Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C, gas mark 6. Lightly butter a 20cm-diameter cake tin with a removable base. Sieve the flour into a large bowl and rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and rosemary and stir in enough milk to draw the mixture into a soft dough. Knead briefly until smooth. Roll out lightly on a floured surface, and gently press evenly into the prepared tin. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until risen, firm to the touch and golden brown. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Serve with heaps of sliced strawberries sweetened with caster sugar and whipped cream.

Strawberry jam – Try this dead-simple strawberry jam recipe from Jamie Oliver.

Ingredients
1 vanilla pod
1kg strawberries, washed and hulled
500g high pectin sugar (jam sugar)

Method
Slit the vanilla pod in half lengthways with a sharp knife and scrape down the length of each half to remove the seeds. Put the seeds in a bowl with the strawberries and the sugar. Mush up with the end of a whisk, making sure you leave some chunks of strawberry.

Pour the strawberry mixture into a saucepan and place on a medium heat. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 5 minutes. Then turn the heat off, skim any foam or scum off the top of the jam and leave to cool a little. Pour into clean jam jars and allow to cool completely before covering and placing in the fridge. The jam will keep for about a week.

Strawberry ice cream – Nigella’s recipe looks amazing!

Ingredients
500g strawberries
175g caster sugar, plus 2 tablespoons
500ml full-fat milk
500ml double cream
1 vanilla pod
10 egg yolks
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Method

1. Hull and roughly chop the strawberries, put them into a bowl and sprinkle over the 2 tablespoons of caster sugar and leave them to steep and infuse with flavour.
2. Pour the milk and cream into a heavy-based saucepan, and add the vanilla pod, split down the middle lengthways. Bring the pan nearly to the boil and then take it off the heat and leave to infuse for 20 minutes.
3. In a large bowl whisk the egg yolks and the 175g sugar until thick and pale yellow. Take the vanilla pod out of the milk and cream and pour, whisking the while, the warm liquid over the yolks. Put the cleaned-out pan back on the heat with the cream, milk, egg and sugar mixture and stir the custard until it thickens, then take it off the heat and pour it into a bowl to cool.
4. Purée the strawberries in a processor, and when the custard is cool fold in the lemon juice and strawberry purée.
5. At this point you can either freeze the ice cream in an ice-cream maker, or in a plastic tub in the freezer. If you do the latter you should whip it out every hour for 3 hours as it freezes and give it a good beating, either with an electric whisk, by hand or in the processer. That gets rid of any ice crystals that form and that make the ice cream crunchy rather than smooth.
ADDITIONAL INFO – Before you begin making the custard fill the sink half full with cold water. If you think the custard looks like splitting at any stage, plunge the pan into the cold water and whisk like mad.

There was an amazing-looking recipe for Cumin & Coriander Hummus in my latest Netmums Foodie Team newsletter and it reminded me that I really, really want to try making hummus from scratch – not least because there are several tins of chick peas in our cupboard from a sale.

According to Jamie Oliver, “if you are a hummus eating family, making hummus at home saves money. You can make 4 cups of organic hummus for under $5.00 [about £3.50]. Stores sell 1 cup of non-organic hummus for about the same price.”

This recipe is from The New Home Larder by Judith Wills and I’m reprinting it to share it with you AND, more importantly, to remind myself to pick up the rest of the ingredients and make it!

Cumin & coriander hummus

Ingredients:
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 level tsp coriander seed
1 level tsp cumin seed
4 or more tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, or 2-3 tsp ready-minced garlic
1 tbsp light tahini
juice of 1 large lemon
black pepper

Method:

Put the chickpeas in a large bowl and mash them lightly with a potato masher or fork until you see the skins begin to separate from the peas. This is a bit of a bind, but use your fingers to pick out the skins from the peas, and discard.

Now grind the coriander and cumin seed using a pestle and mortar or electric grinder, and add to the chickpeas with half the olive oil.

Peel and crush the garlic and add to the peas with the tahini, lemon juice and some seasoning. Now blend it all together using a hand blender – or you could transfer to the goblet of an electric blender bowl and mix in there, adding more olive oil as necessary (you may need a lot more than you think.)

Don’t over mix – it is nice if you have a few lumpy bits of chickpea left at the end. Check the taste and , if you think it’s necessary, add extra seasoning or lemon juice.

Serves 4-8

Tips: To save time you could, of course, use ready ground coriander and cumin.
You can also make the hummus without removing the chickpea skins, the success of which will depend on the brand of chickpeas you are using.

Continuing this week’s sandwich theme, here is a roundup of sandwich recipes from celebrity chefs we love! Now you can eat like the rich and famous with simple sandwich recipes.

First up, my favourite, Jamie Oliver:

Fried Mozzarella and Prosciutto Sandwiches (pictured above)

Ingredients:
1 egg
3 tbsp milk
4 slices rustic, ciabatta–style bread
1 large fresh mozzarella, sliced
4 slices prosciutto
Olive oil and butter, for frying

Method:
Whisk up the egg and milk and season. Top two bread slices with mozzarella and prosciutto and season. Cover with remaining bread, then dip and turn the sandwiches in the egg mixture.

Fry in a pan with oil and butter over medium heat for five minutes each side, until golden and the mozzarella begins to melt.

Next, from Nigella Lawson:

Nigella’s Hungarian Sandwich

Ingredients:
2 slices black bread*
1 to 2 tablespoons cream cheese
1 to 2 tablespoons best quality black cherry jam

*Cook’s Note: Black bread can be found at speciality Polish bakeries and some supermarkets. Brown or rye bread can be substituted.

Method:
Smear a slice of black bread with the cream cheese, and top with the black cherry jam. Top with the second slice of bread and serve.

And finally, Delia Smith:

Open-faced Egg, Chive and Spring Onion Sandwiches

Ingredients:
3 small bread rolls, warmed, halved and buttered
3 large eggs, hard-boiled
1 rounded tablespoon fresh snipped chives
4 spring onions, very finely chopped (including most of the green as well)
½ teaspoon butter
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
salt and freshly milled black pepper
1 box fresh cress

Method:
As soon as the eggs are cool enough, peel them, discard the shells and place the eggs in a bowl with the rest of the topping ingredients. Now take a large fork and mash like mad until the eggs are thoroughly blended with the rest of the ingredients. Then pile it on to the rolls and sprinkle each one with the cress before serving.

This week has been full of Christmas parties, and I’m really quite tired today! Therefore, I’m going to throw up an oldie from the archives, before traffic started picking up–which means most of you probably haven’t seen it!

This was originally posted on 16th September 2009. x

I may have sung the praises of vegetarian eating recently, but there is also something to be said for a lovely piece of meat! Budget-friendly cuts are back in fashion and here are a few great recipes for cooking them.

Skirt steak

Gordon Ramsay’s Triple Decker Steak Sandwich

Bon Appetit’s Pan-Grilled Beer-Marinated Hanger Steak (hanger steak is American for skirt steak, so I’m told)

Brisket

Jamie Oliver’s Steak, Guiness and Cheese Pie with a Puff Pastry Lid

Good Food Magazine’s Pot-Roasted Brisket in Beer with Parsnips and Mushrooms

Oxtail

Gordon Ramsay’s Oxtail Soup

Nigel Slater’s Braised Oxtail with Mustard and Mash

Chicken Thighs

Jamie Oliver’s Chicken and Mushroom Pasta Bake

Good Food Magazine’s Honey Mustard Chicken Pot with Parsnips

Shoulder of Lamb

Jamie Oliver’s Incredible Roasted Shoulder of Lamb with Smashed Veg and Greens

Mary Cadogan’s Greek Lamb with Orzo

Ham Hock

Gary Rhodes’ Ham Hock and Lentils

Emeril Lagasse’s Ham Hock and Beans

Pork Cheeks

Bryn Williams’ Braised Pork Cheeks with Ginger Carrots and Jersey Royal Potatoes

Tim Fletcher’s Bath Chaps in Scrumpy with West Country Farmhouse Cheddar

Today we cooked home made pizza in the new pizza trays that I got for 30% off (!) at House of Fraser earlier this week.

We used Jamie’s pizza dough recipe (below) and piled on loads of toppings that E’s mum picked up–sauce, cheese, tomatoes, onions, peppers, olives, ham, anchovies, etc.

We were very pleased with the result. See the snap above!

Ingredients

• 1kg strong white bread flour or Tipo ‘00’ flour
or 800g strong white bread flour or Tipo ‘00’ flour, plus 200g finely ground semolina flour
• 1 level tablespoon fine sea salt
• 2 x 7g sachets of dried yeast
• 1 tablespoon golden caster sugar
• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 650ml lukewarm water

Method

Sieve the flour/s and salt on to a clean work surface and make a well in the middle. In a jug, mix the yeast, sugar and olive oil into the water and leave for a few minutes, then pour into the well. Using a fork, bring the flour in gradually from the sides and swirl it into the liquid. Keep mixing, drawing larger amounts of flour in, and when it all starts to come together, work the rest of the flour in with your clean, flour-dusted hands. Knead until you have a smooth, springy dough.

Place the ball of dough in a large flour-dusted bowl and flour the top of it. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and place in a warm room for about an hour until the dough has doubled in size.

Now remove the dough to a flour-dusted surface and knead it around a bit to push the air out with your hands – this is called knocking back the dough. You can either use it immediately, or keep it, wrapped in clingfilm, in the fridge (or freezer) until required. If using straight away, divide the dough up into as many little balls as you want to make pizzas – this amount of dough is enough to make about six to eight medium pizzas.

Timing-wise, it’s a good idea to roll the pizzas out about 15 to 20 minutes before you want to cook them. Don’t roll them out and leave them hanging around for a few hours, though – if you are working in advance like this it’s better to leave your dough, covered with clingfilm, in the fridge. However, if you want to get them rolled out so there’s one less thing to do when your guests are round, simply roll the dough out into rough circles, about 0.5cm thick, and place them on slightly larger pieces of olive-oil-rubbed and flour-dusted tinfoil. You can then stack the pizzas, cover them with clingfilm, and pop them into the fridge.

I was browsing on JamieOliver.com the other day and I came across his section on budget meals. How have I missed this for so long??

I’m actually already a fan of several of the recipes featured in this section–the vegetable jalfrezi, quick salmon tikka and perfect roast chicken, included–and there are lots more to try.

It’s also a great place to find good recipes for cheaper cuts of meat–something I’ve written a bit about in the past.

Ah, Jamie. You made my day again!