Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals #17: Pork Chops & Crispy Crackling
This is our 17th cooking/blogging experiment from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals. For this one we chose “Pork Chops & Crispy Crackling, Crushed Potatoes, Minty Cabbage, and Peaches ‘N’ Custard.” We picked it mostly because we had a lot of cabbage already, and it seemed like a good wintry dish. It was also pretty simple, which was good because I was cooking this one BY MYSELF. As we did last week, we adopted a “rally car” method where this time I cooked while the Snook read out the recipe, timed things, and took photos. Once again, it worked really well!

Substitutions: Our pork chops were a fair bit bigger than the ones he used. We couldn’t get “Maris Piper” potatoes, but we googled them and settled on Desiree as an acceptable substitute. We had plain cabbage instead of Savoy. Everything else was as-written!

Quick verdict: This was a simple, hearty winter meal without anything too fancy. The method for cooking the chops worked well, but the crackling was a disappointment. He doesn’t have you salt it at all(!), so it wasn’t as tasty as it should’ve been. The potatoes and cabbage were both good without being too much work. The dessert was another of his “quick assembly” recipes, and while custard and fruit are always good, it’s not exactly something you’d make to impress. Overall we both rated it 8 out of 10. You probably wouldn’t do this one for a dinner party, but it’s good enough for a cold Tuesday night. My final time was 33:17, so it’s another fast one too! Read on for a photo essay of the preparation.Pre-start prep: We got out all the necessary ingredients, tools, and cooking vessels. The kitchen was clean (well, as clean as it gets) and everything wiped down and ready to go. The oven was turned to 180C and the kettle was boiled. We had a big roasting tray and frypan for the chops, a saucepan for the cabbage, and a small saucepan for the peaches.

First up are the ingredients for the pork: pork chops (skin on), garlic, fennel seeds, sage, and honey.

Next the smashed potatoes: potatoes, half a lemon, wholegrain mustard, and parsley.

The cabbage is very simple: just cabbage and mint sauce. (We used some of the Snook’s homemade mint sauce.)

And the bits for the dessert: tinned peaches, cinnamon stick, custard, shortbread, and mint (which we didn’t bother with).

Pots and pans, ready to go! The big frypan and the roasting pan are for the pork. The big saucepan is for the cabbage, and the small one is for the peaches.

Here we go! I started by trimming the skin and some of the fat off each of the pork chops to make the crackling. (This wasn’t easy, and I may have lost a few minutes here due to my inexperienced knife skills.)

Then I cut the strips into quarters to make thinner crackling. (Note: We both think we’d leave it thicker next time.)

The skin went into the hot frypan, fat side down.

Now for the potatoes. I gave them a wash and picked off any gnarly bits.

I cut them all in half, then placed them in a bowl with half a lemon, salt, and pepper. A double layer of clingfilm went on top and then they went into the microwave.

Back to the chops. I scored the fat on the back of each one, then seasoned with salt and pepper.

The crackling was getting pretty crispy, so I flipped the pieces over. I also added 8 unpeeled, squashed cloves of garlic.

Next I transferred the garlic and crackling to the roasting pan with some fennel seeds and put it in the oven. I then put the chops in the frypan, standing them on edge to render the remaining fat.

While the chops were cooking, I prepped the cabbage by removing the core and outer leaves, then cutting it into wedges. These went into the saucepan with boiling water to cook.

Once the fat on the chops was golden, I laid them down flat to brown up on each side for a few minutes.

Next I took the roasting tray out of the oven. The garlic was smelling nice.

The pork chops went into the tray, along with some fresh sage. I tossed everything together to coat.

Then the whole thing gets drizzled with honey and put back in the oven to finish.

The dessert didn’t require much cooking. I dumped the peaches into the small saucepan with a cinnamon stick and let it cook.

By now the potatoes were cooked, so I added wholegrain mustard, salt, pepper, and olive oil to the bowl.

Chopped parsley was added, and then I “smashed” everything up as best I could. The potatoes were finished!

The cabbage was now tender, so I took it off the heat and drained it.

The peaches were still simmering away…

To finish the cabbage, I added mint sauce, salt, pepper, and olive oil.

After a quick toss, the cabbage was finished!

At this point, I would like to draw your attention to the benchtop. “Some chefs,” I said pointedly to the Snook, “like to work CLEAN.”

As soon as the oven timer went off, I pulled the finished pork chops out. They looked pretty good!

The finished meal of pork chops with crackling and garlic, minty cabbage, and smashed potatoes.

To finish the dessert, I poured custard into a bowl and topped it with the cooked peaches. Then I crumbled some shortbread on top.

Tasting notes: I had high hopes for the crackling but was disappointed. It was just hard, chewy little shards without much flavour. I really think it needs to be salted before it’s cooked. Rodd said, “I think the crackling method he described is not very effective.” The pork chops were cooked well. We both liked the veg, and Rodd thought that the flavours all worked nicely together. Dessert was a little boring, but hey, it’s hard to go too wrong with fruit and custard. As I said before, this is a decent 8/10 weekday meal but probably not something fancy enough for a date or a dinner party. At only 33 minutes preparation time though, it’s certainly one of the quicker and easier recipes we’ve tried!

Stay tuned for another recipe from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals!

Blessed are the cheese-makers…
A few weeks ago I booked us in for a cheese-making workshop with one of the local community colleges. You know we like our food, and we’ve been toying with the idea of making cheese for a couple years now. (As my friend Ailsa said, “Ah, the last Amish skill you don’t yet possess.” It’s part of our long-term strategy to accumulate skills we can put to use when the revolution comes and society collapses.) So last Saturday the Snook and I headed off to Alexandria with a selection of aprons, tea towels, and sharp knives. There were 11 of us there on the day, and our teacher was Zigi Ozeri. He gave each of us a big handout full of recipes for various cheeses. (Do you know how easy it is to make mascarpone? I’m never paying $6 for a tiny tub of it again!) Zigi talked us through some of the strange equipment and ingredients we’d be using, and then we got stuck in! It was like being back in high school Home Ec (which was fitting, because we were using a school kitchen). We split into three groups, each of whom made a fresh mozzarella and ricotta from 4 liters of milk. Zigi also made a labne from some yogurt. A lot of cheese-making is standing around waiting for stuff to get to temperature or curdle or whatever, so we had plenty of time to socialise. We finished the day with a meal of homemade pizza, salads, and lots of cheese! I took some photos…Here’s the Snook measuring out 4 liters of milk from a giant bucket. No, we didn’t get raw milk. Zigi made it very clear that it’s illegal to sell. (I was sad.)

The milk went on the stove over a low heat along with citric acid and lipase. (This recipe is very close to the one we used.) It took a while to get up to the necessary temperature to start curdling.

At the right temperature, we added the rennet. Not long after, we had proper cheese curds and whey!

After cooking, draining, salting, and stretching, we formed it into a big ball of mozzarella and put it in a salt brine. Yay, cheese!

We put the whey back on to boil to try to make some ricotta. We didn’t have much protein left in there though, so we only got about 2 tablespoons. Here’s the Snook draining the world’s tiniest batch of ricotta in a cheesecloth.

Each group also made a pizza and some salads to accompany our cheese. We sliced up our mozzarella and put it on top of ours. It was great!

Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals #16: Tasty Crusted Cod
This is our 16th cooking/blogging experiment from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals. We selected “Tasty Crusted Cod, My Mashy Peas, Tartare Sauce, and Warm Garden Salad” because it seemed vaguely wintery and we had the episode recorded. We also decided to switch up the format of our experiment a bit. Rather than both of us cooking, we decided to play it like a rally car team. Snookums was the cook/driver, while I was the one shouting out instructions (and taking photos). We figured that was the most fair way to test the “30 minute” claim, and it avoided the usual chaos of both of us trying to read from the same recipe. To our surprise, this system worked out amazingly well!

Substitutions: Our fish was “Blue-Eyed Cod,” which is an Australian fish that we figured was close enough to what Jamie used. (North Atlantic cod and haddock aren’t easy to come by Down Under.) Our pancetta was round and had less fat than Jamie’s, which was more like a very thin bacon. The only other substitution was using a mix of rocket and spinach for the salad (rather than rocket and watercress). Everything else was as-written.

Quick verdict: This was FANTASTIC! Neither of us was expecting much, given that Jamie bills it as a grown-up version of fish fingers and mash. But the fish was cooked perfectly, and the herb paste and breadcrumbs were a welcome addition. The tartare sauce was a great accompaniment too. The mashy peas were rustic and comforting (and the recipe made HEAPS). I’d feared the simple salad would be bland, but the warm dressing was a knock-out. We both rated this meal a 10 out of 10. And what’s more: the Snook finished it off in 31:58! RIPPER. Read on for a photo essay of the preparation.Pre-start prep: We got out all the necessary ingredients, tools, and cooking vessels. We also needed the food processor for this one. The kitchen was clean (well, as clean as it gets) and everything wiped down and ready to go. The oven grill was turned on full blast and the kettle was boiled. We had a big roasting tray for the fish, a saucepan for the mash, and a frying pan for the pancetta.

First up are the ingredients for the mash: potatoes, broccoli, frozen peas, butter, and mint sauce. (Our mint sauce was homemade by the Snook.)

Now the bits for the tartare sauce: cornichons, capers, parsley, anchovy fillets, mayonnaise, lemon, and sweet paprika.

Here are the fish ingredients: fennel seeds, cod fillets (skin on and pin-boned), white crusty bread, garlic, anchovy fillets, sun-dried tomatoes, basil, red chilli, Parmesan cheese, lemon, balsamic vinegar, rosemary, and thyme.

Lastly, the bits for the salad: pancetta, garlic, balsamic vinegar, and salad greens (rocket and spinach).

Pots and pans, ready go to! The roasting tray is for the fish. The saucepan is for the mash, and the frying pan is for the pancetta.

Food processor with chopping blade attached. You use this for three separate elements of the meal, so a good food processor is essential for this one!

And we’re off! I read out recipe instructions to the Snook so he could focus on cooking. He started by chopping up the potatoes for the mash. (We opted to leave the skin on.)

Now he’s taking the florets off the broccoli. The florets get set aside while the chopped potatoes and broccoli stem go into the saucepan with boiling water.

Now for the fish. He starts by dressing the roasting tray with fennel seeds, salt, pepper, and olive oil.

The fish fillets then get rubbed and tossed in this mixture. (Since the recipe serves 6-8, we decided to only do half the amount of fish. We had two big fillets totaling 600g, but the pin bones were so difficult to remove that the Snook resorted to cutting them in half. It actually worked out better having four fillets anyway.)

The fish now goes into the oven for 5 minutes while you get on with the topping.

Here the Snook chops up bread…

…before whizzing it in the food processor with garlic and anchovy oil.

The breadcrumb topping is ready to go.

Now for the herb paste. He fills the food processor with anchovy fillets, garlic, basil, chilli, Parmesan, lemon zest, lemon juice, and balsamic vinegar.

This too gets whizzed up.

Ding! Time for the fish to come out and for the toppings to go on. First he covers each piece with the paste…

…and then he covers them with the breadcrumb mixture.

Oiled bits of rosemary and thyme go on top, then the fish goes back into the oven for ten minutes.

The next step for the mash is to add the frozen peas and broccoli florets to the boiling water.

Time to get going on the salad! The pancetta goes into the frying pan. (Note: We think this would have been nicer with fatty bacon-style pancetta. We had to add some olive oil to ours to get it crispy.)

It’s tartare sauce time! Again the food processor bowl is rinsed and put to use. The Snook fills it with cornichons, capers, parsley, anchovies, anchovy oil, extra virgin olive oil, lemon zest, and lemon juice. (As usual, we toned down the amount of lemon juice Jamie uses. He tends to go nuts with it.)

The whizzed-up tartare sauce paste.

The Snook mixes up this paste with mayonnaise, adding more lemon juice to taste.

After a sprinkle of paprika and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, the tartare sauce is finished!

This is where we realised our pancetta wasn’t crisping fast enough, so the Snook cranked the heat and added some oil.

That did the trick! Once it’s crispy you add in crushed garlic and balsamic vinegar. (Note: On the episode, Jamie added like one tablespoon of vinegar. The recipe has you add FIVE. We went with the five and just let it reduce a bit more.)

Meanwhile, the veg have finished cooking. The Snook has drained the veg and put them back into the pan to steam dry.

Time to mash! He adds butter, olive oil, mint sauce, salt, and pepper and gives everything a rough mash.

The finished mash!

The pancetta gets broken up in the warm dressing and the whole lot is poured on the salad leaves and tossed. Here’s the finished salad.

I made him pose for a photo with his mess. He says: “Show me a man who’s not makin’ a mess, and I’ll show you a man who’s not makin’ anything.”

Lastly, the fish comes out of the oven. The breadcrumbs are gorgeous and look crunchy.

The finished meal of Tasty Crusted Cod, My Mashy Peas, Warm Garden Salad, and Tartare Sauce. We served it with a chilled white wine as recommended.

The Snook had been worried that the thicker pieces of fish wouldn’t be cooked through, but as you can see here it was beautiful. The flesh came away in firm white chunks.

Tasting notes: As a recovering pescaphobe, the fish ones always make me a little anxious. These fillets smelled very fishy when they were raw, and the topping has a fair bit of anchovy in it. Fortunately the finished dish was EXCELLENT and I happily ate every bit of it. (Well, except for the skin. I’m working up to that.) The Snook had been worried that the herb paste would be too strong and overpowering, but it wasn’t at all. The breadcrumbs provided some really nice crunch too. The tartare sauce was heavy on the parsley and light on the pickle, but we both enjoyed it with the fish. The mashy peas were comfort food without being too boring. (The little zing of mint sauce in there was very nice!) The salad was the big surprise for me. It only had like five ingredients, but the combination of the warm balsamic, pancetta, and garlic was a total winner. The whole meal was well-balanced and the flavours were complementary. Neither of us could think of a single flaw or thing we’d change for next time. This one’s a definite 10/10! It doesn’t sound fancy, but the end result is something you could easily serve at a dinner party.

Stay tuned for another recipe from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals!

Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals #15: Kinda Sausage Cassoulet
This is our 15th cooking/blogging experiment from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals… and the FIRST ONE we actually managed in UNDER 30 MINUTES! It’s “Kinda Sausage Cassoulet, Warm Broccoli Salad, and Meringues.” We picked it because we had the episode; it seemed like a good wintery choice; and we had a lot of the ingredients on hand. I was also carb-loading for my long run, so BEANS YAY.

Substitutions: We used a can of tomatoes rather than passata. (Jamie suggested that substitution on the show.) The Snook doesn’t like broccolini, so we used regular broccoli instead. For the dessert, we had mini meringues instead of big ones, and we used frozen raspberries instead of fresh. Everything else was as-written.

Quick verdict: Woohoo, 28:52! It helped that the cassoulet was basically a one-pot dish and the dessert is just assembly. But still, this is by far the fastest meal we’ve found in the book. Also, it’s pretty tasty and it makes HEAPS of leftovers. We were surprised how good the cassoulet turned out given how little cooking time it has. The “dressing” on the broccoli seemed weird when I was making it, but it’s actually really nice and I can see myself using it again. Overall we both rated it 9 out of 10! Read on for a photo essay of the preparation.Pre-start prep: We got out all the necessary ingredients, tools, and cooking vessels. We also needed the food processor for this one. The kitchen was clean (well, as clean as it gets) and everything wiped down and ready to go. The oven was turned on to 220C and the kettle was boiled. We had a big roasting tray for the cassoulet, a saucepan for the broccoli, and an oven-safe frying pan for the sausages.

First up are the ingredients for the cassoulet: smoked bacon, red onions, rosemary, sage, bay leaves, leeks, chipolata sausages, bread, garlic, tomatoes, butter beans, and cannellini beans.

Just a few things for the broccoli salad: broccoli, red onion, garlic, tomatoes, lemon.

Lastly the dessert ingredients: raspberries, honey, Greek yoghurt, meringues, and lemon curd.

Pots and pans, ready to go. The big roasting pan is on the heat for the cassoulet. The frying pan is for the sausages, and the saucepan is for the broccoli.

The food processor is fitted with the chopping blade to turn the bread into bread crumbs.

Here we go! Step one is to chop up your bacon and fry it with some oil in the roasting pan. Note: It pays to get really nice bacon for this dish, since it provides a lot of the flavour. We got the stupidly expensive $8 bacon at Harris Farm but we both agreed it was worth it in the end.

I put the chipolatas in the hot frying pan with oil to start colouring them.

Next the Snook chops red onions…

…before adding them to the bacon.

The browned sausages go into the oven for 8 minutes to finish cooking. (The handle is oven-safe metal, but we put foil on it to remind us that it’s hot so we don’t grab it by accident.)

Now Snookums chops the leeks.

The leeks go into the roasting pan as well.

For bread, we used the leftover end from a seed loaf the Snook had baked the day before. It goes into the food processor with salt, pepper, oil, sage, and garlic.

Meanwhile, I’ve started the dessert by mushing up some raspberries with honey and yogurt. That goes into the fridge.

The meringues go into glasses with lemon curd on top, with final preparations to be done right before eating.

Snookums whizzes his breadcrumbs.

I start the weird broccoli salad dressing by grating part of a red onion into the serving bowl.

Back to the cassoulet, the Snook adds the canned beans.

The alarm goes off to indicate the sausages are cooked! They come out of the oven.

Tomatoes and herbs have been added to the cassoulet.

Now for the weird part of the dressing: I’m grating tomato flesh and turning it into tomato “slush.” The skin and seeds get discarded.

The cassoulet veg is done cooking, so it’s time for the final steps. The Snook lays down a layer of breadcrumbs.

The sausages get nestled on top.

The rest of the breadcrumbs get sprinkled over.

Oiled sage leaves are put on top, and the whole thing goes into the oven. (This is where I noticed an unfortunate resemblance to the Kitty Litter Cake. Oh well.)

Lemon juice gets added to the dressing. (We obeyed our new rule of only using half as much lemon as Jamie says. It worked out a lot better.)

Raw garlic, olive oil, and salt and pepper are mixed in to make the finished dressing.

Time to cook the broccoli. I cut it into long spears to mimic the broccolini used in the book.

It doesn’t cook very long, then it gets drained.

The broccoli then gets tossed with the dressing. And now that’s done!

The cassoulet has come out of the oven and is now finished.

Here’s the completed meal of Kinda Sausage Cassoulet with Warm Broccoli Salad.

To finish the dessert, we topped the meringue and lemon curd with the raspberry yogurt, honey, and extra raspberries to garnish.

Tasting notes: The cassoulet was excellent. Definitely don’t skimp on the bacon though; the smokiness really made it special. It also makes HUGE portions and we’ve got lots of leftovers for lunch. The warm broccoli salad was a nice accompaniment. We normally just eat it steamed with a little olive oil, so this made for a refreshing change. I’ll remember that trick. The dessert was a little sweet for the Snook’s taste, but it was tasty. I also like that it looks special despite only taking like 3 minutes of actual work. Overall we both rated this meal highly – 9/10 – and we’re still high-fiving over finishing in under 30 minutes. This one’s a winner!

Stay tuned for another recipe from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals!

Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals #14: Piri Piri Chicken
This is our 14th cooking/blogging experiment from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals. We chose Piri Piri Chicken, Dressed Potatoes, Rocket Salad, and Quick Portugese Tarts. We’d been looking forward to this one for a long time, because who doesn’t like Portuguese custard tarts? Nobody.

Substitutions: We couldn’t find yellow peppers/capsicum anywhere (must be out of season), so we just used a single red one. We used just white vinegar instead of white wine vinegar. And the sugar for the tarts was just plain rather than “golden caster”. Other than that, everything was as-written.

Quick verdict: This is the first recipe where I think the time is an outright cheat. We were both working flat-out the whole time and we didn’t come anywhere close to the deadline. Our time was 39:50. (Sure, having everything memorised would save you a couple minutes, but not many.) Also, we found a mistake in the recipe! That was annoying. In terms of flavour, I thought the potatoes were the highlight. I’d never had sweet potatoes done in that way before, and I can see myself repeating it in the future. (The Snook thought it had too much lemon, but he also thinks Jamie tends to go overboard on lemon everywhere anyway.) The chicken was very good, and the tarts turned out surprisingly well (with a couple caveats). The Snook rated the meal overall as 8/10, while I gave it 8.5/10. Read on for a photo essay of the preparation.Pre-start prep: We got out all the necessary ingredients, tools, and cooking vessels. We needed the blender (aka liquidiser) for this one. The kitchen was clean (well, as clean as it gets) and everything wiped down and ready to go. The oven was turned on to 200C. We had a muffin tray for the tarts and a big Pyrex bowl for the potatoes. We also had baking dish for the chicken, a saucepan for the caramel, and a grill pan for the chicken.

First up are the ingredients for the chicken: 4 chicken thighs (skin on and bone in), capsicum and thyme. Note: On the TV show, he clearly cooked 8 chicken thighs, but the recipe only has you do 4. You end up with so much sauce though that I think doing 8 would be better (provided you can fit them all in your grill pan).

Next are the ingredients for the potatoes: 1 potato, 2 sweet potatoes, lemon, red chilli, coriander, and feta. We also have a packet of rocket for the salad.

Now all the bits for the Piri Piri sauce: red onion, garlic, bird’s-eye chillies, smoked paprika, lemons, white vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, and fresh basil.

Ack! Somehow I lost the photo of the dessert ingredients. We had: flour, pre-rolled puff pastry, cinnamon, creme fraiche, an egg, vanilla, sugar, and an orange.

[MISSING PHOTO GOES HERE]

Pots and pans, ready to go! The square grill pan and the Pyrex tray are both for the chicken. The saucepan is for the caramel and the muffin tin is for the tarts.

The blender and salad spinner are ready to go! We also have a Pyrex bowl and clingfilm ready for the potatoes.

And we’re off! Snookums started with the chicken thighs. Here he’s slashing the meat before seasoning with olive oil and salt & pepper.

I got stuck into the tarts. I took a 20cm x 20cm piece of puff pastry and sprinkled it all over with cinnamon.

The chicken has gone into the grill pan, skin side down.

Here I’ve rolled the puff pastry into a log and now I’m cutting it into six pieces.

Each piece gets “squashed” and put into the muffin tin. Note: He squashed them on the show, but the book doesn’t say to. I think you need to squash.

While the chicken cooks, the Snook prepped the potatoes. They’ve been cut in half and placed in the Pyrex bowl with half a lemon. The whole thing gets covered in clingfilm and put into the microwave for 15 minutes.

Now I’m using my thumbs to stretch out the squashed pastry discs within each muffin hole. It wasn’t too difficult.

These then go into the oven for 8 minutes!

Next I made the tart filling using creme fraiche, egg, vanilla, and a bit of sugar. I’m also grating orange zest into it.

The Snook has turned over his chicken to reveal beautiful, crispy golden skin!

Now he works on the Piri Piri sauce. There are a lot of ingredients to go into the blender, including red onion, garlic, chillis, paprika, lemon zest, and lots of other stuff. Here he’s smushing the garlic to remove the skins.

I’ve finished whipping the tart filling. Looks good and smells lovely and orangey!

Time to get the capsicum going. I’ve cut up the red one here. The book says to cut it into strips, but on the show he did chunks. I went with chunks.

The Snook is still going on that Piri Piri sauce. Now he’s adding lemon juice along with vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper, water, and a bunch of basil.

Okay, so on the show Jamie didn’t put the capsicum into the grill pan until after the chicken came out. But the book clearly says to add them to the pan while the chicken’s still in it. So that’s what I did.

Time for my tart cases to come out! I’ll admit my face fell when I saw these monstrosities. They were all puffed and wonky and not at all pretty like his on the show. But I persevered. Here I am using a spoon to press the puffed up pastry back against the sides to make room for the filling.

The Snook has whizzed up his Piri Piri sauce. Jamie’s looked more golden; ours was quite brown. We’re not sure why, except maybe our paprika was a bit older.

The sauce gets poured into the roasting tray.

Here’s the recipe error. See if you can parse this: “Pour the piri piri sauce into a snug-fitting roasting tray. Lay the peppers on top and put aside. Add the chicken to the roasting tray with the sauce. Scatter over the sprigs of thyme, then put the tray into the middle of the oven.” What the hell does that bit about the peppers mean? Put aside WHAT? And then there’s no further mention of the peppers for the rest of the whole recipe. On the show, he did NOT put them into the tray with the chicken, but rather cooked them separately and just put them in the tray at the end. We were confused. In the end, we decided to mimic what he did on the show and left them out of the sauce for now.

Now I’m filling my mutant tart cases with the filling. I didn’t want to fill them too high. I ended up with a bit of filling left over. They went back into the oven for 8 more minutes.

The chicken (sans peppers) is in the sauce now with some fresh thyme on top. This goes into the oven to finish cooking.

Ding! The microwave is done, and so are our potatoes. They’re steaming here.

The Snook is chopping chilli and coriander for the potatoes. On the show, Jamie did that thing where he mixed everything up on the cutting board and then served it on that. We decided a bowl would suffice for us.

Meanwhile, I washed the rocket. There’s not much to this “salad.”

Time to get the caramel going! Here I’ve got 4 tablespoons of sugar melting in a saucepan along with the juice of the orange.

The peppers are grilling nicely on their own.

The caramel mixture foams quite a lot until the orange juice water boils away.

The Snook has mashed the potatoes with feta and lemon. Aren’t they lovely?

It was time for my tarts to come out of the oven, and I was really pleased to see they’d set. They didn’t look so bad after all!

The caramel had thickened up quite a bit. The recipe doesn’t give you much instruction on it other than “watch it and be careful,” but I thought it looked finished. Here I am very carefully spooning it over the tarts.

I had just enough to cover them!

The Snook has finished the “salad” with olive oil, salt & pepper, and lemon juice.

Here are the finished potatoes with extra coriander for garnish.

The finished chicken has come out of the oven, and it looks good. But see all that extra sauce?

Here is the finished meal of Piri Piri Chicken with Dressed Potatoes and Rocket Salad.

And here are the beautiful finished tarts!

Tasting notes: We maybe could’ve backed off on the paprika a bit in the sauce, but other than that, the chicken was very good. We were annoyed about the recipe confusion over the peppers, but it worked out for us anyway (as the Snook doesn’t like them much and was thus able to control his exposure). The potatoes were excellent, though a little extra salt was needed to tone down the lemon. The rocket had far too much lemon, and really it’s just an excuse to put something green on the plate. I know Jamie thinks you need it as a contrast to the chicken, but if we do it again we’ll go a lot lighter on the dressing. Now for the tarts. They were good… but they weren’t anything like any Portuguese custard tarts I’d ever had. The caramel turned out to be a problem. It was incredibly STICKY, and as soon as you bit into one it immediately glued itself to your teeth. It was hard to enjoy the rest of the flavours when you could barely budge your jaw! The filling was less like a custard and more like a sort of a cheesecake, really. Maybe if we’d taken the caramel a bit further so it hardened and shattered that would’ve been better? At any rate, this was a fairly complicated meal with a lot going on, and I really don’t see how you could possibly get it done in under 30 minutes on your own. Yeah, we pause for a few seconds every now and then to take photos, but there’s still two people working in parallel instead of just one. So if you do this one, plan on taking a little more time to get everything just perfect.

Stay tuned for another recipe from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals!

Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals #13: Wonky Summer Pasta
This is our 13th cooking/blogging experiment from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals. We went with “Wonky Summer Pasta, Herby Salad, and Pear Drop Tartlets.” We picked this recipe because we had tart cases left over from the Frangipane Tarts, and because I was carb-loading in preparation for a really long run. We hadn’t seen this particular episode, but upon Googling I found a dodgy site that let us watch it online. We felt like we had a good chance of bringing this one in under 30 minutes!

Substitutions: We used smoky bacon instead of pancetta, simply because it was easier to find. I bought a fancy bag of mixed salad greens at the Farmer’s Market rather than go for the watercress/rocket he used. We used strawberry jam instead of raspberry in the tarts. Other than that, everything else was as-written.

Quick verdict: Pretty nice! This is one of the easiest and quickest meals in the book. The pasta and the tarts didn’t turn out 100% fantastic, but we suspect those flaws were in our preparation rather than the recipe. (More on that in a minute.) The salad was a highlight for me, definitely one of the best in the book so far. Our elapsed time was 33:26 (fastest one yet!), and I think we could easily get this one down under 30 with practice. In terms of score, it’s hard to say. If we had done everything perfectly, it probably would have been an 8.5 or a 9 out of 10. Our actual preparation probably only merited a 7.5 or 8 out of 10 though. Read on for a photo essay of the preparation, including our mistakes!Pre-start prep: We got out all the necessary ingredients, tools, and cooking vessels. We were excited to use a new attachment on the food processor: the egg whipping blade! The kitchen was clean (well, as clean as it gets) and everything wiped down and ready to go. The oven was turned on to 190C. We had a baking tray for the tarts and a big ceramic bowl for the pasta. We had a large pot filled with water on to boil for the pasta and a frying pan waiting for the bacon.

First up are the ingredients for the pasta: eggs, parmesan cheese, lemon, basil, and fresh lasagne sheets.

Next the bits for the salad: bacon, garlic, fennel seeds, salad greens, fresh mint, fresh tarragon, red/green grapes, balsamic vinegar, and lemon.

Now the ingredients for the tartlets: shortcrust pastry cases, strawberry jam, tinned pears, egg whites, sugar, vanilla, ice cream. NOTE: If we were smart, we would have blind-baked our pastry cases before starting. Ours were unbaked. Jamie’s were pre-baked. This would turn out to be a problem. If yours are unbaked, BAKE THEM FIRST.

Pots and pans! Big pot is about to be filled with water for the pasta. The frying pan is for the bacon.

The food processor, ready and waiting. The egg whipping blade is in first, but the grater disc will also be used.

And we’re off! You start with the tarts. Here I am blithely putting strawberry jam into the bottom of unbaked pastry cases. (This was never going to end well.)

Meanwhile the Snook has separated two eggs. The whites are now getting whipped in the food processor with sugar and salt.

I’ve removed the pear halves from the can and I’m now slicing them up.

The pear slices get arranged artfully on top of the jam. (I should also note that we have six small cases instead of the four bigger ones the recipe called for.)

The Snook works on the pasta sauce directly in the serving bowl. To his egg yolks he’s added extra virgin olive oil, salt, and pepper. Now he’s grating in the lemon zest before juicing the lemon. NOTE: The recipe calls for using the zest and juice of TWO lemons. Ours were pretty big, so he only used one. Our pasta still came out really sour.

I’ve got my smoky bacon sizzling on the stove now. Once it got crispy, we threw the fennel seeds in there as well.

Meanwhile, the meringue has finished so it’s time to plop it on the tartlets!

My finished meringues. I tried to make them all arty with bits sticking out the way Jamie did. These go into the hot oven for 6 minutes.

After a quick wash, the food processor is now put to use grating a hunk of parmesan.

The other crucial ingredient for the pasta is basil. Here the Snook is bashing half the bunch with a mortar and pestle.

And here’s the resulting little pile of squished up basil in the bowl (with the parmesan too). He also had to chop up half the basil and put that into the sauce as well.

The oven has dinged, so it’s time to take out the tarts! The meringues were nicely browned. This is the point where the Snook noted that the crusts looked totally raw though. We ended up putting them back in a low oven for a while in the hopes they’d firm up. (They didn’t.)

Finished salad! I didn’t get any photos of the assembly because it was so simple. Basically: dump greens in a bowl; tear in some fresh mint and tarragon; add a handful of halved green and red grapes. Put the now-crispy bacon and fennel seeds on top. The dressing is olive oil, bacon dripping, balsamic, lemon juice, salt & pepper mixed up in the little jar nearby.

The pasta is the last thing to happen. Here’s the Snook slicing into the rolled up lasagne sheets to make the wonky noodles.

The noodles get dropped into the pot of boiling water.

The Snook took a cue from Jamie on the episode and rested his pasta bowl on top of the boiling water to warm it.

Once the pasta is cooked, you have to work FAST! Here’s the Snook scooping it out of the water and tossing it into the waiting sauce.

Now he’s tossing the pasta with the sauce. You want it to be pretty loose and slurpy at this point, as the noodles will really suck up the liquid.

Here’s the finished pasta complete with extra parmesan and basil for garnish!

The completed meal of Wonky Summer Pasta and dressed Herby Salad.

And here is the completed dessert of Pear Drop Tartlet with vanilla ice cream. Note: It’s still in the tin. That’s because you couldn’t remove the tin because the dough was raw. We ended up scooping the jam/pear/meringue out of them and eating it that way.

Tasting notes: I’m not really sure what the point of cutting your own noodles is. (Quoth the Snook: “It’s a bit wank. Unless you’re cutting unusual shapes, it’s just silly.”) Fresh tagliatelle is just as available as lasagne sheets! We’ll use pre-cut next time. The finished pasta was really, really lemony. I actually liked that! The Snook felt it was too sour and had to add a fair bit of salt to counteract it. I’d recommend that you go easy on the lemon though, especially if yours are big or very sour. We both thought the salad was excellent, and the addition of the tarragon and mint really made it interesting. Also, grapes + bacon! Who doesn’t like the sound of that? The dessert was visually stunning but such a disappointment because of our error with the pastry. (We didn’t pre-bake them with the frangipane tarts, but those turned out okay, presumably because they bake for longer than the meringues.) I’d love to try it with the crusts all perfect and crispy. All in all, this was a simple and easy meal to throw together. The pasta was a nice alternative to carbonara, and the salad is unusual but not weird. It’s also pretty much the perfect meal for carb-loading before a big race! 🙂

Stay tuned for another recipe from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals!

Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals #12: Liver & Bacon
This is our 12th cooking/blogging experiment from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals. I knew the lucky streak had to end at some point! This was was a DUD. I was feeling cocky so we decided to go for another “challenging” meal: Liver & Bacon, Onion Gravy, Smashed Potato, Dressed Greens, and Berry & Custard Ripple. Unfortunately we ran into a lot of problems. We didn’t have the matching TV episode (as far as I can tell, it hasn’t aired yet anywhere), so we were working from just the recipe. It wasn’t til after we bought all the ingredients that we realised it was going to require FOUR stove burners… and we only have three. So we had to get creative. I’d like to say it was all worth it in the end, but to be honest, I found this one pretty underwhelming.

Substitutions and changes: We used the potatoes we had on hand, rather than the red-skinned called for in the recipe. We couldn’t find calves’ liver and had to settle for lambs’ liver. For the “seasonal greens,” we went with silverbeet. Our fresh berries were raspberries, and the tinned fruit was peaches.

Quick verdict: Meh. It was liver. I haven’t had it very often, and I wouldn’t say I’m a huge fan. We tried to cook it to specification but it was still a bit tough and dry. (The Snook thinks it was overcooked.) The mash, greens, and gravy were all fine, if a bit ordinary. The dessert was kind of a mess. There wasn’t really a good photo in the book, so we had to just follow the instructions. Total elapsed time was 46:11, but given our cooktop limitations, you can’t really go by that. I rated it a 7 out of 10, while the Snook gave it an 8. Read on for photos of the preparation.Pre-start prep: We got out all the necessary ingredients, tools, and cooking vessels. The kitchen was clean (well, as clean as it gets) and everything wiped down and ready to go. We needed FOUR pans: a frying pan for the bacon and liver; a frying pan for the gravy, a saucepan for the fruit, and a big steamer pot for the veg. We also needed our awesome food processor with the slicer disc.

First, the ingredients for the gravy: red onions, rosemary, honey, garlic, flour, red wine, balsamic vinegar, and a beef stock cube. Also the ingredients for the liver: smoked bacon, liver, flour, and rosemary.

For the veg: potatoes, silverbeet, and lemon.

And the ingredients for the dessert: tinned peaches, raspberries, elderflower cordial, custard, Greek yogurt, vanilla, and shortbread biscuits.

We needed a lot of pots and pans! (Our steamer basket is only a single level unlike the triple-level one Jamie suggested.) Such a lot of complications for such a boring meal!

And we’re off! We started with the dessert by pouring the syrup from the peaches into the saucepan and getting it boiling.

The Snook set to work cleaning up the liver. This took a while. The lamb’s liver was pretty, uh, “veiny.” (I mostly left him alone with this as I’d never have been able to eat it otherwise.)

While he was doing that, I got the potatoes going. Here they’re all scrubbed and I’m cutting them into chunks.

The potatoes go into the bottom of the steamer pan with salt and boiling water from the kettle.

Next on the list is the gravy. I quickly sliced up all the onions in the food processor.

The peaches and raspberries get dumped into the syrup to cook and reduce.

The gravy begins by cooking the onions with fresh rosemary, honey, and garlic.

This is where we had to get creative with the burners. The fruit actually went into the oven so we could get the bacon cooking.

Now for the greens, which go into the steamer basket above the potatoes. I sliced the stalks of the silverbeat in the food processor and then put them in the basket.

The leaves got roughly chopped and then put in the basket on top of the stalks. The lid went on so they could steam.

The bacon is starting to look cooked! (The fancy bacon we used actually cost four times as much as the liver. That’s the one argument in favour of eating liver: it’s bloody cheap!)

The onions are getting all caramelised and nice and mushy!

The crisp bacon goes out of the pan onto a plate.

Next step for the gravy: adding flour, red wine, balsamic vinegar, and the beef stock cube.

The Snook has got the liver cleaned and sliced. He’s now seasoning it with salt and pepper.

We added boiled water to the gravy to get it to a nice consistency.

Now the liver slices are getting dusted with flour.

And into the pan they go! They’re cooking in all that lovely bacon grease.

The potatoes are done cooking and I’ve just drained them here.

After exactly three minutes, the liver got turned over.

Gravy is just about finished!

Here’s the completed “smashed potatoes.” They’ve been mushed up with olive oil, salt, pepper, and lemon rind.

Rosemary is added to the liver to finish. It was supposed to cook for exactly two minutes on the second side, but the Snook reckons we were slow getting it out of the pan. (Hence the overcooking.)

The finished greens. They’re dressed with olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.

And the finished liver with bacon!

The gravy went into a gravy boat.

The completed main meal: smashed potatoes, liver and bacon, onion gravy, and greens.

The dessert instructions basically have you dump everything into a bowl and then swirl it around. (No, really.) It’s… not that attractive. But hey, custard, yogurt, and fruit are good.

Tasting notes: My response was “Meh.” The Snook says: “I overcooked the liver. I did what the recipe said but you’ve got to be really tight on the timing, I guess. The dessert lacked structure but it was very tasty. It was just, like, ‘stuff.'” Yup, pretty much. I’ll be interested to finally see the episode for this one to see if there are any tricks to make it better. Because otherwise, I don’t see us repeating this one anytime soon.

Stay tuned next week for another recipe from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals!

Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals #11: Grilled Sardines
This is our 11th cooking/blogging experiment from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals. This week’s meal was “Grilled Sardines, Crispy Halloumi, Watercress Salad & Figs, Thick Chocolate Mousse.” Frankly, this is the recipe in the book that scared me the most. I was a “pescaphobe” for most of my life, and it’s only in the last five years or so that I’ve come to enjoy seafood. Whole fish with bones and heads are basically my Everest. I knew we’d have to get to this one eventually though, so I thought it was time to meet my fears head on. Luckily it was easy to make and DELICIOUS! I ate every bit. (I’m as shocked as you are!)

Substitutions and changes: We were able to get everything. We even went with the suggested chilled rosé as an accompaniment! The only change was making a half recipe each of the sardines and the mousse, just because it was only the two of us eating it.

Quick verdict: As a meal, this all went together extremely well and the flavours of the components all complemented each other. (Better so than many of the other recipes.) The sardines were brilliant and the strong aromatics with them masked any potential “fishiness.” Elapsed time was 39:29, but that included about 5 annoying minutes of faffing about with pomegranates. This was a pretty quick one! We’re both rating it as our first official 10/10. If you make this meal for someone, they will be impressed! Read on for photos of the preparation.Pre-start prep: We got out all the necessary ingredients, tools, and cooking vessels. The sardines were de-scaled, but the Snook had to gut them. He also picked all the leaves off the cress. (We didn’t count this in the time since Jamie didn’t have to do it on the show.) The kitchen was clean (well, as clean as it gets) and everything wiped down and ready to go. The oven was heating. We had a frying pan and a saucepan ready on the stove, and a roasting tray ready for the fish.

First, the ingredients for the fish: sardines, garlic, lemon, chilli, parsley, fennel seeds. (A half-recipe would be four sardines, but these ones were on the small side so we went with six.)

Next is the salad: flaked almonds, rocket, watercress, alfalfa sprouts, mint, pomegranate, vinegar.

Ingredients for the figs: figs, honey, and mint; along with ingredients for the halloumi: halloumi, sesame seeds, and garlic.

Ingredients for the mousse: 70% chocolate, butter, sugar, cream, vanilla, eggs, brandy, strawberries.

The accompaniments: a bottle of chilled rosé and a pack of pita breads.

The pots and pans, ready to go. The frying pan is for toasting the almonds and then frying the halloumi. The saucepan is for melting the chocolate. (You’re meant to do it in a bowl over a pot of boiling water, but our induction stove has such fine-grained heat control we can melt chocolate directly on it.) The roasting tray is for the sardines.

And we’re off! Preparation actually starts with the dessert. This is me whipping the cream and sugar for the mousse by hand.

Meanwhile, the Snook started melting the chocolate and butter on the stove. (The induction worked great for this!)

The Snook separated an egg and then whisked the whites til they were stiff.

The yolk went into my whipped cream, which also has vanilla and brandy in it.

The egg whites are done!

The chocolate is just about melted…

…which means it’s time to put the chocolate into the whipped cream. (The Snook disliked this step because it’s hard to get all the chocolate out of the saucepan. He’d rather have microwaved the chocolate in the serving bowl and added the cream to it.)

And now the egg whites get folded in.

Jamie mentioned on the show that this is a denser chocolate mousse than most folks are used to, because commercial mousses always beat in a lot of air (since it’s cheap volume). This was looking silky and luxurious. It went straight into the freezer!

The almonds for the salad went onto the heat to toast.

Finally it was time to make the sardines! They were very quick. We added garlic, salt, pepper, lemon zest and juice, olive oil, chilli, parsley stalks, and fennel seeds. Everything got tossed around then put into the hot oven.

Almonds are toasted! Now we can reclaim that pan for the cheese…

Here I’m pressing sesame seeds into the slices of halloumi.

They get put into the hot frying pan with olive oil and garlic to start getting crispy.

The pita also go into the oven, “splashed” with a bit of cold water as directed. (Ours didn’t turn out great, but it’s probably because these are more of a thin flat bread than a thicker pocket. They overbaked and turned into crispbread, basically.)

Now the salad. I’ve combined all the greens together and now I’m whacking the pomegranate to get the seeds out. This is one of Jamie’s favorite tricks, but somehow it never works as easily for me as it does for him. Maybe his pomegranates are riper? At any rate, I gave up pretty quickly and switched to picking the seeds out by hand.

Check out the Snook’s delicate knife-work on those figs! He’s squeezing them to get the flower shape.

The other half of the pomegranate gets “squeezed” to make the dressing. On the show, Jamie just squeezes it and all the juice runs out. In reality, the seeds just started plopping out. The Snook ended up having to pop them in a sieve to get the juice. (We had pomegranate juice EVERYWHERE in the kitchen. This page of the cookbook now has purple splotches all over it.)

The completed salad, with sprouts, almonds, and pomegranate, waiting to be dressed.

The salad dressing, which included olive oil and vinegar as well.

The figs were drizzled with honey and mint.

The halloumi looked great. We flipped it over to cook on the other side too.

The finished sardines. They looked AMAZING.

The chocolate mousse had set up nicely in the freezer.

The finished main meal: sardines, salad, fig, and halloumi.

And our dessert: chocolate mousse with strawberries!

Tasting notes: Like I said, really good. I was tentative about the sardines at first, but within a few minutes I was taking them apart happily. The strong flavours of the chilli, lemon, fennel, and parsley complemented the fish and allowed me to enjoy it without being freaked out. We may have overcooked the halloumi a little bit; it was getting to the “squeaky” stage. But its saltiness and squidginess was a nice contrast to the fish and salad. The salad was sweet and zingy. And the figs! Such a simple idea, but such a great texture contrast and flavour complement to everything else. (It helps to have nice, ripe figs.) The chocolate mousse was excellent and we returned later in the night to finish it off. Chocoholics would love it!

Overall a really excellent meal. None of it was technically difficult, but all of the pieces really harmonised nicely. It would be a great one for a dinner party or a special dinner. I loved it, which just blows my mind considering how scared I was of it!

Stay tuned next week for another recipe from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals!

Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals #10: Beef Hash
This is our 10th cooking/blogging experiment from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals. Hey, we’re 20% of the way through! We picked this particular recipe because we had the TV episode recorded and because we had several of the ingredients in the pantry already. The hash itself also seemed fairly low-carb and we knew it would freeze well for lunches. Lucky for us, it turned out to be tasty too!

Substitutions and changes: We decided to make a DOUBLE batch of the hash since we had a kilo of mince in the freezer. We couldn’t find any watercress in the shops, so we left that out of the salad. Other than that, no changes at all!

Quick verdict: Such a filling and warming dish! Simple and hearty and perfect for a chilly night. We were both surprised how great the potatoes turned out given the unorthodox “microwave + grill” method of cooking. Elapsed cooking time was 42:55, but we did do a double batch of the hash so that used some extra time. I rated it 9.5, and the Snook rated it 9 (out of 10). Honestly, the salad and beans are a bit extraneous. If I were going to make this one on a work night, I’d just do the hash and potatoes. Read on for photos of the preparation.Pre-start prep: We got out all the necessary ingredients, tools, and cooking vessels, including the food processor. The kitchen was clean (well, as clean as it gets) and everything wiped down and ready to go. We had a frying pan and a pot heating on the stove, and a roasting tray heating under the grill.

First are the ingredients for the potatoes: baking potatoes, rosemary, and sour cream.

Next the hash ingredients: beef mince, thyme, red onion, carrots, celery, rosemary, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, and parsley.

Here are the ingredients for the beans: smoked streaky bacon, tomatoes, butter beans, red wine vinegar, and basil.

Lastly, the salad ingredients: soft round lettuce, avocado, sour cream, lemon, and olive oil.

Our food processor with the slicer disc ready to go. Rather than use the blender for the salad dressing, we decided to try out the mini-bowl on our processor.

The pans are heating up. The frying pan is for the beans and the pot is for the (double recipe of) hash.

I started us off by cooking the mince for the hash. Here’s the kilo of mince (remember, this is double) along with olive oil, salt, pepper, and thyme.

Meanwhile, the Snook was cleaning potatoes. Ours were pretty gnarly, so he’s cutting off the weird bits.

The potatoes go into a bowl that’s covered in clingfilm and then put in the microwave for 15+ minutes.

Next Snookums started on the beans. Here he is slicing up the rashers of smoked streaky bacon.

The bacon gets fried in the frying pan with some olive oil.

While the bacon was cooking, he started washing the salad leaves.

I was still busy with the hash. I’m prepping the veg (onion, celery, carrot) for the food processor here.

Man, I love the slicer disc on our food processor. It took less than a minute to make this giant bowl of sliced veg.

The Snook was jumping all over the place managing all the side dishes. Here he is getting the salad dressing ready: avocado, sour cream, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Once the mince was cooked, I added rosemary, garlic, and (A LOT OF) Worcestershire sauce.

The bacon is cooked and smelling nice now.

Tomatoes have been added to the bacon…

…and all that veg has been added to the mince. Yeah, the pot was pretty full.

Here the Snook has added the can of butter beans to the bacon and tomatoes.

Finally the potatoes are cooked! The Snook verified it by piercing them with a knife.

The potatoes were then drizzled with olive oil, salt, pepper, and rosemary.

Then they go into the hot roasting tray and put under the grill.

The hash is cooking down nicely now.

The beans are also cooking down and the liquid is thickening.

The Snook used the food processor to whiz up the “goddess dressing” for the salad.

The salad assembly was pretty simple. Greens go in the bowl, and bits of avocado get added on top.

Here’s the Snook giving the potatoes a turn. They’re looking good!

The final step for the hash is adding chopped parsley and adjusting the seasoning.

The beans are finished with olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and basil.

The potatoes looked really nice when they came out of the oven!

And here’s the finished meal! We topped the potatoes with sour cream and parsley as directed.

Tasting notes: There’s really no way to go wrong with simple stuff like this. The Snook particularly liked the beans, and we both thought the potatoes turned out great. They were moist and cooked perfectly. I thought the hash was great, but the Snook thought it needed some extra sauce or perhaps a fried egg to make it perfect. The salad was simple, and the only real interesting bit there was the dressing. As I said, when I do it again I’ll just make the hash and potatoes. It won’t be for ages though: we have a LOT of hash left over!

Stay tuned next week for another recipe from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals!

Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals #9: Green Curry
This is our 9th cooking/blogging experiment from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals. We picked this recipe for a few reasons: We had the episode saved on our DVR. (It’s always nice to watch him prepare it rather than rely on the book solely.) This one doesn’t have a dessert, and it also looked like one that could be fairly low-carb, as long as you didn’t eat the noodles. (I indulged a fair bit at my birthday last week, so I’m trying to make up for it.) And also, we LOVE green curry. 🙂

Substitutions: Not a single one. However, we didn’t bother with the “garnishes” of prawn crackers, chili sauce, and a cos lettuce. That just seemed like overkill for two people!

Quick verdict: Pretty good! The chicken was very good and the skin crisped up nicely. Snook thought overall the flavours of the meal were very tasty. We both liked the curry a lot, but we felt the kimchee slaw probably had a bit too much chili. We both felt it rated between 8.5-9/10. Not a homerun, but pretty darn good. Elapsed time was 39:09, but I can’t think of many ways to speed it up (beyond having the recipe memorised). There are just a LOT of ingredients to handle with this one!Pre-start prep: We got out all the necessary ingredients, tools, and cooking vessels, including the food processor. The kitchen was clean (well, as clean as it gets) and everything wiped down and ready to go. The kettle was boiled. We had a two frying pans and a pot ready to go.

First up are the ingredients for the chicken: chicken thighs (with bone and skin), sesame seeds, and honey.

Next, the ingredients for the “kimchee slaw”: radishes, red onion, Chinese cabbage, coriander, red and green chillies, ginger, limes, and sesame oil.

Ingredients for the curry sauce: ginger, chillies, kaffir lime leaves, coriander, garlic, lemongrass, spring onions, sesame oil, chicken stock, green beans, coconut milk, limes, and soy sauce.

Lastly, the ingredients for the noodles: noodles and a lime. And our sole garnish, a bag of beansprouts.

Pans, ready to go! The two frying pans are for the chicken, and the pot is for the curry.

Food processor – with slicing disk! This was our first try with the slicer. (You’ll recall the slicer on our old one gave us no end of grief.)

And we’re off! First step is to get the chicken thighs frying in the larger pan, skin side down. The Snook has also sprinkled them with salt, pepper, and olive oil.

Meanwhile, I got to work prepping the MANY vegetables for the kimchee slaw.

Here we go with the food processor! It’s worked GREAT. I didn’t even have to push down, really; it just sucked them down in and sliced them neatly.

The Snook has moved on to the next step of chicken prep: covering them with a piece of greaseproof paper.

On top of that goes the smaller frying pan, which had been heating this whole time. The mortar went on to provide extra smooshing weight. The chook was definitely sizzling!

Here’s the kimchee slaw once I got all the ingredients whizzed up. Pretty!

The Snook has moved on to the curry sauce. He found it hard to whack the lemongrass the way Jamie did on the show, so he’s just chopping it up here.

The lemongrass goes into the food processor – this time with the regular chopping attachment – along with ginger, chillies, lime leaves, coriander, garlic, sesame oil, and olive oil.

Whizz! And there’s our green curry paste.

Time to remove the weights and the greaseproof paper. The chicken is looking good!

The smaller saucepan goes back on the heat and gets used to toast up the sesame seeds.

Here the Snook has flipped over the thighs so you can see that golden crispy skin!

There was quite a lot of fat in the pan, so here he’s draining most of it away.

I got to work dressing the kimchee slaw. Here’s my pathetic attempt to squeeze limes with my weak, tiny hands.

Other than lime juice, the dressing is just salt and sesame oil. The key is to SCRUNCH everything together with your hands. Seriously, I scrunched for a good couple of minutes. I also squeezed out quite a bit of water into the sink, which he did on the show but doesn’t mention in the book.

The Snook has now put some of the curry paste into the pan with the chicken and tossed it around.

The rest of the curry paste gets poured into the pot along with the stock, green beans, and coconut milk.

Finally done scrunching! Here’s the finished kimchee slaw with extra coriander on top.

Sesame seeds are toasted!

The small frying pan now gets used for a third time to cook the rice noodles. Here I’m pouring boiling water from the kettle over them.

The chicken thighs get a good drizzle of honey for caramelization…

At this point we were monitoring three things at once! Curry sauce at the back, noodles in the front, and chicken thighs on the side.

The noodles cooked quickly, and the Snook drained them before rinsing with cold water.

I started to plate up. Rather than put the garnish separately, I just put it straight in our bowls. Here we’ve got beansprouts, coriander, and a wedge of lime.

The noodles get tossed with sesame oil, lime juice, and salt, and that’s them pretty much done!

The curry sauce is also finished cooking.

Here’s the finished chicken. The honey made the skin fantastic… but it also completely cemented onto the bottom of the pan. (I found it difficult to get some of the chicken out without tearing off the skin, which had stuck in the carbonized honey.)

And the final meal! We each had two chicken thighs, noodles, curry sauce, kimchee slaw, and garnish, and the whole thing was sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds.

Tasting notes: The curry sauce was very good, and it paired well with the chicken. The skin was fantastic, even though I did worry I wasn’t going to be able to get it out of the pan. (Tip: soak your frying pan overnight if you ever want it to come clean after.) I felt like the kimchee slaw should have been better, but somehow the balance was off. I think I had more Chinese cabbage than he did, and I wish I’d only used one chili instead of two. It was good but not great. This made for a very generous meal and we didn’t miss the extra “garnishes” at all. Lots of fresh flavours and some truly outstanding chicken!