food, reviews and of course coffee
I very rarely buy stuffing, if I do it is only fresh stuffing, I don’t think I have bought a stuffing mix in years. Normally I make my own stuffing.
These were made very simply with diced onions, sausage meat, breadcrumbs, fresh herbs and wrapped up with pancetta bacon. I would then roast them in the oven for about 20-30 minutes.
Quick and easy and certainly just as quick as using a stuffing mix.
I have blogged about Jamie Oliver’s 30 minute meals, the Guardian decided to put them to the test.
It all looks so easy on the television. But is it really possible to cook Jamie Oliver’s 30-minute recipes in the allotted time – and do they taste any good?
Read more and see the results.
I have to agree that trying to cook what you see in television cookery programmes is always a little fraught and doesn’t always work out exactly how you see on screen. I am always impressed with Ready Steady Cook, even with the pre-heated ovens, pans and boiled kettle, 20 minutes is a very short time to get a meal done. Same with Jamie’s 30 minute meals.
Having said all that, cooking shouldn’t and doesn’t need to take ages and using time as an excuse for not cooking is missing out.
I do quite like the idea of a Japanese Bento Box, however here in the UK (outside London) we don’t get many Japanese takeaways.
If you exclude Indian, most Asian takeaways in this country “pretend” to be Chinese takeaways. Serving fast wok fried food in sticky sugary sauces.
This Bento Box was from a Japanese takeaway in New Zealand and was quite nice and very reasonably priced. It makes me wonder why we can’t in this country do something similar. Well actually from experience we can in London, but outside the big cities, no we have to suffer sticky faux-Chinese sauces…
In December 2009 I went to a conference in Auckland in New Zealand. A friend took me out for a meal at a wonderful restaurant. Alas I don’t recall the name or the location…
I went with the mussels.
This was a wonderfully freshly cooked Thai curry with mussels.
It was delicious.
It’s not just pubs that go for using the deep fat fryer for meals.
Sometimes I wish any place that serves food have a little more imagination.
Look at this meal I had at the Auckland War Memorial Museum.
Most of the stuff on that platter is deep fried!
Personally I would have liked them to use fresh ingredients rather than processed stuff out of the freezer that is then thrown into the deep fat fryer. Why not take a leaf out of the Spanish tapas cookbook or a Greek meze cookbook and be more creative.
In December 2009 I went to a conference in Auckland in New Zealand. I visited the Auckland War Memorial Museum and wasn’t going to have lunch there, but did like the sound of this dish on the menu, however it wasn’t quite what I expected or anticipated. As a result I was little disappointed.
On Channel 4 this evening is a new series from Jamie Oliver on 30 minute meals.
So what milk do you buy?
There is a lot of choice available these days. My milk of choice is usually organic skimmed.
Sometimes speed and ease is what is needed in the kitchen. I do use tinned pulses and beans a fair bit in my cooking. Though I know I can buy dried, soak and cook them myself, I do find that using tinned is quick and easy. It also allows for last minute changes to recipes or what I am going to cook for dinner.
One problem I do have is that sometimes a regular sized tin of pulses or beans is too big. So I was pleased to find these small tins at my local Waitrose of Cannellini and Borlotti Beans.
What is also nice about these is that the beans are not in brine, so less salty.
So how did I make the salad?
Well it was literally thrown together very quickly. I cooked off the pancetta in a frying pan and then mixed it with the drained beans and sweetcorn. I then dressed the salad with olive oil, white wine vinegar and freshly ground black pepper.
There is something very tasty and somewhat healthy about a freshly cooked vegetable stir fry.
It’s also so simple to do too.
Prepare the vegetables using whatever you have in the fridge. Fry in a wok or as I do in a large frying pan.
You can add sauce if you want, sometimes all I use is a little chinese five spice. I also sometimes add cashew nuts for added crunch.
Great on it’s own, but also nice with some spicy pork.
Sometimes speed and ease is what is needed in the kitchen. I do use tinned pulses and beans a fair bit in my cooking. Though I know I can buy dried, soak and cook them myself, I do find that using tinned is quick and easy. It also allows for last minute changes to recipes or what I am going to cook for dinner.
One problem I do have is that sometimes a regular sized tin of pulses or beans is too big. So I was pleased to find these small tins at my local Waitrose of Cannellini Beans.
I have used these for salads and for cooking.
What is also nice about these is that the beans are not in brine, so less salty.