Another nice memory of summer…
Prawns on the BBQ
Jamie Oliver once more cooks on the BBQ, this time prawns.
Jamie Oliver, I do like your Pesto
Last week I mentioned how disappointed I was with Jamie Oliver’s Italian Sausages. Well this time I was trying out his pesto.
To be honest I was a lot more impressed.
Unlike other pesto I have used, this had a lovely smooth flavour, you could taste the basil, you could taste (and feel) the pine nuts, the parmesan was not overpowering as it sometimes can be in pesto and the olive oil was subtle without the harshness of cheap oil you find in some cheap pesto.
It worked well with the linguine I had.
I will be buying it again.
Jamie Oliver, I do like your Pesto!
Jamie Oliver Italian Sausages
If you are a regular reader of the blog you will know that I am a bit of a fan of Jamie Oliver. However I have been avoiding buying any Jamie Oliver products as I was concerned that my expectations would not be met.
However having put off buying anything I saw in my local supermarket some Jamie Oliver Italian style sausages. Coarse pork with red wine, prosciutto and herbs. They sounded and looked great.
After watching Jamie’s Great Italian Escape
I pan fried them, they browned and cooked fine.
I served them with some pasta and a green salad.
So what did I think?
Well…
They were certainly meaty, a great texture.
However I was disappointed with the flavour. It wasn’t sausage enough and it wasn’t Italian enough either. The flavours needed to be stronger in my opinion.
The key question is will I buy them again?
Sorry no.
Jamie Oliver makes a cracking BBQ chicken
Jamie Oliver makes a cracking BBQ chicken.
Jamie Does…
I do quite like books by Jamie Oliver and his most recent one is rather nice.
Jamie Does… is Jamie’s personal celebration of amazing food from six very different countries. Cheap, short-haul flights and long weekend getaways have become increasingly popular and within a few short hours of the UK there are new and exciting worlds of food waiting to be discovered as Jamie finds out. Each chapter focusses on a different city or region – Marrakesh, Athens, Venice, Andalucia, Stockholm and the Midi Pyrenees region of France. Classic recipes sit alongside new dishes that Jamie learns along the way. Alongside each recipe there is a beautiful photograph of the finished dish, as well as incredible reportage shots of Jamie’s experiences in each country. Jamie says: ‘The food I’ve embraced on each trip is a mixture of what you could call the clichéd star dishes – the many tagines of Morocco, the flamboyant paellas of Spain, the comforting risottos from Italy and the zingy fresh flavours of a classic Greek salad – and the recipes that I’ve been inspired to make after walking through the markets and soaking up the vibes of each place. What you’ll find in this book is fun, optimistic, escapist food you can actually cook and enjoy in your own home.’
Jamie Does… Greece
If you didn’t know already Jamie Oliver has a fair few videos on YouTube.
I enjoyed this recipe from Greece.
Oliver’s show cooks up town storm
Jamie Oliver is back in the news.
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has cooked up a storm in a South Yorkshire town where his latest TV show is accused of portraying residents as “thickos”.
Jamie Oliver has criticised the UK for its poor cuisine
BBC reports on an interview with Jamie Oliver where Jamie criticises the way in which people in the UK don’t like eating well, but prefer to drink too much…
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has criticised the UK for its alcohol culture and poor cuisine.
In an interview with Paris Match magazine, Oliver suggested people in the UK cared more about getting drunk than they did about eating well.
There is a significant minority in the UK who do eat well, like good food, go out of their way to purchase organic and local produce. Though I agree with Jamie there is a substantial majority who are quite happy cooking from frozen bags of prepared food. This same majority rarely eat together and are more likely to eat in front of the television then around the table.
So is Jamie Oliver correct in his view, or are me and him wrong?
Ooh nice sausages
I seem to have been buying the same sausages for ages, so the other day seeing Paul Rankin’s Irish pork sausages on the shelf the other day, decided, oh lets try them.
I was slightly hesitant as sometimes you wonder if you are paying more for the “name” than the quality of the ingredients. I did wonder if I would get cheap salty tasting sausages which though made with “succulent cuts of pork” was actually made with cheap succulent cuts of pork!
However I did remember that I use the buy Sainsburys Taste the Difference steak which was endorsed by Jamie Oliver at one point and I really could taste the difference!
So what about Paul Rankin’s sausages?
Well they cooked perfectly with very little shrinkage or water loss. They had a good texture and tasted really good. Sometimes good quality sausages can be very salty, so all you can taste is salt, with these I could taste the pork.
I will certainly be buying these again.