Cookery book club - June - Mexican Food Made Easy (Thomasina Miers) and Thirty Minute Meals (Jamie Oliver)

[Curioustiger]

Come join the Mumsnet cookery bookclub! Each month we choose two cookery books - one popular, like Nigella / Jamie / Delia, so you probably already have it / can borrow it and one a bit more unusual. We cook a minimum of two recipes each - you choose the recipe, they just have to be ones you have never cooked before- which works out at four new recipes each month.Then we chat about them!

For May, our books were:

• Jerusalem by Ottolenghi
• Kitchen Diaries

And we posted here

For June our books are:

• Mexican Food Made Easy by Thomasina Miers
• Thirty Minute Meals by Jamie Oliver

For July our books will be:

• Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall Veg Every Day
• Madhur Jaffrey Ultimate Curry Bible

We will always try to pick at least one book with recipes available on the Internet, and local libraries are great for cookbooks if you can order in advance. We pick books three months ahead so will be choosing August's books this month.

Chicken pie night! Was very nice. I was quite happy with my usual chicken pie recipe but this one made a nice change and was well received. Now for the all important carrot review, dh thought they were lovely, I thought they were ok, dd2 looked at them slightly suspiciously then ate them, dd1 stuck to her usual raw carrot sticks. Overall I would do the carrots again, we eat a lot of carrots generally so nice to have them slightly differently and they did go well with the pie.
I really liked the peas as well but d h found the amount of mint I put in slightly overpowering so I will reduce that slightly next time.

I'm happy with the book choices for the next two months. Am I the only one actually looking forward to the hfw book?

No green, I am too, but then I like everything (except those carrots) so I'm not sure I count .

Very glad we are going every grain of rice, I bought it and now I'm doing the cookbook club my other books don't get a look in in the meal planning of a month, so, on that book at least, I have not wasted money the other three I bought however

I can't stand baking though, I'm bad at it, and that's so demoralising, so I won't buy short and sweet, presumably there will be some online, or one of you lovely ladies can pass me a recipe or two in August?

Well, that went well. Made TM's red snapper with pineapple tonight, using sea bream instead, and the results were as follows:

DD started crying with a headache within minutes of sitting down so skipped tea and went straight to bed at 6pm;
DS1 got a bone stuck between his teeth;
DS2 (3) declared imperiously 'I only like NOT-COOKED pineapple mummy, I've told you before'
DH and I thought the sauce was really tasty, but he was late for cricket so it barely touched the sides. Not generally a big fan of fruit-with-savoury dishes, so this was outside my comfort zone... not sure I'd do it again but glad I've tried it. I do appreciate this thread making me try things I otherwise might not!

TM's chicken + corn humble pie tomorrow.

Thanks for confirming next couple of months tigerlily... I'm another one excited about curries in July and both Aug books. Every Grain of Rice just arrived from Book People and looks gorgeous; Short and Sweet already one of my favourite baking books. (Various friends coming to stay in Aug = good excuse for cake overload. Not that I need one.)

Good luck with the chipotles, glorious!

Welcome back Tiger.

Very excited to see Chinese on the menu, I have eaten so little Chinese apart from stir fries - really hoping I can get really stuck into learning my way around all those lovely ingredients. So I've bought Every grain of rice - hoping dh doesn't notice another cookbook on my groaning shelves.

I'm looking forward to trying the sides in Veg everyday - it's just a bit ordinary as a cookbook...I'm still hoping for a gem in there somewhere - another easy tasty midweek veg dish would nothing to complain about.

I got the Madhur Jaffrey book from the library....her food always seems too simplified - it's an irrational prejudice because someone recommended her Sri Lankan Aubergine curry to me and it's really good - I love South Indian food, simple, bright, fresh fiery flavours. Have ordered the Hairy Bikers curry book from the library - something tells me their gutsy approach will marry well with curries.

Dan Lepard's book will remain a mystery to me as I'm a gluten free but I look forward to hearing about all the lovely goodies that you all create.

pregnant I'll be happy to share my favourites when the time comes. As an alternative solution, can you delegate your August baking to anyone else in the house?

Pregnant - just in case it is cakes that you fear, thought you should know that Mr Lepard also covers breads, flatbreads, biscuits, pastries (sweet and savoury), caramels and sweets.
Lots online as he writes in the Guardian.

Snow - I'm not gluten- free, but have noticed lots of mentions of gluten- free options in his recipes, so some may be good for you :)

Thanks Huevos - I think I'll order a copy from the library.

Hmm, just looked through Short and Sweet, not as many GF recipes as I recalled. There is a white bread recipe, and a shortcrust pastry one. At the beginning of the Biscuits recipe he discusses GF flour, how best to use it and that it suitable for most of the recipes in that chapter. The whole caramels/fudge/sweets section looks OK. I think you are wise to get it from the libraby first :)

Catwithflowers - no it wasn't butter chicken! And I can't even find that in the book is it the chicken makhani? We're not really fans of big creamy sauces, but I think it could be done without the cream and still be lovely, as the butteryness would come through.

We are veggie, so I look either for veggie recipes or ones I can substitute in quorn or mixed veg

Right, kicked off TM with the horchata drink. I may have overcooked it because it turned to jelly overnight in the fridge! Very nice cinnamony sweet rice starchy jelly though (well I liked it though I can see I'm not selling it well!).

I got the hairy bikers curry book on the weekend. Gutsy is the word! The recipes look delicious though. As an FYI you can get it for £12 from the works which is good value for such a thick book with lots of pictures (one upside I have noticed with HB books is that there are more pictures of the food and fewer of the authors staring wistfully into space or seductively toying with a spatula etc...much as I love Nigella / Lorraine et al, I highly approve of this editorial decision).

All, new thread for July is here.

Oh I am so behind on June!

Ok made pregnant jools' pasta. Did anyone else find it excessively sweet ? Mine was tasty and had a real kick to it thanks to some lethal tiny chillies I had hanging around (I wasn't sure if they were the sort that are really hot, or just a baby version of what I think of as 'normal' chillies, or if in fact all the little ones are fiery!) However I thought it was a touch too sweet for me (and I have a sweet tooth). It may be because I used pork and red onion sausage?

Hello, can I join in? Just recently discovered this thread and spent the weekend grabbing spare moments to read through the entire 13 pages! Made TM's green rice salad this evening (adapted to what I remembered to buy!) to rave reviews from DH. Fits the bill for quick, easy weeknight supper and is lovely on a summery but chilly evening. Skipped the crispy tortilla chips though as that sounded a bit weird for a rice salad. Going to try the steak burritos tomorrow.

...paprika paste". (Apols, all thumbs on my phone)

Ok, that was supposed to say that my tesco sells an own brand chipotle and smoked paprika paste in its "ingredients" range.

Hi mimolette happy to have you join us! Just be aware that as the end of June approaches j have made a new thread for July. But as I've only made one of my four recipes this month you and I are level pegging anyway!

Welcome mimolette (cheese fan?!).

My chipotles en adobo are done and they smell amazing

glorious my DH has taken to making himself a chipotle sandwich ... Just the chili in a slice of supermarket bread. My kilner jar is half empty after just a couple of weeks!

Yum we'll have to try it! Chipotle sandwiches all round.

😨 wow you lot must have asbestos mouths, I only stuck my finger in and licked a little and had to run for the milk 😹

The butcher has had a run on pig skin so I've got to wait till next week to try TM Mexican pork scratchings but I will return and let you know if they're an improvement on our bog standard salty ones.

pamtah did you write that to show off your emoticon skills? Very impressive! I can't say I recommend chipotle sandwiches (my DH has been working up to them by having chipotles en adobo as a condiment with everything for about three years!) but I don't find it as spicy as everyone else does. We have it with scrambled eggs on good quality brown toast sometimes (just thought we should add avocado)... Delicious!

Hello can I join in?

I've used the 30min meals book a lot although it usually seems to take 1hr+...

We love pregnant Jools' pasta although I make it with very herby and garlicky sausages from our butchers so that no doubt adds a hefty dose of flavour.

The little individual raspberry and lemon cheesecakes are great, have done them a few times.

Chicken pie was a great success (we liked the lettuce and peas with it too) but took AGES.

There's a recipe for pork and sausages with a creamy sauce and celeriac - really delicious, again took ages and I didn't bother with the pork and just cooked decent butcher's sausages normally.

We also liked the veggie rogan josh with the carrot salad, very tasty but took quite a bit longer than 30 mins.

I find the book hard to follow. But the food is very tasty.

Of course and reading how to spell asbestos off the brake pad boxes grin

I can see it in scrambled eggs, especially with cherry toms and lots of coriander. Will have as a late snack just for me, don't think DH will like it though, his taste buds are even more sensitive than mine. Want to try the green rice tonight but not sure what to put with it in super quick time. We're taking the Cubs on a Nature Hike tonight so I need to cook a quick and easy dinner before it gets too late after. I have three types of mince in my fridge, the lamb and pork were to be used to make some koupepia, Cypriot dolmades, they take quite a bit longer to do so not tonight. I might rustle up a chilli and do rice with it rather than just tortilla chips and sour cream. I have an hour window between getting in from work and leaving for the hike, should be enough time hopefully.

Hello all. Been really enjoying catching up on this thread and seeing what you have all been making. I've had so little time to cook this month and even less time to post.

I haven't managed to make anything from Jamie which is a shame as I do really like the book just don't have much need to make meals with all the sides and puddings etc when it's just the two of us.

From the TM book I've actually made loads and really enjoyed it. Here's the list

• chipotle en adobo - fantastic but really hot and I like it spicy, think it was cos I didn't wash many seeds off

• roast chipotle salsa - nice change from my normal salsa, will make again

• guacamole - very similar to my normal recipe but still good

• smoky grilled corn cob - fab, I don't think i'll have corn on the cob any other way now and not only because I have a kilo of chipotle en adobo to use up

• green rice - another good recipe, easy, tasty and def one to have again

• chorizo salad with butternut squash - slightly disappointing, just not very exciting, someone above suggested roasting the chorizo with the veg and I think that would be an improvement

• spicy bird tacos - ok, possibly would have it again if we had leftover chicken but not overly fussed about them

• one pot bacon, beans and pumpkin - ok but again not overwhelmed

• spicy spatchcock salad - another ok dish

• churros - amazing! we had them with the Mexican hot chocolate for brunch which was a bit rich for first thing in the morning but really very good.

Overall I'm a bit torn on the book. I've made some really good things but also had a few very average dishes, although no total disasters. I've had my copy for years but hadn't gotten round to cooking from it. Am I glad I tried it? Yes, very much. Would I buy a copy if I didn't already have one? No, it doesn't feel like a stand out book. Has anything I made come close to eating at Wahaca? Maybe the churros but otherwise the recipes in the book don't come close. But then Wahaca is amazing and I wouldn't really expect to be able to recreate the food at home.