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.

[maniacbug]

Aha glorious I knew there was a gap in my collection! My only Chinese cookbook is an ancient Ken Hom one; I'm sure modern Chinese cookery is a lot more exciting and would definitely be up for some experimenting.

snow can't recommend as haven't tried it yet, but we will be doing the chicken adobado on the BBQ this weekend. Is the weather going to stay beautiful? (Daren't check the forecast.)

[ScienceRocks]

The weather forecast for the weekend is good, I think. Well, it was earlier in the week so I don't want to look again

I'd love to try some Chinese cooking. A book I can recommend NOT using is the Gok Wan one. I bought it based on some rave reviews on amazon, and my word I was disappointed. I did four things, just in case I had tried a duff recipe, but they were all bland and dull.

Off to the library later so I will try and request the July books and see if they have started stocking Jerusalem after last month's amazing comments.

[karmakameleon]

Hi all, I'm feeling a bit left out because I haven't had any time to cook from this month's books so far.

I'm so disappointed as I was really looking forward to this month's books and so enjoyed the last couple of threads (another big to tigerlily, hope she's enjoying her holiday) but have no time now as I've just gone back to work from maternity leave. Not helped either by DS not settling well at nursery so he's very clingy when he gets me back in the evening so hardly helpful when I'm trying to cook dinner!

So really looking for any ideas on fairly easy and quick meals I can try. I know quick is the whole idea of the Jamie book but call me cynical but I don't quite believe the 30min thing. Anyway it certainly won't take into account a screaming DS clinging onto me for dear life so I may save that for weekends and concentrate on the TM book if anyone has any suggestions.

[akarucker]

karma I agree, JO outright lied about the 30mins! All I could suggest is perhaps getting all the prep work/ equipment out ready the day or night before. I usually find that's quite a chunk of the time. A bit of a hassle, I know, but it may allow you to try a few recipes without resorting to frozen dinners while things are hard for you.

[snoworneahva]

Chinese cookery books haven't really moved beyond Ken Hom in the 70's have they? Have just ordered Simple Chinese Cooking by Kylie Kwong - I remember watching her show in Australia and it all seemed pretty doable.....will report back when the book arrives.

[snoworneahva]

As for the 30 min thing with Jamie Oliver - I don't like speedy cooking, I'd prefer to stroll around the kitchen in a 1970's floor length Kaftan - ok so I don't have a floor length Kaftan but the vibe is the same, a bit chilled. If I only had 30mins, I'd cook something simple, I'd use a slow cooker, I'd have a fry up....I'd even phone for a pizza....it's just all too rushed, I'd feel like falling onto the sofa with a large drink, rather than sitting down to share to share a meal with my loved ones.

[glorious]

Lots of enthusiasm for Chinese then. If you want to try something I'd recommend the pock-marked mother Chen's beancurd if you like spicy stuff, it's lovely and unctuous and a classic Sichuanese dish. Or the beef with cumin which is a Muslim dish from the north, fragrant and very easy.

[glorious]

From the link below, sorry!

[HuevosRancheros]

maniacbug could I please hijack this thread that I've been lurking on to ask you about your chipotles?

Which ones did you get from Mexgrocer.co.uk? Morita or Meco? Any idea what the difference is?

(thanks to all the chat on here I have ordered the Mexican book, and look forward to ordering loads of ingredients!:))

[ELR]

I have just looked at that book 'Every Grain of Rice' on amazon and it looks very good. Maybe one for the future? Still getting going with this months books I've cooked from both of them loads so trying to find new recipes I want to try is a little hard as not had much time to sit down and flick through so far.
karma the pasta puttanesca from JO is really nice and quite quick to make, the pinch of cinnamon really does make a difference too

[ZuleikaJambiere]

Oooh, I was going to suggest Chinese, and you've all beaten me to it. I have the ChingHe Haung book at home which would love to be used more than it has. What I have done of her recipes are easy and delicious. And I'm up for baking too - August would mean the girls could join in some holiday baking

Thanks for the lasagne tip pregnant, I'll definitely scale down quantities if it doesn't reheat

[Trills]

I just bought Mexican Food Made Easy accidentally without realising that it was your book of the month :)

[Trills]

Despite working in London I have not managed to have lunch at a Wahaca yet - I may have to do something about this

[akarucker]

Second dish made from JO - pregnant pasta! It was surprisingly delicious and will be on my regular easy go-to menu. Went well with a huge salad. That's two for two from this book so far...

[ZuleikaJambiere]

We've just eaten JO's steak sarnie (without any of the accompaniments) and it was A.Ma.Zing! It will definitely become a regular on a Friday night (Friday night tea in this house is a sofa tea after the girls are in bed, so finger food is a must). And having said that his recipes all seem expensive, this is reasonable as one steak fed us both.

I have a question about this weekend's menu, which is the summer veg lasagne. I couldn't get fresh lasagne, so will be using dried. Do I cook them first and then cook the lasagne for the same time as in the book (however long that might be ...), or does it need longer? And if it needs longer, will that ruin the filling? And finally, where do you get fresh lasagne from? I hunted high and low (although I do live in rural Yorkshire)

So I definitely won't get tomorrow nights tea done in 30 minutes with dry pasta. And I've got fresh mango rather than frozen, so pudding will need to be done in advance. 30 minutes is out the window

[ScienceRocks]

Zuleika, I get fresh lasagne sheets from ocado (so waitrose) but thought all supermarkets did it in the fresh pasta section.

Did the fish tray bake from Jamie this evening. I followed the advice upthread and started with the asparagus and other ingredients, then added the fish and prawns later. I also stuck it in the oven rather than under the grill as I was baking a cake at the same time. I love his salsa verde recipe, and have made it many times.

I'd definitely do it again

[greensnail]

We've had the mustard chicken this evening. Went down well, although the girls wouldn't eat the potatoes we all enjoyed the chicken. Definitely will make it again. I was going to do the pudding that went with it but managed to miss the second page of my shopping list so was missing a few items for it. I'm finding the timings worked quite well if I tidied the kitchen when I was supposed to be making the pudding. That way I didn't end up with a bomb site by the time I'd finished.

[maniacbug]

Snap, aka, we had the Jools pasta too. Funny to think of all these JO Friday night meals happening across the country! I liked the time-saving technique of blitzing everything in the food processor. Wasn't sure about the balsamic at first, but I simmered the sauce for ages, then left it on the hob and reheated and it seemed to mellow nicely.

Zuleika I hadn't noticed his recipe for home-made butter - you're right, that seems a slightly bonkers thing to do when you're on a time budget! But I am intrigued and am definitely going to try it (on its own, not as part of a recipe). Last time I made butter was about 25 years ago in science at school, with a jam jar.

I was browsing through JO last night looking for more inspiration and must have stared at the Eton mess picture on p.253 for a full minute, in horrified fascination. Eton mess is delicious, and I know the point is that it's all mixed up, but.... well, have a look and you'll see what I mean.

Huevos my chipotles are morita. I didn't know the difference between morita and meco chipotles either, until about 2 minutes ago! Like the user name by the way, very apt. Is that specially for this month?

[TuttiFrutti]

Greensnail, we had the mustard chicken too and loved it! I will definitely make it again. Loved the dauphinois potatoes too. I also made the affogato puddings, which were a big hit ( left the coffee off the dc's version so theirs was just ice cream on cherries with crushed biscuits).

This is such a great thread - have been watching with interest but this has been my first opportunity to join in.

[HuevosRancheros]

Thanks maniacbug, yes I ended up googling it too, as the mexgrocer website didn't offer up much help!

No, I have been HuevosRancheros for a long while, my favourite breakfast! But it's always been my version, looking forward to following Thomasina's recipe to see how she does it :)

I am mostly veggie, DH completely - is there much in the JO book for veggies? Happy to mix and match meals if necessary

[snoworneahva]

Thomasina's huevos rancheros is fabulous...it's my favourite breakfast!

[glorious]

The chillies just arrived and they smell amazing. Thanks maniacbug, I'm pretty excited about all things Mexican now!

[Feathered]

I made the beef hash, and it was great. Very easy. I made it in stages through the evening and then finished it all off once the children were in bed, so I can't comment on the 30 minute thing. It would make a good alternative to bolognese. Tasted healthy too, lots of fresh vegetables. My husband used the leftovers this morning in a breakfast hash - so perfect for a friday evening/ Saturday morning.

So next I'll do something from the Thomasina book . . . but what??? I'm a little bit lost with that one. People who know the book well, what would you recommend for a newbie?

[ScienceRocks]

Feathered, do the tortilla soup. It is really simple (use chipotle paste instead of chipotles in adobe if you want) and tastes fantastic. I don't bother with the deep fried chilli garnish but do all the others, though I use bought tortilla chips instead of frying strips of tortilla.

It will literally give you a flavour of the book.

Other quick ones are the taco recipes and the polenta with mushrooms.

[snoworneahva]

Thomasina has just given me the know how and confidence to spatchcock a chicken - it's marinating in chipotle paste - ok, so not technically her recipe but surely we all hope to gain new skills from each recipe book ....think I'm finally getting my head around jointing a chicken - kitchen shears seem to be the key! Hurrah - no more watery chicken!