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.

Doing another JO tonight - Sea Bass wrapped in pancetta with Asian greens and sweet potato mash.

We had the JO chicken satay last night with the noodles and salad. I liked the satay sauce a lot, it's not as sickly as it can be and had a good level of heat. The noodles were nice enough, not thrilling.

Still waiting for Mexican, may have to google as I want to start!

Hello everyone, i have only just noticed this thread and I have both of these books! Will write an assessment of them tomorrow when on a computer with a proper keyboard

I am cooking the trout with chili cream tomorrow, can't wait, but what should I serve alongside it?

Pregnantpause, I did the mustard chicken without skin as well. It was still lovely.

I'm going away for a few days now, so no more cooking for me until next weekend.

, Leonardo, we had new potatoewith the trout and I think carrots (mainly because that's dd1's favourite veg). It would be great with potatoes or rice and some short of greens

We had the tortilla from the Tapas menu tonight, with salad and ham. I added a few chunks of cooking chorizo as well and made with duck eggs, rather than hens. Absolutely delicious, all plates clean, even DS1 who no longer lives at home and hates eggs, asked for a slice when he popped in :)

Will be making the mustard chicken, minus skin, on Thursday after all the rave reviews and if there are any bananas left, the baked banana and cinnamon from TM for pud.

Great to see lots of new faces.

Pancetta with sea bass was a hit! Actually it was cod rather than sea bass because it was all I could get. The dressing with the Asian greens was fantastic, will make again. Didn't do the sweet potatoes.

We had JO's spaghetti puttanesca tonight. It was ok. DH said it was the best JO meal so far. I was not too amazed but I was glad that DD1 (3) had no objection to eating it (the flavours are pretty strong)! Next stop: chicken satay.

I made the JO pregnant Jools pasta thingy today. Am quite underwhelmed.......it was edible I guess and I did it in 30 mins. Dd refused to eat it. Dh is vegi so hasn't tried it. I think I'm going to be eating it every night this week and can't say I'm thrilled at the thought.

Confirms my opinion that I don't like JO much. Apart from his cheesy leeks which are the best thing ever....not sure which book it's in as I don't have any of his books!

Viva- I was underwhelmed by the pregnant pasta, nothing wrong with it and it got eaten, but I can make nicer pasta dishes alone and faster.
But other dishes have very much impressed me, though I am something of an amateur cook, and the more I cook, the more I'm left querying some of the recipes (esp the ice cream rolled in chocolate and nuts, that's not a recipe!)

When you say other dishes do you mean other JO dishes?

AIBU to wonder whether TM's copy editor couldn't have tried a little harder?
'cut them up in slithers' on p.117? Aaargh!
100g dark chocolate in cabbage and radish salad on p.146?
pumpkin seeds 'toased' on p.150?

I'm sure I saw 'as is your want' somewhere too, which drives me insane.

Actually, editing cookbooks would be one of my dream jobs, as I love food and am annoyingly pedantic.

(Haven't cooked from either book today so I'm afraid this is my only contribution!)

Black bean burritos tonight (not keen on tostadas) using wensleydale instead of feta and tomato salsa. They were fab though I couldn't toast them because I overfilled them quick and easy to do. Highly recommended.

Also made a stash of roast tomato sauce for the freezer.

Maniac-

Hiya - I lurk a lot but I thought I'd add my four pennarth! You guys are talking about Chinese cook books and as a former Hong Kong dweller I have some experience in this area. Ching is OK. For beginners Ken Hom is your man. Everything works and tastes authentic. His autobiography with recipes was amazing and has lots of stuff that you only get in Chinese homes. I got given Gok for Christmas and haven't touched it. I REALLY want Fuschia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice. Another one from across the pond is Kylie Kwong. Her stuff is really authentic and interesting. HTH

Just delievered today Simple Chinese cooking by Kylie Kwong - loads of interesting recipes - loving the look of the crispy soft boiled eggs, ingredients are recognisable....tonight I'm going to make White cooked chicken with soy and ginger dressing.

Finally did mustard.chicken today (minor accident yesterday left me unable to cook).

It was nice, and Dh was certainly pleased, it's a step up from usual Tuesday fare and he said it was like having dinner in the local- comforting, slightly better than home, but not gourmet. The children enjoyed it too. I will probably make it again, when the ingredients all happen to be knocking about, I don't think I'd shop for it iykwim.

Though, it took me an hour, mainly because I wouldn't bother with his way for dauphinouse, I roasted it for an hour like a normal person. The chicken I flavoured and roasted too, before adding it to the sauce which I made in a saucepan, in about 5 mins. To me, though it may take longer, shoving things in the oven is better than committing 30mins to a stovetop. The prep is the same.

Finally able to report that I made something! Was trapani pasta from JO. I really liked it (even though it did look like vomit!), DH less keen.
Have been off colour with some kind of virus, so not felt like cooking much but am trying to decide what to cook for friends on Fri evening. Think it might be the spinach and feta pie from JO. Haven't completely decided yet though, will report back when I have decided
Was also inspired to order Every Grain of Rice which arrived today. Haven't had proper look yet, but it is a beautiful book, love the feel of the cover

I also made the mustard chicken today. Best JO recipe so far for us. DH enjoyed it a lot and I was relatively happy with it. I agree with pregnant that it us best cooked in the oven. I also roasted the potatoes and was feeling very guilty to be frying the chicken. The recipe is quite calorific as it is...

I think the timing really limits the usefulness of 30 Minute Meals (and 15 minute even more so) for me. I really wish that each recipe had a couple of lines at the bottom that said something like "if you have longer than 30 minutes, you could put this in the oven" or "use chicken thighs instead of breast if you aren't time limited".

But I guess that would defy the point of the book

It would defeat the point of the gimmick, but, I agree, what's more, as someone else pointed out, at times it seems a race to how much you can make in 30mins. I may be alone, but whilst I like serving lots of plates of food for every one to help themselves, alot of the time I just serve one dish. Pasta for dinner tonight, not pasta, and numerous salads that will be wasted as it's midweek and nobody wants a feast midweek. But still it makes a change and, I was surprised by how easy it was, even outside of the time er, recommendation.

The sausage cassolet was very nice, and, though yet again I roasted for ease, came in at 35mins. I fried the bacon leeks and onion while sausages started to roast, then added fried stuff, beans and pasata, then left it for twenty minutes before adding the crumbs for five mins at the end.

All of my family enjoyed it and it was a very satisfying midweek meal. I'm not sure it needed the broccoli, as it's an all in one dish in itself. The broccoli got eaten, but I won't make it again.

The desert was nice, dh loved it, but he will eat meringue in any way served him. DC dubious, but enjoyed it.

I'm quite proud that I made the full meal, and close to 30 mins. I feel all domestic goddess serving desert on a Wednesday.

Hello, can I just join in with this?? I have all the books already for June and July (cook books are my porn ) but am lacking the inspiration to use them!!

Can I join too? I buy loads of cookbooks and then get overwhelmed and end up using recipes off the Internet. I cooked the easy chilli and red rice from TM last night and it was very good - even though I used mince instead of braising steak. The chorizo worked well.

Fellow cookbook porners, how do you meal plan etc? I really want someone to invent an app that will make a shopping list from the recipes I like, but am currently resorting to index cards for meal planning. Does anyone have a good system?

Parsnip, not sure if this is what you mean, but have you seen Eat My Books?