Jamie Oliver -5 ingredients Quick and easy

[tigermousewoman]

I'm in need of a distraction project from life - anyone fancy joining me in an attempt to cook my way through Jamie Oliver's latest?

So far .. have made Quick and easy fish curry. Made this for DM and I - went down well with us both. Used haddock as cheap and the rest was store cupboard which was handy. I was a bit heavy handed with the lime pickle and it showed in the taste so I'd def recommend to stick to his quantities there. The result was lovely and we both cleaned our plates though! Timing said 15 minutes or so and I couldn't do it in that as he had you both halving tomatoes and chopping the fish and then cooking the tomatoes all at the same time... so I did the prep in advance

Also tried Korean Rice - with Kim chi. This was a super tasty and easy lunch to put together. Really enjoyed it both of us (Dh and I). I wouldn't need the recipe next time as it's a great idea and technique to get your head around and will be good to have at my fingertips.

Plan tonight is harissa chicken tray bake.. looking forward to it!

I've seen good things about the flatbreads on here and I'm also planning those for tomorrow

I made the Chocolate Orange shortbread and it needed longer in the oven to be much more crispy.... Or just roll it thinner than he suggests. Will make it again, but cut into thin round biscuits and cook for longer. Delia (Complete Cookery course) still wins for her shortbread recipe, though.

anyone done the frangipan pastry tart

Chicken noodle stir fry was lovely - as someone said before not really a recipe as so simple.

Sticky pork stir fry done this evening with rice. Very easy & nice but the thing I like most about this book is that everything made is really loved by my children.

Right, have caught up on this thread after a few weeks away.

Have now made the sticky lamb chops about 5 times. Have worked out that you have to assume it's all going to take quite a long time to cook and have been sneakily adding a little bit of butter at the end, but it's delicious and DH is in heaven.

I want to do the butternut, chicken thai soup. But... doesn't the soup get very fatty with the chicken just left in like that? I'm concerned it's going to make me feel sick. What was other people's experience?

Am totally planning to do the orange shortbread, but am considering swapping lemon for orange as I don't really like orange in baked goods.

Workingbling - I've been wondering the same thing- watching with interest

Hello, hope you don't mind the intrusion, I've only just seen this thread and I love the book!

I make the chicken legs with rosemary/garlic/lemon potatoes on a weekly basis now - it is so easy and we all love it. Making the white fish rice tomato basil dish tonight (can't remember all of the names and not with the book) so will look out for timings and heat!

The Hoisin Pak Choi Rice is delicious.... I've just made it for my lunch, halving everything as the recipe is for 2. There was a good amount of rice and the pak choi was so juicy. I hadn't cooked p c before and it needed charring for longer I thought to become tender. I'll be making that again. Having a go at the Thai squash soup tomorrow.

I did the banging beef stew in the slow cooker. I sizzled it for a bit on the hob as per the recipe then put it in the slow cooker with half the amount of water. As with all slow cooker things I make I cooled it and reheated next day. There was too much water and I would be tempted to do a quarter next time but it tasted nice.

Rose pesto prawn pasta - went down a storm and so simple

So glad I pre- read the instructions on the angel hair pasta as I had no idea it only took 3 mins and the dish relies on everything coming together at the right time - so much so that I missed the end of the archers! Really quick,

Did the beef rendang but I couldn't resist messing with the recipe (not least because the waitrose spices it calls for come with lemongrass and kaffir lime). Bertrand - did you make it being good and following the instructions to the letter?

Tiger, I’ve become a bit addicted to that dish and to angel hair pasta....

Just finished the Thai Red Chicken Soup and it wasn't the best - we found it a bit flavourless, having followed the recipe to the letter - I put lots of salt and pepper in to taste. It was less than the sum of it's parts, really. The only things I can think is that I should have used Bart Red Thai paste, and not the Aldi version...

WorkingBling - There was a lot of fat floating on top and it took a good 5 mins to skim it off. A bit off-putting.

tigermousewoman - the prawn dish sounds lovely - thanks for the review, and it must have been good to miss the end of Friday's edition! It's worth hearing....

I made the pork and mash gratin which was a huge hit, but took a lot longer to cook than the 10 minutes Jamie suggested! I would say it was probably under the grill for nearer 25 minutes and I kept turning the pork fillet round during that time to make sure it cooked through.

I just made the yoghurt-based flatbreads for lunch with the DC as it’s half term. They loved them, and they’re amazingly easy. DD and I had the suggested topping of soft-boiled eggs with mango chutney, but DS had his with ham.

Using the flatbread recipe to make pizza tonight. It's in the oven!

And then last night for dinner I made the sticky teriyaki aubergine. I served it with basmati rice, to make it into more of a meal. On the plus side I thought it was a clever way of cooking aubergine (minus the usual gallons of oil). On the negative side, I found myself wishing it had more of a liquid sauce - I guess because I served it with rice it seemed a bit dry. I think next time I’ll deglaze the pan with a bit of water or something.

Ollivander, how did the flatbreads go as pizza bases?

Has the gnarly chicken been on TV yet? I wanted to watch it but can't seem to find it. Any idea of the episode number?
Can't find the recipe online either.

Perfect as pizza bases! I would possibly precook for a few minutes alone next time but they were really tasty

I'm really tempted by the book as I generally love Jamie recipes, but I was a bit put off as it looks like most of the recipes are quite expensive - lots of steak, prawns, etc - has anyone found this to be the case?

@GinnyBaker
wizzywig you don't need a lot of things for each recipe, but a fair few use jarred stuff I wouldn't normally have in, like chilli jam, lime pickle, hoisin sauce, black bean sauce, teriyaki sauce etc.

I can see I'm going to have a lot of open jars in the fridge...

Batch cook and freeze the extra.

@InMemoryOfSleep
I’d say it’s a real mixture. The recipes based on veg or eggs (there’s a whole section on eggs) are quite frugal, but there are a few recipes in the meat sections with expensive ingredients. The white bean and rib eye one looks delicious but the centrepiece is a gigantic piece of rib eye which I imagine wouldn’t be cheap.

Agree it's a real mixture - but he does use some of the more expensive jarred ingredients more than once in the book so if you plan carefully it needn't up costs too much

For me it's great to get new ideas on how to prepare things that we actually look forward to eating.

As well as eggs there's lots of chicken recipes too which I find not too bad price wise

For a low cost but contemporary type cookbook (in terms of tastes and cuisines) I've been enjoying the Miguel barclay books - lots of great ideas in there and very scalable

I did the chocolate orange shortbread recipe but failed on the drizzling the chocolate - was so hard! I just spread the chocolate all over it instead.

I also chucked in a handful of white chocolate chunks I found in my cupboard - they made all the difference!

PS wtf does 'gnarly' mean?