Jamie's Ministry of Food - What have you made so far?

[dietstartstomorrow]

I have done the vegetable soup, minced beef wellington and spag bol.

All were lovely. I have made the same old spag bol in our house for years, and this one was so different.

crunchy garlic chicken delish and think the coating might be nice on salmon too
cauliflower cheese soup divine, even though I made it a bit thin

I've just bought the book. Keen to make teh chinesey pak choi thing first.

I made the sweet and sour pork last night - really nice

it was ready grated stuff in little packets inthe chiller section in tesco along with other cheese - already grated.... It was easy to make though and looked nice - just tasted vile - actually i expected to love it and the kids too and dh not to as he is moaney about adventurous stuff - he ate everybodys and we didnt!

Agree with those who say it's a good book - I am a useless cook and even so have made a cracking bolognaise and yummy crunchy garlic chicken.

Beef and ale stew - best thing I've ever cooked.

Have made the beef stew but I used red wine instead of ale and it was absolutely delicious. I know he says not to swap the booze in the stew recipes, but as beef and red wine is a good combination anyway, why not? It was great. I often make it on a Sunday afternoon and freeze it in portions to have during the week.

Have also made the macaroni cheese and may never go back to making it in the traditional way again! It was extremely tasty.

A friend made us one of the curries when we were round for dinner one night and it too was excellent. Think it was probably the rogan josh.

I also made the paella but wouldn't really rate that - perhaps it was just my cooking though!

McDreamy The sweet and sour pork is a firm favourite in our house now. It is delicious. It is also good with chicken.

Cooking the beef in ale right now.

But already thoroughly depressed by reading the book as dh is allergic to:

• wheat
• shellfish
• spring onion
• garlic
• chilli
• other things I now can't recall.

What to use instead of cream crackers? Nothing to be done about prawns and with garlic I'm just putting my foot down (dh agrees okay in moderation).

Am honestly just so sick of not being able to cook what I want. Salmon en croute - not in this lifetime, there is no way to make decent gf pastry.

DH can eat oats but ds can't, on it goes. Love the look of some of the pasta dishes but gf pasta is dreadful and certainly there's no equivalent to the baby shells.

SIGH.

the meatloaf is really good. DD ate loads of it

Chicken Korma then the biryani.
Stew then pie
Lasagne.

All very nice.