Jamie Oliver webchat, Thursday 29 August, 2.45pm

[GeraldineMumsnet]

We're chuffed that Jamie Oliver is paying a return visit to Mumsnet this Thursday. His first MN webchat was back in 2010.

Jamie has a new book out, Save with Jamie: Shop Smart, Cook Clever, Waste Less (all subjects dear to MNers' hearts). It has 100 brand-new recipes designed to be accessible, reliable and, above all, affordable.

This is what Jamie says about his new book: "For years I have been telling people that if you look back through history, the best food in the world has always come from communities under massive financial pressure. But the proviso is that you MUST be able to cook! If you can't, and have no money, that is where the trouble starts. This is a cook book which, from start to finish has tasty recipes, all dedicated to great value, is a brilliant weapon to have on the shelf, and is relevant to every household. If you use this book the way it's intended, you should end up saving a wodge of cash from your wallet."

And to tie in with the book, he has a new six-part series on Channel 4 starting on Monday 2 Sept at 8pm.

Please post your question and join Jamie for a chat at 2.45pm on Thurs.

It's not just food. I get the point and it's a useful one, but it's not the problem.

It's time
money of course
and social divisions
and lack of/too much knowledge of possibilities
and lack of/too much imagination
and having or not having the equipment
feeling shitty about people who you feel are above or beneath you
social pressures to conform, whichever way you look at it

anybody here could make a simple meal of home-made pasta, oil, garlic, a bit of veg and herbs: for next to no money (I am not talking out and out poverty but feeding four people for say £2.50? easy) and frankly not all that much effort and only a little learned skill.
99% of us won't for one or all of those reasons.

Food is never just food, not any more.

Short hour contracts are shit I agree, and most shops use them. Not just Tesco.

If this thread turns into a bunfight, would that be olive oil and polenta buns? :o

Food or selling food ,or rather selling the lifestyle makes some people a lot of money.

Oh I'm not saying that Tesco is unique. But it is a bit much for someone to come onto a thread where there has been a lot of talk about poverty and say that Tesco is a good employer. When Tesco in common with many employers in the retail sector uses short hours contracts. It is exactly because of employers such as Tesco that we have got to this ridiculous situation where working people, people with fucking jobs, find it impossible to run their households effectively because they do not know from one week to the next how much money they have got coming in, despite having a contract of employment. It is disgraceful.

I've reserved this book at my local library and will collect it tomorrow. I'll be interested to see just how affordable it is. Someone has helpfully published a list of contents on Amazon and there is a whole section on what to do with left over salmon. That's not a budget ingredient to me.

ouvyve only if you can post a recipe for them

LOl at left over salmon.

So you're the one who Immacced her baby honeydragon?

This thread really has been worth sticking around

I am just gobsmacked at the section on leftover salmon.
That's my gob. Smacked.

Well, unlike Scheherazade Goldsmith, at least he didn't chicken out entirely when he realised he hadn't given it enough thought.

Here it is:

LEFTOVER SALMON RECIPES:
Tasty salmon tacos
Salmon - 4 beautiful ways
Salmon filo pie
Kinda Vietnamese salmon salad

MORE FISH RECIPES:
Sweet pea fish pie
Fantastic fish tikka curry
Sweet and sour fish balls
Cajun salmon and prawn fishcakes
Jools' sweet pea and prawn pasta shells
Grilled garlic mussels, sweet tomato soup
Carbonara of smoked mackerel
My favourite Sicilian sardine spaghetti
Trout al forno
Mussel pasta e fagioli
Tuna melt piadina
Portuguese fish stew
Smoky kipper pate

Apparently you have salmon for Sunday lunch and use the leftovers to make other recipes. I assume the intention is to buy and cook a whole salmon. Maybe JO is thinking if you have a mahoosive plasma tv you will also have a fish kettle in which to cook your salmon, or maybe you will borrow it from Waitrose when you do your weekly shop

Cook it in the dishwasher bisjo!

TeWi I hadn't thought of that. Silly me, of course poor people would have a dishwasher as well as a big tv

Obviously

That's why I haven't got a dishwasher, my telly is only 22".

Actually a quick google reveals that you can also borrow a fish kettle from Morrisons, whose salmon prices may be a bit more budget friendly than Waitrose. I haven't watched a JO series since Naked Chef so I'm looking forward to this one.

TeWi I too have a 22" tv but I do have a dishwasher (albeit a slimline one - no room for anything big in our house!). I'm off to google how to cook salmon in it.

A quick look through the book today suggests there are actually quite a few quick, easy, cheap meals.

Potato and Pea Pie for instance.

Both Waitrose and Morrisons rent out fish kettles for no additional charge if you are buying fish from them.

Salmon, prawns, mussels.... We are not on the breadline by any means but I consider any of these a more expensive food that we might have once a week. Certainly not something I'd consider a budget food.

We had scrambled ago on toast just now. 4 slices toast from a £1.40 bakery loaf = 47p, 6 eggs from a box of free range that two young lads sell door to door from their grandads farm at £1.1o/6 = and a bit of butter £20p froma 95p/250g at Lidl.

£1.77
Pudding was ramekins of natural Greek style yoghurt taken from a big tub Lidl 500g for £1.50 = 50p with bashed up chocolate digestives mixed in69p/pack Lidl = 20p.

Total meal inc pud = £2.47.

82p per head. I have never sat and costed out a meal like that... I can see it becoming addictive

I did that the other day and came to £6 the other day Flibberty! I was it was only sausage and mash! But we had mange tout, baby corn and naice sausages...

I am going back to carrots and whatever meat I find in the reduced bit.

I'd rather have scrambled eggs on toast than potato and pea pie.

Tonight's Evening Standard pitches Jack Monroe's recipes against Jamie Oliver's. They said she came out on top for taste, ease and cost.

The two recipes they chose of hers did look nicer, but to be fair to him, maybe they didn't choose the nicest things from his book.

And his recipes were reasonably cheap if you were looking to save a bit of money. Just not really cheap - £1.74 and £1.86 a portion compared to her 85p and 90p .

And though he never said his were the cheapest, that comparison doesn't look good, especially since her 85p one is a chicken tagine. Obviously not free range and you need store cupboard ingredients, but still...

I'd never heard of her before this thread and I'm going to do that chicken tagine definitely.

Price is not my particular beef with him, luckily for me. I get the impression from this thread that it's not necessarily other people's biggest problem either.

It's the fact that he repeatedly lays into easy targets who are already punchbags and that's mean.

He did get a friendlier mention on the Diary page about twerking. I guess that question from seasicksal was a bit sarcastic but every little helps.

He doesn't have a big contract from that one, does he?

Leftover salmon

Reminds me of a Two Fat Ladies episode where they fiddled for ages over this inexpensive little canape base and then said, "now add a huge dollop of Beluga caviare!"

On Honey's excellent budget meals thread people are buying cheap / leftover salmon to use, they don't just have it although before we both became carers I once forgot about some special smoked stuff I got in for Christmas and took it up for MILs cat in New Year because it had gone out of date