One of my goals when we moved to Brisbane was to cook more. I've gotten out of the habit of cooking simple weekday meals over the last 10 years, in part because of my erratic schedule as a massage therapist.
I started with Rachel Ray's 30 Minute Meals. Got a few good recipes out of that. Went looking for more. And discovered that cookbooks have a Great Divide:
I started with Rachel Ray's 30 Minute Meals. Got a few good recipes out of that. Went looking for more. And discovered that cookbooks have a Great Divide:
- On one side is the quick and simple (but not always good) cookbooks that rely a lot on cream of mushroom soup. "4 Ingredients" is a good/horrific example of this.
- On the other side is multi-step recipes that require lots of time (even when they're advertised as quick) or ingredients I've never heard of. Donna Hay and Cook's Illustrated are good examples of this side.
Rachel Ray fit nicely in the middle. I've discovered that Jaime Oliver does too.
In case you haven't heard of him, he's an English celebrity chef who has a TV show and books and specials and etc. etc. etc. I've caught his show a few times here in Australia (he may be available on BBC America at home). Like Rachel Ray, he's all about making a full meal in 30 minutes. His meals usually include a main dish, a side/veg, a salad, and dessert.
He uses more international/exotic ingredients than Rachel Ray does and is big on time-saving steps like electric tea kettles. He also loves the word "whack" to refer to ways of chopping, temperature, and quantities. That takes a little getting used to.
I picked up his book (finally! Huge waiting list.) at the library and, on the advice of our English houseguest Vickie, tried the baked crusted fish with tapenade (that's not what he calls it but that's what it is).
Excellent. Since I'm a little hesitant/inexperienced with fish, I was doubly happy. I also recently tried a mashed potato/peas/broccoli dish. I liked it better than Jeff did, mostly because I suspect he thinks mashed potatoes by themselves may be God's most perfect food (or maybe that's me...).
Tonight it was Cauliflower Macaroni Bake and a spinach/cucumber salad. Another big hit.
I can't do the whole shebang in 30 minutes like he can and I'm only doing two dishes, not four! But I got those two dishes out in about 45 minutes and that was fine by me.
The biggest drawback to his cookbook is that he assumes you're cooking all four of the dishes he's put together and he hops from one dish to another and back again, often without giving baking/frying/boiling times. The assumption is that you bake/fry/boil it for as long as it takes you (or more accurately, him) to do the next step.
Ah.....no.
So before I took the book back to the library this morning, I went through it and identified the dishes I'd like to try and transcribed the instructions into standalone recipes. I've now got my own little database of new fun recipes.
I'm particularly excited because I have virtually no imagination when it comes to salads and vegetables and he does. I transcriped a lot of salad and vegetable recipes.
He's apparently cooking for 8, given how many leftovers we have, so I'll have to learn how to cut them down. But I am very excited to have some new recipes to try and I am, for the moment, quite mad for Jaime Oliver.
I picked up his book (finally! Huge waiting list.) at the library and, on the advice of our English houseguest Vickie, tried the baked crusted fish with tapenade (that's not what he calls it but that's what it is).
Excellent. Since I'm a little hesitant/inexperienced with fish, I was doubly happy. I also recently tried a mashed potato/peas/broccoli dish. I liked it better than Jeff did, mostly because I suspect he thinks mashed potatoes by themselves may be God's most perfect food (or maybe that's me...).
Tonight it was Cauliflower Macaroni Bake and a spinach/cucumber salad. Another big hit.
I can't do the whole shebang in 30 minutes like he can and I'm only doing two dishes, not four! But I got those two dishes out in about 45 minutes and that was fine by me.
The biggest drawback to his cookbook is that he assumes you're cooking all four of the dishes he's put together and he hops from one dish to another and back again, often without giving baking/frying/boiling times. The assumption is that you bake/fry/boil it for as long as it takes you (or more accurately, him) to do the next step.
Ah.....no.
So before I took the book back to the library this morning, I went through it and identified the dishes I'd like to try and transcribed the instructions into standalone recipes. I've now got my own little database of new fun recipes.
I'm particularly excited because I have virtually no imagination when it comes to salads and vegetables and he does. I transcriped a lot of salad and vegetable recipes.
He's apparently cooking for 8, given how many leftovers we have, so I'll have to learn how to cut them down. But I am very excited to have some new recipes to try and I am, for the moment, quite mad for Jaime Oliver.
Jamie Oliver is also affiliated with FoodTV and their website has some of his recipes.
ReplyDeleteI love, love, love Jaime Oliver. Take a look at some of his other cookbooks. We have a few that are more focused on stand-alone recipes than meals with some pretty simple, rustic dishes that are just delicious. (Plus, he's just adorable. If you haven't seen any of his shows, look for him on YouTube. Once he gets going about food, you can't help but want to cook.)
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