Bite The Book – Book Reviews and Industry Views

Jamie’s 30 MINUTE MEALS

November 2, 2010 at 4:01 pm Leave a comment

Jamie’s new cookbook has been out now for almost 4 weeks and I have cooked 3 recipes from it and have a list of about 10 more recipes that I MUST do. However I have yet to achieve a 30 minute meal. The new cookbook is all about preparing a three course meal (either main, salad, dessert or main, side dish, dessert) in 30 minutes, which of course sounds like a fantastic idea. The best I have done so far though is 60 minutes and that has been dropping a course.

I think if I started timing after all the chopping and prep (and didn’t get flustered doing three things at once) I would get closer but I am skeptical about 30 minutes. I can’t wait to see the TV series to see exactly how Jamie does it all in that timeframe.

The first recipe I attempted was Jamie’s Piri Piri Chicken mainly because it promised Portuguese tarts. Everything turned out okay and tasted brilliant but it took me a whopping 75 minutes. However I can now make a wickedly easy Sweet Potato salad with feta and if I tackle the Portuguese tarts solo I would only make them better.

My next attempt was Jamie’s Super-Fast Beef Hash. This recipe had a side dish instead of a dessert which was a really quick and easy way of making your own homemade baked beans. I could have eaten them by the bowlful. The beef hash was yummy and full of veggies and the salad with avocado dressing was to die for. The only problem was I was so full from the beef hash and the beans! This recipe took me 60 minutes but I reckon I can bring that down with more practice (and dropping the salad or beans).

My most recent attempt was Jamie’s Chicken Skewers. I dropped the dessert on this one but took about 20 minutes to make my satay sauce which is where I lost my time. I cooked the skewers on the barbecue instead of the grill which also added a bit of time but everything was again scrumptious, especially the noodle salad which you combine with the chicken in a lettuce wrap!

The time thing is not that big an issue because the recipes are all nice and straight forward and the added benefit is you learn a heap of side dishes, salads and quick desserts to use with other recipes. Once again Jamie has produced a cookbook that is going to get much use and love in my home!

UPDATE 8/11/10

Just cooked the best recipe yet from the cookbook: Mustard Chicken with Quick Daphonoise and Black Forest Affogato. So Yum!!!

Entry filed under: Book Reviews. Tags: books, cooking, food, jamie oliver.