… Old-School Coleslaw and Corn on the Cob
I did this meal on Sunday, for lunch. This had 24 ingredients, which is significantly more than the other two meals I have made. There is also more text to read. This made me think it would be quite a challenging dish to do in 15 minutes. I have done several of Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals and when I’ve gone over the 30 minutes, it was almost always due to the amount of time I spent reading the next step and even just finding where I had got to in order that I could read the next step.
I start. The corn on the cob goes in. I then begin to put all the various ingredients in my food processor, spilling some of the pinky red liquid from the tin of mixed beans on the rug in the process! I guess the measurements, to save time, but I’m pretty good at this and often do this even when I’m not cooking against the clock. They all just fit in the food processor. This is to make the patties for the bean burgers. I hit a big problem. My food processor does not cope at all well with trying to blitz up frozen broad beans. I double-check the recipe. It does say to use frozen broad beans, with no suggestion that they should first be thawed. I assume that this is correct because having to make sure they are thawed before you start would go against the ethos of 15 Minute Meals.
In the end I have to blitz the mixture for a second, open the top, push the mixture back down, blitz again, open again, push the mixture back down again and repeat this more than a dozen times. I know this is taking too long and I already know I’ll significantly miss the 15-minute mark. It’s very frustrating.
In the end the pieces of broad beans are larger than they should be. But I continue on. The rest of the process goes entirely smoothly. Other than I forgot to put the burger buns in the oven until much later than I should have.
This meal is really, really tasty. The flavours, textures etc balance well. It’s fun too. It’s fun to eat because you build your own burger and its fun to look at because of all the colours. This would be a great meal to have with kids.
Gordy and Gavin have had the first three meals with me. This has been Gavin’s favourite. I would have agreed with him, but I can’t get over how delightful it was to make buns for the Chicken Dim Sum.
Ok so why did it go wrong. It was the frozen beans. If I did this again (and I think I will – but only after the remaining 112 meals are cooked) I would take the time to thaw the beans. Was this a problem with the recipe or my food processor? I think it might have been the latter. My food processor is by no means the best, biggest and beefiest you can by. But it is also not the cheapest and smallest you can buy. If I were buying a new one I would not choose this one (not least because it is white and ugly). But it came free with my last house (which is another story all together). I think a really good food processor would have coped adequately. But should you have to have a really good (and therefore expensive) food processor to do these meals?
Disappointment with the time aside, this was a great meal.
I have still not yet bought a better pepper mill and it is still causing me issues. Can anyone suggest one that looks good, works well and is not too expensive?
I think I need a better camera as well.
Having done three meals now I have noticed that as soon as we start to eat, I eat at full speed. I’m still in my Fifteen Minute Meals mind set. I have to stop and remind myself the purpose is to cook the meal fast, but then enjoy eating it.
I should add that the cost below is much it cost to buy all the ingredients I needed. I have quite a bit left over (3/4 of the broad beans, half of the cabbage etc). I will not be working out how much it really cost. I’m not that boring.
How much: £10.29.
How long: Twenty minutes and forty seconds.
Who with: Gordy and Gavin.
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