… Greek-Style 

So this morning I bought the ingredients for another fish dish (yes an easy one). But tonight I didn’t cook it.  I cooked (made) this instead. I had the ingredients and I bought a toastie machine this morning.  I had not intended to, but I did.  I went looking for a (the) liquidizer. I got distracted, and nearly bought, a three litre capacity food processor. But I didn’t.  I bought a four pound and sixty four pence toastie machine instead.  It is not pretty but it will spend most of its life in the cupboard, so it can look ugly from there.  Because I have to cook every meal in this book this means that I have to cook four toastie recipes.  That means I need to buy a toastie machine.  I did.  It cost four pounds and sixty four pence.  It’s white. And its ugly.  And its lives in the cupboard under the … 

So tonight I feel tired, and more than a little off, and full.  So a film, a glass of wine and a toastie sounds good. I have all the ingredients for this meal and it just so happens that I am now the proud owner of a toastie machine.  An ugly one.

This meal is for one. I cook it for two and it’s in the tosatie machine in three minutes and some seconds.  I’m not sure if it’s the very, very cheap machine I have bought or if it just takes this long but they where done by thirteen minutes and forty seconds.  I managed to burn my self in the process and I had to wrestle with the machine to make it shut over the small (actually quite large) piles of avocado, tomato and feta (and oregano – not that it takes up any room).

Anyway.  This was very nice and simple and it felt good.  Good in the sense that it felt quite healthy.  I have really quite a limited experience of toasties.  But as I understand it they are usually drenched in butter on the outside and then grilled or fried.  This is not.  It still taste good, but it lacks that sensation of butter dripping down your fingers.  Which is probably a good thing. 

Today I have managed to cook two 15 minute meals.  Nether of which have felt like a legitimate fifteen minute meal (being in the back section of the book).  But they are in the book and they must be cooked.  And I have.  And they were good. 

How long: Thirteen minutes and forty seconds

Who with: Gavin 

… Fluffy Corn & Chilli Pancakes

It’s Saturday morning and I planned to cook this meal.  It’s from the breakfast section and the introduction to the recipe suggests that this is an amazing weekend breakfast so it seemed appropriate to try it. The recipe is for four for breakfast so I thought it would make a pretty good brunch for two. By the time I get round to cooking its very much lunch time.  (I should say that by eight o clock this morning I had already made a massive pot of chilli for tomorrow’s lunch). 

I like making pancakes and I don’t make savory ones anything like enough.  The one cheat I did was to cook two larger ones rather than four smaller ones.  This was really because I do not have a small, truly non-stick, frying pan.  I have a tiny none stick frying pan that is meant to be for cooking a single fried egg but I use much more for frying spices, to toast a few nuts and that kind of thing.  My small frying pan is not really non-stick and I think that trying to cook a pancake in it would be fairly disastrous. 

My first pancake fell apart quite a bit when I flipped it (turned it with a fish slice actually). Because its savory (with cheese, chilli and sweet corn in it) it’s a bit thicker than your average pancake and it broke in half on the turn.  The second one turned out much better. 

I was a little over the fifteen minutes.  The way the recipe reads, you have to do all the prep first (make the batter, make the avocado and tomato salad, get the pancetta frying) and only then start to cook the first pancake.  If you started to make the first pancake a bit earlier and then finished the salad while it cooks I think you would be able to do it in the time more comfortably. 

This was a nice breakfast/brunch/lunch.  I’m sure I’ll cook it again. 

How long: Fifteen minutes and twelve seconds

Who with: Gavin 

… Braised Greens & Potato Gratin

So basically this is kind of like a Sunday lunch that you make in fifteen minutes (or nearly eighteen minutes in my case).  This meal looked a bit special and so it seemed fitting for a Friday night.

Tonight I have Gavin, Debbie, Dan and Cat coming for dinner. 

There seems a lot to do tonight.  And there are lots of things on the hob.  A big frying pan, a large lidded pan and a roasting tin.  I have a small hob.  A pathetically small hob. 

It is unbelievable that you can make a gratin in fifteen (ish) minutes.  But you can and it tastes good.  Very, very good.  There’s potatoes to slice and boil.  Onions to slice and fry.  Chicken to season and bash and then fry.  And after all that there’s just a few vegetables to braise. 

My potatoes took longer to cook than they should have and some of the chicken took a bit longer to cook than it should have as well.  I think this was down just how much was on the hob so the top half of the potato pan and the bottom half of the frying pan were not really over the heat.  It just took a bit too long to get the gratin under the grill.  You use the potato pan to braise the veg and so the delay in the gratin making affected the braising of the vegetables. 

It was all done and on the table in just under eighteen minutes.  I was a little disappointed.  This is my second worst time.  This really was a delicious meal.  The flavours of a nice Sunday dinner in under twenty minutes.  You can’t really be too disappointed can you?

Oh, by the way this is the first fifteen minute meal I have cooked where I have seen Jamie cook it first on his TV show.  I did notice that it helped with holding the recipe in my head and I didn’t have to consult the book anything like as much as normal. 

As it’s Friday night I did make a pudding tonight.  I had to step outside of the fifteen minute meals book for this as there are no puddings in the book.  I made a strawberry and raspberry mascarpone tart.  I made the pastry too quickly and without enough care so it was far from the best pastry I’ve made, but never mind. 

This was a really nice meal and a really nice evening with some new friends. 

How long: Seventeen minutes and fifty nine seconds

Who with: Dan, Cat, Debbie and Gavin 

… Avo & Crispy Pancetta 

So it’s Thursday night.  On Tuesday when I cooked the Beef Kofta Curry, it was the eighth day in a row that I had cooked a 15 Minute Meal and I did nine meals in that eight day period.  I did not cook one on Wednesday.  My friend Hannah cooked dinner for me.

I was not back till late tonight.  I had a meeting at work.  Then an accident on my road home meant I had to drive the back roads home, which everyone else was doing so they were more than a little bit snarled up. Then there was shopping to do (in two supermarkets). And then dinner to cook.  Cooking did not start until 21:30 ish.

I have previously said that I have 115 meals to cook.  That may or may not be accurate.  The book contains 119 meals, if you include the four smoothies.  I discounted those.  I will cook (make) them.  And I will write about them.  But I didn’t count them.  There is also a breakfast section.  It contains twelve recipes.  I have counted these.  I will cook some of them for breakfast.  But I cooked one of them for supper tonight.  You cannot call a meal you eat after nine thirty at night dinner. I am not convinced that these really are fifteen minute meals.  I can’t see that they will take anything like fifteen minutes.  But they’re in the book and so they will be cooked. 

On one page (page 248) there are four ways to cook avocado on toast.  Tonight I cooked the second one.  The first one requires you to cook a poached egg as well.  I am both nervous and excited about that for reason I will tell you about when I get round to cooking that “meal”.  But that’s not tonight. 

To me cheese on toast and all its delightful variants is a great supper or late dinner, or occasionally a delightful dinner.  This “meal” was a revelation.  It was so so good.  I cooked it twice.  It is a “meal” for one.  I cooked it for Gavin first and then I cooked it for me.  Had I not been doing the project I would have probably cooked both together.  But the recipe dictated that I cook this for one.  So for one it was cooked. (Twice).

Easy. Simple. Delicious. Great. 

While I was cooking my one I was being distracted by sounds I can only describe as orgasmic from Gavin.  Sounds, I have to admit, I repeated when I was eating my supper.

Simply put, this was the antidote to a long and slightly annoying day.  Perfection indeed.  

I usually always have a bit of good strong cheddar in the fridge for these occasions.  Now I will have to have an avocado as well. 

You really must try this. 

Really.

How long:

1^st one: Five minutes forty eight seconds

2^nd one: Four minutes fifty five seconds

Who with: Gavin (and a bottle of wine) 

… Fluffy Rice, Beans & Peas

It’s Tuesday night and I’m off to see Danny Bhoy tonight.  Now, all I know about Danny Bhoy is that he is a comedian and he’s Scottish.  The reason I know about Danny Bhoy is that a few weeks before the Edinburgh Festival he was doing a short run of shows in Edinburgh (a warm up show for his Edinburgh run?), and my dad went to see him.  The reason my dad went to see him was because he (Bhoy) has only one prop for his show. A bar stool.  The theatre he was in did not have a bar stool in their collection of props.  Someone was dispatched to the nearest pub to borrow a bar stool.  It just so happened that the pub was my dad’s local.  Actually it is not that local.  It’s a twenty minute bus ride from his house.  But the point is that it is the pub my dad frequents.  As a thank you to the pub for lending the bar stool for a few nights they are given a couple of tickets.  Which in turn my dad is given.  (I suspect as a thank you for being one of their best customers). Anyway all that to is say: my dad enjoyed Danny Bhoy, and that’s why I got tickets for me and some friends to see him. 

Ok I know this is a food blog, so here goes …

Before going to the show I cooked this for my friends Ed (my American road trip buddy), Andrew and Gavin. 

This was a great meal.  I had the feeling it would be quite a bit of intense cooking at the start.  Then a break. Then a bit of quick finishing off.

I wasn’t entirely right.  It was relatively solid cooking.  Making the fat fingers for the Kofta (or more accurately shaping them) took a bit of time.  There are a lot of ingredients tonight.  Lots of good stuff.  Lots of flavour. 

I did it in just over fifteen minutes.  And even then I forgot to take the poppadoms out the microwave.  They were cooked.  But they weren’t on the table. 

I like this meal. It’s among my favourites.  I also liked that I did it, for my friends before we went out to do something pre-planned.  Planned long before I ever thought about doing this project.  Tonight was exactly what this project was about.  The project was about cooking good, quick food, for other people, eating with other people, before I got on with whatever it is I was doing on a Tuesday night. 

It’s Tuesday.  I cooked. For others.  I eat with others. I then did what I do on a Tuesday.  Not that I see a show every Tuesday. But that’s what I had planned to do this Tuesday.  

By the way my friend Hannah cooked this for her husband Tom the other night.  He told me it was his favourite fifteen minute meal to date.  So I thought I’d try it.  It was great.  It was one of my favoruites too.  (Should I be offended that of all the fifteen minute meals he has had cooked for him, the one I have not cooked for him, is his favourite?)

I would recommend that if you are ever in Edinburgh, and you like real ale, and you like acoustic music, that you go to my dad’s pub*.  I would recommend that if you ever get the chance that you go to see Danny Bhoy.  And I would recommend that you cook this meal. 

How long: Fifteen minutes and two seconds. 

Who with: Ed, Andrew and Gavin

* In order to add this link to this website, I looked up my dad’s pub on google for the first time.  Guess what? He is on one of the photo’s on the home page! 

 … Warm Tomato Salad & Naan

I made this dish last night.  I fancied something vegetarian and this one looked good. 

Before doing this project I thought that you had to soak red split lentils for at least a few hours (ideally overnight) before cooking.  This is the second meal where I have cooked the lentils in a short space of time (around ten minutes).  The other meal was Lamb Lollipops. Having now done a bit of googling it seems like this is one of those urban myths.  It seems it’s only the larger pulses (like dried kidney beans) that require soaking. 

I am running in to problems with my food processor.  There were lots of things (1 onion, 1 clove of garlic, some ginger, 2 chillies, 1 pepper, 1 large bunch of fresh coriander) that require whizzing up in the food processor.  Apparently in one go.  Past experience has shown that this doesn’t work.  I opt for doing it in two stages.  In the end I needed a third whiz made up of some of the larger bits left over from the first two attempts.  This actually costs me a lot of time and it is nearing the five minute mark before I get the lentils in.  I am really worried that they won’t cook in time.

I also bought the wrong tomatoes.  The recipe calls for mixed-colour cherry tomatoes.  I know Tesco sell these and in part that is why I opt for shopping in Tesco.  But today they don’t have their usual little trays of yellow and red cherry tomatoes (significantly more red ones by the way).  There are no yellow tomatoes at all.  So I bought cheaper larger vine tomatoes.  I had forgotten that I specifically needed cherry tomatoes.  All this meant that my warm tomato salad did not look as pretty as the picture in the book. 

After the lentils were in the rest of the cooking process was quick and went well.  And I did have a minute or two of waiting time.  As with a few of the other meals I have done recently there was a far bit to bring together at the end.  In the end I was just over the fifteen minute mark.  Had I not had the food processor issue I would have been comfortably within the fifteen minutes.  That said if I hadn’t been chasing the clock, my natural instinct would have been to let the lentils simmer for another five or ten minutes.  But they were cooked at the fifteen minute mark. 

This really was a nice meal.  Just the right amount of heat.  Interesting flavours and a good mix of textures.  Definitely one to do again. 

By the way you do not make the naan bread.  You just warm it up.

How much: £TBC.

How long: Fifteen  minutes and fifteen seconds. 

Who with: Gavin.

… Tuscan Bread Salad 

Saturday crica 12:15

Kenny – location – Tesco waiting at the checkout. 

Gavin – location – in town.

Text – Gavin to Kenny:

I’m leaving town now … do you need me to get anything.

Call Kenny to Gavin:

Kenny: can you go to Morrisons and try and get me eight sardines … Tesco only had three … I need eight.

Gavin: No problem.

Kenny: Can you ask the fishmonger to butterfly them?

Gavin: Yes … what does that mean?

Kenny: They take the head of, gut them and open them up removing the bones, but the fillets stay together in one piece. 

Gavin: ok.

Call ended. 

Saturday circa 12:45

Location – Home.

Gavin: He wouldn’t butterfly them for me.

Kenny: Why?

Gavin: He said … “no I can’t do that mate … they’d fall apart” … He said he’d take the head of though. 

Kenny: Fine …. They won’t fall apart.  He just couldn’t be bothered. I’ll do it!

Gavin: Does that count as part of your fifteen minutes. 

Kenny: … … …

I butterflied the sardines.  The fishmonger had not taken the heads off. It took five minutes. Ten may be. But remember I do not do this for a living.  And no it did not count against the fifteen minutes. 

This meal was a delight to cook.  I had to buy saffron as one of my pantry ingredients.  I used some of it for the first time tonight. You make a little sauce type thing to cook the sardines on.  The Sardines and pancetta go on top and in the oven.  Your grill oven.  Now as you know, I don’t have a grill oven.  It went in the oven.  Just the oven.  But on a high heat.  A very high heat.  

The salad is great.  You whizz up half of the stuff in the food processor and then the other half is chopped and makes the chunky part of the salad. Added to that is some big croutons made from fried ciabatta. 

I finished the sardines off under the grill for a minute or so. 

This meal is great.  The sardines are lovely.  The salad is great. Perfect actually.  This has been one of my favorites. 

Oh and by the way it was done in under fourteen minutes …

So Mr. fishmonger at Morrisions, Taunton – my sardines did not fall apart – I have photographic evidence.  Consider yourself named and shamed. 

How much: £TBC.

How long: Thirteen minutes and fifty two seconds. 

Who with: Gavin. 

… Creamy Garden Salad 

I was so full last night after being at Lisa’s Greek restaurant that I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to eat much today.  We had the Meze and they just kept bringing us food.  I am cooking two 15 Minute Meals today.  One for lunch and one for dinner. 

But with no breakfast, by lunchtime I was hungry again. 

I was cooking lunch for some friends after church today.  There was quite a lot going on with this recipe.  But I was relatively confident.  Not necessarily confident that I would make the fifteen minutes, not after the last few days.  But I was at least confident with the ingredients I was using and the type of cooking I was doing.  Like the Chicken Pasta meal, this is a little like one of the recipes I cook from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals quite a lot. 

It all came together quite nicely.  The sausages were frying, the base for the sauce was frying away in another pan and the pasta was on the hob in no time at all.  This left plenty of time to chop the salad, make the dressing and finish the pasta sauce. 

There really wasn’t any stress with this meal but quite a lot of mess.

This meal was great.  Lovely pasta.  Great salad with a really great sauce that had a nice bit of heat.  In part from the rocket in the salad and in part from the English mustard in the dressing. 

It was on the table in fourteen minutes and fifteen seconds! 

I think I may have gotten my fifteen minute meal mojo back … maybe.

Dinner was followed by a quick pudding of strawberries, raspberries and mascarpone sweated with just a little bit of icing sugar.  That was followed by a flat white from my favorite coffee shop.  Church.  Cooking.  Eating with friends.  Coffee. A pretty good Sunday so far, I’d say.

After the dishes were done it was time to cook the next one … Butterflied Sardines with Tuscan Bread Salad.

How much: £TBC.

How long: Fourteen minutes and fifteen seconds. 

Who with: Peter, Alison, Tom and Maisie. 

… Coconut Rice & Miso Greens 

I think I’ve lost my fifteen minute mojo!

This is the fourth meal in a row that has taken more than fifteen minutes.  After last night I was really keen to get back in under the fifteen minute mark.  But I didn’t.  

I did this meal for lunch.  I am going out for a Greek meal tonight.  Lisa’s who I work with, and came over for the Glazed Pork Fillet on Thursday night, also owns a café that turns into a Greek restaurant on a Friday and Saturday Night.  I’m off for a meal with some work colleagues.

As I have said, I think I really need to get on with some of the fish dishes.  So I chose this one.  Salmon isn’t the most adventurous, but it’s a start.  

This recipe calls for 2 green tea bags.  When I read the name of the meal I thought that the tea bags would be put in water and used to infuse something.  There not.  You “rip open” the tea bags rub the tea into the salmon with a bit of salt and pepper and then fry it. 

I got off to a good start.  The prep for the fish and the rice was done in short order.  The Miso dressing was quick to make to.  

There are quite a lot of ingredients here but it all went really pretty quickly.  There was one little issue.  The recipe calls for the use of a liquidizer.  I didn’t not realize this until after I had bought all the ingredients.  I still do not have a liquidizer.  It’s on the list of things to buy but I don’t have one yet.  I used the food processor instead.  It worked ok, but it doesn’t chop things as finely as a liquidizer. 

There was a lot to bring together at the end with this one.  By half way, or so through, I thought I’d make the fifteen minutes.  The fish was frying away nicely.  The rice was simmering. The veg was in the water cooking away.  The miso dressing was on the serving plate ready.  Chilli, lime and coriander all chopped for the garnishes.  I had nothing to do.  

You use basmati rice.  Not ten minute rice.  Not the pre-cooked two minute rice.  Normal basmati rice.  When I cook normal rice, normally it takes me a little more than fifteen minutes.  I was waiting for the rice to cook and the fish to cook though, or nearly through.  Although it was all cooked in the fifteen minutes, just.  It took a bit of time to present it all nicely.  

Although I’m disappointed with the time, this was a very lovely meal.  Delicate flavours.  And it just felt fresh and nice.  A very, very lovely lunch. 

How much: £TBC.

How long: Sixteen minutes and twenty seconds. 

Who with: Gavin. 

… Herby 6-Veg Ragu 

I took a trip to visit my friends Andrew and Carol to cook for them.  While it isn’t as easy to cook in someone else’s kitchen, I was relatively confident with this one.  There is a pasta dish in Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals that I cook a lot.  I don’t always cook the other part’s of the meal if its just for me, I just do the pasta bit and its does me for lunch the next day and dinner the next night as well.  That dish from 30 Minute Meals is similar (by no means the same) as this one. 

It didn’t go as easily as I thought it would.  In the end it took me fifteen minutes and thirty seconds.  That’s not a bad time at all, but I am a bit disappointed.  I just have a feeling I should be able to do this one a bit quicker.  I did hit one issue.  There is lots of veg in this one.  You put it all in the food processor and wiz it up.  The food processor was full and it didn’t cope well.  In the end I put the whizzed up veg in the pan and then picked out the big lumps and whizzed them up again. 

I did make quite a mess of my friend’s kitchen. Quite a bit of pasta was spilt on the top of the cooker.  But with a joint effort after dinner, it didn’t take long to clear up. 

I liked this meal.  It is one of the simpler meals from the book.  But it was a good mid week meal and I’ll defiantly be doing it again.  

Dinner was followed by a game of Rummikub.  A good night. 

How much: £TBC.

How long: Fifteen minutes and twenty nine seconds. 

Who with: Andrew and Carol.