… Classic Cheese and Mushroom 

It’s a day for a simple meal. Or rather breakfast.  I have a random day off, which means a bit of a late start and a rare opportunity to make breakfast.  It’s a day for a meal for one and so time to get the cheap little toastie machine out again. 

This is a nice and simple one.  The nice little surprise is the chorizo on the out side.  You slice the chorizo and lay it on top of the upper slice of bread before you clamp down the toastie and start to cook. 

This took quite a long time for a toastie and mine still looked a bit anemic. I do regret buying a five pound toastie machine, but that’s it now all the toasties are done.

Who with: Me

How Long: Nine minutes and twenty eight seconds 

… Minted Courgettes & Brown Rice 

Today I have my mum and two of my sisters for lunch.  I’m also preaching at church which always makes me nervous.  That means I spend much more time preparing for preaching and no time thinking about lunch.  But surly that’s what this whole fifteen minute meal thing is about … isn’t it … just cooking a quick meal?

This is a meal I’ve looked forward too, but for some reason I’ve only got round to doing now.  The reason I’ve looked forward to it is undoubtedly the crispy Parma ham on top of the pork mediations.  The reason I’ve not done it until now is because … I don’t know.

Needless to say, with last minute shopping (and a lack of any significant home growing this year), I couldn’t get any other colour courgette other than green to make up my “6 medium mixed colour courgettes”.  So it was one colour courgettes…

One colour courgette or not it was a good one.  Appreciated by all. A nice little meal.

 (So I didn’t have much time to think about cooking today, which makes doing the fifteen minute meal project a good thing, but it makes doing other things like a pudding a bad thing.  So I did my “I haven’t thought about pudding … what the hell am I going to make pudding”.  It involves a very quick run round the supermarket and a quick bit of baking and not much else … if you want the recipe here you go: make a quick sweat crust pastry (cheat by using your food processor or KitchenAid). Rest it if you have time (today I barley did) roll it (or as I do, squish it) in to a tart tin.  Bake.  That’s it you’re done.  When lunch is done excuse your self, whip mascarpone with a bit of cream.  Put it in your tart case.  Add whatever soft fruit  you were able to get hold of (raspberries and blackberries in my case to day).  If you have time, and if your a bit of a tart (which I sometimes am) add some fresh chopped mint and whizz up a few raspberries and icing sugar and drizzle over the top).

Oh and by the way the musical accompaniment for this afternoon was North Americana by Leif Vollebekk, a record I spent far too much on getting imported from Canada. 

Who with: My mum, my sister Selina and my sister Anna

How Long: Fifteen minutes and thirteen seconds 

… Avo & Smoked Salmon

I kinda like salmon.  Although I think I may have had it too much of it.  If I wan’t fish that’s pink, I’d much rather have some trout.  But if cooking through this book has tought me any thing (which actually it really has taught me quite a bit) it’s that I really, really like smoked salmon.  This meal has smoked salmon, it has avocado, it has cream cheese.  it has … it is … good. A nice breakfast just for me …

Who with: Just me

How Long: Three minutes fifty six seconds

… Steak, Mushroom & Pickles 

So this is another night where I get home, decide it’s right to cook, flick though this book and the first thing that catches my fancy is the one.  A quick walk to the shop, home, get ready and then …. cook. 

Time wise I’m confident with this one.  Flavour wise I do think this will be good.  I think it will be simple and complex at the same time.  Is it odd that it’s the little cucumber pickle that excites me the most about this meal? 

This was done quickly, without incident and my eggs were runny.  A good one I’d say … 

Who with: Gavin 

How Long: Fourteen Minutes and Eleven Seconds 

… Meatballs

For some reason it feels like a night for something comforting.  Chilli Con Carne is comforting.  The ingredients for this meal are easy to come by so it wasn’t an arduous shop so all in all it was a good choice for tonight.

Bulgur Wheat is used instead of rice and it wasn’t a disappointing substitute at all.

There were fried kidney beans with this meal which gave this great half overcooked half still fluffy and pulsey texture. 

This was easy to cook, my only issue was the total lack of ability on the part of my grill to blacken the fresh chilies.  This is one of the meal’s I’ve seen Jamie do on TV and, not as described in the book, he cooks the chillies straight on his gas hob.  Sadly I no longer have a gas hob so my pathetic grill has to do … or rather not do. 

This was a very, very tasty meal. It wasn’t a big meal.  But I did cook it for just two of us (rather than the prescribed four).  Both Gavin and I had a second helping, which on a night where there was a need for some comfort food, was a pretty good thing.

This really is one of those meals that I think might be cooked over and over agian, deviated from, cooked again, ad-libbed, cooked again … until it becomes something of my own and not remotely recognisable from this dish but good, comforting and quick nevertheless.

Who With: Gavin

How Long: Fifteen Minutes and Four Seconds 

…  Jersey Royals, Peas & Mustard Sauce 

I went shopping and trout was on offer.  That was the catalyst for making this meal.  It was an easy one to do.  But I was worried that my fish was a bit bigger (heavier) than the recipe so I thought i’d be over the time limit.

I wasn’t. 

It was a lovely meal and made for a good lunch the next day. 

Who with: Gavin

How long: Fourteen minutes and thirty eight seconds 

… Sun-Blush Mash & Greens

So I cooked this meal because it looked comforting.  Scallops are delicate.  But mash is comforting.  It seemed like a day for some comfort food.  Tonight is film night – The Good German – and this was the meal to accompany the film. 

It felt like it took a bit of time to get the potatoes sliced in the boiling water.  But once this was done it all went pretty smoothly.  The second job is to do the greens cook them for 3 minutes then drain them put them on the serving platter and dress them.  I was worried they’d get cold.  So I drained them and then popped them back in the pan, with the lid on to keep them warm.

The scallops were easy to prepare and cook. It didn’t take too long to cut the criss cross pattern in them. 

My only problem came with mashing (or rather blitzing) the potatoes.  They just didn’t blitz properly.  It seemed like my food processor is too small, although it is about average size.  In the end I tipped them back in the pan and used a potato masher.  It meant that the potato was a bit rougher than it should have been.

This was done in time … just. 

It tasted great.  Really great.  Comforting too. It was a nice dinner.  And it went well with the food.  The slightly rough potato wasn’t fine too.

The musical accompaniment to cooking tonight was a bit of an oldish Gaslight Anthem record I bought today and Mogwai’s new record “Les Revenants” which is the sound track to a very good, if a little odd, French TV show. 

Basically this meal looked a bit odd.  Mash with Scallops, but it was great.  You should try it. 

After today it means I’ve done six 15 Minute Meals in six days.  There won’t be one tomorrow but I have Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday sorted.  I’m back on a roll.

Who with: Gavin

How Long: Fourteen Minutes and Fifty Seven Seconds

…  Smoked salmon and Egg 

I have been determined to cook a 15 Minute Meal every day this week.  Today’s Friday.  I have lunch put on after a meeting I’m attending this morning and then I’m going to a friend’s for a curry tonight.  This leaves breakfast as my only option.  My meeting is in the office building literally opposite my house, so I take advantage of the late start and cook breakfast.  This recipe requires one egg.  I made French toast for breakfast yesterday and deliberately left one egg for today.  My housemate ate my last egg… so my morning started with a trip to two shops to buy eggs (the first shop didn’t have any).  

I knew I would cook this in time.  The breakfast in the book are certainly helping me improve my average of how many I get done in the fifteen minutes. There was a bit of an issue with this meal though.  The majority of the egg escaped from the bread and ran out of the toastie machine and onto the worktop.  Perhaps its because I bought a small cheap toastie machine (about £5 if I remember correctly).  It seems the list of kitchen equipment I need is growing and a better toastie machine is now on the list as well. 

I actually spent more time in the lounge on my computer messing around with my ITunes account than I did in the kitchen while cooking this morning.  This tasted nice; it was a nice little breakfast. I think this is only the second time I have cooked one of these meals just for me!

Who with: Just me

How long: Ten minutes and thirty-nine seconds 

… Grilled Polenta & Porcini Tomato Sauce

Tonight I’m cooking for my friends Andrew and Carol, at their house, after I babysit for them so they can go to parents evening.  

It’s been quite a while since I’ve done a 15 minute meal in someone else’s kitchen. I have never cooked with ready-made polenta before, so this will be interesting. 

You whizz up tomatoes and a bunch of other ingredients first to make the tomato sauce.  This requires a liquidizer.  I have still not bought one.  I’ve been managing with my food processor.  Today I didn’t really manage.  This was quite a liquidy sauce and the food processor was full.  There was significant spillage while I was whizzing up the ingredients …

There seemed to be quite a lot of polenta and I couldn’t quite fit it all in my griddle pan, so there were two left over slices.  The polenta was a bit hard to cook.  A few pieces broke up and I didn’t really get the nice burn lines on the polenta that are in the picture in the book.  I think the griddles on my griddle pan are a bit wide and rounded.  

Basically I’m beaten by the chicken again.  I don’t know if it’s that I’m not flattening it enough when I beat it with the rolling pin.  But it wasn’t cooked through in time. 

The meal took a bit longer than it should have.  It certainty didn’t look as tidy as Jamie’s, but it did taste good. 

Anyway it looks like I’ll be buying myself a liquidizer and a new griddle pan in the near future.

Who with: Andrew and Carol

How long: Twenty minutes and fourteen seconds

… Mushy Peas and Tartare Sauce

Ever since getting the book this has been one of the meals I’ve been most excited to cook.  I’ve been sort of saving it, I’m not really sure why.  But tonight’s the night I cook it.

I have my friend Pieter staying over tonight so it’s another excuse to cook a 15 minute meal. 

You put a potato in with the peas (or rather you start to cook the potato first and then add the peas).  It seems a bit odd, but oh well. 

There weren’t a lot of issues cooking this.  It was all quite easy and I was relatively tidy while cooking it. 

The meal taste lovely.  There is something quite comforting about eating a piece of fried breaded fish in a roll.  I guess it’s the whole fish finger sandwich thing. The fish baps were great.  The fish has a bit of cayenne pepper sprinkled on it, before it’s covered in the flour, which adds a nice little kick to the meal. The peas were really lovely (defiantly a recipe to remember) and the tartare sauce was great too.  There did seem to be a bit more tartare sauce than necessary. 

The one thing I would say is that this is a bit of a lunch or light meal.  Even with only three of us eating it we easily finished it all and could have eaten more.  I think that it is good that the book has a few dishes that are more a lunch or light meal in their portion size, but the book doesn’t point to this.  So you’re not really sure until you’ve cooked it.  (I have to admit that after we went out for a few beers, we did have a naughty kebab).

Who with: Pieter and Gavin

How long: fourteen minutes and nineteen seconds