… Potato & Asparagus Salad 

30 / 03/ 13

It’s been over a month since I cooked this meal. I’ve been quite bad at cooking lately.  And very bad at writing my blog.  There have been too many evenings where I’ve got home late and ended up cooking (heating actually) some food at somewhere between 10 pm and midnight.  I have cooked a few good meals over the last month and several have been Fifteen Minute Meals. I just haven’t written about them.  I’m about to go on a three week holiday and I’m determined to get caught up with writing this blog before I go.  By the way if you’re interested you can read about my trip here. 

It’s been a month, so how much I remember about cooking this is questionable.  But these are the things I remember:

• This recipe calls for the use of red chicory.  I can’t get red chicory.  I can get green chicory I can get it from several places.  But I can’t get red chicory. * So I used green chicory 

• The salmon was nice – I like smoked salmon.

• Shaving asparagus with a vegetable peeler is a bit fiddly

• It was a nice light meal

Here are the things I don’t remember:

• Whether there were any amusing little incidents along the way (like spilling things on my clothes or leaving an entertainingly large amount of dishes from my house mate to wash up)

• Weather or not I had all the ingredients besides the chicory

• Weather I cheated by doing things out of order of the recipe

Here is the thing I know:

• It was a good one – I did it in just over fourteen minutes

*This was true at the time of cooking this meal, but not writing about it.  I have since found that you can get red chicory in Waitrose.  It’s just that I don’t shop there often.  It’s a drive to the next town and if the six or so supermarkets (and many other smaller shops) that inhabit my town aren’t sufficient … 

Who with: Gav

How long: Fourteen minutes and eight seconds 

… Coconut Rice & Jiggy Jiggy Greens 

Its Wednesday night, which is my church home group night. My friend Hannah, who I lead the group with, is coming for dinner first.  She’s late … 

This meal was specifically requested by Hannah, a very long time ago, and I feel bad that I have only just got round to cooking this for her.  Today is one of those days where I have a feeling that I probably won’t get the meal done on time.  I’m not really sure why. 

The meal starts with the preparing the rice.  From doing these meals there is a neat little trick that you learn (that Jamie teaches you) about cooking rice that is easy to remember.  Basically its 1 measure of rice to 2 measures of liquid and then cook for about ten minutes on a relatively high heat, stirring occasionally.  This works for either the 10 minute rice (I have expressed my feelings about ten minute rice several times now) or basmati rice.  Where Asian dishes are cooked, especially ones that that a Thai bent to them, often one of the measures of liquid is a tin of coconut milk.  So for this recipe you add 1 tin of coconut milk to the pan fill the empty tin with basmati rice, add it to the pan,  and then add a tin’s worth of hot water.   It has worked really well every time.  Tonight I did leave the lid on a bit long so it did boil over a bit and made a mess of the hob.  Luckily I did not do the clearing up. 

This meal seemed to take a long time.  It felt it took a bit too long to put the rice on.  It took far too long to prepare the tuna with the green tea and sesame seed coating.  In fact I had to add more green tea and seeds because I ran out before all the tuna was coated.  And then the greens took a long time to slice up in the food processor.  I think the main issue was that it took much longer for my tuna to cook than the recipe suggests.  I think this has more to do with my hob than the recipe.  I have a fairly unhappy relationship with my hob. 

However, disappointing time aside, this really was a very, very nice meal.  The rice was nice.  The tuna with its coating and dressing was very nice.  The greens were amazing.  They tasted lovely and were very filling.  I would like to do this one again, but most of all I hope I can remember the recipe for the greens so I can cook them over and over again.  

Hannah says that this is her favourite of the 15 Minute Meals she’s had to date. 

I’m writing this blog entry listening to Roddy Woomble’s (from Idlewild) new record for the first time, which I’m really enjoying and I’m looking forward to seeing him on Saturday. I now enjoy listening to his folk music as much as I used to enjoy watching him roll around a stage screaming punk songs into a microphone. 

In other news – I won the “open Class” for my orange and poppy seed cake in my work’s “Great West Somerset House Bake Off”.  I am now the proud owner of a certificate and a signed photograph of Marry Berry and Paul Hollywood. However, my entry to the chocolate biscuit class didn’t rank!

Who with: Hannah and Gavin 

How Long: Eighteen minutes and thirteen seconds 

… Mildly Spiced Noodle Squash Broth

For the first time in a little while this has been a meal that has been picked for me rather than chosen by me.  Tonight I am cooking for Gavin’s work friend Leah and her husband Chris.  Gavin took my book into his work for Leah to choose a meal. And this is what she chose and so this is what I cooked.  I should mention that I was only responsible for the main part of the meal. Gavin made a starter and a pudding.  Both were very nice. 

I felt quite confident with this one.  Confident mainly in the flavours because all the Greek style dishes I have done from this book have really been very good.  But I was also pretty confident with the cooking time because it just looked like a good, simple meal.  My confidence was tempered by the fact that I’m cooking chicken, and I always feel a bit nervous with this.  It really isn’t very good to serve under cooked chicken to your guests, but I also hate serving overcooked chicken (is it wrong that I think I’d be more embarrassed with serving overcooked, dry, chicken than slightly undercooked pink(ish) chicken?). 

Anyway the meal is cooked with relatively little incident (other than the missing tongs … Gavin …).  It is a meal where you prepare and cook all the time, with no waiting around.  It’s done in a little over the fifteen minutes.  Now I will blame this on the size of my pan.  When dealing with these recipes you are very often specified a size of pot or pan (such as a “large lidded pan” or a “medium frying pan”).  I have found that I often can take a bit of an interpretation on this and very often (when cooking at home) I go for a pan size down than that specified. If I’m honest that often has a bit to do with aesthetics.  My medium and smaller pots and pans just look cooler and so I prefer these.    But tonight this was mistake.  The recipe asks for a large pan. It means a large pan.  But I use a medium one.  I am concerned that neither the asparagus nor the noodles will cook properly.  And so I spend a bit of time fretting about this.  And I will blame that for making me twenty eight seconds late.  

I enjoy all the stuff (the garlic, ginger, chilli, turmeric, spring onions, peanut butter, kaffir lime leaves, sesame oil, soy sauce, fish sauce) that is whizzed in the food processor and added to the stocky, coconut noodles. 

This is a very nice meal.  Very tasty.  Oh and by the way the chicken was neither over cooked, nor was it under cooked.  So I guess that makes it … just right. 

Tonight was mainly a night of cooking for people I’ve not met before and tonight was a night of manly having a lot of fun.

By the way Leah, last night (as in Monday night) I had one of the Cobra beers you left in the fridge … I saw Cobra … I saw beer … imagine my horror upon tasting it … thinking that tastes funny … reading the label …  reading the words non-alcoholic … and so there are three Cobra “beers” left in the fridge for you next time you come for dinner.

 Oh by the way I bought a new griddle pan today which solves my issue of the very, very worn out griddle pan. 

Who with: Leah, Chris, Gavin

How long: Fifteen minutes and twenty eight seconds

… Greek-style Couscous Salad

This is one I have been looking forward too.  I like squid.  I like chorizo.  I don’t eat squid enough.  I eat too much chorizo.  I actually don’t think I’ve ever cooked squid.  You wouldn’t know this from the authoritative way I answered question about how you should cook squid that either my brother or Gavin asked me during the cooking process.  I think this is because I have read about cooking squid and watched it cooked on TV so many times I actually think I’m an expert at cooking squid.  I’m not.  But nevertheless it turns out pretty good.

I have to say I’m not sure that this recipe is in the right order.  You prepare the squid very early on in the process but its not cooked till much later on.  After the squid is prepared you cut up the chorizo, then the peppers get them all cooking and on later, quite a bit later, the Squid goes in. 

I had a few issues with this one.  First, all the stuff that goes in the food processor to chop up which will end up in the couscous did not chop well at all.  It took far too long and far too much messing around with having to move it all around with a spatula and the re-food process.  Second when you fry peppers quite a bit of water comes out of them before the start to fry properly.  Now at this point I have already spent quite a bit of time preparing my squid and not actually doing any cooking. By the time I have to add the squid I’m not convinced that the chorizo and peppers have cooked enough.  It’s all just a bit watery.  I’m not really frying things.  I knew I was in trouble because the recipe tells me to add the peppers and then after four minutes add the squid.  When you are only putting the peppers in with four minutes to spare you know you’re in trouble because there is no time for the finishing off, plating up etc. 

In the end it does take quite a bit of time over the fifteen minutes. 

Nevertheless the meal tastes great.  The portion size is just right.  It’s a meal for four and only three of us are eating.  After we have all eaten our fill there is exactly ¼ left.   

By the way it’s my birthday today … I’m old … 

Who with: Gordy and Gav

How long: Nineteen minutes and twenty five seconds

… Sweet Tomato & Asparagus Lasagenetti

Ok so its Oscars morning – by which I mean the morning afterwards. 

The morning was spent sleeping and then going for coffee in Gloucester.  My sister Selina works in Boots on a makeup counter in Gloucester.  We visit her.  As punishment for going to bed first last night.  As punishment for not watching any of the films up for awards.  And as punishment for winning the sweepstake, whist she is dealing with a real customer I rearrange her makeup counter.  After this it’s time to visit the cathedral where parts of Harry Potter was filmed and where Edward II is buried.  I visited him because I had just read a book set vaguely around him.  If you don’t know him he is the effeminate son of the ruthless king in the film Braveheart which rumour has it he was killed by having a hot poker shoved up his …. A rumour that is almost certainly not true.  Needless to say when I visited him he was unable to confirm whether this romour was actually untrue.  After a quick visit to the site of the death, by burning, of several protestant martyrs it’s time to go back and cook this one. 

Before I started this one I had to trim the fat of my lamb chops.  The recipe calls for eight lamb chops with the fat trimmed off them. When you buy lamb by the half (as in half a whole lamb) you can’t be that picky. 

The cooking process for this was really quite easy.  The only fiddly bit was the pasta.  When you buy fresh lasagna sheets they come individually separated by sheets of paper.  It is infuriatingly fiddly to separate these. 

If I’m honest I was a little disappointed by this one.  I must confess here that while I love lamb and its one of my favorite meats (I didn’t think you can beat a slow cooked shoulder of lamb) I don’t really like chops.  I don’t enjoy cooking them and I can’t really be bothered to eat them.  That notwithstanding the lamb was really very nice.  It was very nice lamb.  But the way it is cooked is very nice too. I was disappointed with the pasta.  It was fine.  It was nice.  But it was far from my favourite. 

By the way this is another meal with asparagus.  I don’t think I have ever eaten so much asparagus in my life.  This isn’t a compliant I really like asparagus. 

Who with: Dan, Gordy, Debbie, Gav

How long: Fourteen minutes and forty nine seconds

… Watermelon Radish Salad & Crunchy Noodles

It’s Oscar’s night.  I need to stay up until about six this morning.  My brother has cooked a vast pot of chilli for later this evening, or more accurately the wee hours of the morning and there is loads of chocolate and beer and wine to see us through.  I’m in Gloucester.  So I have the away (dis)advantage but nevertheless I’m feeling like I might do this one in time  

I have two meals picked out and the ingredients bought for tonight and tomorrow lunch/evening.  My sister Selina picked this one of the two on offer.  She got to pick on the basis that she will be at work tomorrow and so can’t have the second one for lunch.  At this point I should say that out of all of us Selina was the first to bed and watched next to none (or may be it was none at all) of the Oscars.  At this point I should also mention that the first time I stayed up and watched the Oscars it was impromptu and I was sixteen and I went to school the next day.  

Basically Oscars night is orchestrated by my house mate Gavin (and has been since I was at least sixteen), but as my brother is the only one with Sky TV (actually TV at all), we convene the annual Oscars watching in Gloucester.  Tonight we have Me, Gavin (my house mate), Gordy (my brother), Dan (Gavin’s work friend), Debbie (my friend), Selina (my sister), Matt (Selina’s boyfriend) and later (to late for food) we have one of my other sisters (Anna).

This one seemed to take a long time.  It took a long time because there was a lot to chop.  There wasn’t anything difficult but just quite a bit to do.  You have to fry off some of the noodles.  You then have a contrast with normal noodles and crunchy fried noodles. I nearly burnt the fried ones.  But I got away with it, I think.  By the way the dressing is really very good.  

We did a bit of a sweepstake with the Oscars and having watched almost all the films up for a major award and even some of the odd ones, I should have done quite well.  I did not.  I went with my heart over my head on too many choices.  But I was pleased that I got a few right and that Silver Linings Playbook (which I loved), Life of Pie (which was beautiful and there had been about ten years sine I read the book and so the end surprised me), Amour (which made me cry) and Django (which mesmerized me) got some awards.  By the way Gordy (who had watched some of the films), Selina and Matt (who had between them watched none of the films) jointly won the sweepstake. 

Who with: Debbie, Dan, Gav, Matt, Selina, Gordy

How long: Seventeen minutes and nine seconds

… Best Noodle Salad & Ginger Dressing

So this morning (that is, this morning in my fictional blog writing time line that is currently running a month behind actual time) I cooked avocado on toast for my brother Gordon and my house mate Gavin.  Tonight I cook this one for them as well.  It’s picked by my brother.  He has a bent towards Asian food and a bent for beef and so it’s no real surprise that we end up here tonight. 

Now actually I do remember this meal because it was one of the recipes that was released in advance f the book and a few newspapers picked it up and did a challenge where a chef and a lay cook did it and timed themselves.  I think the chef did it in well under the fifteen minutes (just a bit over the ten minute mark if I remember rightly) and the lay cook did it in well over the fifteen minute mark (well over the twenty minute mark I think). 

This is a nice meal.  Easy to cook.  It was done very quickly.  And my beef was nice and pink! 

Who with: Gavin & Gordy

How long: Twelve minutes and seventeen Seconds

… Avo & Egg

Ok so I think in my last blog I promised to get up to date over that weekend.  I didn’t.  So like the last one, this one will also be a test of my memory.  So this one is an avocado on toast recipe.  There are four in the book.  I have done three.  On doing the first one I said that I would have to do the one with a poached egg at some point and I was both looking forward to it and dreading it.  You see I actually do have a pretty good memory and so writing a blog post about a meal I cooked almost a month ago is actually ok. 

It was over three years ago that I poached an egg for the first time. Now I guess that most people who do something for the first time would do it in private.  Just for themselves.  Or at least in semi privacy. Maybe for their partner or a close friend.  I cooked eggs benedict for sixteen people.  Ok they were mostly my family but not all of them were and it was sixteen people. And it was for Christmas eve (or may be boxing day – my memory is not that good) breakfast.  So it was a kinda important thing.  I found out that poaching eggs is not that easy.  Poaching eggs for sixteen people that you are trying to serve simultaneously is really not that easy at all.  I was more than a little stressed. 

All that to say, I wasn’t confident that my second attempt at poaching eggs would be a success. 

Basically I have a rule that I won’t cook any of these meals again until I have cooked them all.  I break the rule for these types of recipes.  Today (that is in the fictional today that existed about three weeks ago) I am cooking breakfast/ brunch for three people.  This is a recipe for one and so I cook it three times. 

Everything is easy.  It’s just making toast.  Putting avocado on it.  Some chilli and a few other bits and bobs.  Everything that is except I have to poach an egg.  Now I’m cooking for three people and I do each one in turn, so I can time each.  Despite this I have to poach four eggs.  One ends up down the sink. 

I really can’t poach and egg very well. I love poached eggs.  I had two for breakfast on Saturday (the real Saturday – not the Saturday in my fictional time line that exists in this blog post).  But I can’t cook them. In the end this is a lovely meal – or breakfast.  And the poached eggs were ok.  They were ok. Only ok.  Can someone teach me to poach an egg?  

Who with: Gordy and Gavin

How long: 4:38/4:45 / 5:09

… Schezuan Eggy Rice & Crunch Salad

I am very aware that this project has slowed down a lot.  I am also very aware that I am behind in writing up the blog posts.  Tonight I’m writing about a meal I cooked on the 7^th of February.  Writing this will be as much about a test of memory as it will be about the meal.  After this one I have four more to write before I am up to date.  I hope to do them all this weekend and cook at least one more meal. 

There is quite a lot of rice in these 15 Minute Meals.  You, broadly speaking, cook with three kinds of rice.  Normal (Basmati) rice, 10 minute rice and pre-cooked rice.  I have written about my very mixed feelings about 10 minute rice several times now.  And once this project is over I doubt I will ever cook with it again.  I can wait the extra five or so minutes and cook some proper rice. 

This meal requires you to cook the pre-cooked rice and it basically becomes egg fried rice.  A pretty decent egg fried rice.  I have to say that I prefer the pre-cooked rice to the 10 minute rice.  Which is another reason not to cook with10 minute rice. If there is nicer rice available that can actually be cooked quicker (assuming that you count heating as cooking) then why cook something less nice that takes longer. 

Other wise this meal is quite uneventful to cook. There are a lot of ingredients and quite a bit to chop, some by hand and some in the food processor.  I think that’s why I went a little over the fifteen minutes. 

This is a really very nice and tasty meal. It tastes fresh and good.  And it made for a good lunch the next day. 

Who with: Gavin

How Long: Fifteen minutes and fifty nine seconds

… Poppadoms, Rice & Minty Yoghurt 

It’s Tuesday night.  It feels like Friday.  I don’t know why.  Maybe that’s why I’m cooking a curry tonight.  I have been quite excited to cook this one.  The photo in the book makes it look exiting a golden and colourful. The ingredients make it feel like it should be both hot and sweet. That kind of meal feels like a Friday night dinner, I would say.  So I cook it on a Tuesday.  A Tuesday that, for some reason, feels like a Friday.  The cooking of this is actually very easy.  I feel calm.  Gavin, who is taking photos, tells me I’m much more relaxed than normal. We hold much more coherent conversations (more coherent on my part) than is normally achieved while I cook a 15 Minute Meal.

It is actually easy to cook. The only things I have to report is that when I cut into the tomatoes* my jumper was splashed with tomato juice.  I’m not dong well with tomato juice slashes at the moment! Also when opening the tin of coconut milk, my jumper is splashed with that too!

*by the way the list of ingredients asked for 2 ripe tomatoes.  For some reason I hadn’t registered this when I wrote my shopping list.  So when I got home and unpacked my shopping and gathered all the ingredients I didn’t have the two ripe tomatoes.  Luckily(??) I had several over (very over) ripe cherry tomatoes in the fridge.  These had to substitute for the two ripe tomatoes. 

This dish looked pretty.  It smelt good.  It looked less golden yellow than the picture in the book.  If’ I’m honest I was a bit disappointed in the taste.  At first.  It tasted a bit mild.  Not hot.  Not hot at all.  But it did taste … interesting .. flavoursome … By the end of eating this I was convinced.  It was a delicate tasty dish.

It was good dish. A good Friday night dish.  A good Tuesday, which for some reason feels like a Friday, night dish.  A dish eaten whilst watching Django. A film I had to watch because it’s up for an Oscar and I’m going to an Oscar party and so I must watch all the films nominated for major Oscar awards.  I have mixed feelings about Tarantino Films. I think this is large part due to watching Pulp Fiction when I was too young, about 12 I think… the gimp scared me … not that I knew what one was … I wish I still didn’t.  But I will say it’s a good film.  A very good film.  Well worth a watch. There is enough gratuitous violence for it to be Tarantino. But it sensitive (somehow) too.  

Who with: Gavin

How long: Fourteen minutes and fifty two seconds