… Crunchy Fennel Salad

This is one of those of those last minute meals.  I was driving home from work, listening to the tail end of this weeks “This American Life Podcast” (which I really, really couldn’t recommend more highly), and decided that I needed to cook anther meal.  (I do have a bit of guilt that my 2013 effort doesn’t remotely match my (late) 2012 effort).  So I get home.  I flick though the book.  I pick this meal. I shop.  I walk to the shop in the rain.  I buy the ingredients. I walk back in the rain.  I cook the meal.  It’s that simple … well almost.

It’s a simple meal.  Its pasta.  It’s a red sauce pasta.  It’s a Jamie red sauce pasta recipe.  It’s like the other Jamie red sauce pasta recipes in his other books.  Like 30 Minute Meals.  Like others from 15 Minute meals.  This isn’t a criticism.  This isn’t a bad thing. This is a meal I know I can cook. A meal I know I’ll like.  It’s pasta.  It’s got good ingredients.  A lot of them are whizzed up in the food processor first.  It’s got fennel seeds.  I know it will be good.  And it is done in (a little) under the fifteen minute mark. 

There are two issues to report.

1) This recipe calls for 700 ml of pasata.  700 ml of pasta is a lot of pasata.  It really is.  It’s a lot of pasata for a meal you’re gonna cook in fifteen minutes. But in reality you’re not.  At least not the red sauce bit.  That bit you’ll do in ten minutes. Tops.  That’s a lot of sauce to cook down in ten minutes.  My gut tells me not to put 700 ml of pasta in.  My experience of cooking these 15 Minute Meals, tells me not to put 700 ml of pasata in. So I break a rule.  One of my self imposed rules. But I break it.  500 ml goes in. Which I still think is a bit much for the time allowed.  So there it is. Another rule broken. Again.  There is photographic evidence …

2) I have to use the food processor twice. First for chopping (with the bowl blade). Second for slicing (with the fine slicer attachment).  I’m trying to be bit tidier with cooking these meals.  Which means I’m trying to put more rubbish in the bin.  More dirty dishes in the sink.  So I use the food processor.  I put it in the sink. The sink is full.  Full of water.  Washing up water. Washing up water with bubbles in it .. This becomes an issue.  It becomes and issue because I have only used my bowl blade.  I have not done the necessary slicing.  I realise I must slice.  I must slice with my, now, soap suddy food processor.  I therefore have to rinse it.  I rinse it quickly which means I get wet.  More than a little wet. 

But notwithstanding the (two) issue.  It’s done. It’s done in time. It’s a good meal … The pasta taste good.  The salad is very good.  And it made lunch for me the next day. Yes I did remember to take it to work. 

 Who with: Gavin 

How long: Fourteen minutes and fifty two seconds 

… Pitta & Greek Salad 

So my sisters coming for lunch today, with her boyfriend James and my brother has been here for the weekend.  In all I’m cooking for five and so I’m gonna cook slightly more lamb and one more pitta. 

I enjoyed the last kofte I made from this book (the beef kofte curry) and I’m quite keen to cook this one.  Basically I’m making kebabs today.  Relatively healthy kebabs, but kebabs none the less.  Although I’m slightly ashamed of this, I do like a kebab now and again. 

There seems to be quite a bit to do and it is a fun dish to cook. 

You need to bash up pistachios in a pestle and mortar.  I have two.  I grab the nearest one.  It’s the small white dainty one.  After half a second I realise that this will be a slow job if I use this one.  So I get my big manly granite pestle and mortar … it means more washing up for someone … not me … but it’s much better and more importantly quicker.

At the end, just as the kofte is finishing off.  You add the bashed pistachios with the honey.  This is a little touch that is so delicious.  It’s adding these little things that make such a difference and this is such a good and simple idea. 

This is a great little meal.  Enjoyed by all.  I highly recommend that you try this.  After lunch it was off for a walk, followed by coffee and cake, followed by film – “the Silver Linings Playbook” which I highly recommend as well. 

Who with: Anna, James, Gordy and Gav 

How long: Fifteen Minutes and fifty seconds 

… Shred Salad, Pickles & things 

It’s Friday night again.  Which means it’s been a whole week since I’ve done a 15 Minute Meal.  I feel like the project has lost a little bit of the pace it had before Christmas and I want to get it back on track.  There is snow today, lots of snow. My evening plans have been canceled. I trudged to the supermarket, two actually, to get the ingredients for this meal, one for Sunday and some other cooking I’m doing.  I did very nearly fall over in the snow.

It’s burgers tonight which does seem like a good Friday night meal. The meal involves a swig of beer.  This seems like a good excuse to buy several nice ales.

I have quite a high amount of confidence that I would do this in time.  It seemed quite a simple meal.  I guessed that once I got the burgers were on, the rest would be quite easy.  The burgers were on quite quickly.  As, its beef burgers my plan was to serve them slightly crispy on the outside but a bit pink in the middle.  All this meant that it should quite an easy one to do in time. 

And it was quite easy.  There was veg to slice to make the salad.  Buns to warm.  A sauce to make.  Pickles to slice. But it was all done quickly.  In fact the burgers were a little more cooked than I would have wanted.  The hardest bit was getting the tomato sauce out the bottle to put it on the buns. 

This is a nice, tasty, simple meal.  It went down well with the left over ale.  And was a good prelude to a night of board games. 

Who with: Gordy, Debbie & Gav 

How Long: Twelve Minutes and fifty three seconds 

… Lentil, Spinach & Naan Salad 

It’s Friday night.  Friday night is a good night for a curry.  The picture in the book of this meal is really colourful and I’m quite excited to cook this.  There is a long list of ingredients.  Which is exciting but also daunting.  It’s exciting because, what I’ve been finding with these meals is that some of the little things, the little garnishes etc, change the meal from being ok, to being really interesting.  It’s daunting because experience has shown that the more ingredients to work with the less likely I am to do this in the fifteen minutes.

This is another chicken dish where you bash the chicken with the flavouring to both get the flavours in to the meat but also to make it thinner and therefore cook a bit quicker.  Doing these meals has really taught me not to overcook the chicken.  There is quite a fine line between being cooked through but still juicy chicken and dried out chicken.  I am learning to be vigilant and try not to over cook the chicken.  After the chicken is cooked, then pan is used to cook the two naan breads.  My pan will only take one naan bread at a time and so I’m very aware that I have to get the chicken on, cooked and out the pan as quickly as I can. 

I have to use my griddle pan for this meal.  This makes a bit nervous.  My griddle pan is on its last legs.  Its non-stickyness really has all but gone. 

Once the chicken is on, doing the other bits, the mushrooms, lentils and salad is quite quick and easy.  You make a dressing with coriander, yogurt, lemon, cashews, mango chutney and turmeric.  The colour is amazing.  The smell is also amazing.  The taste (I sneak a taste at this point) really is amazing. 

One of my pieces of chicken takes a little longer to cook than the other and I know I’m running out of time to get the naan breads on the griddle pan.  Also the non-stickyness of the pan is taking its toll a bit.  There is an awful lot of the tikka paste that was on the chicken now stuck to the pan. 

It’s all but done.  One of the naan breads is cooked, sliced up and added to the dish.  I’m waiting for the second one to cook when I tick over the fifteen minutes.  To be honest one would have done.  In the end it does look a bit heavy on the naan bread.  (This is not actually evident from the photo, the photo was taken before the end of the process and then the memory got full up so there isn’t actually a proper photo of the end product).

There are a few garnishes on top and then it’s all done.  

This dish tastes good.  The (very) green dressing is amazing.  A good meal for a Friday night! 

Who with: Gavin 

How long: Fifteen Minutes and thirty seven seconds 

… Sicilian Tomato & Pasta Salad 

This one looked quite an easy one to cook and it looked like it could be done easily within time.  Once the pasta was on you make the Salsa Verde.  It was at this point than things got a bit fiddly. Not fiddly exactly but a bit time consuming.  Just getting all the bits in the food processor took a while.

You then prepare the olives, peppers and tomatoes.  There are loads of tomatoes to chop and it’s a bit of a tedious job that feels like it takes too long.  Also one of the tomatoes squirted all over me.  A clean white top that it no longer clean and no longer entirely white!

I was worried that the tuna goes on at what seems like a bit late in the process.  The draining the pasta, mixing it with the salsa Verde, tomatoes etc. is a very colorful thing to do.  I send a bit too long arranging it on the platter and I nearly over cook the tuna.  But its ok, it is still blushing in the middle, just.

This is a nice dish.  So colorful.  Tuna isn’t something I cook, or eat a lot.  But I enjoyed this tonight.  The left overs should make a nice lunch tomorrow.  If I remember to take it to work that is.  

Who with: Gavin 

How Long: Fifteen minutes and fifty eight seconds 

…Crunchy Tortilla & Avocado Salad

So I was very dubious about this one.  Chilli isn’t really something you should be able to cook in fifteen minutes.  This dish also has pre-cooked rice which, like 10-minute rice, I’m still not totally convinced by. 

The cooking process went smoothly.  There is quote a lot to chop up here and just generally quite a bit to do which I think accounts for the minute or so I was over the time.  But it wasn’t a difficult one. 

The end result was unexpected.  It really was unexpectedly good.  I really didn’t expect much flavour from this.  Mainly because it’s a chilli cooked in fifteen minutes.  But also because it’s a vegetarian chilli.  I have no issues with vegetarian food at all.  I very often really love it.  But to me a chilli is a long slow cooked dish with meat.  Several kinds of meat, at least pork and beef, but a good bit of chorizo makes it all the better.  I expected this to be bland and disappointing.  

It tasted incredible.  The flavours were amazing.  It was hot but not very hot.  Just full of flavor.  I think this has more than a little bit to do with the Chipotle chilli that goes in it.  This was one of the ingredients on the list of pantry ingredients. I struggled a little to get them, but found them in the end. They smell amazing.  They smell like a smoky barbeque sauce.  The kind of barbeque sauce you get on a proper barbeque in the south of the USA. 

The salad was great too.  There is cut up tortilla’s which are baked in the oven which is a bit different but great and an amazing dressing. 

Who with: Gavin

How long: Fifteen minutes and fifty six seconds

… Sicilian Shaved Fennel Salad 

For some reason I feel very determined to get this one done in under fifteen minutes tonight.  The meal seems quite simple and it is the kind of food I really love to cook.  I am also feeling a bit clumsy tonight … no I am a bit clumsy tonight.  The mess left behind at the end of this one is a testament to that. 

The order of events tonight is to get the bread crumbs chopped and frying. Put the pasta on.  Make the salad.  Put the bread crumbs in their serving bowl.  Then start cooking the main sauce.  I did go slightly out of order.  Only in that the bread crumbs weren’t really fully cooked and so I did a bit of the chopping prep for the main prawn sauce while I gave the bread crumbs a final minute or so in the frying pan. 

This salad is great.  It is great because I think it is the kind of salad that would scare some people.  So it’s a shame I’m not cooking for more people tonight. This salad includes a whole lemon.  Skin.  Pith.  And all.  Seeds included.  It is sliced in the food processor.  The lemon only just fits down the spout. (Do food processors have spouts?)

This was done in less than fifteen minutes despite my clumsiness.  The meal also tasted great.  Quite simple.  But great.  I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.  Not that I was expecting not to enjoy it, but just that I thought it would be ok.  It was very nice.

By the way I think I really will have to retire my large non-stick frying pan now.  It is now more stick than non-stick.  I have bought two new ones recently, both really good, but not quite as big as this one and for some of the recipes using a smaller pan does cause problems.  I am very much in danger of burning things with this pan and so maybe I just need to get a new really big non-stick frying pan and throw this one out. 

Who with: Gavin 

How long: Fourteen minutes and forty four seconds 

… Celeriac & Spinach Rice 

With Christmas now over I should be able to get back to cooking more 15 Minute Meals again.  I had thought I’d manage more than just one over the whole Christmas period.  But I’ve ended up being very busy.  It’s the first day of the new year and it seems like a good day to start cooking again.  Cooking 15 Minute Meals that is, I have done a huge amount of other cooking over Christmas.  I have noticed a bit of a change in how I cook, which I think is down to doing these meals.  I noticed that I am now much more confortable cooking, two, three or four things at a time than I ever used to be.  I am becoming a multitasker! I think I only had one incident where I burnt some sugar I was caramelizing because I was distracted by doing some other cooking at the same time.  I also use the food processor for chopping, slicing and grating far more than I ever did.  I am so used to using it while doing the 15 Minute Meals, that it has become very natural to use it. It has been nice to cook other things for a while and not to have to always slavishly follow a recipe.  But I’m excited to get back to doing these meals. 

I bought the ingredients for this meal a couple f days ago while doing the food shop for new years eve.  This recipe requires a swig of vodka.  I don’t really like vodka.  I don’t have any vodka and I don’t buy it.  I now needed to buy some. In the various supermarkets I visited I looked for a miniature bottle.  I guess even a miniature has more than a swig in it.  There weren’t any.  I didn’t buy any vodka that day.  That meant that today I was faced with all the ingredients of the meal bar one.  My own self imposed rules mean that I have to use all the ingredients as specified unless I genuinely can’t get one.  I can get vodka.  I can get it easily.  I just don’t want to spend money on buying a whole bottle.  In the end I have no choice I have to buy a bottle.  I now have a whole bottle of vodka less one swig and nothing to do with it!

This meal requires you to remove the knobbly end of a celeriac, peel it and then dice it into 1 cm cubes.  Removing the skin for a celeriac is a fiddly job at the best of times.  Inconveniently they are often not very round and quite knobbly.  Also cutting something this big and this shaped into 1 cm dice takes time.  I have reasonable knife skills, but it still is not a quick process.  It takes more than six minutes for me to do this and get the celeriac cooking.  The next task is to start to cook the (product placement alert) Uncle Ben’s 10 minute rice.  You may have spotted a problem here.  If you have to cook ten minute rice and you are already more than 6 minutes in you’re in trouble! I don’t really think I could have prepared the celeriac any quicker.  It wasn’t even a particularly big one.

The rest of the cooking process was quite smooth.  But there was no real hope of making up the time.  There is an exciting part where you set the vodka, which is poured over the meatballs, on fire.  I no longer have a gas hob so I lit it with a lighter.  My hand was briefly on fire, but it was fine! The meatballs have cranberry jam added to them.  I had some cranberry sauce which I had made left over from my new years eve meal last night so it was put to use in this meal.  I was more than three minutes over the fifteen minutes, and I don’t really think I could have done this much quicker.

This is a nice meal.  But I have mixed feelings about the ten minute rice.  I really don’t think it tastes as good as “normal” rice.  It isn’t bad, but just not as good.  In some of the other meals where this has been used, there have been some quite big flavours alongside the rice and so the rice is less noticeable.  The flavours in this meal are quite subtle. The rice is a key part of the dish and I do think it would be better done with “normal” rice.  If I did this again, with out the rules associated with doing this as a project, I would cook “normal” rice even if it meant that it took just that bit longer. 

By the way the photos for this post were taken with my new camera which was a Christmas present form my brother – thanks. 

Who with: Gordy and Gavin 

How Long: Eighteen minutes and twenty one seconds 

… Catalan Market Salad 

… Blue Cheese, Hazelnut & Apple Salad 

I have felt like I have been neglecting my cooking project of late.  I don’t seem to be doing many meals each week at the moment and my blog posts often happen several days after I have actually cooked the meal.  I haven’t lost enthusiasm for doing it.  It is just that, other parts of life, mostly good things, are getting in the way.  I guess it’s just a busy time of year.  Tonight’s meal was another where I just quickly picked a meal did the shopping, in amongst the beginnings of my Christmas food shopping, and then came home and cooked.  It was another late start for cooking.  About nine thirty I think. 

I go into this one with a mix of feeling both confident and unconfident that I will do this in the time.  I’m confident because the recipe seems quite simple and there isn’t anything that is difficult to cook or very dependant on being fully cooked through (like there is when doing a chicken dish).  I am not confident because my brain does not seem to be working properly.  I would normally read a recipe through once before I start (occasionally twice) and I can usually hold the first half of it in my head.  It is only after this point in the cooking process that I would usually have to start looking at the book.  Tonight I can only hold about the first sentence in my head.  I do need to do a lot more reading than usual.  I think it may have been the annoying shopping trip that has fuddled my brain or perhaps it’s the knowledge that I have an awful lot to do in the next few days before I go away for Christmas. 

Despite the significant amount of reading I end up doing, this is an easy one to cook.  You add cottage cheese to the mushroom mix and pasta which seems odd but is actually really nice. The salad is very simple. Just baby spinach, a few toasted hazel nuts a grated apple and some blue cheese.  The recipe says either grate or matchstick the apple.  Quite a few of the other meals have done this as well.  Up till now I have always chosen the matchsticking option.  For a change I grate it.  I thought it would also be quicker.  I think it is quicker, but not much, not much at all.  I do think the matchsticks look prettier. 

It was done, without too much hassle, within the fifteen minutes.  Although I do manage to get some of the whizzed up mushroom mix on my jumper.  The jumper that I have only just washed.  The Jumper that is white! The meal really does taste good.  The salad is great for something so simple.  The apple really does lift it. 

Who with: Gavin 

How long: Fourteen minutes and forty five seconds