Mixed Fish Grill, Mediterranean Fennel & Couscous

Meal 119 - January 4th - Mixed Fish Grill, Mediterranean Fennel & Couscous

So this is it - the end. I don't really know what to say - my writing talents were never exactly Shakespearean in the first place but I'm a bit lost for words. I feel I should thank my family, and possibly Jesus for their love and support over the last 12 months. To the readers of my blog, thank you - without you, what really would have been the point? Jamie Oliver - he will almost certainly never read this blog, but he has been the inspiration to it all. And of course Lolz - without her washing up skills, and her, ahem, honest comments and criticisms I would never have seen it through January, let alone December.

Lamb Kofte, Pitta & Greek Salad

Meal 92 - October 31st - Lamb Kofte, Pitta & Greek Salad

I can't claim to have the biggest collection of JO recipe books (currently just the four) but I do like to have a bit of a flick through from time to time, and when I'm in a bookshop I'll often pick up another one and see what I'm missing. As a result you do see certain dishes which run through the back catalogue. There's sausage pasta, a version of which seems to appear in every Jamie book. There's braised peas and lettuce, the 15 minute version of which I'm yet to actually do. Today I'm doing Greek salad, perhaps not really a Jamie signature dish, but it's one of my fave recipes in the "Jamie does..." book and so inevitably, I'm going to compare them.

Chorizo & Squid, Greek Style Couscous Salad

Meal 86 - October 17th - Chorizo & Squid, Greek Style Couscous Salad

You could argue that squid deserves it's own chapter in 15 minute meals. Not just because it isn't a fish, but because it has three meals to it's name - not bad for a rather marginalised member of the seafood community. I had never actually cooked squid before starting this challenge - now I can say I have griddled it, made it into "squidballs" and today I would be completing the trilogy by frying it with chorizo and peppers. And this looked like it would be the best of the three...

Moroccan Bream, Couscous, Pomegranate and Harissa

Meal 79 - September 25th - Moroccan Bream, Couscous, Pomegranate and Harissa

A weekend away forced a brief hiatus on my 15 minute meal challenge but it was nonetheless a weekend with several noteworthy events of the culinary kind. We were headed down to Cornwall for my sister's wedding and being a journey of several hundred miles, we stopped en route several times. The first stop was at a service station in a town called Wincanton, for petrol. We popped into the adjoining Morrison's for a bit of liquid refreshment and I couldn't believe what I saw. Let me just explain first of all that Wincanton is a small town with a population of about four thousand. According to the Wikitravel website, it's third most popular attraction is the A303 bypass. Morrison's, meanwhile, is generally regarded a fairly downmarket chain of supermarket. And yet in this Morrison's in sleepy Wincanton I was greeted by an array of fresh fruit and veg to rival even the finest supermarket we came across in the Loire Valley a couple of months ago. It even had a little sprinkler system to keep the produce refreshed.

Crackin' Crab Briks, Couscous Salad and Salsa

Meal 61 - July 27th - Crackin' Crab Briks, Couscous Salad and Salsa

I'm not going to beat around the bush here - this was a f*cking disaster. Allow me to set the scene...

Greek Chicken, Herby Vegetable Couscous and Tzatziki

Meal 5 - 13th Jan - Greek Chicken, Herby Vegetable Couscous and Tzatziki

Clearly on a roll, I decided to attempt a third meal in just 24 hours. I should confess however that I had already made this dish before, and that this was in fact the dish with which I christened my new food processor and I guess inspired this challenge way back on December 30th. I decided to attempt it again as we happened to have most of the ingredients in the fridge/ cupboard.

On the face of it, it looks a very simple cous cous and chicken recipe, but having cooked it before, I was aware that it was actually quite fiddly with lots of ingredients and lots of multi tasking, so I decided to cheat a bit and prepared the tzatziki in advance and stashed it in the fridge ready to serve. I have a few minor issues with recipe. Frist, two chicken breasts between four people is a little stingy. Second, 1 mug of cous cous is not equivalent to 300g. I used 300g the first time around and ended up with about twice as much as was needed. Third, the whole dish is just a little soggy - using 2 cups water for one cup cous cous is excessive, and the chopped veg also produces a lot of liquid.

Overall though, the dish is a success. The feta works well and adds another flavour and texture dimension, and whoever knew tzatziki was so easy to make?! Looks quite fancy too.

Lolz gave the dish 9/10. Difficulty factor 8/10. Definitely some potential as a next day lunch. Sadly on this occasion though, it all got eaten up...