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.
Alongside the Greek salad are lamb kofte, a middle eastern style meatball, something similar to which I cooked way back in March. The meatballs are easy to put together and you knock up a quick bowl of couscous on the side. And then there's the salad. A good Greek salad (like the one in Jamie Does) is packed with lots of big bold flavours and is a meal in itself. This one just feels like a cheap imitation of the real thing. It's got a few Greek flavours (olives, feta etc) but I can't help but feel it's just a tarted up version of the bog standard lettuce, cucumber and tomato combo. And that's a shame because with a couple more ingredients and a tiny bit more effort (maybe a couple of extra calories too) you'd have something special.
Anyway, that's not to say the meal as a whole is a disappointment. The lamb meatballs are nice but I may have gone a touch heavy on the honey, and the pitta pocket concept is good. But this is an opportunity missed.
Lolz gave the dish 8/10. Difficulty rating 1/10.
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