Spicy Cajun Chicken, Smashed Sweet Potato and Fresh Corn Salsa

Meal 113 - December 22nd - Spicy Cajun Chicken, Smashed Sweet Potato and Fresh Corn Salsa

There are some meals in 15 minute meals which you just know are going to be good - tasty, straightforward to make and something you would do again. They're normally meals where, just by looking at the picture, you have a good idea of how you are going to go about cooking them. It helps if the ingredients are all things you like too. This meal, my penultimate chicken meal which I'd been saving for a day where I needed something that would be easy and good comfort food, certainly ticked the first box - it's a bit of fried chicken cooked in the standard 15 minute fashion (bash in some flavourings, fry) with some mashed potato and veg. Mango chutney is a secret ingredient which Jamie added to mashed sweet potato in a 30 minute meal which worked really well, while the salsa looks like a nice combination of sweet and tangy flavours.

Mexican Chicken, Wicked Mole Sauce, Rice and Veg

Meal 102 - November 27th - Mexican Chicken, Wicked Mole Sauce, Rice and Veg

There's an episode of Friends where Rachel attempts to make a trifle. Unfortunately, in the recipe book she is working from, two pages have got stuck together and so her trifle ends up being half shepherds pie, with alternating layers of beef, peas and gravy and custard and jam. Hilarity obviously ensues. Today I found myself in Waitrose buying ingredients which included cumin, spring onion, peanut butter, garlic, chocolate, banana, lemon and cocoa powder. I thought nothing of it, assuming they would not all be for the same recipe.

Minestrone, Poached Chicken & Salsa Verde

Meal 95 - November 7th - Minestrone, Poached Chicken & Salsa Verde

Being a man with a rather healthy appetite, I wouldn't normally consider making soup as an evening meal. I need carbs, calories and dollop of saturated fat. Flavoured water doesn't cut it. But, Lolz had a cold and it was a pretty grim night, and to be honest, this looked like it had a bit more about it than your average can of Baxter's... "souped up" you could say... so I thought I'd give it a go.

Rosemary Chicken, Grilled Polenta & Porcini Tomato Sauce

Meal 89 - October 26th - Rosemary Chicken, Grilled Polenta & Porcini Tomato Sauce

I feel like I've mentioned my spreadsheet quite a lot recently in this blog. It's basically a list of all the meals I've cooked so far, cross referenced with the chapter in which the meal is found and the score Lolz gave it. It means I can work out the average score per chapter and other wildly exciting statistics. I have also written some formulas which mean that every time I add a meal to the list, it works out what percentage of that chapter I have made. Prior to today, my spreadsheet was telling me that the chicken chapter was lagging behind with only 69% completed.

Blackened Chicken, San Fran Quinoa Salad

Meal 80 - September 28th - Blackened Chicken, San Fran Quinoa Salad

In a moment of potentially disastrous judgement, several months ago Lolz and I signed up to the Ealing Half Marathon, either forgetting or ignoring the fact that it would be happening just days after my sister's wedding. In a typical week prior to a half marathon, I would ensure I was well hydrated by drinking lots of water, I'd ease off the alcohol, go for a couple of short, easy runs, and do a bit of carb loading in the few days prior to the race. Unfortunately this tried an tested regime was abandoned in favour of lots of meat, booze, dancing and general unhealthiness. Lolz had conveniently sustained an injury forcing her to pull out of the race by this point but, I, being much more hard core, would be seeing it through. After getting home from the pub on Saturday afternoon, I decided it was time for a healthy pre-race meal. I opted for this salad, full of quinoa, spinach, lean chicken and other energy-boosting goodness.

Chicken Tikka, Lentil, Spinach and Naan Salad

Meal 77 - September 14th - Chicken Tikka, Lentil, Spinach and Naan Salad

To be honest I'm not sure whether my cooking has really improved over the course of this year but I have certainly learned a few things. One is to cook the "Jamie Oliver way": multitasking, battling the clock, showing a little flamboyance but complete disregard for whoever will be doing the washing up. I have also become very well acquainted with my local supermarket - things like tikka paste, lentils, cashew nuts - I can find them with my eyes closed. If only Supermarket Sweep hadn't ended back in 2007 - I'd have been nailed on for the jackpot. Although that would have meant interacting with Dale Winton.

Sizzling Chicken Fajitas, Grilled Peppers, Salsa, Rice and Beans

Meal 70 - August 23rd - Sizzling Chicken Fajitas, Grilled Peppers, Salsa, Rice and Beans

It's Friday again, bank holiday weekend again and another opportunity to tick a few more 15 minute meals off my list. For some reason I haven't done any chicken meals for over two months so I decided to fix that anomaly by attempting these sizzling fajitas. Fajitas are something which I used to cook on a semi regular basis, particularly as a quick, risk free option to cook for friends, but to be honest I always used pre-made fajita spice mix - I've never really considered the DIY option. According to Jamie, that DIY option consists merely of a heaped teaspoon of sweet smoked paprika. Have I been wasting my money on this pre-made stuff all this time, or is this Jamie equivalent overly simplified in order to save time, money and calories?

Incredibly Delicious Chicken Salad

Meal 51 - June 15th - Incredibly Delicious Chicken Salad

Regular readers of my blog may be wondering why it's been almost two weeks since my last post. Have I become lazy? Have I succumbed to the temptations of the chippie down the road? Have I fallen victim to some gruesome food processor related accident? Well no (well, strictly, I have succumbed to the chippie a couple of times), I have been away on a business/pleasure trip to Northern Ireland. Without digressing from the main point of my blog for too long, I will quickly say that it is a beautiful part of the world and Belfast, amongst all the other many things it has going for it, is home to the Ginger Bistro - one of the best and least pretentious restaurants I have been to in a long time. Somehow, over the course of the 6 days I was away, I managed to consume seven cooked breakfasts. Not only that, but on Sunday I am due to be taking part in the 55 mile London to Brighton cycle ride . To successfully complete the ride I would have to conquer the gruelling Ditchling Beacon - a 4 km slog up a winding country road to the third highest point in the South Downs. It's not quite the Tour de France but something healthy would definitely be required.

Pasta Pesto, Garlic and Rosemary Chicken

Meal 50 - June 4th - Pasta Pesto, Garlic and Rosemary Chicken

It was with some trepidation that I reboarded the pasta train as my last trip took me to Prawn-Linguine-Ville - a destination that lay somewhere between the uninspired and the downright scary. I was planning to cook seared asian beef and best noodle salad but was foiled by my inability to find alfalfa sprouts (or, for that matter, establish exactly what they were) and this was a hastily chosen back up option. I was encouraged however by the fact that the dish required just two pans and one platter - no faffing about with side salads or breadcrumb sprinkles -  and also had fond memories of the only other pesto pasta dish I cooked, the "inventive and brilliant" (© One Man and His Food Processor) Broccoli Pasta.

Chicken Pasta, Herby 6 Veg Ragu

Meal 36 - April 18th - Chicken Pasta, Herby 6 Veg Ragu

I wonder if Jamie was struggling for ideas to fill his 15 minute meal pages when he got to the pasta section. It seems sometimes like he may have rigged up a kind of fruit machine system with one wheel as the type of pasta, one for the type of meat, one for vegetable base and one for sauce. As a result, although the meals are quite different on some levels, they do seem like they lack imagination somewhat. Today's offering was, basically, wholewheat fusilli, grilled chicken breast, a kind of "soffritto" vegetable mix and tomato sauce.

Crispy Polenta Chicken Caesar Salad

Meal 32 - April 5th - Crispy Polenta Chicken Caesar Salad

I blame Lolz for the fact that this post is 48 hours late. Having told me I would be getting the run of the house on Saturday as she was having a girlie day out with her friends which included going to see the "hit" Spice Girls musical Viva Forever, she went and introduced me to a new iPad game. I won't tell you what this game actually is as work place productivity around the world will be in serious peril once word gets out. Suffice to say it was (and is) extremely addictive and aside for a brief break watching Match of the Day, and a very brief break for dinner, I did very little else. Today we have been out for a birthday brunch with friends which included "freeflowing" prosecco (or, "drink as much as you can" as we decided to interpret it). So apologies if this is in any way incomprehensible.

Chicken Dim Sum, Coconut Buns, Cucumber Pickle and Hoi Sin Sauce

Meal 14 - Feb 6th - Chicken Dim Sum, Coconut Buns, Cucumber Pickle and Hoi Sin Sauce

If it wasn't for the fact that I have pledged to cook every single recipe in the 15 Minute Meals book, I would most likely have skipped over this one. Not just because I imagined making buns from scratch would be a bit of a faff, or because, surprise surprise, I don't have a bamboo steamer kicking around in my cupboard. But mainly because I detest mushrooms with a passion. With the exception of a few weeks in hospital when I was seven (the medication must have interfered with my taste buds) I have hated and done whatever I can to avoid them for my entire life. Even when my mother would craftily chop them up really small in a spaghetti bolognese, I would still sift through my plate and extract the offending vegetables. Unfortunately, since I will be sticking as closely as possible to the recipes (and yes, I'm aware there are many more mushroom dishes to go...) avoiding them was not an option, and upon getting home, Lolz happily informed me she had sourced not one, not two but THREE different varieties of mustrooms to terrify my tastebuds.

Anyway, I went for my now almost ritualistic pre-15 minute meal run and, having obtained a steamer, got to work. The dough was made and chicken prepared without too much drama  and was all transferred to the steamer.

Once it was all cooked and garnished and plated up it was possibly the most fancy looking dish I have prepared so far. Unfortunately taste wise it was a bit hit and miss. The chicken, having marinated in hoi sin sauce was very nice. The mushrooms were, well, mushrooms, although I can report that shiitake and oyster were marginally more palatable than the horrific closed cup. The garnishes were all good. Unfortunately though, the buns were a bit of a disaster. This may admittedly be partly the chef's (i.e my) fault - I may have overworked the dough or over or undercooked it (although I did follow the rather vague instructions in the recipe to a tee).  But most of all they were just a bit bland and tasted more of flour than anything else. I may experiment more in the future, but to be honest what wrong with some noodles on the side?!

Lolz gave the dish 7/10. Difficulty rating 6/10 - those buns may need a bit more practice.

Spiced Chicken, Bacon, Asparagus and Spinach Lentils

Meal 13 - 3rd Feb 2013 - Spiced Chicken, Bacon, Asparagus and Spinach Lentils

With friends coming over to enjoy the third 15 minute meal of the weekend, the pressure was on to deliver and I had barely finished my spinach smoothie when Lolz ushered me back into the kitchen and back to work. I chose this dish not because of some bizarre spinach infatuation (although we will have got through nearly half a kilo over the course of the weekend) but because it looked like a good, hearty, warming Sunday lunch.

I was quite excited as, although I had been unable to find tinned Puy lentils in any local supermarket and ended up using something called "Bijoux Verts" lentils (which actually turned out to be Puy lentils after all), we had purchased four incredibly plump, juicy looking chicken breasts from our new friends at the butchers. After flattening them out and deliberating somewhat, I decided there was no way all four would fit in our frying pan. Because they were so big, I decided to make do with three breasts and cook the first two and let them rest and then cook the third one, adding the asparagus and pancetta towards the end. It all went pleasingly according to plan and I ended up with a HUGE pot of creamy lentils and spinach (although I'm not sure blitzing the spinach in the processor really adds anything - I think adding whole leaves may have even given it a bit more texture), three suitably golden chicken breasts accompanied by crispy pancetta and some nicely charred asparagus.

The dish was enjoyed by all and the crusty bread was a welcome addition. If Greg Wallace had been dining with us he may have complained that the lentils lacked seasoning or maybe a squeeze of lemon juice or that the chicken would have benefitted from slightly more than a meagre half teaspoon of cayenne pepper (especially for a dish called "Spiced chicken"). Thankfully the only food critic in attendance was Lolz who gave the dish 9/10. She also cooked a lemon souflee which was much more delicious than the picture below suggests...

Difficulty rating 3/10.

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...

Golden Chicken, Braised Greens and Potato Gratin

Meal 1- Jan 6th - Golden Chicken, Braised Greens and Potato Gratin

Is it unlucky that my first meal supposedly contains 666 calories? Probably not so I press on (incidentally, in this book Jamie gives detailed nutritional breakdowns on each meal - probably because previous books have received a backlash due to overuse of cream, olive oil and other delicious things).

I turn the dial on the stove and the heat, literally and figuratively, is on. The onions go into the roasting tray. Unfortunately it is a rather battered, non-non-stick (?) tray so requires regular attention to avoid burnage. Chicken and potatoes get prepped. All goes well until by the time I get to the point in the recipe to add the bacon to the chicken, the chicken is already cooked. I remove the chicken from the pan and fry the bacon alone, adding the chicken for the final 30 seconds or so.

To be honest this was all a good few days ago so details are a little hazy, but got it all out on to a plate and it went pretty well. Onions were slightly overcooked (mainly due to lack of non stick tray, but not to any significant detriment to the dish). Chicken was very tender although slightly plain with only rosemary leaves for flavour. Replaced the spinach with savoy cabbage (sorry Jamie) which worked a treat.

Lolz gave it 8/10. My Difficulty factor 7/10. I have used the greens dish as a side for other non-Jamie meals I have made since.