Jamie's Mustard Chicken with Quick Dauphinoise

Jamie's finished product

By Chris
Main ingredients:

• Chicken breasts
• Leeks
• Single cream
• Maris piper potatoes
• Greens
• Mustard, garlic and rosemary

As much as I like Jamie's 30 minute meals, I've already given up on the idea of trying to create even a two-course meal in under half an hour, as it's unrealistic and just adds unnecessary pressure. 

Having had quite a mixed experience in the past with Pomme Dauphinoise I gave it almost an hour in the oven, but I can't fault the result.

The recipe calls for potatoes chopped up in a food processor, but failing that I went for the slicing side of a cheese grater and that worked just as well to get nice thin potatoes. As for the chicken, it was cooked in a similar way to a fillet of fish: fry skin side down for 20 minutes, then flip for five minutes.

My finished product

A simple sauce of wine, leeks, garlic and cream worked really well with the meat, which had been covered in mustard powder and rosemary. Despite the name, the taste of mustard was not that strong - I was even tempted to add more onto my plate, but then again I am a massive fan of mustard.

The greens were simply boiled and served with a dash of olive oil (natch), and I also went for the recommended affogato pudding, which was very easy - crumbled up shortbread, ice cream, grated dark chocolate and a shot of espresso poured over the top.

All in all not a breathtaking or particularly memorable meal, but a safe recipe to draw on in future, which (at £2.42 per head) isn't likely to break the bank.

Best for... An inoffensive family meal for a winter's evening 

Taken from... Jamie Oliver - 30-minute meals (full recipe)

Helen says... Creamy, comforting and reassuringly filling.

Jamie's Pan-Fried Sea Bass and Crispy Pancetta

By Helen
Main ingredients:

• Sea bass fillets
• Pancetta
• Sweet potatoes
• Asparagus
• Broccoli

As Chris wasn't available this week, I was free to use one of his least-favourite ingredients: fish. 

Sea bass fillets were fried skin-side down (mmm...crispy!) with pancetta, fennel seeds and lemon. Meanwhile I microwaved sweet potatoes and mashed them with mango chutney, coriander, soy sauce and lime juice. The veggie element was provided by broccoli and asparagus dressed with more soy, more lime juice, garlic and chilli.

It all sounds complicated but the instructions are pretty logical (even if Jamie is a little obessed with serving things on boards!) I didn't time it exactly but I reckon it took around half an hour to pull it all together - no I didn't make the recommended 'lemon and ginger drink' or berry icecream, but I was taking it easy and chatting to my guests rather than battling the clock.

This was a real success. The fish was moist, mash was warm and tangy, and we found it impossible to leave any of the greens. Price per head: £3.98 - or £4.31 including dessert, which was borrowed from a different Jamie recipe - frangipane tarlets.

Making a large one rather than several small ones messed with the timings, but the combination of raspberry jam and almondy, buttery paste was very comforting, especially once it had cooled and set a little.

Best for... A noisy dinner with friends who are all happy to dig in and eat themselves to a standstill
Taken from... Jamie Oliver - 30 Minute Meals
Chris says... Nothing!

Delia's Mini Boeufs en Croute

By Helen
Main ingredients:

• Fillet steak
• Puff pastry
• Dried and fresh mushrooms

Like my last attempt, this one was clearly going to take a bit more than half an hour. The steak was briefly seared on each side and then parcelled up in thinly-rolled puff pastry with a concentrated mixture of minced onions and mushrooms (or cauliflower for the fungi-haters).

Although it didn't seem that fiddly at first, everything had to be cooked in several separate stages. Cooking down the mushrooms (and leaving to cool), searing the steak (and leaving to cool), and then combining the two with pastry (and chilling for half an hour) before baking for 25 minutes, all meant that I was clattering pans for most of the afternoon.

The finished 'posh pasties' looked pretty impressive and went down a treat with cauliflower and broccoli cheese and mashed potatoes, but a slightly hot oven and variable steak sizes meant all were cooked a little more thoroughly than we'd have liked. To my taste the mushroom sauce was lacking in richness too and could have benefitted from the addition of some wine (although I did miss out the brandy I was for some unexplained reason supposed to brush over the steaks so that might have helped!)

Overall a good-looking plate of food which didn't hang around, but the recipe didn't necessarily add much to good-quality steaks that might have been better treated more simply. Price per head: £5.19.

Best for... A date who's impressed by French and a little technical skill

Taken from... Delia Smith - How to Cook: Book Two

Chris says... It may have ended up looking more like a Cornish pasty than a Beef Wellington, but it was the tastiest Cornish pasty I've ever had!

Jamie's Pork Chops & Crispy Crackling

By Chris
Main ingredients:

• Pork Chops (4x 200g)
• King Edward Potatoes
• Savoy Cabbage
• Wholegrain Mustard
• Honey, Sage and Garlic

This recipe doesn't sound like much on paper, but really worked out to be more than the sum of its parts. If nothing else, I learnt how to make my own pork scratchings, which is an invaluable life skill if ever I learnt one!

Jamie's recipe suggests cutting the rind off the pork (harder than it sounds), then frying on a high heat to crisp up. This made pretty decent scratchings, but filled my flat with smoke, which was mildly embarrassing since the guests had already arrived. Once they were done and the chops were seared, it all went in the oven with the honey, garlic and sage, which made for some very juicy, tasty chops.

I served this with boiled savoy cabbage, which was flavoured with mint sauce, and microwaved King Edward potatoes with parsley and mustard. None of this is exactly rocket science, but somehow it took 45 minutes - another fail by 30 minute meals standard. The dish didn't look spectacular, although the subtle flavours combined brilliantly to make a very satisfying meal, which at £1.75 per head was very affordable.

Best for... Entertaining friends on a budget (even if they don't normally like cabbage)

Taken from... Jamie Oliver - 30 Minute Meals

Helen says... A couple of extra ingredients made an initially rather uninspiring prospect much more impressive - I'll definitely be adding mint sauce to cabbage again.

Hugh's Slow-Roast Shoulder of Lamb with Merguez Spices

By Helen
Main ingredients:

• Shoulder of lamb
• Spice mix: cumin, coriander, paprika, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, black pepper, fennel, garlic, rosemary and oil
• Butternut squash
• Savoy cabbage

After last week's 30-minute marvel, I decided to take advantage of the Bank Holiday and cook something from the other end of the timescale.

Although the sight of a dinner-plate sized chunk of lamb was a little intimidating, I wrestled the thing home and made a start. After slashing the skin and rubbing in the mixed spice goop, the lamb was roasted for half an hour and then slow-cooked under foil at a much lower temperature.

As always with H F-W's recipes, the timings and weights are pretty flexible - he recommended a staggering six hours of slowcooking but our shoulder was falling off the bone after four and a half. In fact I didn't need to carve it at all, just pull out the three clean bones and slice up the remainder.

The mix of spices was warming and aromatic but surprisingly subtle after the long roast - I wimped out of spooning any of the juices back over it as they seemed to be mostly fat but I'm sure they were delicious too. We served this with buttery Savoy cabbage and butternut squash roasted with chilli, more rosemary and garlic (from the same book). To be honest this could have been more exciting - maybe by chucking in more chilli - but I'm a fan of squash anyway and it made a lovely colourful accompaniment.

As we already owned pretty much all the spices, the raw ingredients came out relatively cheap. The lamb fed four of us with plenty left over for sandwiches, meaning a per-head cost of only £2.35, although this doesn't include the cost of running the oven for most of the day.

Best for... A winter's evening after a long day out in the cold - giving you plenty of opportunity to walk back in and and appreciate the glorious smell.
Taken from... Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - River Cottage Every Day
Chris says... I am ill. So ill. The lamb smelt amazing when it was cooking, but I lost my appetite and only ate half of it. Fortunately, I'll get to eat it all week, so here's hoping I recover before we run out of lamb...