Jamie's Wicked Souvlaki Kebabs

By Chris,

Main Ingredients:

• 400g Diced Pork
• Green and red peppers
• Warm flatbreads
• Greek Yoghurt
• Dill, Mint, Oregano and Lemon Juice

As Jamie says in the preamble to this recipe, kebabs are often regarded as a guilty pleasure, but there's nothing guilty about these kebabs. In fact, they're probably the healthiest kebabs I've ever eaten. First up, the meat was marinated in the juice of half a lemon, 50ml of olive oil, half a tablespoon of dried oregano and half a tablespoon of dried mint. This combo was pepped up with some red wine vinegar, a finely chopped garlic clove, a pinch of salt and some cracked black pepper, and then left for half an hour.

Next up, I made some tzatziki by grating and wringing out a quarter of a cucumber, which was then mixed with 50ml of Greek yoghurt, chopped mint, more red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. The next step would probably be much easier (and quicker) on a gas cooker, as I had to blacken two peppers under the grill. This took about ten minutes under an electric grill, so in the meantime I prepared the dill and mint garnish, which would go on these peppers later.

Once the peppers were done, I took them out from under the grill and put them into a covered bowl to sweat for a while. The pork was then skewered and fried in a dry pan for ten minutes and the flatbreads were warmed in the bottom of the oven. After the meat had nicely soaked up all the marinade, we were ready to roll. The flatbreads were filled with a dollop of the tzatziki, a generous skewer's worth of meat, the peeled and sliced peppers and the garnish.

The result was a lovely, zingy, herby wrap that was both filling and taste-bud tingling. With my predilection for spice I would be tempted to chuck a red chilli into the marinate next time, and if I was feeling a bit more plush, I'd upgrade the pork to diced lamb. Otherwise, this was fairly simple and very satisfying. The catch? At £4.13 a head, this is one of the priciest dishes we've made so far...

Best for... A super indulgent lunch on a stonking hot summer day

Taken from... Jamie Oliver - Jamie Does... Greece

Helen says... Surprisingly filling and beautifully rich and herby. Plus I'm sir you could cheat and use jarred peppers if you were in a hurry!

Jamie's Tapas Feast

By Helen
Main dishes:

• Chorizo and lentils
• Smashy chickpeas
• Pork and parsley meatballs
• Rosemary and tomato bread
• Cheese and ham croquetas
• Tinto de verano sorbet

Why learn one new recipe when you can attempt five or more at once?

Now it's finally the right time of year for nibbly, share-y food that doesn't have to keep out the chill, I decided to revisit the tapas-style meal. The chorizo fried with a tin of lentils was my personal favourite - the spicy oils making otherwise dull pulses more substantial. The chickpeas - a sort of hot hummous - weren't that spectacular but were very simple to make and added some useful carbs along with the bread.

The meatballs were a little more complicated than I'd expected (peel my own tomatoes? Me?) but very tasty and only the croquetas (deep-fried cheese balls) were disappointing. I think I needed to make the thick cheesy mixture a bit thicker and leave it to chill for longer (then coat with some slightly less... 'rustic' breadcrumbs) and they might have been more successful. But that's the point of tapas I suppose - there's a certain amount of trial and error from a cook's point of view as well as a guest's.

The real surprise was the sorbet - a mixture of lemonade, sugar syrup, water, lemon juice and not especially expensive red wine which came out a beautiful raspberry colour and velvety smooth after 24 hours in the freezer. Really refreshing and not nearly as sharp as lemon but it still looked pretty classy in small glasses.

At £2.69 a head this really wasn't too pricey and I'd definitely use a couple of these dishes again, alongside some more adventurous ones - baby clams or deep-fried squid anyone?

Best for... A long evening gradually eating to a standstill (if you can stop being punctual!)

Taken from... Jamie Does...Spain

Chris says... There's something for everyone on a lovely tapas platter, just pity the poor soul who has to do the washing up!

Jamie's Steak Indian Style with Paneer and Spinach Salad

By Chris
Main Ingredients:

• 900g Rump steak
• 200g Baby spinach
• 200g Paneer Cheese
• Curry paste, yoghurt, coriander and grated carrot

This recipe was something of a throwback, harking to our first ever New Food Monday, as a Jamie recipe that did clever things with steak. Like the Rib Eye Steak and Dan Dan Noodles, this recipe was full of flavour and exciting sides. Unlike the previous recipe, it massively overestimated the amount of steak you would need. I had to check and double check the amount - 900g of steak between four? Really?! 

Incredulity aside, I ploughed on with what turned out to be a very straightforward recipe. The steak was marinated quickly in oil, the juice of half a lemon and a quarter of a jar of curry paste, for an Indian kick. After a quick soak, they were fried in a pan for six minutes, turned regularly, then left to rest on a board.

Eschewing the traditional accompaniment of rice, two shop-bought naan breads were baked to fulfil the role of carbs, while a herby selection of sides was knocked together as part of Jamie's classic spread of dishes that you could assemble according to your tastes.

On one hand, there was Greek yoghurt, mixed with the other half of the lemon, shredded mint leaves and oil. At the other end of the scale, there was another quarter jar of curry paste, simmered with coconut milk. To top it off, we had a light salad of baby spinach, shredded carrot, coriander and cress, with Paneer cheese fried with sesame seeds.

Overall, this made for a very satisfying, simple and quick meal, which more than lived up to the 30-minute meal manifesto. However, my one reservation is the overcatering in terms of meat, which could have been easily scaled back and brought the price per head below the slightly eye watering £4.25.

Best for... A light low-carb treat on a Friday night in with a movie.

Taken from... Jamie Oliver - 30 Minute Meals

Helen says... Delicious, messy, rich, herby - we polished our plates with the last of the naan!

Delia's Bread and Spiced Apple Pudding

By Chris,
Main Ingredients:

• 2x Bramley apples
• 5x slice of brown bread
• 50g sugar
• 25g sultanas
• mixed spice and nutmeg

To kick off Pudding Month, I decided to go for a traditional English pudding, which went down a treat on a rather rainy and dreary day. Delia's Frugal Food has quite a lot of dessert recipes, but no pictures, meaning it's quite hard to envisage what they're going to look like, so I headed into new territory blindly and bravely...

First up a few slices of brown bread were used to line the tin, then the filling was made up from two peeled and thinly sliced apples, a handful of sultanas, the spice mix (mostly cinnamon) and a few tablespoons of sugar. then more bread on the top, more sultanas and nutmeg. To hold it all together, half a pint of milk mixed with two eggs was poured over the top.

The resultant concoction looked quite hefty and I wasn't sure we'd be able to devour it all, but after half an hour at 180 degrees, the pudding came out surprisingly light and fluffy. The apples were well cooked, but not mushy, the subtle flavours blended together nicely and the whole dish was served up with warm custard. I'd say this recipe is a great half way point between bread and butter pudding and apple crumble, and rather than being a compromise, it was better than both.

I rather imagine we'll have to re-adjust our expectations in terms of value for money for pudding month, but even so, the 54p a head this cost still seems like very good going.

Best for... Comfort eating on a soggy day, summer or winter.

Taken from... Delia Smith - Frugal Food

Helen says... Not too sweet, even with custard, but it still made me feel pleasantly greedy.

Delia's Stuffed Breast of Lamb

By Helen

Main Ingredients:

• Breast of lamb
• Parsley, mint and rosemary
• Breadcrumbs
• Egg

Our demanding guests asked for lamb this week and Delia delivered. 

First I made a stuffing of breadcrumbs, herbs and lemon zest bound together with egg, then spread this inside the meat. Breast of lamb is a slightly weird, flat piece of streaky meat around 30cm by 10cm but rather pretty once rolled and tied with the fresh herby stuffing.

Then I roasted the meat for two hours - at which point it had somehow grown to frightening proportions. I made the best attempt I could at carving the meat (which was determined to fall apart) and served with roast potatoes, parsnips and broccoli. The juices from the meat were made into a rich gravy with the addition of redcurrant jelly, which didn't go particularly far.

Overall this was pretty impressive - an untidy but fragrant stack of thick slices of juicy lamb and plenty for lunch this week. Plus it worked out at a bargainous £1.72 a head. Nice one, Delia!

Best for... A more relaxed roast

Taken from... Delia Smith - Complete Illustrated Cookery Course

Chris says... One of the best smelling dishes we've had so far and the gravy was super rich and tasty.

Hugh and Jamie's Pan-Mediterranean Feast

By Helen

As the food gets better, the photography is still lacking..

Dishes:

• Chorizo in wine and honey
• Fried halloumi with sesame seeds
• Tortilla (Spanish potato omelette)
• Rosemary and tomato focaccia
• Parma ham and olives
• Hummous

As a weak wintery sun shone hopefully down, our thoughts naturally turned to warmer times and climes. 

Cheered by the thought that it might not actually be winter FOR EVER I decided to celebrate the coming of spring with a mezze/tapas style meal, combining all the best dishes from Hugh and Jamie.

This was a really fun one to make and to eat - none of the dishes was especially complicated or needed to be served hot, so it didn't matter that each one made it to the table at slightly different times. For the second week in a row we made bread, which swelled up to an alarming size and could have done with some more tomatoes, but was excellent for mopping up leftovers.

Hugh almost threw a spanner in the works by suggesting (unnoticed by me) that I should boil the tinned chickpeas for three hours (!) before blending - again proving that although Jamie's meals may take over 30 minutes, Hugh's certainly aren't feasible for most people to make everyday. Thankfully an Internet recipe suggested that this was unnecessary and sure enough the chickpeas blended happily enough with oil, garlic, lemon, water, tahini and cumin to make around 1ab (one abundance) of moreish hummous.

Everything else was pretty self-explanatory - fried potatoes and red onion were set and grilled with six eggs and lots of rosemary for the tortilla, and the chorizo was fried with honey, a splash of red wine and balsamic vinegar which made a lovely sticky glaze. Sesame seeds (from last week) were pressed into chopped halloumi and fried until the cheese was golden.

Even between three hungry people there was a huge amount left for some rather impressive weekday lunchboxes - assuming that four hungry diners could have made more of a dent, the per-head cost comes out at a remarkably reasonable £2.93. Roll on spring!


Best for... Lazy summer picnics without a cloud in the sky (or as close as you can manage in the UK).
Taken from...Hugh, Jamie and BBC Good Food
Chris says... One of the best yet - the halloumi and chorizo were fan-bloody-tastic!