Microwave dinner

Yes, you read that right. But trust me, this was not one of your average 'remove sleeve, pierce film' types (I'm not quite that bad), but rather a full on home-cooked delicious meal delivered to me in various plastic boxes by my mum when she came to visit yesterday. The meal in question was a recipe that she used from Jamie's Great Britain- Guinness Lamb Shank, complete with celeriac and potato mash and even a little minty oily drizzle stuff. Not your average student dinner, ey? Although I did notice that the mint and spring onion sprinkle thing that Mr Oliver defiantly stated on his programme that 'if you weren't going to add then you shouldn't bother making the dish' was missing- tut tut (but then again, I don't think it would have had quite the same freshening 'lift' effect after a few minutes in the microwave- so I'll forgive).

My mum warned me that she found it to be a little sweet (which is no wonder when the list of ingredients includes raisins, red onions, marmalade, ketchup and celeriac), but I really really enjoyed it. Tender, fall off the bone, succulent meat, rich sticky sweet gravy and warm, comforting mash, with just a hint of mint (complete with glass of wine and followed by some of my mum's ridiculously good tiramisu)- and all I had to do was bung it in the microwave and wait for the beep. I feel very spoiled (and very very full) right now.

Toad in the hole

I have been craving Yorkshire pudding for a good 3 weeks. And after a conversation with my mum and gran about roast dinners, and watching Jamie Oliver tuck into them on Tuesday night (the best mouthful of food he'd ever eaten- apparently), it had reached a new level of craving. So last night I made toad in the hole. A visit from the boyfriend was the perfect excuse to cook and tuck into a big homely dish (it seems a bit sad to make it just for one- although with two sausages left and a perfect one person-sized pot, I may have to be a bit sad), and it didn't disappoint. I used the only sausages that should ever be used- Cumberland, and Jamie Oliver's method of making Yorkshire puddings that he used on Tuesday's Jamie's Great Britain, in which you measure your eggs and use the same amount of milk and flour. Served with lashings of onion gravy, it went down very nicely. Granted my onion gravy did look a little like apple sauce as I realised too late that the only stock I had was chicken, but for my first gravy-making attempt it tasted pretty damn good (better than it looked anyway). And the toad in the hole was just perfect- nice meaty spicy sausages, crispy Yorkshire with a little bit of squidgy in the middle, and a hint of thyme (any excuse for me to use thyme). Very suitable for a cosy dark night in hiding from the Manchester weather (rain- lots and lots of rain).

 Look what I got yesterday! After my whinging about not being able to afford pretty new cookbooks (which he didn't even read, he was just surprising me), my boyfriend landed with a copy of Jamie's Great Britain, all for me! Massive boyfriend points were obviously awarded (in the form of most of the aforementioned toad in the hole), and now I have a shiny new book to cook from! Satisfied Yorkshire pudding cravings, and a beautiful new book- what more does a girl need ey?

Lamb and apricot tagine

Back in Manchester and the land where internet moves quicker than a glacier. I had a wonderful time at home but being cut off from the world of high-speed broadband did make me feel a little like a quarantined mouse (I am a student after all- I don't know how to function without it), and it also meant I haven't posted on here as much as I wanted to, so I'll have to do a bit of catch up over the next few days.

 I think one thing that everybody loves about visiting home is the familiarity- it's comforting when things aren't too different. However, one thing that I arrived home to find different this week was the appearance of a brand new purple tagine in the kitchen. I know I'm a loser to be excited by this but it was beautiful. And as I realised that smuggling it in my suitcase back to Manchester (like I do with a large quantity of the cupboard contents) would be rather difficult, I decided that the next best thing would be to use it whilst I was home. Some scouring through cookbooks in WHSmith later (yes I'm too broke to actually be buying new cookbooks, no matter how pretty they are and how much I want to), I found a recipe in Jamie Oliver's Jamie Does... (which I've just realised is only a fiver with free delivery on Amazon... hmmmm...). The original, which is online here, is for a beef and prune tagine, but I swapped in lamb and apricots (purely for personal preference) and it worked really well. The recipe in general worked really well. All the ingredients were easy to get hold of, although the lamb neck was labled shoulder (to quote my mum- it had never been shoulder in it's life), and there was an almost unsuccessful search for ras el hanout in the wonderful supermarkets of Whitehaven. I really didn't want to have to make my own- the last time I attempted it it just ended up tasting of cloves, which wasn''t really the vibe I was going for- but lucky for my parent's tastebuds I was saved by Morrisons (boo to you Tesco). 

The recipe was also really easy to follow, and it turned out really well. I don't mean to sound suprised, I have every faith in Jamie's recipes, it's just that slow-cook dishes aren't usually a strength of mine (mainly because I am far too impatient with anything that requires me to leave it alone for any amount of time), but with a combitation of Sky TV to distract me away from the kitchen and a mother to shout at me anytime I tried to go back in, my tagine was a delicious success. Served with some simple cous cous dressed with lemon and coriander, it was the perfect combination of spice, perfume, succulent meat and juicy fruit and vegetables- and for a dish that was supposed to serve 4-6 people, there wasn't an awful lot left after the 3 of us got stuck in, which is always a good sign.

Jamie's Great Britain

So last night saw the beginning of Jamie Oliver's new series Jamie's Great Britain, which of course saw me excitedly refreshing my laptop at 10 o'clock waiting for it to come on to 4od (I don't have a tv). I love a brand new cookery programme (mainly because I spend the time that there aren't any watching reruns of all the ones I've already seen) and now they seem to be all over the place. River Cottage Veg Everyday, Nigel Slater's Simple Cooking, Home Cooking Made Easy- I'm a woman in heaven at the moment. 

So anyway- Jamie. It's easy to say that I wasn't disappointed. To start with, visually it was beautiful. That's what I love about Jamie's recipes and programmes- all the food just looks so beautiful and rustic that it seems impressive and yet achievable, you just want to immediately rush off and cook everything he makes (simultaneously serving it on an old wooden board and slathering it with olive oil 'just to finish it off'). Last night's programme was no exception. Everything, whether made by him or the street vendors shown, just looked (for want of a better word) delicious. That sole! The burger! The Vietnamese pork sandwich! The bass! I'm getting my knife and fork out just remembering it. The Dover sole with the cockles and shrimp was definitely the one recipe that was right up my street, all that delicious seafood in a buttery, herby, lemon sauce- somebody pass me a napkin! However, that said, I don't think that I would call the fish the star of the show. I have one word for you- pie. Mr Oliver took all that was good in the world (and therefore extremely bad for you- we're talking 'adds inches just by looking at it' bad) and put it in a pretty white dish. Beef, beer, thick crispy pastry, cheese! It's the type of food you fantasise about when you're half way up a fell in the Lake District, cold, hungry and wet. And it just looked... awesome.

I wouldn't say that there were negative points for me, although the oysters he prepared looked a little scary; they are something I've never tried (yet) and the dressings he made, which I'm sure were delicious, didn't make me want to rush out and pop my oyster cherry. Also, the sea bass in a bag looked gorgeous, but I definitely don't share Jamie's love for all things fennel. Quite the opposite- I avoid it like the washing up. I would unquestionably have to trade the offensive vegetable for something a little less like sambuca. Overall though, a fantastic show with lovely, non-pretentious food, leaving me very excited for next Tuesday when I will be at home for reading week and can watch the next installment on an actual television! I can imagine the chillies and olive oil now...

[photos from channel4.com]