Jamie's 30-Minute meals
 

NOM.

That is all.

He's the best thing ever. My mum's got his book but unfortunately it definitely takes more than 30mins to cook all that stuff. The good thing is he manages to incorprate so many fruits and veggies into his recipes.

I have the book too but I haven't tried to cook anything out of it yet. It all looks a bit sophisticated for my family meals. I will try one day though. Just building myself up for it.

Perhaps start with the drinks! Or the brownie, I saw that on TV the other day and it looked yummy.

Oh I absolutely LOVE that book. I never make the whole lot, but I do pretty much just use it as inspiration (I verrry rarely follow recipes precisely). But it really is fantastic. Leigh, it's really not terribly sophisticated, it's just yummy :)

It does annoy me that it really takes longer than 30 mins (short of chopping & preparing EVERYTHING beforehand) but they're still reasonably quick. Honestly, I would reccomend this book to anyone. Best thing is probably the 30 minute roast- my boy always makes this for me, which is epic :D

Oh I just love it. I've been slowly trying to convert my family (I like interesting food, but they're all a meat and two veg/ready meal lot), and used this A LOT.

But yes to it all taking so much longer, haha!

tbh I got my brother this book for christmas I love the tv show but the book just has fancy ingrediants that I either don't know or/and don't know where to get from...

Tesco. I haven't seen anything on that show that you can't buy in any decent supermarket - but go to smaller shops with local/fresh produce if you want the nicer stuff.

Jo - what's it like for vegiterians? or do you just substitute the meat for veggie stuff?

A lot of the fancier stuff can sort of be substituted. Like, I can't be arsed to go buy super expensive extra virgin olive oil, or balsamic vinegar or a million fresh lemons. I'd love a fresh herb garden, but I don't have the space right now... so with a little common sense, most of it can just be with a sensible substitute, and sometimes just go without and be a little creative. So long as the basis of a recipe is sound, a lot of the fancy things can be played with.

30 minutes for a professional Id say .Its funny I watch my family cooking and they are so slow .Im used to cooking for 200 people .preparing for two people I could do in my sleep .

I've just picked up the recipe i quite fancied when I saw it on the show.

ingrediants I haven't a clue where to get from...

Ginger
Lemongrass
coconut milk
sesame oil

I must be completely and utterly thick but yes

I'm pretty sure you could get all of those from a
big supermarket like Tesco or Sainsburys. Not the little Tesco Express etc though.
Failing that I think most towns have shops that specialise in selling foods from other countries so you should be able to get stuff from there as well.

I have the book but haven't actually cooked anything from it yet.

Oh man... whenever I see him make food on tv. He makes me want to eat lots of food. So delicious. I got the book for my mum. We've made the chicken pie, that was yum.. and some dessert :).

Ginger and coconut milk are in most large supermarkets, I'm sure I've seen them in Sainsbury's and Morrisons. The ginger should be in the veggie/fruit area, the coconut milk is probably found in the world foods aisle. Lemongrass might be found amongst the herbs, or possibly in a puree... for the puree M&S might be a good place to look. I'm not sure if I've seen sesame oil, but if supermarkets stock them they'll be amongst the cooking oils, but it might take some searching.

All of these ingredients are very common .if in doubt ask soemone working in the supermarket

loads of people keep telling me that they take longer than 30mins... but i got the book on saturday and last nights meal took 25mins and tonights about 40mins... so not far off 30

Seriously? Ginger and coconut milk you should be able to get from your local Tesco Metro/Co-op, and a lot of them have sesame oil too. But even if you don't go there, everything will seriously easily available from your local big supermarket. I used to make my own kick-ass green thai curry when I was at uni, so these things came in pretty useful.

Liz - I normally make the side dishes and have a different main part, just replace the meat with halloumi or tofu, or just leave the meat out completely. But I tend to make the side dishes rather than the mains, anyway.

I considered this, until I kept hearing they take longer than thirty minutes for an average person. I am not a chef, and what a chef (who knows the recipe off-by-heart) can do in thirty minutes would probably take me double that.

Claire, chances are if you just pre-prepare things (like chopping up veg, measuring stuff out before etc.) it can be done pretty quickly. I think half of the problem is the fact that he has an all singing all dancing food processor, and can chop at about a million miles an hour. I am a reasonable cook, but nothing amazing and I can get most of them done in under 45 minutes (without substantial pre-prep). I doubt it'll take you an hour, you seem pretty capable of most things.