OK.... so we've all heard the rumours about Jamie's 30 minute meals book.... i.e. recipes not actually 30 minutes long. Well I have to put my hand up and say I love Jamie's book and the whole philosophy of the sharing meals, and to date I have tried about 35% recipes in the book and most of them I can do in about 30 - 40 minutes. So today as its Sunday I wanted to do something meaty, and picked his Spring Lamb, Vegetable Platter and mint sauce recipe.
Now, first thing to note, it states at the beginning of the recipe to put oven, kettle etc on and also, have all ingredients ready. I did this and can honestly say it took me about 15 minutes to get all ingredients ready and prepared, so herbs picked, everything weighed out, but you have to remember I am trying to do this with an adorable (not annoying in the slightest) 3 year old around my heels thinking she is mummy's little helper. This one though has lots of ingredients so I still think it could take 10 minutes to prepare.... if you look my entire work surface was covered!
Now I will be honest it took me 1 hour.... but let me break this down for you as I am not sure this is a true representation;
- 15 minutes food prep (but should have been 10)
- I didn't read the recipe correctly and added all vegetables in at the same time, realised I had done this and then had to strain, separate and start again.... this added about 5 minutes onto the process.
- Forgot to put the tomatoes in with the lamb - doh!! Put them in part way through so cooked them a further 5 minutes to ensure they were cooked properly.
- I had to cook veg extra 5 minutes as potatoes were still hard, but they were quite big for baby new potatoes so hint here is make sure they really are small.
So there is at least 20 minutes you can shave off, which makes it about 40 minutes, so not far off. It is a little rushed though and take care, you are browning the lamb while you are preparing other parts of the dish. Keep a close eye on the lamb it states to have it on a high heat, however I do not think I work as fast as Jamie does so I ended up having to turn it down so as not to burn the meat.
Oh and I have a tip, if like me you grow mint and don't buy it in a bundle, in the method it states to keep the band on the mint stalks, instead of this you can use one of the stalks and tie it around the bundle.
So that's how it was to cook, but what about the taste. See picture below :-)
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| Thumbs up from Florence! |
The joy of it being a sharing meal meant that if the kids didn't like it they did not have it on their plate. To be honest neither of them really liked the gravy, think it was too rich (red wine sauce), or the mint sauce which I think was too acidic for them. But they wolfed down the lamb and the vegetables. As for my husband, he had seconds and said that everything was just gorgeous. Me, well I may have had seconds too, it was really tasty!
So yes, another success and I would definitely do it. But only when you know you have an hour to cook.
Also - lots of vegetables.... I now have a box full of vegetables in my fridge which I will use tomorrow for bubble and squeak!
If you want to try this yourself I would recommend it. It is in the Jamie's 30 minute cook book or can be found on his website.
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/lamb-recipes/spring-lamb-vegetable-platter-mint-sauce-chianti-gravy-chocolate-fondue
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