Tag: jamie oliver

Jamie Oliver was born in 1975 in Clavering in Essex, jumping straight into the kitchen of his parents’ pub. He swept through the River Cafe, was quickly spotted by TV crews and became an immediate celebrity with Naked Chef. He’s then used his celebrity status to increase the ranges of supermarkets, give disadvantaged youths a career in cooking, fights tooth and nail to improve school dinners and is passionate about everyone having at least one recipe up their sleeve. (Fun fact: I once fixed Jamie Oliver’s website over the phone.)

Categories
banana bread cake food walnut

walnut & banana loaf

walnut and banana loaf with chocolate orange butter

I’ve never been a fan of banana. At all. But this year my daughter has developed a voracious appetite for them, which is great that she’s eating foods that I don’t, but on the other side means you occasionally get a few bananas knocking about at the end of their ripey life.

So Mrs Spud made some banana muffins and thy were great. So much so, I’m almost a complete convert to bananas in a dessert now. Still not sold on the fruit in it’s raw state, but baked I am fine with.

Hence a year ago I would never have attempted this, a walnut and banana loaf recipe from Jamie’s Great Britain. Someone in the office said I had to try it, so I did. It’s a fabulous teatime treat, all dark and fudgy, combined with this decadent chocolate orange butter.

Walnut and banana loaf with chocolate orange butter (serves 16 (apparently)):

100g walnut pieces, toasted

125g dark brown sugar

125g soft butter

2 eggs

100g plain flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

5 ripe bananas, peeled and mashed

For the butter:

100g dark chocolate

100g butter

75g icing sugar

Zest of 2 oranges

  1. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Bung the walnuts in the oven for 5 minutes and tip them out to cool.
  2. Cream the butter and sugar together until pale. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then sift in the dry ingredients. Mix to combine into a smooth batter then stir in the walnuts and bananas. Pour into a greased loaf tin and bake for an hour or until a skewer leaves it clean.
  3. While that cooks, prepare the butter by creaming the butter and sugar together. Melt the chocolate gently in the microwave for a minute at a time until smooth. Grate in the orange zest then stir into the butter. Serve the cake in slabs, smeared with chocolate butter.
Categories
beef food worcestershire sauce

worcestershire sauce brisket

I’m crazy about brisket recipes. Just leaving that juicy, flavour-packed meat to simmer away until it pulls apart into those flakes is just irresistible. I just had to give this recipe a go when I saw it in Jamie’s Great Britain.

…And what a disappointment. The texture was beautiful, really tender, but the flavour was frankly medicinal. Definitely a case of too much of a good thing.

Jamie serves his in a sandwich with pickled cucumber, I served mine more as a traditional roast.

Worcestershire sauce-marinated brisket (serves 6 – 8):

1kg beef brisket

2 onions, sliced

1 x 150ml bottle of Worcestershire sauce

1 stick of celery, sliced

  1. Chuck everything in a large casserole dish. Bring to the boil, turn the heat down and simmer for 4 hours until the meat pulls apart. Allow to cool slightly in the broth before serving.
Categories
bay beef food pearl barley pie rosemary stock

kate & wills jamie oliver beef pie

Y’know when Jamie’s on his thing? Going for it like a nutter and saying this recipe is the best thing ever? Well I got caught up in his craziness and decided to make this, the kitchen sink of beef pies. I made a tiny change in substituting stout for red wine (can’t abide beer / lager etc in pies – beer batter on fish is just vile) but other than that it’s the same.

This recipe from Jamie’s Great Britain is just OK – yes, a decent beef stew with a pastry lid but no more than that. I was quite disappointed all told, I was expecting fireworks but ended up with a perfectly OK pie.

Good, but not worth making again.

PS. A big shout out to Farmer’s Choice for their excellent casserole beef though – meltingly tender and full of flavour.

Kate & Wills’s Wedding Pie (serves 6):

2 sprigs rosemary, leaves picked

2 bay leaves

2 red onions, peeled and sliced

500g casserole beef, diced

1 tablespoon tomato puree

200ml red wine

1 tablespoon flour

750ml beef stock

70g pearl barley

1 teaspoon English mustard

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

50g Cheddar cheese, grated

For the pastry:

150g plain flour

50g suet

50 balt

1 egg, beaten

  1. Put a large casserole pan over a high heat and add some olive oil. Toss in the herbs, onions and meat with a little seasoning. Mix well and cook for 10 minutes.
  2. Add the tomato puree, wine, flour and stock and bring to a simmer. Turn the heat down low, stuff the lid on and cook for an hour. Then add the pearl barley and leave for another hour. Remove the lid and simmer for another 30 minutes. Add the mustard, Worcestershire sauce and cheese and check the seasoning. Leave to cool while you make the pastry.
  3. Rub the flour, suet and butter together until it resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in 60ml cold water and bring it together. Wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for half an hour.
  4. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Ladle the stew into a deep pie dish. Roll out the pastry to about 1cm thick and cover the pie dish. Brush over the egg wash and bake for about 45 minutes, or until the pastry is golden.
Categories
food ice cream jam sponge

arctic roll

This one is straight from the pages of Jamie’s Great Britain. I don’t have particularly as strong memories of arctic roll as other people seem to – but what’s not to love here? Ice cream, jam, sponge…

And it is good – but it’s extremely similar to his pudding bombe masterpiece (which I’m making for about the sixth time this week, do try it now pannetone is in the shops). Given the choice I’d have the bombe every time.

Arctic Roll (serves about, ooh 6 – 12?):

For the sponge:

3 eggs

100g caster sugar

75g plain flour

1 heaped teaspoon cocoa powder

For the filling:

500ml vanilla ice cream

500ml chocolate ice cream

300g raspberry jam

1 Crunchie

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Leave the ice cream on the side while you do everything else so it softens.
  2. Whisk the eggs with the sugar until pale and fluffy. Fold in the flour.
  3. Grease a baking tray and line with greaseproof paper. Spoon half the mixture on to the tray, fold the cocoa into the remaining mixture, then swirl that through the stuff on the tray. Place in the oven for 15 minutes, or until cooked through (it’s only thin so watch out!).
  4. Get another piece of greaseproof paper and scatter with sugar. Get the sponge out of the oven and flip it on to the sugar, and peel off the ‘cooked’ bit of paper. Carefully roll up the sponge in the paper and leave to cool curled up.
  5. Once cooled spread unroll the sponge and spread over the jam. Blob it with ice cream, alternating to make sure there’s a good mix of flavours. Bash the daylights out of the Crunchie and scatter over the ice cream, then roll it back up again. Leave in the freezer until you want to serve it.
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