Budget Night
Yesterday was a very good cooking day. I don’t have a lot of them, but very pleasingly everything seemed to go smoothly. I made my first ever batch of cumquat marmalade solo (with cumquats from our ever faithful potted cumquat) under the watchful eye of my mum who fretted and fretted that it wouldn’t set. But it did! And it’s really good – heavy on the lemons and probably a little heavy on the pips too but it tastes great. Even Amelia, who is going through one of those slightly irritating “No! I don’t like that!” stages, consumes it with gusto.
And the beef was good as all of you said it would be. It was a little too salty (any suggestions for something other than prosciutto to wrap it in? it was pretty intense) and a little over done, but the porcini mushrooms were incredible. Incredible.
Did I mention that I got Jamie’s Dinners for Mother’s Day? No, I don’t think I did. It looks great. Tomorrow night I am going to bake a sticky toffee pudding from the dessert chapter. I am finding a lot of creative satisfaction in our trashy little kitchen at the moment while the studio is still chaotic.
My mom has a potted cumquat tree too! Hers is in the house because Colorado weather is to fickle for it to survive outside. Cumquat marmalade sounds devine. I’ll have to talk my mom into trying it with me one year.
i love that book! I have tried the garbanzo bean salad so far. EXCELLENT. It’s great for a spring day (well spring in California). I have so many recipes bookmarked in that I dont’ even know where to start!
don’t you just love the pictures too? It’s nice that he has so many recipes that are geared for the family.
xxox
tracy
we just got Jamie’s Dinners ourselves and have made many yumms from it already. we just made the mac & cheese this past weekend. it was really very good. cheers! mav
I just made my first batch of cumquat jam from a recipe from my great great grandmother. I have used her lemon marmalade recipe with great sucess, also her quince marmalade, but this was the first time i was able to get my hands on some cumquats.
sticky toffee pudding is my most favorite dessert in the entire history of the world, ever! i hope you like it!!
I too got Jamies Dinners for Mothers Day! After an ongoing intense dislike (almost to the point of hatred) my husband finally came round to him after seeing his School DInners program – how can you not respect him for that?
I recieved Jamie’s Dinners for christmas, and can strongly recommend it. The fish (pie?) bake has potatoes and fennel, and is perfect for cold winter days, as the season is upon you in Australia.
ooo…toffee pudding! Now that’s comfort food!
congratulations on the roast. cumquats – what are they? a citrus? i’ve heard the word – i’ll have to look it up. we don’t have those or if so they are rare. i’ve never tried jamie oliver’s recipes but they always look fairly simple yet delicious.
Swap the prosciutto for the german version called schinken…I like the bauernschinken the best…its much less salty and has a lovely smokey flavour.. All of your cooking is very inspiring…I think i might have a go at dinner tonight too.
When I went to my boyfriend’s grandmother’s house we came home with a gigantic bag of cumquats. I decided to make cumquat syrup with it but it set so I ended up with cumquat marmalade which is deligtful spooned over vanilla ice cream, or marinate a pork chop in it for a few hours (maybe with a couple of dashes of hot sauce), or even pour some over a brie and you have a delightful appetizer.
I also took a huge pot of water, a cup or so of Splenda, and about 30-40 cumquats sliced thinly, boiled it, strained out the cumquats, chilled it, and had cumquat-ade.
They’re my new favorite fruit and they’re impossible to find in Chicago.
Whew! What a way to de-lurk. I love the Looby-lu site.
The burger recipe in that book is TO DIE FOR!!! I’ve converted my whole family! My husband does them up in classic Jamie style – accent and all.
claire, if its a sticky date type thingy then jam some of those sun dried bananas that look like dead man fingers into it – tops
I’m curious, what are pips in the marmalade?
Claire, I’m so happy for your new home, your upcoming show, and lovely Amelia. Congrats! :^)
get some water on a low boil. not sure what sort of cured pork you have in australia. it’s sort of a shame to use prosciutto, but if you have bacon (american, not canadian). stick some of that in the boiling water to lessen the smokiness and salt level, then use.
good luck. with life.