My Jamie Oliver Recipe Experience Part Two..

Fish tray-bake with Jersey Royals, Salsa verde and simple spinach salad.

Another try out of a Jamie Olivers 30 minute meal which again made a delicious meal. I played the video in the background and got all the ingredients ready at the start. I wasn't so sure about the side orders (someone doesn’t like jersey royal potatoes and I don’t have a food processor to make the salsa verde) so we used sides from other Jamie recipes we've made so it was…

Fish tray-bake with simple spinach salad, flatbreads and pomegranate drink.  

Fish tray bake: I used Salmon and River Cobbler from the local supermarket. In the tray (I used one of my favourite melamine dishes) I just chucked in all the ingredients (minus a few that Jamie uses) – cut up chunks of fish, Asparagus (with wooden ends snapped off), Lemons (in quarters), Baby tomatoes, pancetta, Garlic, pepper, basic leaves and olive oil. Mix it all up then arrange it so that it is evenly mixed with the fish skins facing upwards and lemons are in the corners. Cook in the oven. 

Flatbreads: As per my previous post I made some flatbreads. I love these…..so tasty. Scrunch up and wet a large piece of greaseproof paper then open it up. Place on the flatbreads, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with herbs (today I used Thyme and oregano). Wrap up the flatbreads and pop in the oven to warm up.

Spinach Salad: Using a selection of 'leaves' - spinach, rocket and watercress, chopped fresh tomatoes and drizzled with lemon juice and balsamic vinegar

Pomegranate drink: In a large jug I added ice, the juice of two pomegranates, some slightly flat lemonade (fizzy water would do), a little bit of lemon juice, mint leaves and stirred. Taste and adjust amounts. 

Here’s the link to the episode on 4od and the recipe is in Jamie's 30-Minute Meals: A Revolutionary Approach to Cooking Good Food Fast . 

Jubilee Fun

I'm not going to hide it - I'm a big fan of the Royal Family. I like how the country comes together and celebrates...for a few days the mood of the country lifts as the news is full of positivity (well mostly). Okay so we might question the royal family sometimes...the use of tax payers money by certain members but then I look at the good that they do, their independent work Princes Trust, Duchy originals...

Last year I enjoyed the royal wedding celebrations on the big screen at Hyde Park. This year, a bit tired after the dot-to-dot festival (my next blog piece coming up) I had afternoon tea, followed by champagne while watching the jubilee concert on the box. 

Crochet an Owl

The most adorable little owl I made for a birthday present. I've just started to learn how to crochet and the little owl is my second attempt at making something. Once I got over looking at the daunting instructions and the many different patterns I managed to learn a few basic stitches - chains, slip stitches, double crochet. I found the easiest way to do this was looking at youtube videos and I brought a book The Essential Handbook of Crochet Stitches . I decided the best thing would be to get on and just make something! My first project is something much simpler (It's not yet finished but I'll post it when I do!). Then I came across this lovely owl by Zoom Yummy found here. The pattern is available on etsy at a bargain cost. Great instructions - picture by picture which I think is definitely needed for a beginner!. The pattern is in American (yes american and english have different names for the stitches to make things more complicated!). Seemed easy to convert - ch (Chain Stitch) and Sl St (Slip Stitch) are the same, sc (single crochet stitch) is dc (double crochet), hdc (half double crochet stitch) is htr (half a treble). Now I'm off to make another one under request..