Jamie Oliver

ivyleaf

I have only one of Jamie's books - the Ministry of Food one, which is aimed at people who are learning to cook.

There's a chapter in that about curries. He explains that when he'd written the chapter, he looked at it again and realised that grinding your own spices and making your own curry paste might be a step too far, and feel too complicated, for nervous new cooks (it certainly would have for me when I was new to cooking), so he used curry paste instead, but he does also give recipes and instructions for when people feel brave enough to try making their own paste for the first time.

I suppose this new series will have a fairly similar target audience

anniemf2508

You can freeze jarred curry pastes...portion it off into the amounts you'd use and freeze like that.

fallen121

I recommend these mixes to nervous new cooks:

http://www.chillipapas.com/order.html

£2 per packet (£2.50 if you only buy a single packet) and each packet contains two sachets, with each sachet sufficient for a curry for 4. I realise this is not exactly moneysaving, but they are attractively packaged and make great gifts.

I started out using these, which got me used to the idea of the different spices, what they looked and tasted like, how much to use. Then I moved on to buying and mixing my own and experimenting. Which is where the moneysaving comes in.

What I particularly like about curries made using these mixes is that they are oil free.

I don't actually know anyone who grinds their own spices. Except Jamie! Even my Asian friends tend to buy them ready ground at the Asian supermarket.

MrsE_2

fallen121 wrote: »

I recommend these mixes to nervous new cooks:

http://www.chillipapas.com/order.html

£2 per packet (£2.50 if you only buy a single packet) and each packet contains two sachets, with each sachet sufficient for a curry for 4. I realise this is not exactly moneysaving, but they are attractively packaged and make great gifts.

I started out using these, which got me used to the idea of the different spices, what they looked and tasted like, how much to use. Then I moved on to buying and mixing my own and experimenting. Which is where the moneysaving comes in.
What I particularly like about curries made using these mixes is that they are oil free.
I don't actually know anyone who grinds their own spices. Except Jamie! Even my Asian friends tend to buy them ready ground at the Asian supermarket.

Those pataks jars are £1 to £2 each (£1 if on offer).
You will get about 3 or 4 pots of curry out of each one, so about 8-12 servings.
I have all the different varieties & they last forever in the fridge.
They are cheaper than your spices.

happy35

I like the programme but I would only use it for ideas rather than following everything to the letter. I would for example only buy pork when it was on offer rather than pay the £28 for it.

I tend to do this with all recipes I dont very often follow them to the letter I just use them for inspiration.

Jamie's recipes are often not cheap to cook but can be reasonable if you pick and choose very carefully depending what is in season or on offer etc

I personally like Jamie along with Hugh FW as they tend to cook recipes that are easy to follow and without hundreds of imgredients and complicated processes

fallen121

MrsE wrote: »

I have all the different varieties & they last forever in the fridge.
They are cheaper than your spices.

I take your point, but to give an example, the Balti paste contains 7g of fat (vegetable oil) per 35g serving - that's 20% fat. And 1.2g of salt, which is extremely high considering a 35g serving is not really that much paste. Also they don't seem to have taken into account the fat from the dessicated coconut. Coconut is 82% fat and most of that is saturated fat - not a good sign. If you are making a meat curry then the meat itself will contain fat - so how much fat will you end up consuming?

I stopped using jars after I discovered that after eating the curries I became extremely thirsty - not a good sign.

Also I recommended the spices as possible gifts or to get a new cook used to the idea of using their own spices - NOT as a long term moneysaving idea. The spices I currently use cost a lot less than that.

I realise that this forum is primary about moneysaving, but as well as looking at the price I also take notice of what is on the label.

fallen121

Also wanted to point out that Patak is owned by Knorr which is owned by Unilever.

Knorr was taken to task some years ago, you may recall, because of the excessively high salt content in their stock cubes and packet soups.

If you don't believe me, then look for yourself. The average Knorr stock cube contains 6 times the amount of salt than the equivalent Oxo cube.

sulphate

I haven't read all 8 pages so sorry if this is repetitive

I saw Jamie's cookbook "reduced" to £18 today. Perhaps if he took some of the huge pictures of himself out of it it would cost a little less. And doesn't it require you to buy £500 worth of cooking equipment?
We're trying to budget our meals atm and I've found Jack Monroe's online (basically free) recipes to be much easier, quicker and cheaper to make. Lots of cookbooks such as Jamie's aren't even recipes that would appeal to the average family.

fallen121

sulphate wrote: »

Lots of cookbooks such as Jamie's aren't even recipes that would appeal to the average family.

I like how he advocates not wasting anything, but I am afraid using cauliflower leaves and stalks as part of your meal is just not on. Especially if you have kids and struggle to get them to eat their greens. I eat a LOT of vegetables but I am afraid I just baulk at that. I can't expect my kids to eat it if I won't touch it myself, can I?

freyasmum

sulphate wrote: »

I haven't read all 8 pages so sorry if this is repetitive

I saw Jamie's cookbook "reduced" to £18 today. Perhaps if he took some of the huge pictures of himself out of it it would cost a little less. And doesn't it require you to buy £500 worth of cooking equipment?
We're trying to budget our meals atm and I've found Jack Monroe's online (basically free) recipes to be much easier, quicker and cheaper to make. Lots of cookbooks such as Jamie's aren't even recipes that would appeal to the average family.

I bought it full price in Sainsburys the other week before the series had actually started. It was £9.

He has also donated thousands of his books to librarys so you could access them free - if you really wanted to

You do NOT have to have £500 worth of equipment to cook the recipes - this is why he was shown using a variety of different pans for the pizza and not a pizza stone. The pizza stone is a valuable tool, but it has only one purpose! You amend the recipes to what you have. Yes, a powerful processor will may life easier (and I have a shiny red magimix winging it's way right now - oh my god, I'm so excited I'm bouncing off the walls ) but you don't NEED it. My favourite bit of kitchen kit is a big, sharp knife

I have many, many cookbooks. I dread to count them now, but last count was circa 150. I collect them. I have NEVER had a book before whereby I would cook ALL of the meals in the book but I definitely would in Jamie's.

Incidentally when I got the new book, I also got the 15 minutes meal book (and Leiths but that's by the by). I made the chicken tikka with charred veg yesterday (as inspired by the book), was ready in just under 15 minutes. I was well impressed - I'd read so many negative reviews saying that the food would take upwards of 1 hour, so it was refreshing to prove it wrong :T

I have an awful work schedule, some weeks I spend more than 65 hours working, with an hour and a half travel and dropping my daughter at school and then picking her up. Then I have to come in and get ready for the next day and grab something quick to eat before I fall into bed to repeat it the next day. The 15 minute meals are the perfect antidote inspiration for that. I'll use the money saving meals for my days off