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You are here: Home / Archives for Jamie Oliver

Vanilla Cheesecake – Ministry of Food. Pass it on.

September 8, 2013 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 3 Comments

Time for my favourite dessert from the Jamie Oliver Ministry of Food book. The vanilla cheesecake. So good it almost makes me say nom. But I hate that word so no.

It’s a recipe which has never failed for me although the description calling it a “vanilla” cheesecake is a little deceptive as the citrus flavours in the cheesecake burst through with every mouthful. In his book Jamie adds a raspberry coulis topping – I never have. I’ve never felt it needed it.

So without further ado you will need:

150g butter, plus an extra knob for greasing the tin
200g Digestive biscuits
100g rolled oats
1 vanilla pod
600g cream cheese
150g caster sugar
1 lemon
1 orange
300ml double cream

Grease a 23cm springform cake tin with butter and set aside. Wrap your digestives in a clean tea towel and then, using a rolling pin, bash them up until you have fine crumbs or you could whizz them up in a food processor for less mess.

Put a pan over a low heat, add the oats and toast them gently until they turn darker in colour. Cut the butter into cubes and add it to the pan along with your biscuit crumbs. Gently stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture combines. Remove from heat and spoon into your cake tin, smoothing it out evenly.

Gently push down on the biscuit base using the back of a metal spoon, or your hands – you want it to be flat and even. Put the base in the fridge to chill for at least 1 hour.

Cut your vanilla pod in half lengthways and gently drag the edge of your knife along the insides of the pod to scrape out the seeds.
Put all the cream cheese into a mixing bowl, and add the vanilla seeds, caster sugar, lemon and orange zest and the juice from the lemon. Give it all a good stir until nice and smooth.
In another bowl, whisk your cream until it gives you soft peaks. Add half of it to your cream cheese mixture and fold it in. Then fold the remaining cream in. Once everything is blended, spoon the mixture over the biscuit base and smooth it out.

Place your cheesecake in the fridge for at least an hour.

If you wanted to add a fruit topping or coulis then do so after the final chill just prior to serving.

This makes a huge chunk of cheesecake and its very rich so you don’t want to serve massive slices. Once you have made this once I am sure it will become your go to cheesecake recipe!

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Filed Under: Reviews · Tagged: Jamie Oliver, ministry of food, Pass it on, recipes, vanilla cheesecake

Jamie Oliver’s Chicken and Leek Stroganoff – Ministry of Food

August 12, 2013 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 4 Comments

Time to share another of my favourite Ministry of Food recipes. Jamie Oliver’s Chicken and Leek Stroganoff. I’ve made this more times than I can count. It’s in the 20 minute meals section of the book and it really is quick, easy and incredibly good.

Jamie Oliver's Chicken and Leek Stroganoff

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Chicken and Leek Stroganoff

You will need:

150g long-grain/basmati rice
1 Large Leek quartered lengthways & diced finely (washed well)
Large handful of chestnut or oyster mushrooms diced
2 Chicken Breasts diced
A glass of white wine
A small glass of water
A bunch of fresh parsley – finely chopped
285ml single cream
1 Lemon
Olive Oil
Sea Salt and freshly ground black pepper
a knob of butter

Start to cook your rice according to packet instructions.
Put a large frying pan/cazuela on a high heat and add a lug of olive oil and a knob of butter. Add your leek, wine and water and your salt/pepper. Cover with foil and bubble away for 5 minutes.
Remove your foil, add chicken, parsley, mushrooms and cream. Stir thoroughly and bring to the boil then immediately reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain your rice and dish out. Squeeze half a lemon into your stroganoff and season to taste. Serve atop your rice with a 1/4 of lemon and some parsley as a garnish.

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Filed Under: Recipes · Tagged: 20 minute meals, Chicken and leek stroganoff, Jamie Oliver, ministry of food, Pass it on, recipes

Jamie Oliver Lasagne Recipe – Ministry Of Food

August 8, 2013 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 56 Comments

Today I am sharing with you my favourite Jamie Oliver lasagne recipe. I have LOTS of recipe books.. I mean lots and I love them, I read them as you would a normal book and sometimes it can take me a year to first try a recipe from a book but that doesn’t make it any less useful to me.

I had this for Christmas about 6 years ago and it’s been well used, so much so in fact that I was ever so slightly embarrassed showing it to Jamie Oliver to get signed at last years Big Festival. Splashes of tomato and olive oil along with post it notes on my favourite recipes but hey I’m sure he prefers them to be used.

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Anyway the idea of the Ministry of Food book is that you learn a recipe and then pass it on, all of the meals are simple enough to make yet taste amazing. I have decided while I am having this temporary lull in creating my own recipes to share some of my favourites from the book with you as really that’s what it’s all about. If you are looking for a good basic recipe book to purchase I can’t recommend it enough.

To start here is my ultimate favourite recipe from this book, lasagne , there is something special about this lasagne. I’m not sure if its the combination of the two meats plus bacon or the creme fraiche and parmesan but it is seriously good.


Jamie’s lasagne

You will need:

2 rashers of streaky bacon diced
2 medium onions diced
2 cloves of garlic crushed
2 carrots diced
2 sticks of celery diced
olive oil
2 heaped teaspoons dried oregano
500g good quality minced beef or pork or half of each ( which is the best way )
2 tins of chopped tomatoes (400g)
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
a small bunch of fresh basil
50g Parmesan cheese

To make the lasagne:

250g lasagne sheets -I’ve used fresh, homemade and dried all with great results
1 x 500ml tub of creme fraiche
100g Parmesan cheese
1 large tomato

Place a large saucepan on a medium heat and add 2tbsp of olive oil, diced bacon and oregano and cook stirring occasionally until bacon is golden brown. Add all of your diced veg to the pan an cook for around 7-8 mins stirring regularly, by now your veg should be starting to colour and soften. Add all of your minced meat and chopped tomatoes then add 1/2 a tin of water ( the book says 1 tin but I find it makes the sauce too thin and watery) add salt and pepper.
Remove the leaves from your bunch of basil and place in fridge for later, chop the stalks finely and add to sauce. Bring to boil then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to gas mark 5. Remove sauce from heat and add 50g of Parmesan as well as tearing in your large basil leaves keeping any smaller ones for decoration later.
If using dry lasagne sheets place some boiling after in a pan to blanch them for a minute or so before use, if using fresh there is no need. Make sure to drain afterwards to get rid of excess water.

Layering:

Start with a layer of bolognese the your lasagne sheets then a third of creme fraiche, seasoning and a third of Parmesan and repeat twice more. On the top layer decorate with sliced tomatoes and basil leaves before drizzling with olive oil.

Cover with foil and bake in oven for approx 20 minutes, remove foil and bake for an additional 30 minutes until golden brown and bubbling. Serve with salad and garlic bread. Sublime.

I’ve cooked and eaten a lot of different lasagnes and aside from an incredible one I had in Milan in 2008 which will probably never be beaten this is the best. Definitely one to try and worth the extra effort. I’ve made this for so many people and I’ve never had a bad reaction – in fact everyone asks for more.

jamie oliver lasagne recipe

More favourites coming soon including chicken and leek stroganoff and vanilla cheesecake.

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Filed Under: Jamie Oliver, Recipes · Tagged: big Feastival, family food, Jamie Oliver, jamie oliver best lasagne, jamie oliver lasagna, lasagne, ministry of food, Pass it on

Cooking at Christmas time

December 27, 2012 · by munchiesandmunchkins · Leave a Comment

Has Christmas Day really come and gone already? It seems like we prepare for an absolute age and then it’s gone in a flash! I hope all your wishes came true and your dinners were delicious.

I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with family so I didn’t get a chance to cook which I missed! Yesterday I just relaxed and spent time playing with Izzy or watching tv with my OH but today I really wanted to get back in the kitchen. I was spoilt this year, spoilt by the wonderful time I got to spend with my family and the fabulous food I had to eat and once again spoilt with perfect presents from my OH and Izzy.

I won’t list all my presents but I will tell you that I will be experimenting with new recipes, cooking methods and playing with kitchen gadgets for quite some time!

Some of my books:

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Already bookmarked around 30 MUST TRY recipes.

I was also lucky enough …after numerous hints to get a new waffle maker so it would have been rude to not try that out. It’s very different to my old waffle maker (my mums) so my first attempt looked like this:

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I blame the waffle maker instructions. It said use 1 tablespoon of mixture .. Clearly not enough so I doubled it for attempt 2 which was a major improvement :

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Both tasted delicious. For those interested the recipe I use for waffles is here and I often add extra ingredients such as vanilla or cinnamon… Or even chocolate chips.

Waffle making was not enough I needed to make something delicious for dinner so I tried a recipe which I have heard fave reviews about. Ham in coca cola. Sounds weird, tastes dreamy.
I used Nigellas recipe which you can find here I made a few small adjustments. Instead of using molasses followed by mustard powder and sugar I simply rubbed in a tablespoon of English mustard after I had placed my cloves in the scored fat and then followed by rubbing in 2 tablespoons of molasses. Worked well for me and the end result was so good I was amazed.

Here are some pics :

Bubbling hot hot hot

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Just ready to go in the oven

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Begging to be eaten but best leave it cool…

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Worth waiting for

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And one more just because it looked so pretty

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If you have a ham lurking in your fridge you must try this, if not then well there are lots of hams in the shops at the moment. Buy one, try this. You will not be disappointed.

My kitchen addiction only seems to be growing so expect more and more recipes very soon.

I am aiming for healthier recipes in January. Until then enjoy.

P.S thanks for the feedback from you lovely people who tried my sprout recipe on Christmas Day. So glad you loved it too!

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Filed Under: Christmas and all things festive, Recipes · Tagged: Books, Christmas, cloves, coke, festive, Ham, Jamie Oliver, Mary berry, Nigella, onions, Paul Hollywood, presents, Rachel Allen, waffles

Foodies heaven at The Big Feastival

September 24, 2012 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 5 Comments

Do you know when have such a good (and tasty) time that you don’t really know where to start explaining it? This is what The Big Feastival was for me …ok so you all know I’m a food nerd but wowzer this food/music festival has just fuelled my foodie passion and I really really hope at some point I will be able to do food related work full time – eating, writing, cooking what could be better?

I was Very Very lucky to receive an invite to the perfect festival combo .. Gastronomical delights and top tunes organised by the legendary Jamie Oliver and cool cat Alex James. The invite came just the day before the festival kicked off so an incredibly busy day of packing and hotel hunting and we were off to beautiful Oxfordshire and Alex’s farm where he makes his wonderful cheese.

On arrival at the festival site we were greeted at the gates with free biscuits from Fudges bakery..what better welcome hey? I’ll explain more about Fudges later as there products are so darn good. The first few hours were spent exploring the site, trying samples of the best food in Oxfordshire as well as treating ourselves to Barbacoas Pulled pork (for Andrew) and The cinnamon clubs Tandoori spiced black leg chicken kathi roll with green coriander chutney for me ..bit of a mouthful but extremely tasty.

Dishes on offer from The Cinnamon Club:

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We then went on to watch our first chefs demonstration of the day at The Big Kitchen sponsored by Electrolux which was none other than Jamie Oliver and the marvellous, flirtatious Gennaro Contaldo. It was incredible to watch some talented chefs up close and to see their obvious passion for what they do. The demonstration was hilarious as the duo have such a cheeky bantering friendship and we were even lucky enough to get a pic with Gennaro:

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The rest of the day was spent eating more samples of delicious cheeses and mouthwatering truffle oils and going to more demos including Mark Sargeant who is a really fun chef to watch as well as another by Gennaro Contaldo and Jamie Oliver.

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Although there was music on the main stage all day long including The Noisettes and Paloma Faith it was pretty much just background noise for us as our real focus was on the food but it did create a great atmosphere and there was a large crowd at the main stage all day long. We finished off the evening with some more food sharing Porchetta and polenta chips from Jamie’s Italian and Rajasthani style Herdwick lamb and corn curry with pilau rice from The Cinnamon Club..both were incredibly good.

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We also met Valentine Warner but unfortunately arrived just a little too late for his demo 🙁

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We decided to call it a night then as Izzy was getting tired and trundled on back to our b&b in Bampton.. Now don’t go thinking we are too posh to camp! We would have loved to but it was full so a b&b it was!

The next day we headed to the site as it opened to make the most of the beautiful day. I think we somehow managed a very impressive amount of freebies and samples without even trying!

We tried so many different pies from The Piglet Pantry (who sell award winning pies don’t ya know..)And they were all so good that trying to decide which ones to buy was very difficult! We somehow managed and Andrew had a chilli n cheese combo whilst I tried the gammon and leek.. Both delicious. We bought seasalt chocolate from Seed and Bean which was delicious and we also tried seasalt fudge – can you see a theme? Ha. We had (well I had) cocktails from Vestal Vodka and Makers whisky which were beautiful and we tried crab from Cafe Mor .. Which is a big thing for non seafood eaters like us but they were from Pembrokeshire and voted best street food of the year so it would have been rude not to try and you know what it was pretty nice!

For all you non foodies out there the second day did include some pretty spectacular music..Texas and Razorlight to name just two and also lots n lots for the kiddies including a dance session with Adam Garcia! I do believe more of the Adam Garcia fans were of the adult female kind than the children but it was a good excuse hey.

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Anyway back to the food and possibly the high point of the festival for me as we strolled down the field we saw a bright yellow Robin Reliant and a few photographers clustered around.. Nosy as always we stopped to look and with remarkably good timing as five minutes later around a few hundred other people joined us but you know what I was right at the front ..yay for an impromptu cooking demo by Jamie Oliver. Woop. It was fabulous to be up close and watching the man in action literally within splatter distance of the food. He was a cheeky charmer and had the crowd eating out of his hand especially when he began to give out plates of the food. I was lucky enough to get a falafel wrap passed to me directly and Andrew had a bowl of the veggie curry. Both were obviously amazing.

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The last two demos we saw were by Paul Young ( master chocolatier) and The Weber Grill academy. The chocolate ganache created by Paul was delicious and I picked up lots of tips ready for my first attempt at making chocolates. He also had a lovely pic with Izzy:

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The Weber demo was also really interesting and wow we really want a Weber now. Beer can chicken and blackened peppers were on the menu and again lots of BBQ tips.

I could probably talk for a few thousand more words about the food we ate and what we saw at this wonderful weekend but I’d probably start to bore you so I’ll leave you with a brief summary of my favourite new food/drink producers:

Drinks from……

Vestal Vodka – beautiful, crisp and pure vodka cocktails. Seriously good.
Samuelsons of Witney – proper strong lemonade. I tried sparkling blackberry and it was tongue tingling.
Scheckters – 100% natural organic energy drinks. Kinda like redbull but without all the rubbish they pump into it. Tasted pretty nice too.
Eager – fruit juices for adults and kids which are healthy and taste good too. I hope these are available to buy readily in a few months for Izzy.

Food from..

Fudges biscuit makers- ahh these were incredible. We have had the crackers with cheese to snack on,the biscuits dipped in tea and the straws well whenever we feel like it 🙂
The English Provender Co – these chutneys/condiments aren’t new to me as they are stocked in all major supermarkets but I did try some new flavours from them which I enjoyed.
Fair&Square chocolate brownies – we had a seasalt brownie which was scrummy.
Isles of Scilly handmade fudge – this fudge was probably the best I’ve tasted. I’ve tried lots.
Karantania Deli – delicious bakery bits.. I tried a butternut squash/feta combo and it was dreamy. Their food is also incredibly pretty.
Seed&Bean – extra dark chocolate. The Cornish seasalt is addictive.
Greedy Goat icecream – guilt free goats milk ice cream.. I tried basil and lemon. Refreshing and different.
The flour bin – now I am yet to try using the flour but I tried the bread made from the flour and it was amazing and I’ve smelt the malty goodness of the flour so I’m excited to try!

There were so many more producers and stalls that we loved but these were our favourites and included food we actually bought rather than samples.

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All in all it was an amazing weekend and one I hope to repeat next year 🙂

Early bird tickets are on sale now: The Big Feastival

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Filed Under: Cakes, bread and all things baking, Festivals and Camping, Parenting/baby, Recipes, Travel · Tagged: adam Garcia, Alex James, big Feastival, cheese, food festival, foodie, Gennaro Contaldo, Jamie Oliver, Valentine Warner

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