Attempt #63: Sweet cherry tomato and sausage bake

Jamie calls this the ultimate one-tray comfort food, and I cannot agree more.

It was a beautiful evening spent with dear friends and making this really fun, super easy and more importantly, super yummy!

The Result:
Pic here taken with the yummy and complimentary salad that my friend made.
I used German and Italian pork sausages and the herbs made the german dogs even more flavoursome and tangy (from the tomatoes).

Jamie's rendition:

Recipe and cooking method can be found here :

 http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pork-recipes/sweet-cherry-tomato-and-sausage-bake/#SB0Fm1sfFlVuAQxw.97 

Attempt #27: Chicken, Sausage & Prawn Jambalaya

My first time trying and attempting a Jambalaya.

This dish requires more work unlike most of Jamie’s recipes. Which tends to be quite simple. However, good experience! Good exercise to try paella next perhaps! J

What I have learnt from this attempt:

1.       Jambalaya is a French word that means ‘jumbled’ or ‘mixed up’
2.       Jambalaya is supposed to be kind of ‘porridge-gy’consistency and come come from a similar place to paella, kedgeree and risotto.
3.       Jambalaya is fun to make as all ingredients goes into 1 pot!

 

The result:

 

Not too bad. But I realized that the quality of the chicken stock is important. I used the pre-packed Organic Low Sodium Chicken Stock. It may have been yummier if I were to cook the stock fresh on my own.


Jamie's Rendition:

 ingredients
• 4 chicken thighs, skin on, preferably free-range or organic
• 4 chicken drumsticks, skin on, preferably free-range or organic
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• cayenne pepper
• olive oil
• 300g smoked sausage, such as andouille or fresh chorizo, skin removed, cut into 1cm thick slices
• 1 large onion, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 green pepper, deseeded and roughly chopped
• 1 red pepper, deseeded and roughly chopped
• 4 sticks of celery, trimmed and roughly chopped
• 4 fresh bay leaves
• 4 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 6 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
• 1–2 fresh red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
• 1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1.5 litres chicken stock, preferably organic
• 700g long-grain rice
• 16–20 raw king prawns, peeled and deveined
• a handful of fresh curly parsley

Method:

Season the chicken with salt, pepper and a pinch of cayenne. Pour a couple of lugs of oil into a large casserole type pan and brown the chicken pieces and sliced sausage over a medium heat. After 5 minutes, once nicely browned on all sides, add your onion, peppers and celery as well as your bay, thyme and a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir, then fry on a medium heat for 10 to 12 minutes stirring every now and again. It’s important to control the heat of the pan: you don’t want it to be so slow nothing’s happening, or so fast that things are catching and burning. You want a steady, solid heat.

Once the veg have softened, add your garlic and chillies, stir around for a minute, then stir in the tinned tomatoes and chicken stock.

Bring everything to the boil, then turn the heat down, pop the lid on the pan and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes. When you can pull the meat off the bone and shred it easily the chicken’s ready. Feel free to remove the chicken bones at this point if you like, then add your rice. Give it all a good stir, then put the lid on. Give it a stir every few minutes, scraping the goodness off the bottom of the pan as you go. Let it cook for about 15 to 20 minutes until the rice is perfectly cooked. Stir in the prawns and if it needs it, add enough water to make it a kind of porridgey consistency (look at the pictures). Pop the lid back on and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes while you chop your parsley. Stir the parsley through and serve on a lovely big platter. I absolutely love this with a lemony green salad.

Attempt #23: Quick sausage meatballs with a tomato and basil sauce, spaghetti and sweet raw peas

Ok, this is indeed as quick as the recipe described. It is pretty much a very straight forward pasta – simple and quick to make. One of the key items that is good to have to make this pasta is that it helps if you have 3 stoves, 2 pans and 1 pot. If you are working with less than 2 pans and a pot, omit the meatballs. J

The result:

I bought Oxford Pork Sausages for this pasta. From the various types of sausages that I have tried for my Jamie Oliver’s cooking till now, this is the least of my favourite. Unlike Italian sausages, the Oxford Pork Sausages doesn’t seemed to have sufficient herbs mixture to make it as fragrant or tasty. Unlike the recipe, I omitted green peas as I am not a fan of them.

ingredients

• olive oil
• 8 good-quality pork sausages
• 500g spaghetti
sea salt
• 300g fresh peas, in their pods
• a block of Parmesan cheese, to serve
• a few sprigs of fresh marjoram, thyme or rosemary, leave picked

for the tomato sauce
olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
• a small bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked, stalks finely chopped
• 2 x 400g tins of good-quality plum tomatoes
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• good-quality balsamic vinegar

Method:

Heat a large saucepan and add a few glugs of olive oil. Snip the sausages apart, then squeeze and pinch the meat out of the skins so that you get little meatball shapes – don’t make them too big or they will take too long to cook. Try to get at least three balls out of each sausage. Don’t worry about rolling them into perfect balls and making them look all fancy – rough and rustic is good! Put them into your pan. Keep frying and turning the meatballs until they’re golden brown and cooked through.

Meanwhile, put the spaghetti into a large pan of salted boiling water and cook according to the packet instructions until al dente.

To make your tomato sauce, heat a separate pan and pour in some olive oil. Add the garlic and the chopped basil stalks and move them around the pan for a couple of minutes. Put some small basil leaves to one side for later, and sprinkle the rest into the pan. Add the tomatoes and season carefully to taste. Bring to a simmer, break up your tomatoes a bit more with a spoon and add a swig of balsamic vinegar – it’s lovely for adding sweetness to the sauce.

Add the herbs to the pan of sausage meatballs, tossing everything in all the lovely flavours. Cook for around 30 seconds. When your spaghetti is cooked, drain it and divide the pasta and meatballs between four bowls. Spoon over the tomato sauce. Sprinkle over the reserved basil leaves and serve with a handful of fresh peas per person in the middle of the table, so that everyone can have a go at podding their own, and a little Parmesan for grating and shaving over the top.

Jamie's rendition of the pasta: