Pukka Tukka (Jamie's Dinners - Jamie Oliver)

Member Name: Stripery77

Product:	Jamie's Dinners - Jamie Oliver
Date:	29/06/09 (72 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It is so easy to follow

Disadvantages: The pudding section could be better

Jamie's Dinners is a cookbook that I cannot praise enough. Self advertised as "the people's cookbook. Everthing you'll ever need to know to feed yourself and your family properly for life. What could be more important than that?" What indeed?

I'm a busy working Mum who loves to cook and since having my children this has beome so much more important to me. I do like to have a good lapse, fish and chips, chinese, burgers - who doesn't. Well, there's no excuses here, all of these "indulgent" meals are included - It shows you how to make 'em from scratch and by goodness - they'll have you family coming back for more.

This book really isn't full of faffy restaurant foods, like I've found with Gordon Ramsay's Fast Food - and others. Pretty much all of the ingredients can be bought at the supermarket.

How it's laid out
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The book is ram packed full of lovely photos of Jamie with his family and at work. The food is beautifully photographed and it really does look like something I feel completely capable of constructing without going into a blind panic over complicated instructions.

There's a section on the Top Ten things we all love to eat and cook. Here we have:

Sausage and Mash with onion gravy (the gravy is SENSATIONAL - it take the ordinary to another level)
Burger and Chips (I always make my own now - it's so easy and you can make em how you like)
Lasagne (easy peasy - great staple)
Jacket Spuds - with various toppings (these are so simple and hearty but the toppings raise the game from - "tuna and beans&cheese)
Apple Pie (British Classic really)
Roast Chicken & Lemon & Rosemary Potatoes (this has really jazzed up my roast)
Fish, Chips & Mushy Peas (stunningly fresh)
Chicken & Veg Pie (hearty classic)
Tomato Soup (Universal Staple food)
Chicken Tikka Masala (can't believe the prices I have pai at takeaways when this is so simple)

There's also a section called family tree which shows you how if you learn how to make the basics of a really great tomato sauce or a pesto sauce amongst other things - that these can become the basis of a great many different dishes - a family tree of ideas.

The other section that I really like is Five Minute Wonders. Here we have a group of recipes for "just about everyone I know who comes home late and knackered in the middle of the week". I think his quote sums it up perfectly.
He includes a quick and delicious stir fry a lovely spanish omlette, sirloin steak wrap, lamb cutlets and others. Mouthwatering things that take minutes to cook (providing of course that at some point previously you have planned for this moment and have the ingredient available).

The section I dip in and out of the most is the pasta section. Jamie has travelled and trained in Italy and it shows here in this section. I have gone from being someone who completely hated pasta and found it the most boring dish on earth, to having it a few times a week and loving to cook an experiement with sauces. In particular my most detested macaroni cheese has become a masterpiece when you add tomato and garlic - easily my favourite recipe here.

The details
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I bought this book from a bookclub over 3 years ago and I paid £20 for it. I have used it so extensively it has been money so very well spent.

ISBN: 0718146867

Published by Penguin

Further info at www.jamieoliver.com or www.jamiesdinners.com

Final Thoughts
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I never really learnt how to cook when I was younger. In fact I hated food and was anorexic until I had my first child at 24. When I finally had to look after someone else, I began to teach myself how to cook things. Armed with Delia Smiths, austere no nonsense approach I had taught myself the basics. When I began to watch Jamie Oliver on TV, I learned something else, the passion.

I still have issues with food and there are things that I am scared to try or cook. Jamies dinners is the first time I have picked up a cookbook and indefinitely known that I can really create something utterly delicious that both myself and my family want to eat. This book has given me the confidence to take my basic skills and experiment to create something so much more.

Summary: This book has changed my life