M bought me this book ages ago and it sits with some of the other cook books in the kitchen and although I frequently read it, I've never actually cooked anything from it! I really liked the concept of 30 Minute Meals and watched them all on TV - it appealed as it's quick and lovely sounding food. One of the many reasons I used to use to explain my lack of cooking was a lack of time. To be honest, I still don't think I have enough time but at least I enjoy myself and don't see it as a chore like I used to.
The main problem I found with this recipe is that it isn't laid out in a linear fashion e.g how to cook the chicken separate to the potato dauphinoise. The recipe runs in the order you should follow each step, leading towards everything being ready together. As I decided to leave the dessert out, it seriously effected the timings as it has cooking time for the chicken and potato whilst you're making the dessert - whoops! I'm sure if I did the full list then it probably would have been easier. I think I'll just have to sacrifice the diet next time...
I also didn't read the recipe fully before cooking (I just read each step as I went along) and my spinach ended up tasting very lemony and very wet and soppy as I cooked it too soon - not good. Otherwise the only changes I made was that I swapped the olive oil for rapeseed, used dried rosemary and used Worcestershire Sauce instead of Anchovies - I love them but M won't touch fish hence why I left them out. Oddly he likes Worcestershire sauce though! The final result was that the Mustard Chicken and Quick Potato Dauphinoise was lovely, not sure on the greens but I think that was more down to me rather than anything else.
I've never made Potato Dauphinoise before so I impressed myself with how it turned out. It was a fairly quick option and no more difficult than any other type of potato prep, less scary than mash as I always end up with lumps. I used the food processor attachment on my mixer to slice the onion and potato (also a first, I've only used it for chopping until now) and I don't think I'll ever chop or slice a vegetable again!
I did find that this recipe generated load of washing up. I ended up with 2 saucepans (as I have an induction hob I couldn't heat my potatoes in the roasting tin as the recipe recommends), a frying pan, garlic crusher, 2 knives, a roasting tin, a chopping board and my food processor attachment. I did feel very busy and very chef like whilst doing this recipe and the feedback was that it's a definite one to make again. M especially liked the mustard chicken with the creamy leek sauce.
The finished result once dished up:
Still need to work on those presentation skills...
Right, now off to watch the Fabulous Baker Brothers on Channel 4 - hmmm lovely!
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