Jamie's Comfort Food

Jamie Oliver

JAMIE'S COMFORT FOOD

100 Ultimate Recipes - Treat the Ones You Love

Michael Joseph 2014

My first Jamie Oliver book! I don't know why, but until now I never felt I wanted one of his books…  

But this blog should introduce even myself to something new, and who doesn't like comfort food?

This is how Jamie's Cuisine found its way onto my bookshelf.

I've chosen two recipes at random and started cooking. I will give it away right now, these won't be the last recipes I'll cook from this book! The dishes are excellent and just thumbing through the book makes your

mouth water.

A beautiful Thai Curry… I've never cooked one before, but the colors appeal to me.

A trip to the Thai Grocery Shop for some of the ingredients is the first step to this meal.

The recipe is not overly complicated but there are many procedures to follow, all of which take time. I can imagine how some inexperienced home cooks might hesitate to tackle it.

But this recipe is worth a try, because the resulting curry is fantastic. Furthermore, Jaime lets us prepare the double quantity of the curry paste, which is its most time consuming element. Freeze the rest and use for a second round.

Oh dear! The Jamaican Ginger Cake. This was a tough one.

 At the same time, it's the best Ginger Cake I've ever had. Really.

 It just won't rise properly. Or to be exact, it rises and then collapses. And believe me, I tried very hard.

The ingredients are very British. Golden Syrup, Black Treacle, Stem Ginger in Syrup… Not easily found where I live. So I get creative, follow an online recipe for syrupy ginger, I buy some organic dark molasses,

I replace the self-rising flour with flour and baking powder.

Confidently I put the cake into the oven. The cake rises… and falls. Oh my. Nevertheless, it was gone in no time at all, to the last crumb. Moist and aromatic, just delicious. 

I don't give up. Maybe too much baking powder? I go to the book store and check the German edition for a hint (no self-rising flour on our store shelves, I'm afraid). I memorise the proportions of flour to baking powder. I bake the cake again. The cake rises… and falls, again.

As cake＃2 disappears just as fast as the first one, I start to think: the Jamaican Ginger Cake isn't the prettiest cake, but it sure is a very tasty cake. Absolutely delicious.

What shall I do? Should I leave it at that? I'm writing a blog after all!

I have an idea… Maybe if I had original British ingredients, things would work properly. After some searching I find an online shop that sells all that my recipe (and by this time my heart) desires.

Which takes us to cake ＃3.

I follow the recipe with even more care. I use the right ingredients. In the beginning, things look good in the oven. The kitchen timer ticks. However, the cakes rises… and falls. I give up.

Maybe this is how this cake MUST look?

Once again, right ingredients or not, it's not a beautiful cake. But believe it or not, this time around it tastes even better! (The right molasses makes the difference). I hardly have the time to take a couple of pictures that there's no cake left…

Enough said.

I thought I was done, but I couldn't help myself, and baked

this one, too. 

While not quite what I expected (what did I expect? No idea, as I have never eaten sticky toffee pudding before…) it was quite delicious, especially doused with the sauce. It baked without incident and turned out like depicted in Jamie's book on the first try. It was eaten rather quickly…

I should say, this book is quite a success and definitely a keeper.

A last suggestion: Go to  Jamie Oliver's Website for some free recipes!