Jamies's 30 Minute Meals by Jamie Oliver

Jamie Oliver's television shows are characterised by his demonstrated passion for his craft and the food that he cooks and his down to earth attitude to presentation. He uses colourful language such as "smash" and "hammer" to describe what he is doing to food and "killer" as an adjective to describe one of the dishes he offers. All of this makes him a very popular television cook and most people enjoy his cooking along with him.

His latest series, the television show and the accompanying book, is no exception. His challenge to himself is to prepare delicious meals in just 30 minutes in the hope that his recipes will demonstrate that tasty, healthy and home cooked meals can be prepared in probably less time than it takes to order and pick up a takeaway or heat a readymade one in the oven and that this home prepared food is so much better for you. He is known for being an evangelist about eating fresh, healthy food and this latest series is an extension of that philosophy. He indicates, in a list of ingredients that he recommends to buy his preferences for organic and free-range products.

Oliver encourages his audience and his readers to feel that it is okay to use short cuts, which he teaches us to do. He makes us feel comfortable to use stock cubes and frozen puff pastry instead of the homemade versions. He is quite happy to use a microwave if appropriate and frozen fruit and vegetables, arguing that they are usually frozen at the peak of freshness. The foundation of his very efficient organisation is a rather specific list of utensils and how they are set out in readiness for each meal, as well as getting the brain focussed on the task ahead before the 30 minutes begin.

The procedures and timing for each meal are clearly described both on television and in the book. The instructions for each meal are contained on one page with the ingredients at the top of the page and photos of Jamie preparing the meal on the opposite one. While the instructions themselves are clear and replicate what Oliver says on television, they are in rather small and faint print and the photos are random and are not related to the stages of the recipes. Between one meal and the next are usually two pages of photos of Oliver cooking. It may have been more useful to use this space to enlarge the printing of the instructions and to have provided identified photos linked to the recipes. Nevertheless the book satisfies in that it offers a comprehensive series of 50 meals, all of which are quite obviously delicious and healthy.

Once again Oliver has shown himself to be innovative and dedicated to improving the health and lifestyle of his audience. His enthusiasm is contagious and those who follow him are encouraged to enjoy what he suggests.

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Using the Slow Cooker Cookbook For Perfect Meals

The slow cooker, also known as a crock-pot, is a very handy appliance for many types of cooking. The classic image of use of a slow cooker is to load it up with ingredients and turn it on before leaving for work, and coming home to a dinner that is ready to eat. This actually works in many cases, but there can be a bit more to it than appears at first sight. The following information about slow cooking would no doubt be greatly amplified in a good slow cooker cookbook.

Slow cookers provide even, low heat, moist environment cooking. This can work well for many simple one dish meals. Beef stew is a good example of this.

You may be able to save money on meat by using a slow cooker. The low temp and constant moisture is a great way to tenderize cheap cuts of meat. The breakdown of collagen releases richer flavor than faster cooking methods.

Spending more money on a cooker gives the cook more options. The cheaper ones have a single heat setting; more money means more choices. Cooking on low is better for most dishes, but a higher heat can be used initially to get up to cooking temp faster.

Except for some top of the line models, the temperature settings control the amount of heat produced by the cooker. This indirectly determines the temperature. Some advanced models have controls that can be used to specify the heating time, and even stages, such as two hours on high followed by four hours on low. A few have temperature probes that can be used to actually specify cooking temperature.

The most important advice for slow cooking is, leave the lid on. Occasional checking is OK, but every time the lid comes up the temp goes way down, and it takes a long time to come back. Less water is needed for most recipes, because there is less evaporation. Sometimes the water cooked out of the ingredients may be enough.

These are some of the basics. As always, read the fine manual. You can't go wrong buying a good slow cooker cookbook.

Visit [http://www.slowcookercookbookplus.com] for the slow cooker cookbook [http://www.slowcookercookbookplus.com].

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