Best Jamie Oliver cookbook for easy, uncomplicated dinners?

speedy2007

hey,

i know there's a fave cookbook thread, but this is a little different. Lately i seem to have just run out of ideas on what to cook for dinner every evening. Needs to be uncomplicated, not have huge lists of ingredients or impossible to find ingredients. Also i dont eat red meat, but i do eat chicken and fish

People keep recommending Jamie Oliver books. I did have one of his older books ..the return of the naked chef and to be honest i didnt find it great apart from a few recipes. But im willing to give him another try cos so many people swear by him. He has quite a list tho...i can only afford one and im thinking one of these:

1. Ministry of food
2. Jamie at home
3. Jamies food revolution
4. Cook with Jamie
5. Jamies dinners

Wondering if someone could tell me which they would recommend.
thanks;)

foodaholic

his website always has new recipes on it for free www.jamieoliver.com

Kenny_D

Ministry of food. Simple ingredients and tasty dishes

corblimey

+1 on MoF book. I'm an extremely picky eater, but I've found about 20 recipes in there that I come back to time and again.

speedy2007

thanks everyone. MoF seems to be the way to go.
The website is cool, but i love buying new cookbooks so im going to go out and get that one soon

budgemook

Jamie Oliver is my favourite TV chef but I'm not mad about the Jamie at home book. It's all stuff that makes you think "doesn't that look nice" but would never really make. Like deep fried asparagus flowers and ceviche.

I think you should get the big Ballymaloe one by Darina Allen or the new one by Rachel Allen. Both excellent.

Also, do you ever get Good Food magazine? It's really a good monthly. Ramsay and a few others like the dark haired fella from masterchef write in it.

EDIT: Sorry, just to make sure i am keeping on topic, I don't recommend the jamie at home book as i think you will have the same problem as with the first one you got. Might try MOF myself though.

TestTransmission

GStormcrow wrote: »

Ministry of food. Simple ingredients and tasty dishes

corblimey wrote: »

+1 on MoF book. I'm an extremely picky eater, but I've found about 20 recipes in there that I come back to time and again.

I bought the missus this book last christmas,she never used it.
Picked it up a few months ago and started trying out the recipes,cant get enough of the meatballs/bolognese/kebabs/chilli etc

jojo2

ministry of food is such a good cookbook, simple and easy recipes that you will cook over and over again! well i did anyway!

duploelabs

Jamie's good, but he tends to lean heavily toward italian style. For really simple, moorish recipes check out anything by Nigel Slater

Kenny_D

Yeah Nigel is a lot more rustic. Have 2 of his books and both are fantastic. Amazon have cookbooks for great prices

speedy2007

budgemook wrote: »

Also, do you ever get Good Food magazine? It's really a good monthly. Ramsay and a few others like the dark haired fella from masterchef write in it.

thanks, i dont buy the magazine but i do go onto the bbc good food website http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/ which puts up the recipes from that (some of them anyway).

For really simple, moorish recipes check out anything by Nigel Slater

Yeah Nigel is a lot more rustic. Have 2 of his books and both are fantastic.

thanks, ill take a look at some of his stuff. Any particular books of his you'd recommend?

Kenny_D

Real Food and Appetite are the two I have. Real Food is a more traditional cookbook. If you like to follow recipes to a tee then this one has some fantastic dishes. Appetite is a bit more experimental but a great book. It's a more interesting read and will prob make you more aware of cooking methods and tasting etc. It doesn't follow strict rules for its recipes but gives a lot of information on what goes good together. It might give a basic recipe and then at the end it will give you ideas on how to vary the same recipe with different flavours or cooking methods. Not sure if I'm explaining this right so maybe check out some reviews on it. It still has lots of recipes though. I'd recommend both books anyway

Occamist

MoF is great. Some really simple and tasty fish dishes also. The paella is a winner in our house.

CeNedra

Best cook book I've ever had. The curries and stir frys are so easy to cook. They are so tasty too, literally all my extended families have started to cook out of this book and I have given it on loan to my mother and 2 of my sisters!

The lasagne is fabulous, the burger, the salads, the moroccan lamb ... I could go on and on.

I picked up Rachel Allens book recently, has a few baby puree's at the back which is the first time I've seen that in a 'grown up' cook book. Really good move.

what2do

Hi all,
I was just looking at cookery books in Easons and there were lots of choices- I was thinking Rachel Allen or Delia Smith however the above is making me lean towards MOF, I'm no expert but my goal for 2010 is to improve my cooking and diet!

Thanks

event

+1 for MOF

the other half got it for me for christmas last year, got me into cooking big time
easy recipies to make and lovely food

i hope to get jamies america this year

BaZmO*

Yeah I'd have to go for the MoF too.

Got it as a present last year, and even though I haven't used it as much as I should I think it's great. Really simple, uncomplicated & tasty recipes. My favourites that I've tried so far are the Beef and Ale Stew and the the Pea, Ham & Pasta Shell dish. In fact, I made the Pasta dish on Wednesday and the Stew last Saturday.

I really like the way he presents the Stew in the book. He gives you the basic recipe/ingredients and you can tweek it to different styles, Beef & Ale, Chicken & White Wine, Pork & Cider, Lamb & Red Wine. And then gives extra instructions so you can tweek the finished Stews by adding different stuff to make it a Hot Pot or a Pie, or a type Cottage Pie. Quite basic stuff but great for beginners.

Mike Litoris

Yeah, MOF is pretty good. Some of his stuff I find a bit bland and ordinary, some of it is so simple you wonder where the flavour came from.

The Pork Belly with the crackling and especially the gravy is my favourite out of the book.

Carawaystick

As someone else resurrected this thread i'd recommend the silver jacketed Darina Allen book for good explanations of cookery methods, she explains ( sometime in great tedious detail) what she means fro the first recipe.

I'd also recommend joining a library - you can get a new cookbook every time you go and steal (or copy down) the recipes you like.

Mrs Carrawaystick found the recipes in Jamies books confusing to follow. but I had to explain bulb of garlic vs clove of garlic.....

ginoginelli

Jamie is an amateur. Try Ramsays fastfood book or Rachel Allens latest one. Both are infinitely better.

CJhaughey

Delia is 20x better than Rachel Allen.
I got Hugh F-W river cottage everyday cooking for xmas and it has lots of interesting and simple ideas.

Sigma Force

If you want simple and quick Nigellas Express book is brill.
I have one of Jaimes books, some nice recipes in it.
Avoca1 book is great.

Good housekeeping is a really handy one to have to hand, there's lots of good cook books by none celeb chefs as well that are cheaper and that are just as good.

leahyl

Jamies Ministry of food is brilliant! His curries are just to die for - the chicken tikka massala and the rogan josh...YUUUUM! And the lasagne is really good too and really simple to make:)

The Black Oil

Got Ministry of Food during the week, really looking forward to using it. A relative was raving about it.

neuro-praxis

The Black Oil wrote: »

Got Ministry of Food during the week, really looking forward to using it. A relative was raving about it.

I got it for my husband who is positively cooking-phobic and he's enjoyed making several of the recipes.

Mimojo

I LOVE Jamies MOF, and also got his America book and have tried a lot of the receipes in this also. I am not too gone in his cookery shows, but love the books!

Has anyone tried his new book "Jamies does...." It is just out, the show is on C4 at the mo

lubie76

Got my bf 'Ministry of Food' as a pressie (completely selfless gift of course). Its a great book even for the more advanced cook because the bf has noticed a lot of shortcuts in recipes that he has been doing for years. For example, browning meat for a recipe is often unnecessary. He didn't believe it until he made a stew/casserole type dish from the book and skipped the step as advised by Jamie. It came out the exact same than if he had took the time to brown it. Alot of handy tips!

niall_belfast

Kelly and I really like "Jamie's Italy".

His new book "Jamie Does.." is excellent too though - and the recipes are very varied, coming as they do from each of the 6 countries covered in the book/tv show.

http://www.chilliandchocolate.com/book-review-jamie-does-by-jamie-oliver/

olaola

The iPhone app is good, I don't have it myself - but it has revolutionised a mates evenings eating habits. They cook at home every night now.

zzantara

We have tried lots of Cook Books and can highly recommend MOS like most of the other posters.
It is without very usable/ingredients easy to source/ great tastes and easy to get perfect results/ great "new take" on everyday dishes that all ages love.
Ours has many dog eared pages/food stains which is always a great sign that a book is being used ???

zzantara

Sorry ! forgot to say we got it on Amazon for €10 + p+p