Jamie Oliver's 30-minute meal for lunch

In addition to being an amazing artist, a skilled textiles designer, a compassionate human being, and the best friend a girl could ever ask for, my friend H. is an excellent cook. I jump at any and all opportunities to dine at her place (wait, does that make me a scab? Moving on...), because it means being treated to a veritable feast, regardless of the nature of the meal in question.

My contribution to the table: a herb roasted chicken.

H. was quite emphatic that we were not to bring a thing, but I just couldn't resist trying my hand (again) at roasting a chicken. It's so simple to do, but it looks so darned impressive. Especially if you truss the bird, which, as you can see from above, is something I've had little practice in ;D Anyway, I knew H. would forgive me for being a bit of a show-off once she tasted the chook. I'll write up the recipe in a future post.

My beauuutiful chooky, all shredded up and ready to be devoured.

H. chose one of Jamie Oliver's 30-minute meal plans for our lunch. Seriously, who doesn't love Jamie Oliver? That man is single-handedly responsible for my willingness to venture beyond the realm of toss-together-various-unrelated-ingredients-and-call-it-a-salad and start cooking for real. And yet, I still don't own a copy of Jamie's 30 Minute Meals. I guess it's because his recipes are found easily enough on the Internet through people's food blogs; yet another testament to the popularity and user-friendliness of his work.

Berry fruit punch

The fruit punch is something we're used to seeing at H.'s parties, but that doesn't stop us from ooh-ing and aah-ing when we first catch sight of it sitting on her pristine kitchen counter. While H. works diligently at putting together our lunch, myself and her other guests lounge about, sipping at the cool, refreshing punch and munching on crackers and dips.

Hummus at the bottom and a salmon & cream cheese spread on top. The salmon spread is H.'s mother's own recipe, and the hummus is from a local restaurant. H. swears that it's the best hummus in Sydney.

The reference text. No copyright infringement intended.

There was a great balance of flavours and textures across the meal. The courgette salad, consisting of thinly sliced strips of zucchini (we are in Australia, after all!) and bocconcini  tossed together with olive oil, lemon juice and mint, was a refreshing accompaniment to the rest of the dishes. (ETA: my friend H. advised me just then, after reading the post, that the recipe for this salad comes from another one of Jamie's 30-minute meals).

Courgette salad.

Something which I ought to have tried long before this: pan-frying pancetta.

This made the house smell amazing. I got told off for repeatedly stealing pieces right out of the pan.

The fried pancetta was then chopped into bite-sized pieces and scattered over baby salad leaves. Instead of the melon the recipe called for, H. subbed in grapes. Salty + sweet = WIN.

Prosciutto Pancetta & melon grape salad.

The carbohydrate component of the meal came from the pasta, which was boiled and then tossed in a curious conglomeration of ingredients:

Instant pasta sauce: just add pasta!

Fascinating; I've never made pasta sauce like this before. All the good stuff in there made for a rich, creamy, and...highly nutritious dish ;D

The bountiful spread:

We had to take a break after this before we moved onto the desserts. Yes, we had a separate dessert course for lunch. I told you it was a veritable feast.

Just a gratuitous picture of yours truly, doing what she does best: playing sous chef to someone who knows what they're doing in the kitchen =D

Moving onto the desserts! H. made half a dozen pear meringue tarts from Jamie's book. I love the browning on the meringue. Guess I don't need to buy a blow-torch after all for my upcoming lemon meringue pie project. The oven seems to do a fine job of it.
 

Pear meringue tart.

P., another friend, made dark chocolate truffles (no added sugar!) and dusted them with kinako (roasted soybean powder), which was an interesting and pleasant twist on an old favourite.

Chocolate truffles dusted with kinako.

I brought along some lemon curd friands (recipe coming soon!):

As well as freshly churned vanilla bean ice cream (see: my previous post):

If we were stuffed before...we were pretty much immobile by this point.

We all retired to H.'s sofa, and spent the rest of the afternoon catching up, making fun plans for the rest of these holidays, and simply...digesting.

It was the best time I've had in months.