REVIEW: Cookbook Jamie Oliver "15 minutes for lunch"

If you are a foodie and you little notorious chop with pickled cucumbers and potatoes, it's time to learn the skill of home cooking. The best source of knowledge - cookbooks. This article is about one of them.

Bookstores inundated with cookbooks. The Internet is full of useful recipes and not very useful food. It is sometimes difficult to choose anything. And choosing, we are sometimes disappointed. Well, if it's just a recipe printed from the Internet. And if you have spent on the book, the money can be considered lost.

Personally, it took me several years to learn how to buy a good cookbooks. And to be honest, on my shelves now shows only product of several authors. Among them is an Englishman Jamie Oliver. Almost any of his book - a masterpiece. I've got as much as eight pieces, including the new-fangled "My Italy", "dinner for 30 minutes" and "economy with Jamie."

general description

The idea of ​​the book (in the words of Jamie) - simple, useful, tasty, superfast and correctly compiled from the perspective of nutrition meals for each day. For busy people, what is the most.

Sounds like a dream!

But, unfortunately, I have to disappoint you.

The recipes given in the book, meet all the criteria, except one - the super-fast. About 15 minutes will have to forget. Even if you are a very advanced user cookbooks and kitchen appliances.

The author himself honestly wrote that 15 minutes - it is given the fact that all the ingredients are washed, cleaned and sliced. A dinner ingredients in each lot.

In fact, the name "Dinner for 15 minutes" is not true, not only in the time of cooking. Under lunch in this case it refers to the real full meal consisting of salad and a hot meals (particularly English translation). Sometimes just vegetables mixed with meat or chicken.

In addition, the book has a lot of ideas of a healthy breakfast where you will find smoothie recipes, cottage cheese with additives, sandwiches and eggs in different variations.

I would call this book "Tasty and healthy food for each day."

Now about the pros books

• As always, a lot of Jamie beneficial ingredients. This allows us not to doubt the usefulness of dishes, as well as their diversity. The more different foods we eat every day, the better for our health. But often it brings us a fantasy! And in the head just does not climb anything else except the potato salad, hot dogs (or just potatoes, sausages).
• extraordinary a variety of dishes themselves with only Jamie inherent manner to combine the ingredients. I would never have occurred to interfere with the salad zucchini with mint and chilli! But, as it turned out, it's just a great combination, which is now one of my favorites.
• The book begins with those kitchen tools are described in detail, you will need. List all the things that he uses it for cooking dishes from the book. In the list of cookware is nothing special, except, perhaps, the two-story bamboo steamer. I personally decided not to spend money and pass by those dishes for which it is needed.
• Detailed a list of "bins Motherland", Ie those reserves that should in theory be in your house forever. Thus, according to Jamie, it will be much easier to shop and plan meals. I fully sympathize with him! The more stocks, the easier it is to prepare something tasty quickly. If not for 15 minutes, then 30.
• All the dishes in the book is conveniently divided into categoriesChicken, beef, pork, lamb, fish, pasta dishes, soups, sandwiches, vegetarian dishes.
• there is a section "Breakfast". He is not very big, but there are many interesting ideas. For example, vkusnyuschy fruit salad or homemade granola.
• For those who are afraid to get better, or wish to lose weight, there is a detailed description of the composition of dishes on the calorie content of sugar and fat (Even with an indication of rich!). I do not advocate counting calories and fat is not the enemy. Modern science finds more and more data that the fat content of food is not the cause of obesity and many diseases. Therefore, an advantage of this feature, I carried the book simply for reasons of convenience for some people.
• Good and large photos of all the dishes. I always want to see what happens as a result.
• Proven recipes. Often there are books where the one forgotten something else. In the end, standing with sliced ​​eggplant, so that anywhere, and do not put, because the author simply forgot about him in "cooking." With books Jamie this never happened!
• All dishes are simple to prepare. Yes, a lot of ingredients. Even too much. But even a teenager cope with the process. No pies and cabbage.
• At the end of the book - Easy navigation through food. If you have rice and chicken, it will be very easy to find in this great book that cook from them.
• Remarkable synthesis of the end of the book with pictures of all the dishes in miniature indicating the page number with the recipe. After all, we visuals. You look at the photo, and once you know what you want to cook.

Now cons

• Too many ingredients. What I previously canonized an advantage is also a minus. A varied diet - it is certainly very useful. But here's the cut and clean all this have to ourselves, not Jamie, or neighbor (unfortunately). With his own hands. It takes time and effort. This fact does not give materialize the idea of ​​lunch in just 15 minutes.
• Many unknown ingredients. Jamie lives in England. It is because of this it is very difficult to find all those "simple", he said, the ingredients in our stores. Therefore, I advise you not to accept the lack of mangoes to heart. If you do not have any seasoning or coconut milk, then either replace them with something like that, or ignore. Of course, coconut milk is not always proignoriruesh, but, at worst, can replace conventional low-fat cream. Taste change, but then you can safely call yourself a culinary experimenter.
• Inconvenient description of the preparation process. Personally, I like it when each dish is described separately. Jamie also means that we will prepare it in his proposed order (to speed up the process). But I leave the exact opposite. While I was looking for, where it is a question of the chicken, I spend a couple of extra minutes ...

More cons I have not found.

Perhaps to them it was worth the high cost of the book. But I did not do that. I am sure that it will save up to you a lot of nerves, because will not have to wrestle with what to cook for dinner. And certainly the book is so fond of, that will be inherited. At the very least, for greater savings book you can buy a used / y.

conclusions

Buy and do not regret it, if you:

• adore cook new recipes;
• experimenter in the kitchen;
• like exotic spices and spicy food;
• your culinary imagination exhausted;
• not averse to have a lot of interesting ingredients and seasonings stock;
• You want to go to the next level and learn simple, but interesting cooking techniques;
• We decided to go on a healthy diet, but do not know where to begin and how to combine the vegetables with seasonings.

Do not waste your money if you:

• do not burn with the desire to change the usual dishes;
• do not like to cook, in principle;
• hate vegetables;
• with caution and distrust relates to new tastes;
• not like spicy;
• your favorite dish - french fries and Big Mac (and modify them, you're not going too!);
• We are not willing to spend an hour or two a week at the grocery store, where you need to be careful to look for ingredients proposed in the book.

If you decide to buy this book, it is VERY recommended to try the following dishes:

• cheese cakes with parmesan;
• Indian curry with nuts chickpeas and cauliflower;
• Thai chicken with noodles in coconut milk.

Good health to you!

"15 minutes for lunch," Jamie Oliver
Buy at amazon