Last time we literally just wandered from store to store pondering and noting items to place on our wish list. Ever since I had seen the photo of the roasting chicken in a cast iron stock pot in Pippa Middleton's "Celebrate" I wanted the stock pot, and at John Lewis they have a "reputable" brand selling at a ridiculous price of course... David has since managed to snaffle one from Sainsburys at a fraction of the cost. It's wonderful, rustic, and will go exceedingly well with our Aga (the one that is in that little cottage in the Derbyshire forest that we haven't managed to get around to owning quite yet).
And then we saw it. A cooking robot! Jamie Oliver was promoting a cooking robot!!!
Okay, admittedly this device doesn't look even remotely like the android's I'd imagined that we all would be owning by about this year (when i was a child, I kept hearing about how we'd all be driving hover cars and taking trips to the moon for the weekend, and, of course, we would have invented robots - I always wanted to believe them about the robots bit, not sure i ever truly believe them about anything else).
Somebody once joked that the real reason we don't have robots is because of Microsoft.... and I laughed but then suddenly thought to myself.... "you know that isn't such a silly thought....") but I digress.... the Phillips Home Cooker... wow....
Okay... that black tower is little more than a very tall food processor with a funnel. I immediately saw this "add on" to the home cooker and thought.... but why bother with buying yet another food processor? This is kerazy talk!. So ignore the black tower like thang. Focus instead on the red arm that sits in the centre of the cooker. What it does is stir. Stir constantly like a very naughty drag queen that has had just that little bit too much wine.At £250+ I am not going to be rushing out to buy this device any time soon. Okay, so it will create the best risotto you've ever had since you had a little sous chef chopping and stirring for you? Or you can just settle for second best risotto.
David bought me my very first Jamie Oliver cookbook a few months back for approximately £5. Bargain! I was very excited. The book is titled Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals and what it promises you is that you can cook a lovely dinner for your family of four (or large portion consuming family of three), including a desert and usually a salad or a side dish of veggies, in just under 30 mintues. I got very excited indeed. Everyone knew i was very excited because I ended up taking the book to bed and making myself really hungry after dinner by flicking through the pages and wondering how we were going to use this.
The first section deals with equipment. I turned to David and solemnly said: "Well, we'll be needing to purchase a blender and food processor, you now realise?" He wasn't at all amused. It took some work (overtime, actually), but we are now the proud owners of our own little run-of-the-mill kitchen automation device: our Bosch Food Processor (and Blender... and Juicer.... and Squeezer....!!).
Anyway, I'll publish this post now, mainly because I have already written enough for one entry - and also because this post has been sitting in draft format for quite some time, but fear not, I will tell you of my first (and second) attempt to cook one of his easier meals in just under 30 minutes. Let's just say I don't quite get the timing right.... but i don't want to spoil it for you... so stay tuned! Promise I'll publish it by the end of this week!
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