Knit one Pearl one
VIP Member
A bonus treat for you. The 'sauce' in action, after simmering for 30 minutes.
I'm sure I can hear it slop.
I'm sure I can hear it slop.
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The cake slops have been the most hurtful to watch. There are not many cakes/biscuits/desserts in this world that I would turn down - even if they're a bit tit I still eat more of it than I probably should. It's quite amazing that her cake recipes have been quite this bad...like truly unappetising looking, failed, eggy, collapsed messes. Imagine being really skint and trying to make a cake for your kid or another loved one and rather than go for a 99p box mix with foolproof instructions on the back, you attempt a Jack Monroe cake recipe. Absolutely woeful.Last night I made Jacks Lemon Curd Sponge Puddings. I picked this recipe as I had every ingredient already so it was FREE and I thought such a simple recipe may actually work. Spoiler, it did not.
https://cookingonabootstrap.com/2013/04/05/lemon-curd-sponge-puddings-24p/
100g self raising flour
70g butter
2 eggs
50g sugar
Splash of lemon juice
8 heaped teaspoons of lemon curd
It doesn’t mention what size eggs or what kind of sugar. I went with the large eggs I had and caster sugar.
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First mix the butter and sugar. Add the lemon juice (It’s pointless adding the suggested “few shakes of lemon juice” as you can’t taste it)
Then add eggs and flour -
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“Mix well with a fork or wooden spoon to create a smooth, glossy batter.”
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It was fairly smooth but beating in the eggs then flour would have been better.
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The method says to add a generous dollop of lemon curd and the recipe states 8 teaspoons so I added 2 teaspoons to each bowl.
Next add the cake batter on top till 2/3 full
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Jack says to cook them for 30 minutes. After 10 I had a peeky mink through the oven glass and they looked like this
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Well that’s the baking tray fucked
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Another 10 minutes went by and they were cooked. Another 10 minutes as suggested would have burnt them
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(just realised I used cake forks instead of spoons but all cutlery is interchangeable)
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They look ok but the burnt lemon curd on top isn’t good and the sponge has a really weird texture.
Ingredients - I had everything so not sure on the cost but 6 ingredients isn’t bad. Marked down for not stating which sugar or size of egg to use. Also needs more lemon juice. 3/5
Recipe - Easy to follow but, according to google as I’m no baker, the eggs/flour should have been beaten in to avoid the eggy flavour. Plus maybe putting the lemon curd in the middle might have stopped it either oozing out or sticking to the bottom. 30 minutes cooking time is too long. 2/5
Visual Appeal - Seen worse seen better. 3/5
Texture - Like rubbery sponge but also wet and hard at the same time! 0/5
Taste - Egg. Inexplicably eggy. With the slightest hint of lemon at the end. I fear I’ll be tasting this for days like our poor @MancBee and his soup.
0/5
Overall - 1/5 DIRE. I could have just about forced it down if someone made it for me and I had to be polite.
OH rated it 0 dogshit, couldn’t have eaten it even to be nice!
How dare you! She teaches us that a well is a kind of hole.What really rinses my rice is the lack of teaching in her recipes. I think this is something I’ve just had a lightbulb moment with. You can make really good, low cost meals if you know how to cook. And it’s not difficult. So a simple recipe for béchamel would be really valuable. And how to properly cook onions (fgs Jack, please)! Rather than the interchangeable herb nonsense an actual lesson on which herbs work with what and why. Of course she’d have to know this herself and it’s probably not as much fun as chucking some random pulses and fruit together so it’ll never happen but it would be so much more valuable for people who want to cook with less.
When food looks radioactive you know there's a problem.A bonus treat for you. The 'sauce' in action, after simmering for 30 minutes.
I'm sure I can hear it slop.
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Yes, absolutely. It was used to infer that a certain type of woman was lazy in the kitchen by using tins and jars to cut corners and save a bit of time for, errr, other things.Puttanesca literally means "in the style of a prostitute" in Italian, ie, the sauce is cheap, easy and quick.
(no, seriously, Italians use the word "puta", meaning prostitute, as a sort of all purpose profanity, so pasta alla puttanesca essentially translates to "pasta with crappy odds and ends thrown into it")
The name made me want to boff my ring up so I'm not hopeful.As if I didn't learn the hard way last time I am going to have a go at this for my lunch today. Anyone fancy taking a guess on how edible it's going to be?
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Bacon 1.35 yes so 37p
Corgettes 1.15 yes but resent the expense compared with other veg she could have suggested 30p
Brie 2.20 - yes but expensive more than the cheddar I usually buy 40p
Basil no. Gone manky even before I've written up. And not keen on slime pesto. And it's imported probably on a plane
Parsley. Probably most will be wasted 80p.
Chillies at a struggle unless I freeze them. Say 30pGreen beans frozen. Will use 10p
Ok apart from saying frying pan then sauté pan. I don't even know what that is.method
Yay! I might have a little online mooch today to see if I can find where she might have stolen that from and buggered up the write up because SOMETHING (as well as flavour) was definitely missing….go well, pal.Mr Heastlanda and the kids want lamb curry for tea tomorrow night. I don't eat lamb so I am more than willing to fix the fucked up lentil curry using the rest of the ingredients I have and actually make something half edible. Watch this space.......
I was actually going to request this so thankyou tender one xAs if I didn't learn the hard way last time I am going to have a go at this for my lunch today. Anyone fancy taking a guess on how edible it's going to be?
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What's your rating dear heart?Oh my God Dinner
Oh My God Dinner, 28p
Oh My God Dinner (or, ‘I Was Going To Make Pasta Alla Genovese And Then I Remembered That Sodding Courgette Rolling Around In My Fridge…’) 55p for 2 portions, or just under 28p ea…cookingonabootstrap.com
Jack's ingredients 10 years ago (my herbs slightly different as I shopped from a different version but interchangeable don't you know.
70g bacon, 11p (£1.09/670g)
1 chilli (free, grows on my window ledge)
80g spaghetti, 6p (39p/500g)
Fistful each parsley, mint, basil (free, grows on my window ledge)
10ml lemon juice, 2p (60p/250ml)
50g green beans, 7p (£1.40/kg, frozen)
20g Brie, 11p (£1.09/200g)
1 garlic clove, 3p (46p for 2 bulbs with average 8 cloves each)
1/2 courgette, 15p (£1.80/kg, 6 in my bag)
The title suggests food you've got knocking around.
I just had:
garlic
spaghetti
Bottled lemon juice.
So from Sainsbury’s , and calculating the cost basted on whether or not I will use the leftovers.
Ok apart from saying frying pan then sauté pan. I don't even know what that is.
And chopping herbs in a cup with scissors. I didn't do that. Used knife and board.And not saying if spaghetti water should be salted.
Verdict
In Friends Joey thinks he is talking on the phone to Estelle when she is dead. (in fact it's Phoebe) Joey says "What's it like there?" Phoebe looks round the phone booth and says "It's all right"
Well this was all right.
Well that's my verdict. Nothing special. Left over veg and growing herbs with spaghetti a good idea, and sauce from brie is quite nice. She could have said what veg you could use with this and if cheap cheese would work.
And it was a modest (in size not price) meal for one.
Oh my god it's dinner suggested to me when you've been busy and not prepared and prep something easy from what you got.
That's fair enough, and spaghetti and veg with a sauce made on brie is fair enough, fits the bill.
IF YOU HAVE GOT THOSE INGREDIENTS IN.
Which I hadn't. So it was neither quick nor cheap.
Incidentally in the comments she was pulled up for only 40 gms per portion. She replied saying she wrote this when things were tough and in future she'd recommend 70 gm
I was actually going to request this so thankyou tender one x
It's also in the book Cooking on a Bootstrap as Chillaf (microwave chilli)
What's your rating dear heart?
"80 g of pasta for two people is a bit tight!" - it should be illegal to write a recipe with less than half a portion as a whole portion
"I have 70g of pasta per person these days!" - Y tho
But most of the website commenters are comment club thick, bacon and brie are delicious? You don't bleeping say?! I've seen this here and there and really don't understand the praise for individual ingredients being 'yummy' it's not like Jack invented bacon or brie.
Rating amended dear heart, I can imagine what you went through there because the birthday pizza sauce was completely dominated by fennel in a similar way, albeit without the big crunchy bits@That Forensic Man I have decided that I would like to downgrade my upside fish pie to a 2- Terrible, please dear heart x
I must have been in a good mood on the day I cooked it because I was very generous with a 3 - every time I think back to eating it, I get indigestion due to the copious amounts of raw and crunchy chunks of celery, which was the dominating flavour of the whole thing.
There was not enough fish in the recipe for 4 people and it definitely was not a 15 min meal as stated by our Jackie.
I mean it should have actually been called celery in ‘sauce’ on tasteless instant mashed potato with fish.
Quoting myself like a ninny to say there’s quite a lot of variations on aubergine and red lentil curry’s but only Jack calls hers a vindaloo.Yay! I might have a little online mooch today to see if I can find where she might have stolen that from and buggered up the write up because SOMETHING (as well as flavour) was definitely missing….go well, pal.
Not her picture/not her food again?Quoting myself like a ninny to say there’s quite a lot of variations on aubergine and red lentil curry’s but only Jack calls hers a vindaloo.
This is what makes a vindaloo sauce by the way:
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Jacks didn’t use any of those things. Note especially the COCONUT MILK. Other recipes recommend a tin of tomatoes because YOU NEED THE ACTUAL LIQUID, not just Jacks imaginary slop.
Seriously she’s an insult to food.
Oh and I found her recipe on her website and look at the picture and compare it to mine. HA.
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You can barely even see my poor aubergine and where are all her bleeping onions and garlic lumps?!
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Rage.
Last night I made Jacks Lemon Curd Sponge Puddings. I picked this recipe as I had every ingredient already so it was FREE and I thought such a simple recipe may actually work. Spoiler, it did not.
https://cookingonabootstrap.com/2013/04/05/lemon-curd-sponge-puddings-24p/
100g self raising flour
70g butter
2 eggs
50g sugar
Splash of lemon juice
8 heaped teaspoons of lemon curd
It doesn’t mention what size eggs or what kind of sugar. I went with the large eggs I had and caster sugar.
View attachment 1733670 q
First mix the butter and sugar. Add the lemon juice (It’s pointless adding the suggested “few shakes of lemon juice” as you can’t taste it)
Then add eggs and flour -
View attachment 1733676 q
View attachment 1733690 q
“Mix well with a fork or wooden spoon to create a smooth, glossy batter.”
View attachment 1733677 q
It was fairly smooth but beating in the eggs then flour would have been better.
View attachment 1733698 q
The method says to add a generous dollop of lemon curd and the recipe states 8 teaspoons so I added 2 teaspoons to each bowl.
Next add the cake batter on top till 2/3 full
View attachment 1733699 q
Jack says to cook them for 30 minutes. After 10 I had a peeky mink through the oven glass and they looked like this
View attachment 1733703 q
Well that’s the baking tray fucked
View attachment 1733720 q
Another 10 minutes went by and they were cooked. Another 10 minutes as suggested would have burnt them
View attachment 1733723 q
(just realised I used cake forks instead of spoons but all cutlery is interchangeable)
View attachment 1733728 q
They look ok but the burnt lemon curd on top isn’t good and the sponge has a really weird texture.
Ingredients - I had everything so not sure on the cost but 6 ingredients isn’t bad. Marked down for not stating which sugar or size of egg to use. Also needs more lemon juice. 3/5
Recipe - Easy to follow but, according to google as I’m no baker, the eggs/flour should have been beaten in to avoid the eggy flavour. Plus maybe putting the lemon curd in the middle might have stopped it either oozing out or sticking to the bottom. 30 minutes cooking time is too long. 2/5
Visual Appeal - Seen worse seen better. 3/5
Texture - Like rubbery sponge but also wet and hard at the same time! 0/5
Taste - Egg. Inexplicably eggy. With the slightest hint of lemon at the end. I fear I’ll be tasting this for days like our poor @MancBee and his soup.
0/5
Overall - 1/5 DIRE. I could have just about forced it down if someone made it for me and I had to be polite.
OH rated it 0 dogshit, couldn’t have eaten it even to be nice!