Jamie Oliver was born in 1975 in Clavering in Essex, jumping straight into the kitchen of his parents’ pub. He swept through the River Cafe, was quickly spotted by TV crews and became an immediate celebrity with Naked Chef. He’s then used his celebrity status to increase the ranges of supermarkets, give disadvantaged youths a career in cooking, fights tooth and nail to improve school dinners and is passionate about everyone having at least one recipe up their sleeve. (Fun fact: I once fixed Jamie Oliver’s website over the phone.)
Jamie Oliver’s title, not mine. Yes it’s another recreation from Jamie’s America
The key differences to mine were to add sliced garlic to the roux. This did lend an interesting smoky note to it which I enjoyed, but I didn’t feel adding both cheddar and parmesan did much for it. If I was going to improve on it, some pancetta would be nice and chewy. This is still a work in progress.
Yet again another Jewish recipe from the Gentile! There’s an honesty and heartiness to the Jewish kitchen that I keep coming back to. I was in part spurred on by Comedinewithcathy’s recent attempt, though I luckily had no such genuine benchmark against which to be measured. My version, like hers, comes from Jamie Oliver’s recent book Jamie’s America
I’d already used the breasts and wings of a whole chicken for a tray bake earlier in the week among other dishes, so the remainder of the carcass and went in a pot of cold water for half an hour. I skimmed off a great deal of scum then piled in chopped carrot, celery, garlic, thyme and bay. After an hour there was golden chicken fat floating to the surface, so I skimmed that off too for the dumplings later. After anhour and a half I strained off the contents to police for skin, bones, thyme stalks and lacklustre veg, and tore the meat from the bones before returning it all to the pan.
Then came the matzo balls (Jacob’s balls, I guess I should call them): powdered crackers, 2 beaten eggs, water, salt and pepper and a little of the skimmed chicken fat beaten together until thick, then left for a few minutes to firm up. I then scooped into balls and added to the bubbling soup. After twenty minutes they had doubled in size, then for a final ten minutes I added broken up vermicelli, parsley and dill.
I can see why this would be a great meal when you’re down – it’s dense with robust flavour, and the tender vegetables give you a warming feeling inside. The herb lend a freshness while the ‘noodles’ and dumplings give you sustenance. It’s very filling, and easy to see why it can be a family favourite. Another time I’d be tempted to pull it in another direction – with little fiddling it could end up as a lhaksa, and a dash of tabasco or fish sauce, topped with spring onions could really give it a final zing.
This is yet another delve into Jamie Oliver’s latest book, Jamie’s America
The whole dish was very tasty though next time I think I’d add an acidic twist with perhaps a splash of white wine.
Yes, another recipe from Jamie Oliver’s book Jamie’s America
The chicken breast was left to marinate before I went out for work in a mashed up blend of parsley, garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Back from work a few hours later and it’s the turn of the chickpea. I sweat down an onion, two cloves of garlic and some paprika until soft, and then add four diced tomatoes, half a jar of sweet peppers and a tin of drained chickpeas.
While that simmers I turn my attention back to the chicken. I put it skin-side down on a hot griddle until dark lines appear, then turn 30 degrees to get that fancy criss-cross appear. When there’s more lines I turn them over and put the whole thing in a 200C oven for about 8 minutes. While that continues I look back over the chickpea stew, and adjust seasoning with salt, pepper and red wine vinegar. The chicken looks done now so I bring the chicken out to rest for a couple of minutes, to let all those tasty juices flow back through the breast.
To serve I pile some chickpeas up, top it with sliced chicken breast and few torn basil leaves over. At the last minute I reckon a drizzle of balsamic vinegar will help here, so I get out my best to sprinkle over. It goes really nice with the juicy chicken and peppery chickpeas. It’s a really tasty dinner and fairly easy too. I’ll be seeing this one on my plate again!
