Jamie Oliver

Chicken in Milk with Lemon, Cinnamon, Sage and Garlic

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downloadI am a big fan of Jamie Oliver. I started following him when I was living in England in the early 2000’s.  His approach to cooking was so different than any cooking shows out there at the time.  Just the name, The Naked Chef, put a smile on my face and I was curious about who this guy was.  He cooked with abandon, minimum fuss and he made it all look like great fun.  Some of my favorite episodes were when he cooked for his girlfriend’s “hen” party and when he cooked for his mates in the early morning when they came in from the pubs.  He also did a series “Jamie at Home” where he is outside with a wood burning oven and takes advantage of his incredible English garden.

But Jamie also has a very serious side. He was a leader in improving the school lunches in England to healthy and wholesome food – a goal which ultimately led to a broader campaign to improve school lunches called Feed Me Better. He was voted the ‘Most Inspiring Political Figure’ for the ‘Feed Me Better’ campaign that worked toward cutting out junk food in the diets of British schoolchildren. The British Government pledged to spend 280 million on school lunches.

Jamie’s Kitchen’, a documentary series, followed Jamie as he attempts to train a group of fifteen disadvantaged youth. (I use the word “attempts because he was not successful with all the kids, many who were from very troubled backgrounds.)  The students who did complete the course were offered jobs at Oliver’s restaurant ‘Fifteen’.

A few years ago, I came across Jamie’s Chicken in Milk recipe and I was enticed by it because it was so completely unusual.  It called for roasting a chicken in a big pot with a pint of milk, a lot of lemon zest, a cinnamon stick, fresh sage leaves and unpeeled garlic cloves. Milk, cinnamon, and chicken were three things I wouldn’t ever think to combine.  The lemon zest splits the milk and creates a curdled creamy pan sauce that I have heard described as liquid lemon gold.  I’ve made this many times and besides being delicious, it is also fast and easy to prepare.  128_1_1438960145

Recipe:

Ingredients

  • sea salt
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • olive oil
  • ½ stick cinnamon
  • 1 good handful fresh sage , leaves picked
  • 2 lemons , zest of
  • 10 cloves garlic, skin left on
  • 565 ml / 1 pint milk
  • 1/5 kg / 3 lb chicken

Method

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas 5, and find a snug-fitting pot for the chicken. Season it generously all over, and fry it in a little olive oil, turning the chicken to get an even colour all over, until golden. Remove from the heat, put the chicken on a plate, and throw away the oil left in the pot. This will leave you with tasty sticky goodness at the bottom of the pan which will give you a lovely caramel flavour later on.

Put your chicken back in the pot with the rest of the ingredients, and cook in the preheated oven for 1½ hours. Baste with the cooking juice when you remember. The lemon zest will sort of split the milk, making a sauce which is absolutely fantastic.

To serve, pull the meat off the bones and divide it onto your plates. Spoon over plenty of juice and the little curds. Serve with wilted spinach or greens and some mashed potato.

Note:

I use skinless chicken and it works well too.

Jamie leaves the lid off the pot when he cooks it.  I like to leave the lid on for part of the cooking and remove for the last half.

If you are confused about the metric system, this should help.

Conversion Tables:
1/5 teaspoon = 1 milliliter
1 teaspoon = 5 ml
1 tablespoon = 15 ml
1 fluid oz. = 30 ml
3.4 fluid oz. = 100 ml
1 cup = 240 ml
34 fluid oz. = 1 liter
4.2 cups = 1 liter
2.1 pints = 1 liter
1.06 quarts = 1 liter
.26 gallon = 1 liter

Weight
.035 ounce = 1 gram
3.5 ounces = 100 grams
1.10 pounds = 500 grams
2.205 pounds = 1 kilogram
35 oz. = 1 kilogram

Christmas Lamb for my Husband

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Slow Roasted Shoulder of Lamb

Slow Roasted Shoulder of Lamb

My husband lived and worked in England for many years where lamb rules for the holidays. He had a craving for a slow roasted shoulder of lamb this Christmas and he knew he had to have mint sauce to go with it.  We have a dear friend who is from England who sourced the lamb for me here in Cabo while I scoured my favorite British recipes.  I felt I couldn’t go wrong using Nigel Slater and Jamie Oliver’s suggestions and the end result had my husband’s glowing approval.

Our plan was to slow roast it in the oven at 320 degrees but when we got up on Christmas morning, we did not have any power.  I had just massaged the herb and garlic rub into the meat and my hands were full of garlic, anchovies and olive oil when I realized that we had no water either.  My husband came to the rescue with a big bowl of water from the pantry that we save in case of hurricanes.  We switched gears from indoor oven to outdoor grill and cranked it up to 500 degrees.  When we put the meat on the grill, we turned down the temperature immediately to 300 and slow roasted it for about 4 hours.  The temperature was slow coming down but the results could not have been better. The aroma that came off the roasting lamb was so tantalizing that I thought my neighbors would be knocking on my door.

Note:  If cooking in the oven, place the lamb in a 500 degree pre-heated oven, turn the heat down immediately to 320.

Ingredients:

2 kg lamb shoulder with bone in – With the tip of a sharp knife, make shallow scores through the outer layer of skin and fat of the lamb shoulder, but not into the meat, cross-hatching the entire surface.

1 whole bulb of garlic – cloves peeled

Fresh rosemary sprigs – I used a large sprig – leaves only

Thyme sprigs – 8-10 – leaves only

8 anchovy filets – you will not be able to taste the anchovies – they melt and give the meat a glorious flavor.  No need for any extra salt.

Olive oil

Pepper

Instructions:

Using a mortar and pestle, crush the peeled garlic cloves with course sea salt until it makes a paste. Chop the rosemary, thyme and the anchovies together and add to the crushed garlic.  (You could use a food processor but there is something wonderful about slowly making the paste with the lovely smells of the garlic and herbs).  Add a few tablespoons of olive oil so that you can easily massage it into the meat.  Get in there with your hands and really massage this paste into the lamb shoulder.

Place the lamb in a roasting pan with high sides, pour water in the bottom of the pan so the pan is covered by 1 to 2 inches using 2 or 3 cups of water.  This makes a wonderful gravy for the Mint Sauce (see below).

Cover tightly with aluminum foil and place in the oven or on the grill and roast for several hours.  It was interesting that neither Nigel or Jamie would give exact roasting times but 4 to 5 hours should be perfect.  Remove from the oven and allow to rest while you make the mint sauce.  Forget about carving this easy slow-cooked roast – pull the fragrant, tender lamb from the bone, rustic style.

Mint Sauce

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon flour

1 large bunch of fresh mint, leaves picked

2 Tablespoon red wine vinegar

Sauce in the bottom of the roasting pan – pour away most of the fat

Instructions:

Remove the lamb from the roasting pan and let sit while you make the mint sauce.

Remove as much fat as you can from the juices at the bottom of the roasting pan. Place on medium heat on the stove top and add flour. Stir until it sauce begins to thicken, then add the mint and the red wine vinegar – keep stirring until it reaches your desired thickness.  You don’t need tons of this gravy because it so flavorful.  Spoon over the meat, mashed potatoes and steamed greens for the perfect holiday meal.