Mister Oliver

By now you might have figured out that this blog is headed toward being a re-hash of Jamie Oliver's website. I am in LOVE with his recipes. At first, I thought they were way too complicated for me. I mean, me - cook gourmet? After a tired day at work? But after some trial and error-ing, I found that Mr. Oliver's gourmet was do-able - a repetition of several key ingredients (aha, I've figured out your secret!) that once our kitchen embraced, good cooking was minutes away.



You should probably save this for a weekend, as it takes a bit of time, but the result is wonderful - a unique blend of sweet & savory, juicy & hearty.

Pot-roasted poussins agro dolce (from Jamie Oliver's "Cook with Jamie" book)

1 orange, quartered
2 cinnamon sticks, broke in half*
6 sprigs of fresh rosemary*
4 poussins (baby chickens) or 1 large chicken
olive oil
2 knobs of butter
2 red onions, peeled & finely sliced
4 sticks of celery, trimmed and finely sliced
1 x 10 oz. jar sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained
3 wineglasses of Chianti
6 tablespoons red wine vinegar
a handful of pinenuts
16 slices thinly sliced smoked pancetta or bacon

"Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Stuff a piece of orange, half a cinnamon stick and a rosemary sprig into the cavity of each bird. In a large ovenproof pan in which the poussins will fit snugly side by side, heat a glug of olive oil and a knob of butter. Add the little chickens and color them gently on all sides for 10 min. or until lightly golden all over, then remove them to a place to rest.

Pick the rosemary leaves off the 2 remaining springs. Carefully discard the fat from the pan and add some fresh olive oil and your remaining knob of butter. Over medium heat, add your onion, celery, and rosemary and fry for about 5 min. until softened. While keeping an eye on the pan, throw the sun-dried tomatoes into a food processor with the wine and whiz them up - this will give you an intense, tangy tomato liquor.

By this time the onion and celery should be soft and nicely colored, so put your chickens back into the pan and turn up the heat. Add vinegar. Shake the pan around a bit, and add the tomato liquor. Continue cooking until the liquid has reduced slightly, then put the pan in the preheated oven with a lid on and cook for 30 minutes, turning the birds in the juices a couple of times. Remove the pan from the oven, take the lid off and turn the chickens once more in all the juices. Lay them breast side up and sprinkle the pinenuts over them, then lay your slices of pancetta or bacon over them and cook in the oven for a further 10 minutes until crisp and golden. Allow the poussins to rest in the pan for 10 min. while you get your guests to the table."

*we found that typically expensive ingredients such as fresh herbs and cinnamon sticks could be found cheap at nearby Korean or Indian grocery stores. $1 for a large bundle of rosemary. $2 for a big pack of cinnamon sticks.

And we had the joy of meeting Mr. Oliver in Long Island this past November, thanks to our mischievously-planning friends, the P's :)

As you can see, Mr. Oliver was as excited as us to meet up.