Recipe #2: Chicken in Milk

By Jamie Oliver:

• 1 x 1.5k/ 3½lb organic chicken
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 115g/4oz or ½ a pack of butter
• olive oil
• 1/2 cinnamon stick
• 1 good handful of fresh sage, leaves picked
• zest of 2 lemons
• 10 cloves of garlic, skin left on
• 565ml/1 pint milk

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chicken-recipes/chicken-in-milk

By Andrew Fernandez:

Its been a few days since I cooked the dish. I am now on a plane back from Charleston, South Carolina and I have an hour and a half to write my experience.

Milk, Lemon and Sage. What an interesting combination. I never would have put milk with lemon. I know it will separate, but amazingly the taste is remarkable. I definitely would recommend this as a must-have quick dish. Though I am not a big fan of the herb sage, I must say it went very well with the lemon and milk.

I never realized that a well equipped kitchen is important. Based on my cooking experience, I must say that I have never once required the zest of a lemon, lime, orange or tangerine. I used a grater. It worked just fine. But since I never performed this process before, how much is too much when zesting a lemon? How deep do you go?

It's eleven days into he new year and I still have not laid off the butter! I think I feel the pounds coming on. This recipe called for a stick of butter which was very much needed. The browning process, for anyone who wants to try this, should be on a very, very hot pan and try not to cook it too long as the thighs will somewhat "fall-off" the chicken pose, sort of "chick with wide legs" when all is said and done. It went very well with fresh spinach placed under some hot liquids from the chicken. Be prepared for the separated, milky, lemony sauce. It does take some getting used to.

Tasks for spring will now include hitting the local greenhouse for a variety of herbs. I need to get an herb garden going as more of these recipes call out for "handfuls" of them.

So here's to a little research on how to zest a lemon:

http://www.cookthink.com/reference/64/How_to_zest_a_lemon

Recipe #1: Superb Marinated Pork Fillet Roasted on Rhubarb

By Jamie Oliver:

Ingredients:
1 large handful of fresh sage
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
olive oil
2 pork fillets, trimmed
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
10 slices of prosciutto or Parma ham
12 long stalks of baby rhubarb, washed

By Andrew Fernandez:

My attempt was tragic... but it tasted pretty darn good though it did not look anything like the picture in the recipe book. Well I have to explain more as to why that is...

I have to admit that I had no clue what rhubarb really is and still have not seen what rhubarb is in real life. I spent 20 minutes at the Meijer produce section looking up Wikipedia trying to figure out and making sure that Swiss Chard was definitely NOT in the rhubarb family.

Apparently rhubarb is a seasonal vegetable that is often mistaken with swiss chards and is clearly not available in the beginning of January, in Michigan. Oh! and Wikipedia says that the leaves are also toxic. Some part of me really is happy that they were not available. My replacement? Well the closes 'looking' produce I could use was the swiss chard. That was a compromise after 20 minutes of Wikipedia investigation in the middle of the produce section at Meijer. I had to keep moving around the produce department as the iPhone loaded because I didn't want to look like a total geek at Meijer glued to his iPhone.

The next item on the ingredient list was prosciutto. Look, I had already spent 20 minutes learning about rhubarb, its more than I can handle on a weekend. I just used smoked ham chucks. I could not take a minute longer at Meijer.

Lessons Learnt:
I need to do my investigation at home about the ingredients. I realize that its not so easy to cook these dishes as indicated without substitution. The first recipe was a scrape-by, but I have to say that it tasted pretty good!

I also have to learn to cook in smaller sizes. Eating the leftovers for 4 days isn't quite so great. I'm sure it tastes really good if made correctly, but if its not... It's a lot of yuck-food to eat for awhile.

The Challenge: 100 Recipes in 365 Days with Jamie Oliver

2010 is going to be a great year! Having watched Julie and Julia has inspired me to do something exciting for the next year and blog about my experience. I'm am embarking on a recipe challenge to learn more about cooking with different types of foods that I am not accustomed to.


Jamie Oliver is my favorite chef and I still remember the pre-TiVo days when I stayed up till 3:00am watching his shows on the Food Network.


Don't worry, I am still keeping my day job! But I will always welcome a visit from or to Jamie Oliver's kitchen!


My first shopping experience has already been challenging and I am excited to get this blog started.


Stay tuned and I hope I will be a busy man this year. Hopefully, I will not end the year overweight, but having more great food experiences and obviously, dinner parties.