Recipe #5: Beautiful Courgette Carbonara

By Jamie Oliver:

• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 6 medium green and yellow courgettes

• 500g penne

• 4 large free-range or organic egg yolks

• 100ml double cream• 2 good handfuls of freshly grated Parmesan cheese

• olive oil

• 12 thick slices of pancetta or smoked streaky bacon, cut into chunky lardoons

• a small bunch of fresh thyme, leaves picked and chopped, flowers reserved (if you can get hold of flowering thyme)

• optional: a few courgette flowers

By Andrew Fernandez:

I love the fact that I really ventured out of found out what pancetta really was for this dish. Plainly put, it was a rolled up piece of smoked ham that could be custom cut into any thickness you wanted by your meat-deli-tender. I was a little disappointed when I saw the final product handed to me a a fancy sealed up zip-locker bag. Interesting... I have to say tho

ugh that it did add an interest to the carbonara dish as it was laid out on the platter. I finally venture out away from "sage" with this dish by using thyme. I am pleasantly surprised that fresh herbs make the world of difference when cooking. I did run into some problems with using egg yolks and not really cooking them, but just adding hot water to it. But it turned out great! The dish is surprisingly easy to make and the pancetta does make the difference, though you really could substitute with just bacon. It may not look all that great in strips.

If you were wondering what Courgettes are? Well in the United States of America, we call it Zucchini and Squash! This is a great dish to feed a bunch quickly.

Recipe #4: Baked potato skins with gorgonzola, rocket and mustard fruit

By Jamie Oliver:

• 12 small floury potatoes

• 2 big handfuls of wild rocket, washed and dried

• 150g Gorgonzola cheese, roughly chopped
• extra virgin olive oil
• freshly ground black pepper
• optional: pieces of roughly chopped mustard fruit in syrup (mos

tarda di cremona), to serve

By Andrew Fernandez:

In my experience, there are only three types of potatoes! Brown, Red, and flakes from a box which you then add milk and butter to. Here comes the substitution. I just used regular brown potatoes. Something to note about this dish is the "bake" portion of it. I'm glad that I had a friend come over early to help prepare this meal and reminded me that I probably should get going on the baking for an hour.

Gorgonzola cheese. If you know me well enough, you'd know that I am not exactly a "cooked cheese" person since the aroma of cooked cheese is not quite appetizing (if you know what I mean). Meijers is where I get my groceries from. I had a major realization attack at Meijier. Did you know that there are two locations/aisle, and mind you, not next to each other for cheese? There is the "kraft" aisle and the "artisan" aisle. Well I struggled to find Gorgonzola in the "kraft" aisle, only about 20 minutes later did I realize the two aisles.

Has anyone found out what Rockets are? Apart from the craft that get shot up into the stratosphere, I still have not figured that one out just yet. I did make a substitution with baby frisee. (Apparently, I should have used Arugula) I think it worked out great. I didn't actually get to taste the baked potato skins, but the guests kept raving about it. I wasn't sure if it was because they were hungry or really good. I have to admit that I am glad this was a starter on the menu as I was running behind with the fish and this bought me time. I can only imagine what chefs in restaurants across America go through to ensure that when your table orders their dinner, they all show up at the same time and still warm!

There is still the question about that Mustard fruit. My get out of jail free card was the word "optional" preceding that ingredient!

Recipe #3: Summer Chickpea Salad

By Jamie Oliver:

• 1 small red onion, peeled
• 1–2 fresh red chillies, deseeded
• 2 handfuls of ripe red or yellow tomatoes
• 2 lemons
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 x 410g jar or tin of chickpeas, drained, or around 4 large handfuls of soaked and cooked chickpeas
• a handful of fresh mint, chopped
a handful of fresh green or purple basil, finely ripped
• 200g/7oz feta cheese

By Andrew Fernandez:

I decided that I needed to host a party and get caught up with a number of dishes in order to stay on track with completing a hundred by December 31st. The brave part of this party was actually asking the guest to choose what they would like from Jamie Oliver, and I'd prepare it. This was quite the challenge of narrowing down the list and preparing a meal for a dozen blokes!

Shopping for the ingredients proved to be difficult as I am either doubling or tripling the amount to cater to the number of people. Nevertheless, D&W was always just down the street for the last forgotten or insufficiencies.

The chickpea salad turned out to be the best dish I thought in my mind. In fact I am glad that I added two additional cans of chickpeas since I was eating it before I could even prepare the salad. Just a side note... Chickpea is the England english, and Garbanzo beans is the American english.

The dish called for Feta cheese which I thought would have been better prepared without. Amazingly the fresh mint brought on a flavor that is... refreshing.

It definitely is a great summer dish.