THE FLAVORFUL 5
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver shows what can be done with few ingredients
For over two decades I supervised a popular reader write-in column dubbed “Take Five.” Readers submitted recipes with five ingredients or fewer; the limitations didn’t apply to oil, salt or pepper. Before the arrival of the internet, submission letters clogged my mail cubby. I enjoyed reading the recipes and imagined the dishes’ flavors and vitalized the appearance, later testing out the best of the bunch in my kitchen.
Celebrity chef and cookbook author Jamie Oliver embraced five-ingredient recipe formats in his book “5 Ingredients
— Quick and Easy Food.” His wife, Jools, encouraged him to write another book with that theme.
“She told me to stop thinking about anything else,” he wrote, explaining that she knew people’s lives are busy, and the short-ingredient formulas are what the parents of school age children talk about.
He welcomed that format again, this time using the “hero ingredients” of the Mediterranean. In “Jamie Oliver 5 Ingredients Mediterranean” (Flatiron Books), he assumes that olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper are a part of every reader’s pantry, so those components don’t count against the limit. Big flavor, little grocery lists.
Pot-roast chicken, fondant potatoes, herby salsa and roasted garlic
Pot roast chicken was inspired by Oliver’s recent trip to Barcelona, Spain. He writes that herb-packed salsas are much loved in Catalan cooking. He embellishes the chicken and rich, broth-cooked spuds with a vibrant, nutty salsa.
Yield: 4 servings
INGREDIENTS
1 (3-pound) whole chicken 2pounds Yukon Gold potatoes 1 bunch of flat-leaf parsley 1 bulb of garlic
1 1/2 ounces blanched hazelnuts
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat the oven to 350degrees. Rub the chicken all over with olive oil, sea salt and black pepper, then brown in a large, ovenproof casserole pan on high heat, removing it to a plate once golden all over (roughly 5minutes). Meanwhile, peel the potatoes and chop into 2-inch chunks. Pour 2 3/4 cups of water into the pan, then add the parsley stalks (stems), garlic bulb (reserving 1garlic clove for later) and the potatoes. Bring to the boil on the stove for 15minutes, season lightly, then pop the chicken on top and place in the oven for 1hour and 15minutes, or until the chicken is golden and cooked through.
2. Meanwhile, peel and finely chop the reserved garlic clove, very finely chop the parsley leaves, and roughly chop the hazelnuts. Place in a small serving bowl, stir in 3tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and 4 tablespoons of water, and season to perfection.
3. Transfer the chicken and potatoes to a serving platter, spoon over the herby salsa and serve the roasted garlic bulb on the side, for squeezing from its papery skin onto the top.
Source: “Jamie Oliver 5 Ingredients Medisterranean” (Flatiron Books)