Jamie Oliver inspires a chicken dish

I haven't blogged about food for several months, not so much because I haven't been eating but more because I haven't tried any new dishes.

Our satellite television provider has been varying its content: one 'open' channel (i.e. one that is covered in the general subscription) has been showing a variety of programmes, including one series, "Jamie Oliver in Italy". I like JO's programmes although generally I haven't particularly liked the dishes that he cooks. A programme on Italian cooking enables one to see some sights of rural Italy - something lacking in these Corona days - as well as new recipes.

Unfortunately, most of the recipes shown are not kosher: sea food, pork, meat with milk (cheese), rabbit.... One recipe which I did see which needs a little conversion is 'sweet and sour rabbit': obviously I'm not going to use rabbit, which is not kosher and not available in Israel. We have two pairs of chicken thighs and drumsticks waiting to be cooked, so here we go....

The recipe on the web site isn't the same as the recipe shown live on television, so I feel able to improvise a little. Here are my ingredients:

• chicken portions
• three spoonfuls of olive oil (the web site says brown the meat in the oil, but I didn't see this on television)
• a cup of white wine in which has been dissolved a spoonful of sugar
• a cup of balsamic vinegar (this replaces mosto)
• a cup of non-alcoholic wine juice (the Italians use red wine, of course)
• a cup of fig syrup (not in the original)
• one sliced onion
• chopped tomatoes (these were chopped into large pieces; I think it would have been better to have smaller pieces)
• a cup of hot water
• 50 grams chopped almonds
• surprise ingredient: a teaspoon of marmite! This adds umami and colouring. 

Cook for one and a half hours over a low light with an uncovered pan in order to reduce the liquids and enhance the flavours.

The result was very tasty! Presumably I am going to cook this the next time that we have company - on Friday night the entire family was present for the first time in two months! The amounts of ingredients listed above were a bit too much for the small amount of chicken; I could double or treble the chicken without changing the rest of the quantities (after all, I can always add water).

In episode 6 of the series, Jamie visits the Tuscan town of Pitigliano, where he meets an elderly grandmother, apparently the only survivor of a once flourishing Jewish community, and learns how to cook stuffed artichokes (this looks like something that I am not going to attempt!). There is even a scene where Jamie and the grandmother sit in the local synagogue, looking at a picture of the pre-war community. No mention was made whatsoever about the laws of kashrut (no pancetta in this recipe!). Someone wrote about this episode here (warning: it's in Italian).