On The Shelf With Jamie

He's back, bish-bash-bosh, with his cheery cooking and family anecdotes, to brighten up Monday evenings [ot Tuesdays, if you like the BBC2 quiz night, so record him for later] We watched the first of Jamie Oliver's new Five Ingredients series.

The premise is that you don't need a great long list of ingredients to turn out easy, tasty, family meals - and you can use the simplest humble items [he loves the word 'humble'] But tnh, I was a little disappointed by this week's offering. 

It is sponsored by Tesco,. so naturally their products are showcased. That's OK - but his Fig Tart - which looks splendid and allegedly serves 8 [doesn't that look like six possible portions to you?] works out at £8.50 for the ingredients. 

We did like the look of his Lemon Tzatziki Chicken - however we were none too sure about his 'genius hack' to get the "crispiest chicken ever, even without a rotisserie oven"

What Jamie did was to prepare the veg etc in a roasting tray and put that on the lowest shelf, and suspend his chicken legs over the tray by squeezing them through the bars of the upper shelf, which held them in place as they cooked.

But look at that shelf - and the gap between the bars- about 2cm. Here is a picture of an oven shelf like mine - with 4cm gaps

An ordinary chicken leg is too slim to be gripped by this shelf. So I couldn't do this trick. I checked my neighbour's shelf [4 cm gap] Furthermore, most 'regular' ovens have this sort of shelf.

If you want a narrow gauge shelf like Jamie has, you need to own an upmarket, costly oven like Gaggenhau or Neff. 

I suppose you might buy a Gaggenhau shelf  which would fit your oven. I suggested to Bob that I could knot the legs onto a length of butcher's twine, like a necklace, and dangle them through the wider slots - but we both felt this was too much faff. [Neff or Faff - you choose!]

And the third recipe was sweet pea pasta. None of the pretty flowers, just frozen peas, pasta, spring onions, cheese, and potatoes [yes, two carbs - his 'double denim' recipe] It's cheesy pasta with peas, Jamie! 

Most of us have been throwing together something like this for years, we do not need a recipe. 

And yes orecchiette pasta does look pretty, but it is the most expensive of the Tesco pasta shapes. [Even if the potatoes cooked with it are 'very humble']

I will watch again next week, and hope Jamie comes up with some recipes which I could replicate within my budget, using my ordinary Belling Oven!

Apparently this show aired in Australia last month - and Jamie's chicken hack left the presenters of their morning show "Sunrise" both 'shocked' and 'mindblown' !!