Jamie Oliver's three-course meal masterclass
Jamie’s back in our kitchen with his 25th cookbook, making him the top-selling non-fiction author in UK history! Today he's sharing a three-course meal designed to welcome friends and family back around the dinner table, because being with our loved ones has never felt so important, and this is the ideal menu to celebrate with! For starters, it’s his jammy margaritas and watermelon & feta skewers! For the main, Dukkah roast chicken with pomegranate gravy and for desert a delicious apple and bramble crumble tart.
Jammy margarita
Makes 1
Ingredients
50ml tequila
20ml Cointreau
35ml freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tsp strawberry jam
Method
1. Mix all ingredients together, then refrigerate overnight.
2. Simply pour through a sieve into a tumbler filled with ice.
Note: The day before, batch up the tequila, Cointreau, lime juice and jam if you want to be able to make multiple drinks at once.
Watermelon skewers
Serves 6
Ingredients
¼ of a small watermelon (500g)
½ a cucumber
120g feta cheese
½ a small red onion
1 lemon
½ a bunch of flat leaf parsley (15g)
Optional: Serrano ham or pata negra
Method
1. Peel the watermelon and slice 1.5cm thick, then into 1.5cm chunks. Quarter the cucumber length ways and chop into the same sized chunks, along with the feta. Peel and finely chop the onion and toss with the lemon juice and a pinch of sea salt and black pepper in a shallow bowl. Pick in the parsley leaves, add the cucumber, watermelon and feta and gently toss together. Spend a bit of time skewering everything up on cocktail sticks, then line up on a platter. Spoon over the juices, and pop into the fridge until needed.
2. To serve; Delicious fridge cold, with some good ham on the side.
Dukkah roast chicken
Serves 6
Ingredients
1 x 350g jar of small preserved lemons
1 fresh red chilli
1 bunch of rosemary (20g)
1 pomegranate
Olive oil
1 x 1.5kg free-range whole chicken
1 tablespoon runny honey
3 tablespoons dukkah
Red wine vinegar
140g wild rocket
Method
1. On the day - I like to time this so the chicken is coming out of the oven to rest just as my guests arrive. Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Get a roasting tray that will fit the chicken fairly snugly. Halve, deseed and finely chop 4 preserved lemons and place in the tray. Roughly chop and add the chilli, strip in the rosemary, then halve the pomegranate and squeeze all the juice through your fingers into the tray. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil, then the chicken, season lightly and rub all that flavour over the bird, getting into all the nooks and crannies. Pour 150ml of water into the tray around the chicken and roast for 1 hour 20 minutes, or until golden and cooked through, basting halfway with the tray juices. Remove, cover and leave to rest for 30 minutes in the tray.
2. To serve - Move the chicken to a serving platter, drizzle and brush with the honey, then scatter over the Dukkah. For the dressing, skim of and discard a spoonful of fat from the tray, then place the tray over a medium heat on the hob, add 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar and simmer until thickened, scraping up all the sticky bits and loosening with splashes of water, if needed. Pour through a sieve into a little jug. Serve with the chicken and a bowl of rocket. Great with my Smashed aubergine and Roasted squash recipes, which you'll find in the book.
3. Veggie love - Use 1 cauliflower (800g) instead of chicken for veggie guests – use just 2 preserved lemons in the marinade, then roast and finish it in exactly the same way as the chicken.
4. Preserve those lemons - Preserved lemons don’t last that long once the jar’s open, so what I do is pour all their liquor into a blender, deseed and add the lemons, then blitz until smooth. Freeze in ice cube trays ready to jazz up stews, salads, couscous, rice, roasts and dressings.
Apple and bramble crumble tart
Serves 12
Ingredients
1.2kg eating apples
150g golden syrup
300g blackberries
400g plain flour, plus
Extra for dusting
75g icing sugar
1 lemon
200g cold unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
2 heaped tablespoons porridge oats
2 heaped tablespoons flaked almonds
2 sprigs of thyme 2 large eggs
Vanilla ice cream, to serve
Method
1. Get ahead - Peel, core and roughly chop the apples. put a large non-stick pan on a medium heat with 120g of golden syrup. Add the apples and cook for 20 minutes, or until soft, stirring occasionally and adding splashes of water, as needed. Toss in the blackberries for just the last couple of minutes, then turn the heat off and leave to cool.
2. Mix the flour and icing sugar in a large bowl, then finely grate in the lemon zest. Chop the butter into cubes, then rub in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Remove one quarter of the mixture (about 2 big handfuls) to a separate bowl and use your fingertips to rub and mix with the oats, almonds, the remaining golden syrup and the thyme leaves. Back to the main bowl, beat and stir in 1 egg and 1 yolk (reserving the white), then gently scrunch the dough into a ball – be careful not to overwork it, we want the pastry to be crumbly and short. Wrap and rest in the freezer for 30 minutes.
3. Grease a deep 25cm non-stick loose-bottomed tart tin, then coarsely grate in the pastry. Use your fingertips to press it into the base and up the sides in a rustic but fairly even layer, letting it bulge up a bit at the brow of the tin, then brush with the reserved egg white. Cover everything and refrigerate overnight.
4. To serve - Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Spoon the fruit into the pastry case and scatter over the crumble topping, leaving a little border at the edges. Bake on the bottom of the oven for 1 hour, or until golden and bubbling, then let it sit in the tin until you’re ready to serve. enjoy warm, with vanilla ice cream and hibiscus syrup (see below), if making – reheat for maximum enjoyment.
Optional - Hibiscus syrup Simmer 20g of dried hibiscus flowers and 40g of golden caster sugar in a small pan on a medium-low heat with 300ml of water, until syrupy, then sieve.