JamieOliver.com

Hi everyone,

It only seemed like yesterday that we were all cooking up a storm for Luke Robinson's Supper Club and there I was again yesterday back in the kitchen cooking with Luke once again. This time it was for a very special Supper Club to raise money for San Patrignano's annual open day called WeFree. WeFree literally means a celebration of the young people being free of drugs. For the last 3 years I have been a guest of the community for their WeFree day and when I was there last year I decided that I no longer wanted to be a guest and that it was time to start raising funds to take a group of young people over to San Patrignano to participate. We are planning to take a group of young people from the UK who are working in - fashion, photography, music, writing and cooking. They will work with the young people from San Pat and create and cook together - two wonderful charities coming together to celebrate the best that young people can be.

Yesterday the Chefs and graduates from Fifteen cooked at our first fundraising lunch and our special guest for the day was my friend Monica Luppi who works on developing International relations for the San Pat community. Working closely with the young people of San Pat - Monica is the heart and soul of the community. The lunch that the Chefs prepared was outstanding (menu below). We also showed a short video on my time spent getting to know the San Pat community and after the main course was served I put everyone's name into a hat, drew them out randomly and then mixed the seating arrangement up so that strangers became friends!

This particular Supper Club made me feel very proud indeed, wonderful guests, great food and special friends. Thank you to all of the graduates and chefs who cooked and a special thank you to Luca Dusi from Passione Vino for supplying all of the lovely San Pat wines and also some very expensive and special wines for our raffle - http://www.passionevino.co.uk/

and to Michael from Eurofrutta for more lovely veg as well
http://www.eurofrutta.co.uk/

also to Andreas Georghious from Andreas Fine Fruit and Veg for some lovely veg as well.
http://www.andreasveg.co.uk/

Thank you as well to Fabio Antoniazzi from La Credenza for the wonderful San Pat cured meats and cheeses
(020 70705070)

San Patrignano
http://www.sanpatrignano.org/?q=en

Menu
Starter
Cured meats and cheeses produced at San Patrignano with a selection of marinated cipollini with balsamic vinegar and bay leaves, baby carrots with fresh orange and cumin seed, baked beetroot with freshly grated horseradish and freshly baked foccacia.

Wine
San Patrignano's Aulente Bianco Rubicone 2010 - bottled and produced on site at San Patrignano

Mains
"Brasato" eight hour braised shin of beef from Smithfield's Market with wet polenta, roasted Oca from Jamie's garden and braising juices.

Wine
San Patrignano's Aulente Rosso Rubicone 2009 - bottled and produced on site at San Patrignano.

Dessert
Dean's Fifteen inspired panna cotta

Looking forward to the next fundraiser for our friends at San Patrignano.


Cheers from Danny

and the last pic : )

more pictures telling a thousand words.....

Sometimes a picture tells a thousand words : )

It's January, I live in London and on Sunday I spent the whole day cooking outside., a rarity indeed! I am certainly used to the cold weather by now but to tell you the truth it takes something special to get me outside all day in my backyard. The special thing that got me out of the house on Sunday was my new Jamie Oliver Ovens - Dome 60. I have been blogging about cooking in Jamie's up in Essex and as you would have seen on Twitter recently I now have my very own oven at home. This was the first time that I cooked in the oven, it arrived over the Christmas break and after installing it at home I spent a day "curing" it. This is the process where you light a fire in the oven in the morning and then build it up for a whole day.

So, what to cook? I had friends over for dinner on Saturday night and as I never like to waste food I had a few left overs that I wanted to try cooking in the oven. The first was a lentil stew that I made with pancetta. Now as you know I am quite experimental in the kitchen and I certainly don't mind taking a few risks so I simply popped the lentils into a pan and placed them in the oven. Next to that I grilled some steak and there was even enough room to make my own bubble and squeak in a griddle pan. The bubble and squeak consisted of mashed potatoes and leeks that I flattened into little patties.

I had cooked steak and sausages before in the oven at Jamie's so quite experienced with this. Happy to report that they were delicious! The bubble and squeak was a nice surprise as well, definitely a winner and definitely something that I will cook again in the oven. The winning dish of the day though was the lentil dish. A crispy layer formed on top of the lentils and the whole dish had a special smokey flavour. I served it all up with a salad and to tell you the truth I ate most of the lentil dish because it was so good! What a nice surprise those lentils were. Feeling so inspired by this dish I ventured back into the kitchen to see what I could whip up for dessert. The fire was still roaring away and I did not want to waste all of that pure energy! I have never cooked a dessert in a wood fired oven so another experiment was about to unfold. I peeled some apples and placed them in a pan with red wine (from the night before) plums, figs, raisins, cinnamon sticks and a couple of spoonfuls of brown sugar. I placed this in the oven and made sure that I kept a watchful eye on the pan for by this stage the oven was roaring hot. After about 20 minutes I took the mixture out and I was going to serve it with ice cream but it was so good that It did nit need it! Along with the lentils this was also the hit dish of the day.

After lunch I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in front of the fire just watching it and keeping warm. Maybe its an Aussie thing but I do find fires absolutely mesmerising and I can sit in front of them for hours. My first meal in the Dome 60 and it was a resounding success. Food tasted great and the oven worked a treat. So looking forward to the next adventure cooking in the oven.

Cheers

Danny

For more info on Jamie's Wood Fired Ovens:

http://www.jamieoliver.com/wood-fired-ovens/