A Copycat's Take on a J. Oliver Recipe

Grilled Spatchcocked Chicken with New Potatoes and Asparagus in Herby Yogurt

This is based on a recipe of the same title
 from Cook with Jaime Oliver,  2006 Oct, UK.

I am one among millions of Jaime Oliver followers, because:

- I like the way he cooks: crude, disorganized in an adorable way;

- He has meltdowns. I do too. When it happens, he moves on, tries it again and makes it better. I don't; I stop and never go back, my dinuguan in 2002 is the perfect example;

- Aside from cooking, he plants, and; 

- I have always imagined ending up with a Filipino version of him (OH YES! I AM A DREAMER!). Instead, I got a mutated Larry Page stalker-in-denial, Michael Greer-wannabe, Andrew Dan-Jumbo in-the-making and a devout Ric Segreto fanatic who once cooked a very tasty chicken adobo on our second date and was never able to recreate it years after. I say, typical one-hit wonder.

Often when I serve meals I got from Mr. Oliver, most of my friends find it too “foreign” for their taste. When you have friends with tongue predisposed to eating saucy Spanish, salty Filipino, overcooked Tsinoy (Filipino-Chinese) food, all others are foreign.

Balsamic Chicken and Pears, O-ha!

Eat it or leave it! That was the mantra over the dining table whilst growing up. And to further this agony, our mom would always remind us to consume to the last bit whatever was on the plate as if we’re living the lyrics of “bawat butil ng palay, ay butil ng pawis ng luha at dugo”.

The song plus the incessant reminder has probably scarred my subconscious that up to these days it pains me to see food wastage. It is probably also to blame my being frugal in a lot of things that’s why I can’t help but exclaim of the rising prices everywhere! IBON said that the value of the P382-minimum wage in NCR is worth only P235 in 2004, see?

One day thinking of what to cook and wanting to utilise what’s only available in the fridge and the kitchen condiments- chicken, pears, olive oil, balsamic vinegar I asked myself “what to do eh?” I may be knowledgeable about a lot of stuff (mostly chismis), but not in the kitchen. Thank goodness for google, I just typed in the available ingredients and voila from www.inmamaskitchen.com, the Balsamic Chicken and Pears.