Ottolenghi: The Cookbook

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Ottolenghi and Tamimi have a genius for adding intrigue to every dish, for making spices and herbs surprising, and for combining flavors that draw us in and warm our hearts. Each recipe in this book has the mark of originality and the power to inspire.” So: the philosophy is basically fresh food, not overly cooked but usually dressed with some combination of olive oil, lemon juice, parsley and/or cilantro, mostly served at room temperature. The authors are originally from Israel and Palestine, now in London, and it's basically a Mediterranean diet with a Middle Eastern fondness for spices. What this means for me is: tasty summer food that you can prepare in the morning while the kitchen is bearable and you can leave it to serve for dinner later. What this means for you: invite me to your BBQ, pool or Cape house.

Summarises all the cool sauces, marinades and dressings that can be made in batches and stored for later use to spice up other meals. And that flavor expansion works particularly well here, in the chef’s most technique-focused work yet. Flavor, you see, could just be used as a recipe book—but if you only use it that way, you’ll be missing out. Long chapter introductions teach cooking technique (browning, braising, aging, infusing) and offer advice on pairing flavors, as well as how to coax texture and oomph out of some of the chef’s favorites: mushrooms, nuts and seeds, alliums. Instead of just demonstrating how to properly perform these techniques in the safe confines of beloved recipes, Ottolenghi and Belfrage invite us to own these methods and branch out, delighting us with cross-cultural flavor combinations along the way. Apple and olive oil cake with maple icing - This wasn't well received the night I made it (I wasn't overly excited about it either). The next day, after school, I encouraged my kids just to have another slice. My daughter happily ate it. When I tossed the rest that evening, she was furious. "I LOVED that cake!" Huh.

Caramel and macadamia cheesecake - This was fantastic. And even better the next day. (I loved that the caramel looked like it was solid and then you cut it... and maybe it's the reaction of body heat or something... but it just melts in your mouth. This, contrasted with the crunchy caramelized macadamia nuts! The base cheesecake itself is an easy recipe and would work well even by itself. http://kahakaikitchen.blogspot.com/20...) and the Panfried Fish with Green Tahini Sauce & Pomegranate Seeds http://kahakaikitchen.blogspot.com/20...) which were all fabulous. Separate the broccoli into florets and blanch in boiling water for 2 minutes and not longer! Immediately refresh under cold running water to stop further cooking, then drain and leave to dry completely. Spicy, sweet, and punchy, baked fresh and served warm, this is the sort of starter that can precede almost anything. The generous sour cream base and the lightness of the puff pastry carry the sweet potato easily without the risk of a carb overdose. Serve with a plain green salad. Less regionally focused and tradition-based than Jerusalem, but almost as good. Delicately aromatic, satisfying, beautiful food. Good and good for you. If, in some sense, Jerusalem was hindered by its focus (it most assuredly wasn't, by the way), this book would be the best kind of response.

Yotam Ottolenghi has long been known as the chef who can make vegetables sing. Flavor takes that melody he started in Plenty, the harmony he added in Plenty More, and added orchestration to his dishes in Flavor. Who's the author? Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi, thebrains and stomachs behindOttolenghi, one of the most iconic and dynamic restaurants in the country. Pairings of ingredients can also add depth of taste, from adding sweetness to the Butternut, Orange and Sage Galette to adding acidity to Rainbow Chard with Tomatoes and Green Olives. Adding fat can add flavor to Kimchi and Gruyere Rice Patties, and chili heat can add pungency to the Spicy Berbere Ratatouille with Coconut Sauce. The book begins with a few trademark Ottolenghi vegetable dishes -- unusual but brilliant combinations of flavor and texture -- but there's not many of them here. Many of the recipes call for expensive (in my world) nuts (hazelnuts, macadamias, Brazil nuts) and this book features a love affair with butter that's making me shudder: they actually suggest dressing a beautiful herb salad with warm butter—this dish is recommended as a "light" dish to serve after a heavy meat dish. (Accompanied presumably by a Malbec and a call to your cardiologist.)

Roasted butternut squash with burnt eggplant and pomegranate molasses - I adored the squash (especially with all the toasted seeds and nuts), but the eggplant spread was not to my (or anyone else's) liking. My favorite recipes were the salads. I love a good salad and there was such a variety. Some of them had ingredients that I would have never thought to put together. Even days after finishing the book I catch myself thinking “oh, I could make a salad with … We both ate a lot of street food—literally, what the name suggests. Vendors selling their produce on pavements were not restricted to “farmers’ markets.” There was nothing embarrassing or uncouth about eating on the way to somewhere. Sami remembers frequently sitting bored in front of his dinner plate, having downed a few grilled ears of corn and a couple of busbusa (coconut and semolina) cakes bought at street stalls while out with friends. This one is a real winner, coming from Yotam Ottolenghi's latest cookbook, concisely entitled 'Ottolenghi: The Cookbook'. It is a simple recipe, and it gives precise instructions, so you have the feeling that you are able to follow it more or less exactly Sami Tamimi was born and raised in Jerusalem and was immersed in food from childhood. He started his career as commis-chef in a Jerusalem hotel and worked his way up, through many restaurants and ethnic traditions, to become head chef of Lilith, one of the top restaurants in Tel Aviv in the 1990’s.

Ottolenghi’s ground-breaking classic cookbook, which captured the zeitgeist for using imaginative flavours and ingredients, is relaunched with a contemporary design. Ebury Press, Ebury Press Although this is the first of Ottolenghi's cookbooks, I have come to it just now, after knowing and using his others, especially Jerusalem: A Cookbook, Plenty and Plenty More: Vibrant Vegetable Cooking from London's Ottolenghi. Perhaps if I'd discovered it first I would give it five stars, but I think there are more interesting recipes in the later books, as he experimented and explored more in using vegetables creatively.

Danielle's sweet potato gratin - Despite the instructions not to use a pale sweet potato, I did (because I didn't read ahead before I went shopping!) and used the pale ones anyway. It was fantastic! I made it a second time with a mixture of red and pale sweet potatoes and loved it as well. A super easy dish, that looks beautiful at the table. The first thing I want to say about it is that it is the most interesting cookbook I’ve ever read. The recipes are very different than what I’m used to making, and they all sound easy enough to prepare. The photos were amazing, and the stories shared about his family made me feel as if I knew them. They were very close and I liked that. Grouping together multiple recipes steps in one bullet point is a real bugbear of mine - I don't like one step in a recipe to be a dozen lines long with a dozen substeps and taking several hours to complete. Feels like a case of trying to hide the complexity when the recipe could also afford to be a little simpler.