Books |
Plenty: Vibrant Recipes from London’s Ottolenghi
Yotam Ottolenghi
By
Published: Feb 07, 2012
Category:
Food and Wine
If you’re like me, you arrange your cookbooks by nationality.
Convenient — when you’re thinking of making chicken sautéed in vinegar, all of France awaits you.
And revealing — France used to be the favorite here, but that cuisine is stalled at eight inches on the shelf. Italy is now almost ten.
Only one book is its own category: “Plenty: Vibrant Recipes from London’s Ottolenghi.”
Yotam Ottolenghi is half German, half Italian, but the key to his cooking is that he was raised in Jerusalem. He studied philosophy in college, served in the Israeli army, earned a masters degree in comparative literature, and then, at 30, moved to London to enroll at the Cordon Bleu.
Funny thing, though. When he started cooking on his own, he was flooded with childhood memories — especially memories of the spice market. And not the spices that are more like gentle dust. His favorite ingredients, he says, are “noisy” — lemon, pomegranate, garlic, chili. He used them in remarkable combinations when he opened his take-out business in London. Now, he says, “We like to think of ourselves as the haute couture of the food-to-go world.”
Just reading the names of his recipes is an education: char-grilled broccoli with sweet tahini, roasted Brussels sprouts with pomelo and star anise, crushed butterbeans with red pepper paste, roasted butternut squash and red onion with tahini and za’atar.
Will it take you forever to prepare these recipes? No. You just need more spices than you currently own.
Will your guests like this stuff? You bet. Especially if they’re twenty-first century types, eager to eat less meat and more vegetables.
Might you give this book to others? Yes, you might. But you won’t. You will keep it hidden, a secret, as if you devised these recipes in a burst of midnight inspiration. [To buy the book from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here].
The book is intelligently organized by primary ingredient: Roots, Mushrooms, Tomatoes, Green Beans, Pasta, Polenta, Couscous, etc. The pictures are terrific. And the recipes? Consider these:
ROAST CHICKEN WITH CHILI AND BASIL
Serves 2-4
1 tbsp sunflower oil
2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp Dijon mustard<
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp dried chili flakes
3 scallions
2 chicken legs
2 chicken breasts
2-4 mild red chilies
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
In a bowl, whisk the oils, mustard, soy sauce, vinegar and chili flakes. Season with a little bit of salt and some pepper.
Roughly chop the scallions and add them to the sauce with the chicken and the whole chilies. With your hands, rub the chicken well with the marinade and keep refrigerated for 4 hours or overnight.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Place the chicken in a roasted tray and place in the oven for 35-40 minutes or until cooked through.
Arrange the chicken on a serving plate, place the chilies on top and pour the juices on. Garnish with basil.
