The New Sensation: Ottolenghi

I have to admit the biggest of all my cookbook obsessions. My favorite "genre" of all cookbooks are those by London food writers, chefs and restauranteurs. Every cookbook I've picked up with a London connection has been a winner, turning out great recipes every time. And, these cookbooks often feature the most glorious of food photography and highly interesting cultural detail.

There has been a huge recent recognition of the fabulous restauranteur, Yotam Ottolenghi, and three of his cookbooks, Plenty, Ottolenghi & Jerusalem. Here is a link to his website, which features recipes, a foodist shop, books and a blog. There are also links to his three Ottolenghi restaurants and NOPI Soho.

The Ottolenghi cookbook features fantastic recipes used in the Ottolenghi restaurants. Obviously, Jerusalem explores Israeli cuisine and Plenty features all vegetarian dishes. These vibrant recipes are organized by vegetable and range from simple recipes to more complex, multi-layered dishes. If you belong to a CSA or frequently find yourself at farm stands in the summer, you might want to pick up Plenty by the spring. If you order from the Ottolenghi site you can get an autographed copy.

After 5 perusals of Plenty at our local bookshop, Booklink Booksellers, I finally picked up Plenty. By the way, I would like to give a big shout out to Booklink, as the staff is always fabulous and their book selection is fantastic. I am awed at the carefully cultivated selection of fine Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cookbooks in this little bookshop at Thornes Marketplace in downtown Northampton. They also have a non-advertised book club, so you can get discounts. Stop by and see them sometime!

With a little time to make a Sunday dinner, I tried out recipes from Plenty. I made a soup and salad: Garlic Soup & Harissa and Beet, Orange and Black Olive Salad.

The soup was easy to prepare, especially since I skipped making homemade harissa instead used this fabulous high quality Moroccan harissa from Mediterranean Gourmet. Also, I made the soup a bit more hearty by adding basmati rice to the soup.

The addicting, spicy, Moroccan Harissa

From Mediterranean Gourmet 

I doubled the recipe, therefore 50(!) cloves 

of garlic were thinly sliced

Celery and Shallots in the pot simmering away

 in Crete olive oil and butter

Here is the final product, the full bodied,

spicy and flavorful harissa and the spring-like

bite of cilantro bring perfect balance to this dish

Everyone loved the soup, and we plan on making this again in the future. A big thank you to my niece Dani, who peeled all that garlic and did a fantastic job at herb duty! 

Blue adored the Beet, Orange and Black Olive salad. I'm not surprised, because she likes beets almost as much as cheese. This is a recipe that will surely be in heavy rotation when CSA season arrives. Also, I am planning on preparing a tapas version of this for an upcoming Mediterranean Tapas event. I'm looking forward to turning this recipe into little hand-held morsels. 

All of my lovely veggies came from the River Valley Market Co-op and the beets are locally grown by Winter Moon Farm.