Loving Ottolenghi

If you want to fall in love with Mediterranean food, you can't do better than to explore Yotam Ottolenghi's cookbooks. Ottolenghi has several restaurants in London, though he was born and raised in Jerusalem and brings his Mediterranean background to his food. At this point, I've tried a couple of recipes, and I'll be making many more of them. While some of the ingredients can be harder to find, all spices and herbs are available at Amazon. Ottolenghi is no food snob, and he'd tell you to substitute something as close as possible if you can't find the ingredient. This works for most things, though I don't know what I'll substitute for samphire, a sort of seaweed.

I started my Ottolenghi exploration with a marinated turkey breast. There were no unusual ingredients here, but marinating turkey in lemon, wine, and herbs (no sage in sight) produces a wonderful feast that is decidedly not your usual Thanksgiving fare. After smelling the turkey cooking, my husband knew he was in for something different! We both loved it, and this will be going into non-holiday rotation at our house. This recipe is in the Ottolenghi: The Cookbook book.

My second foray into Ottolenghi's world was a cauliflower cake. Unusual in concept, it is more of a cake than a quiche, though the latter is what I usually think of when I think of cauliflower. Like the turkey, it is wonderfully herbacious. Again, none of the ingredients is too out of the ordinary that it is difficult to find. Perhaps the most unusual ingredient, in a cake anyway, is turmeric. Once again, an easy to follow, complete, and straightforward recipe gives a great result. We served this with mimosas, and though it was dinner for us, it would make a great brunch. You'll find this one in Plenty More.

Ottolenghi: The Cookbook
Yotam Ottolenghi & Sami Tamami
Published May 1st 2008 by Ebury Press
9780091922344

 Plenty More: Vibrant Vegetable Cooking from London's Ottolenghi
Yotam Ottolenghi
Published October 14th 2014 by Ten Speed Press
9781607746218

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