I love the surprising combinations of ingredients. Wild rice, basmati rice, quinoa, sweet potato, feta.
I love the heavy, but well-judged, hand with fresh herbs. Oregano, sage, mint.
I love the way that a hearty salad is given a lightening tough. Sumac, lemon juice, spring onion.
I love that I can link to recipes to my heart's content because they are all on The Guardian website (but will someone please tell me how I missed all these recipes the first time round? I buy The Guardian every single Saturday. Just idiocy I suppose).
Most of all I love how the food in this book tastes.
Satisfying. Healthy. Filling my mouth with flavours that I just want to keep going and going and going...
So, I suppose it goes without saying that I enjoyed the salad I made for dinner? The recipe is here. It isn't a particularly quick dish. It needs some shopping, some chopping, some juggling of pans and timings but when it is done, and you sit down with a bowl and a G&T and it all comes together into one great bit melange of yum, that post-work slicing and timing is worth it. So worth it.
Which is good because I have just made a recipe suitable for six people when I am the only one at home.
At least I won't have to think about what to have for lunch tomorrow.
On the other hand I will have to think about what to do with the dried limes I bought for this recipe which, I belatedly realised, needed to be ground with a coffee or a spice grinder.
I don't own a coffee or a spice grinder.
I used sumac.
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10 comments:
hey! there are a few recipes in the NYTimes today using dried limes, this one in particular looks good (and requires no grinder):
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/02/dining/02powerrex2.html?ref=dining
Thank you! That does look good, as does the chicken stew. Phew, I will get my 40 pence worth out of those limes...
Gemma x
Hallo Gemma, I am a huge Ottolenghi fan too but don't have their new book yet. I only got the last one about 4 months ago and have blogged loads of their stuff.
I recognise that napkin too! One of mine from the prop swap - glad you liked it.
Oooh, that looks yummy. But selfishly I'm glad you made the dried limes mistake before I did - I don't have a grinder either and would have happily trotted off to the shops without thinking!
Sarah - it is such a lovely book. Funny about the napkins. I couldn't make it on Sunday morning so didn't get to take part in the prop swap. I bought the napkins for a picnic the week before. Great minds...
Nora - glad to be of help! Sumac worked really well so I can recommend that as a substitution.
Gemma x
haha - I recognised that napkin instantly! I love Ottolenghi too - and I actually had heard of him via the Giardian long before i bought his book. Must get mitts on the new book. Lovely to meet you at Food Blogger Connect - I felt so silly when you reminded me that you had done NaBloPoMo too - your blog name was soooo familiar but I could not place it. Alzheimer's here we come. :o)
Me too Jeanne - that's why it's so strange that I managed to miss all these wonderful recipes when they appeared in the magazine. Maybe I was too busy drooling over the Hugh F-W and Dan Lepard recipes! It was really nice to meet you too - great to put lots of faces to names.
Gx
I too am plenty obsessed with plenty. I eat quite a lot of vegetables, but so simply - roasted, steamed etc. I love how inspiring this book has been to take things up a notch and use lots of herbs, spices, vinegars and grains...
I can't wait to get my hands on THE book - my trip back keeps shifting from week to week but I will be back - we cold have lunch at Ottolenghi !!!!!. I love the sound of this salad, I already had it bookmarked so you have given me the nudge i needed.
Sometimes it is the slow dishes that are the most rewarding for both the cooking and the eating - a kind of drawn out pleasure.
I use an old coffee grinder from my inlaws as a spice grinder - adds something to the kitchen repertoire I think. Keep an eye out in charity shops...
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