Jotam Ottolenghi

[Robin Garr]

In "What's Cooking," Mike just wrote:

We had a vegetarian friend of our daughter's over tonight, so we made Black Pepper Tofu, from a Jotam Ottolenghi cookbook. It was not bad. Soy sauce, ginger, hot peppers, garlic, shallots were all in good balance. The black pepper was the only aspect I wasn't fond of. It was cracked in a mortar and pestle before adding to the dish and it was just too coarse and chunky for my taste. About half the amount called for could have been run through a coarse grinder and it would have been better. Still, a very tasty dish for a cold evening.

This caught my attention because Mary just mentioned Jotam Ottolenghi the other day, very favorably, in terms of a recipe she spotted in a New York Times Food Section article. I took a glance but was really too busy to focus, so I'll just ask here: Who's a fan (or not), and why? Is Jotam the next big thing?

I don't know much about him myself, but my wife's a fan. She's made several dishes from his book Plenty (a no-meat cookbook) and has been pleased with all of them.

Is Jotam the next big thing?

I think he's already a big thing.

I'm a fan of his restaurants, very delicious, vivid, vibrant food. The cooking is a tad too precious for me to really take to heart during my normal routines. But a friend made a meal once from one of his cookbooks and although there were more steps and additions than I normally use, it all turned out very delicious and well worth her effort! (I was actually assisting her in the kitchen, so I suppose it was worth my effort as well).

Yotam (with a Y) has a weekly page in the Guardian newspaper (here in UK).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/ ... vegetarian

I've not cooked any of his recipes.

They have attracted some letters complaining about the number of ingredients and rareity of some of them.

His restaurant site & blog - http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk

Recipes do look labor intensive along with seasonal imbalance (fresh herbs in a winter soup).

Yotam (with a Y) has a weekly page in the Guardian newspaper (here in UK).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/ ... vegetarian

That's weird. Somehow, my brain read his name correctly (with the "Y") and then substituted a "J" all on its own.

As for ingredients and such, he does sometimes call for some items that aren't easy to find. I was looking at one dish from Plenty that called for Iranian dried limes, for instance. Others aren't nearly so bad, though. The tofu dish we made was not at all difficult and no more time consuming than any other stir fry sort of thing.

The two recipes in today's Guardian require respectively Za'atar (of which I have never heard) and quinces (which I have never seen on sale) plus pomegranate molasses (of which I have also never heard).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/ ... ce-recipes

The two recipes in today's Guardian require respectively Za'atar (of which I have never heard) and quinces (which I have never seen on sale) plus pomegranate molasses (of which I have also never heard).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/ ... ce-recipes

I've used all of those. They are staples of Persian cooking. Za'atar is a mixture of oregano, thyme, and other herbs with sesame seeds and salt. I always have pomegranate molasses on hand. There are a lot of Persians in London, you just have to figure out where they buy their groceries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Za'atar

FWIW we had a great Persian meal last night. I made kukuye lubiya sabz -- string bean kookoo, really tasty, and my neighbor Susan made eggplant khoresh -- full of big tender slow cooked chunks of lamb. I opened a well aged Chateauneuf du Pape (syrah wines go well with Persian food) and it was a really memorable meal. Of course there was also rice with a golden crunchy crust as well...

The two recipes in today's Guardian require respectively Za'atar (of which I have never heard) and quinces (which I have never seen on sale) plus pomegranate molasses (of which I have also never heard).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/ ... ce-recipes

Those are all readily available around here this time of year. We get the za'atar and the molasses from a Middle Eastern grocery store and the quinces from the farmers' market.

[Robin Garr]

Those are all readily available around here this time of year. We get the za'atar and the molasses from a Middle Eastern grocery store and the quinces from the farmers' market.

Here, too. I'm a little surprised at Peter's lack of access to world ingredients. I know we used to joke about British cuisine back in the day, but I thought it had become more cutting edge in these times. Come to think of it, isn't Ottolenghi in London?

It's a bit much to make an assumption about British cuisine out of one persons experience. It is probably nothing to do with British cuisine but my cuisine. After all, these recipes are in national newspaper

I have not encountered Persian cooking - none in my city. Ottolenghi's retaurants are in London, but I rarely eat in London

Circular - I haven't encountered the cuisine or tried to cook the recipes in the newspaper so I haven't encountered the ingredients. Maybe my local supermarket stocks za'atar and pomegranate molasses ...

But I've not seen quinces on sale there.

I always think of za'atar as the only food in which people eat sumac (which is otherwise kinda sour).