Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Shelf Love

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With both grilling and roasting, there is a lot of heat involved. My top tip for you is not to make this on a boiling hot day, like I did, unless you enjoy sweltering over the stove. That minor gripe is the worst thing I can say about the whole experience though; the process was pretty simple and the end result irrefutably delicious. The blitzed, char-grilled vegetables were faintly reminiscent of romesco and made an unexpectedly creamy pasta sauce that felt hearty enough for autumn, yet light enough for an unseasonably hot day. The roasted aubergine added some nice texture, and the tahini dressing, with lemon juice and garlic, added some zing and set the whole thing off nicely. Needless to say, I will definitely make this one again. Every recipe offers full-on flavour: bold and vivid in the way we have come to recognise as distinctly Ottolenghian”— Nigella Lawson Put the reserved 100g of beans into a food processor with the herbs, cumin, garlic, lemon juice, remaining three tablespoons of oil, one eight of a teaspoon of salt and a good grind of pepper. Blitz until smooth, then transfer to a large bowl. Meanwhile, put the couscous, half a teaspoon of salt and the boiling water into a medium saucepan on a medium-high heat. Bring to a simmer, cover and turn the heat to medium-low. Cook for 10 minutes, then remove the lid and set aside to cool.

Recipes we love: (All The Herb) Dumplings with Caramelised Onions. Fish Kofta in Ancho Chilli and Tomato Sauce. Spiced Semolina with Fried Corn, Peanuts and Coriander. Upside-Down Lemon, Maple and Vanilla Pudding with Lemon-Maple Butter. We could go on and on…Make the chilli oil by putting the oil and chilli flakes into a small frying pan and placing it on a medium heat. Cook for four minutes, then add the paprika and remove from the heat. Set aside.

You can also watch Yotam and Chaya make this dish on the OTK Youtube channel, which is what inspired me to make it in the first place. The focus of the book is cooking with what you have around, similar to Donna Hay's Off The Shelf: Cooking From the Pantry. In contrast to Donna Hay, who rarely exceeds five to seven ingredients in a recipe, the Ottolenghi team indulges in fairly long lists of ingredients. Fortunately, the cooking techniques are straightforward. For the two recipes I tried out, the steps were not challenging, based mostly on timing. I chose to saute the onion and garlic for one dish rather than adding them raw, and skipped the instruction to puree them. The techniques were mainly how fine to chop, what to mix together, and when to add ingredients to the roasting pan.The latest cookbook from the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen team – Shelf Love – aims to take you on a journey through your kitchen cupboards, creating inspired recipes using humble ingredients.

ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR: Boston Globe, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Epicurious, Serious Eats I tried again with Simple. It seemed to be so much more in line with my way of cooking, but with the trademark Ottolenghi flavour profiles. And yet… Make the topping: heat the oil in a small frying pan on a medium-high heat, add the sliced garlic and the pine nuts, and cook for 60–90 seconds or until lightly golden. Add the spices and a tiny pinch of salt, and remove from the heat immediately. Set aside. To make the crispy onions, finely slice a couple of onions into thin rounds, toss with two tablespoons of cornflour, then fry in hot vegetable oil in about three batches, for four minutes per batch, or until golden. While the pasta is cooking, make the pesto. Finely grate the lemon to give you one and a half teaspoons of zest. Then use a sharp knife to peel and segment the lemon and roughly chop the segments. Place in a bowl with the lemon zest and set aside. Put the za’atar, coriander, garlic, pine nuts, one eighth of a teaspoon of salt, a good grind of pepper and half the oil into a food processor and pulse a few times until you have a coarse paste. Add to the chopped lemon in the bowl and stir in the remaining oil.Eaten warm for breakfast, this will keep you full till dinner. Photograph: Louise Hagger/The Guardian Next I tried za’atar salmon and tahini and since all three of these ingredients make a regular appearance on my weekly menu, I knew it was my sort of dish. The fish was cooked beautifully, perfectly timed, but whether you like the taste of the sauce will depend on your attitude towards tahini. I love it but, much as it pains me to say, I know not everyone does like the slightly bitter taste of this sesame paste. If you do, then give this recipe a try, it is a one-pot dish with spinach – or other greens if you prefer – cooked underneath the fish. I simply served it with a bowl of baby potatoes.

This dish was born out of some leftover tomato pasta sauce, as well as a few aubergines that really needed using up. Scoop this up with warm pitta and eat it alongside other meze, or with soft-boiled eggs for a hearty breakfast. Towards the last 10 minutes of cooking, make the lemon-maple butter. Put the lemon juice and maple syrup into a small saucepan and bring to a simmer on a medium-high heat. Cook for about two minutes, then turn the heat down to low and, when no longer simmering, gradually add the butter cubes a little at time, whisking in each addition until incorporated. Don’t let the mixture boil at all – you should be left with an emulsified sauce. Remove from the heat. From the New York Timesbestselling author and his superteam of chefs, this is Ottolenghi, unplugged:85+ irresistible recipes for relaxed, flexible home cookingthat will bring the love to every shelf in your pantry, fridge, and freezer. I do not own any of the other Ottolenghi cookbooks, but I have seen them, they are glossy hardbounds with lovely pictures and pretty involved recipes. This is a flexible softbound book with less staged-looking pictures. I read through this in e-book format though I saw the physical book when I was out shopping.In a small bowl, whisk the tahini with two and a half tablespoons of water and a pinch of salt until smooth.