As is usually the case when I buy a new cookbook – I just can’t stop until I’ve tried at least a dozen recipes
Ottolenghi, the odyssey continues….
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Category Archives: Recipes
Ottolenghi Odyssey
A friend of mine recently loaned me her copy of ‘Ottolenghi The Cookbook’, a book that anyone who is serious about food, flavour and adventure – should have a copy of. The book is written by Yotam Ottolenghi who along with his business partner Sami Tamimi opened a small shopfront in Notting Hill that took London and now world-wide food lovers by storm. Soon after returning Michelle’s copy I bought my own which I treasure as part of my weekly menu planning, along with ‘From Tapas to Meze’ by Joanne Weir, ‘French Bistro Cooking’ by Patricia Wells and ‘Moorish’ by Greg Malouf.
Last weekend, armed with my copy of Ottolenghi and some beautiful wines that my long weekend buddy brought along, I cooked exclusively from his cookbook. Below are the three dishes out of the six that I cooked that really were above and beyond either of our expectations. And made our Sunday afternoon and evening a very flavoursome memory! It wasn’t that the others weren’t enjoyable at all, I’ll tell you about them at a later date though.
I need to preface this also by saying that you really must follow the order and quantities of his recipes, don’t try and get clever – it will end in tears!
Etti’s Herb Salad
This was my dish of the day. I love herb salads and the simultaneous complexity and elegance of this dish was second to none. This does require you though to focus and coordinate your timing so as it gets to the table, perfectly.
35g coriander leaves
40g flat leaf parsley leaves
20g dill leaves
35g tarragon leaves
30g basil leaves
40g rocket leaves
50g unsalted butter
150g unskinned almonds
1/2 tsp course sea salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp olive oil
Gently immerse the herbs leaves in cold water, being careful not to bruise them. Drain in a colander and then in a salad spinner (or by spreading them over a dry cloth)
Heat the butter in a frying pan and add the almonds, salt and pepper. Saute for 5-6 minutes over a low to moderate heat until the almonds are golden. Transfer to a colander to drain – making sure that you keep the butter that’s left in the pan. Leave it somewhere warm so as it doesn’t set. Once the almonds are cool enough to touch, chop them roughly.
To assemble the salad, place the herbs in a large bowl. Add the almonds, cooking butter, lemon juice and olive oil. Toss together gently and season to taste before serving.
Seared duck breasts with blood orange and star anise
This was a stunning dish. If you can’t get your hands on blood oranges as they are only in season for a short time, use mandarins instead.
Serves 4
4 ducks breasts, weighing 180-200g each. If you can get either Muscovy or Pekin Aylesbury duck breasts, these are ideal.
2 tbsp fennel seeds
pinch dried chilli flakes
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1 tsp coarse sea salt
240ml blood orange juice (from about 4 oranges) plus 4 extra oranges
180ml red wine
2 tbsp sherry vinegar
16 star anise
6 dried chillies
Score the skin of each duck breast in three or four parallel incisions, without cutting into the meat. Repeat this process at a 90° angle to the other cuts to get square shaped incisions. Mix the fennel seeds, chilli flakes, cumin, black pepper and salt together then rub them into the duck breasts with your hands. Place on a plate, cover and put them in the fridge for at least four hours, but better if it’s overnight.
To prepare the oranges, use a small sharp knife to cut the top and bottom off each orange. Stand them up on your board and neatly (and slowly) follow the natural curves of each orange. Cut each orange horizontally into 6 slices. Remove the pips and put all the pieces into a bowl and set aside.
It’s now time to sear the duck. Thoroughly heat a large heavy based frying pan (make sure it has a lid). Place the duck breasts, skin side down, and cook for three minutes, until the skin is golden brown and crisp. Turn over and cook the other side for three minutes. Remove the breasts from the pan and let them rest in warm place. Discard most of the duck fat from the pan and add the wine, orange juice, vinegar and star anise. Bring to the boil and simmer 5-6 minutes until reduced by half. Taste and season if necessary. Return the duck breasts to the pan and cost with the sauce. Cover with the lid and simmer gently for 7 minutes
Take the dried chillies, orange slices and any additional juice and place closely to the breasts in the pan, continue simmering for 3 minutes. At this stage, the breasts will be medium rare. Remove the duck breasts and place on a board and allow to rest 3-4 minutes. Check the sauce again and season again if necessary. Slice each breast at an angle into pieces that are 1cm thick and place on serving plates. Pick some of the orange segments from the pan and place on the plate next to the sliced breast. Gently spoon over the top of the breasts and serve the rest on the side.
We loved this dish! Etti’s Herb Salad was a great accompaniment, as was the fennel salad below.
Fennel and feta with pomegranate seeds and sumac
In its purest form, this salad is just a festival of colour and flavour. It’s crisp, aromatic and over delivers in all its sensory pleasures, especially the heady fragrance of tarragon and fennel together.
1/2 pomegranate
2 medium fennel bulbs
1.5 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp sumac, plus extra to garnish
juice of half lemon
4 tbsp tarragon leaves
2 tbsp roughly chopped flat leaf parsely
70g of good quality Greek feta cheese, sliced
salt and pepper
Start by releasing the pomegranate seeds, The best way to do this is the halve the fruit along it’s belly then hold one half with the seeds facing your palm and start hitting the back of the fruit with a wooden spoon. Be careful not to hit too hard so as you don’t bruise the fruit.
Remove the leaves from the fennel, keeping a few to garnish the salad later. Trim the base, making sure that you leave enough of it still attached to hold the slices together. Slive very thinly (a mandolin is very handy to do this).
In a bowl, mix the olive oil, sumac, lemon juice, herbs and some salt and pepper. Add the fennel and toss well. Taste for seasoning remembering that the feta will add saltiness.
Layer the fennel, then the feta and the pomegranate seeds into your serving dish. Garnish with fennel leaves, sprinkle over some sumac and serve.
Delicious Spring fare- chicken schnitzel with a red cabbage, pear and dill slaw
I love this recipe so much I wanted to share. 
Pretty much anyone can crumb chicken but I really love this combination. This ‘slaw’ sings of spring and even the fussiest small people ate it with gusto. I think the freshness of the herbs and the pear/fennel is super pretty too. This is a definate polo/races kind of picnic recipe I would use again.
Perfect with 2010 Tupari Sauvignon Blanc
By the way this is a gorgeous Blog too… love the styling!
Liz’s Napoli Sauce
I recently went to a suburban Italian restaurant and the Kids Menu included this simple Napoli with penne. My daughter and my nephew literally inhaled it. So I took a couple of tastes and have been experimenting with recipes to re-engineer it. This latest batch, is the best so far so will stop there! This is a great base sauce for pizza, a simple pasta, meat sauces or with good Italian pork sausages.
50ml Olive oil
1 x brown onion, diced
2 x carrots, diced
3 x sticks celery, diced
1 x leek, diced
2 x cloves garlic, finely sliced
2-3 red capsicums
A pinch each of dried oregano and dried basil
Salt and Peper
1 x 500ml bottle tomato sugo
1 x 400g tin crushed tomatoes
1 x tbsp tomato paste
1 x tsp sugar
Turn your grill on and place your whole red capsicums underneath the element to blister the skin. You want to char as much of the skin as possible, as evenly as possible. It will take a bit of time and don’t be put off thinking that you’re burning the capsicums. You’re not! When all skin is blistered and black, place in a medium to large sized bowl and cover with glad-wrap. Let the capsicums sweat and cool down, this could take about 20 mins or so. In the mean time heat a heavy based casserole dish with olive oil and add the rest of the ingredients as well as a decent pinch each of pepper and salt.
Be careful to continually stir the vegetables so as not to let them burn. Keeping cooking them until they’ve sweated down and you can smell the onion beginning to caramelise a little. Add the dried oregano and basil and continue to cook.
When the capsicums are cool enough to handle, take them out of the bowl and start to remove their skins. Remove the seeds from the centre of the capsicum. Run your fingers across the flesh making sure that you’ve got all the skin off and the flesh is smooth. Cut them up and add them to the sweating vegetables. Mix the capsicum in well with the other vegetables and cook for 2-3 minutes.
Add the tomato paste, tomato sugo and crushed tomatoes. Add a little water if the mixture looks too thick. Let this mixture simmer for 20 mins and then take off the heat and let it cool for about 30 mins. When the mixture has cooled slightly, pour into a food processor and process until completely smooth.
Oxtail braised with Cinnamon and Preserved Lemon
Another one of Greg Malouf’s recipes that has become a favourite in our household. Oxtail is a cut that is not everyone’s cup of tea, this recipe however turns those nobbly bits of meat into flavoursome, sticky deliciousness. When cooked slowly, oxtail is good old fashioned comfort food during the colder winter months….
It’s important that this dish is cooked slowly so you get the full spectrum of rich sweetness and texture that develops as it cooks. The other bonus of dishes like this is that they are one pot wonders. Once your prep is done and everything is in the pot, you’re basically done!
3kg oxtail cut into pieces
1 generous tbsp of powdered ginger
150g plain flour
80 ml olive oil
2 large brown onions, roughly diced
3 cloves garlic, finely sliced
4 sticks celery, roughly chopped
1 tsp cinnamon
1 Preserved Lemon
8 cloves
1 tsp sweet Paprika
2 x 400g cans crushed tomatoes
100g pitted Green Olives
400ml gutsy red wine
2 bay leaves
Peel of 1/2 orange
around 500ml stock or water
Preheat the oven to 160°
Ask your butcher to to trim any large lumps of fat away from the oxtail for you and cut into little sections that are about 5 cms long.
Mix the ginger into the flour and dust the oxtail pieces.
Heat the oil in large heavy base casserole dish (with a lid) and brown the meat all over. Once coloured, remove the meat pieces from the pan and set aside. Add the onions, garlic and celery with the cinnamon, preserved lemon, cloves and paprika. Stir until everything is well mixed. Add the tomatoes, olives and splash in the wine. Tuck in the bay leaves and orange peel and return the oxtail to the tomato base. Pour in enough water or stock to just cover the meat, raise the heat and bring to the boil.
Put the lid on the casserole dish and put into the middle of the oven. Leave it for about an hour then remove from the oven and stir gently. Return to the oven and cook for a further hour, by which time the meat will be a lovely glossy dark brown. The sauce should have reduced to a sticky glaze. Serve with a big boil of garlicy mashed potatoes and steamed green beans. Or if you’re not wanting to have such a heavy accompaniment, serve with steamed rice or couscous.
Delish!
Devilled green lentil soup with candied ham hock
We all love soul warming soups in these colder months and this one from Greg Malouf’s ‘Moorish’ cook book is one of my favourites. It’s basically a very sexed up take on Pea and Ham soup, so if you’re over tradition, put some spice in your life!
I don’t have a pic, so you’ll have to rely on your imagination with this one.
50ml Olive oil
2 Onions sliced
2 Garlic chives, chopped
1 Tbsp Tabil (see note below)
500g Green lentils
3 litre Chicken stock
1 small Ham hock
2 sprigs Rosemary
2 sprigs Thyme
1 Bay leaf
1 tsp crushed White peppercorns
zest and juice of two lemons
1 tsp Allspice
1 tbsp Honey
salt
1 tbsp raw sugar
extra olive oil
Heat the oil in a large cooking pot, I tend to use Le Creuset as it retains heat really well. Add the onions and garlic and sautè until they soften. Add the lentils and stir around the pot well. Pour on the stock and add the remaining ingredients, except the salt and sugar. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and let it simmer gently for 1-2 hours, until the lentils are very tender and the hock is cooked through. Remove the hock from the soup and when it’s cool enough to handle, remove the skin. Pull the flesh off the bone and shred roughly. Set it aside.
Remove and discard the thyme, rosemary and bay leaf. Puree the soup in a food processor or blender then taste and add salt if necessary. If the soup is a little thick for you, add some stock or water to thin it down.
When you’re close to serving, turn on the grill to its hottest temperature and spread the ham out on a sheet of baking paper. Sprinkle over the sugar and place under the grill until the sugar caramelises and the ham begins to crisp up. Ladle the soup into serving bowls and garnish with the candied ham and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.
Tabil: 1.5 cups coriander, 1 tbsp caraway seeds (roasted and crushed), 1 head garlic cloves separated and peeled, 1 red pepper roasted and peeled, 6 bullet chilli’s (chopped), 80 ml olive oil.
Place all ingredients except the olive oil in a food processor and whiz together. Slowly add the oil to make a smooth paste. Tip into a jar and seal with a thin layer of olive oil. It will keep in the fridge for about a week.
Serve the soup with some warm Turkish bread and the tabil on the side, it’s pretty hot so don’t over do it. You’ll get away with a good Chardonnay with this one, or a very lightly oaked red like a Spanish Joven style. Remember that spice and oak don’t mix and you’ll be right!
Jane’s Lamb Shanks
Okay okay here it is…. I prefer my massive 30cm Le cruset than my slow cooker for this, the sauce does need to reduce. This is also a beautiful filling for pies. Dont be too heavy handed with the sauce, shred meat and a sourcream pastry is ideal. Make sure your shanks are frenched Delish!
6 Frenched Lamb Shanks
2 red onions cut into 8
1/2 bulb fennel cut into 8 wedges 
4 cloves garlic smashed
25 gms butter
olive oil
Mirepoix of
1 brown onion
2 carrots
2 sticks celery (inner stalks)
Bouquet Garni. 1 bay leaf 3 sprigs thyme 4 large sprigs parsley tie together
1 can tomatoes
2L beef stock
2 TBS chopped rosemary
2 TBS chopped parsley
1 TB flour
1 big slosh worchestire sauce
salt and pepper
Brown off shanks- in a good slosh of olive oil and 25 gms butter
drain on paper towel
fry off mirepoix and quatered red onion and garlic (last)
add everything else and stock (to cover)
Cook in preheated oven 150 for an hour, stir cook another hour check- if falling away its ready you dont want mushy!!!
serve simply with polenta or mash and new beans.
Algerian eggplant jam
When I first moved to Melbourne a friend of mine cooked this recipe for me. Mind you he was a chef so of course it was fantastic but I was hooked and had to have the book that it came from. It took two years for Tim White from Books for Cooks to source it for me, but it was happy days when he did. It’s from the original ‘From Tapas to Meze’ by Joanne Weir.
3 medium eggplants
Salt and freshly ground pepper
7 tbsp olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp sweet paprika
2 tsp ground cumin
Half cup water
Half tsp Harissa (optional)
3 to 4 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
Lemon slices and tomato wedges to serve
Crusty country style-bread
Preheat oven to 200°C. Cut the stems off the eggplants. Peel off skin in vertical strips so you get a striped eggplant. Slice the eggplant horizontally into half inch slices placing in colander and then salting to remove any bitterness. Let them stand for about 30 mins. Rinse them well and pat dry.
Using about 3 tbsp of the olive oil, brush a baking sheet liberally. Brush the eggplant slices lightly with 2 tbsp oil. Place the eggplant slices in a single layer on the baking sheet and bake, turning occasionally, until they are light golden brown on both sides. It should take about 20 – 30 mins.
Place the eggplant slices in a bowl and with a fork (or a Magimix!) mash the eggplant with the garlic, paprika, cumin, water, salt and pepper. Heat the remaining 2 tbsp of olive oil in a large frying pan and fry the mashed eggplant very slowly. Cook until the water evaporates which should take about 20 mins. If you need to add some more oil to prevent the eggplant from sticking, then do so. It’s important to keep stirring to prevent this. Stir in the lemon juice and cook for about 1 minute more.
You can either serve this as a condiment to BBQ lamb and or chicken, as a starter with the crusty bread or some flat bread….or you could just grab a spoon and a bottle of Grenache and treat yourself. Garnish with the chopped parsley and lemon wedges.
PS If you make this one day ahead it will taste even better the next day. This is best served warm for maximum texture and flavour.
Sticky prune pudding with spiced caramel sauce
I love Karen Martini. While her food is sophisticated, it’s also really accessible and so full of flavour…it never ceases to please. My girlfriend Michelle is also a big fan and it was this recipe that I made for her for a Mother’s Day dinner that she cooked in May this year. This recipe is from ‘Where the Heart Is’.
225g pitted prunes
450ml water
1 tbsp bicarbonate of soda
90g soft unsalted butter
220g castor sugar
3 eggs
225g self raising flour
5 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp vanilla extract
Vanilla ice cream, to serve
Spiced caramel sauce
165g brown sugar
250ml pouring cream
180g unsalted butter
1 cinnamon stick
3 cardamom pods, crushed
2 tsp ground ginger
pinch saffron threads, optional
Pre-heat oven to 180°C. Grease 20×26 cm cake tin and line with baking paper. Place prunes and water in small saucepan. Bring to the boil over medium heat, then simmer for 10 minutes or until prunes are very soft. Add bicarbonate of soda and stir. Set it aside to cool.
Place butter and sugar in a bowl and beat with electric mixer until pale and thick. Add eggs, one at a time, making sure to beat them well after each addition. Sift flour, cocoa and spices together and stir well into the butter mixture. Add vanilla and prune mixture and stir again. Be careful not to over mix.
Pour pudding mixture into prepared tin. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. To make the sauce, combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to the boil over medium heat. Simmer for 2 minutes. remove from heat and set aside for 5 minutes, then strain into a jug. Serve warm. Serve pudding warm, topped with vanilla ice-cream and spiced caramel sauce.
It was such a great night, our families enjoying dinner together while our kids ran around in fairy dresses for most of the night. That is what it’s all about. Food, wine and friends. Of course we polished dinner off with a 2004 Pfeiffer Shiraz, stunning!
Chicken meatballs with Spaghetti
Pasta e basta- yell my kids, funny they don’t really know what it means but it sounds good and they know it makes me laugh!
This is a super clever dish split the mix in two, add 1 finely grated zucchini and 1 carrot to one- that’s for the little tackers and the rest is for you. Perfect shared food, looks wonderful on a huge white platter in the middle of a table.
Chicken Balls
1 kg chicken mince
1 cup freshly grated parmigiano
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs, sourdough is best ( freeze the rest)- may need a little extra
3 TBS olive oil
2 cloves crushed garlic
2 eggs
salt and pepper
2 TBS flat leaf parsley chop fine
2 TBS sage chop fine
1 TBS rosemary chop fine- I cheat and through all the parmesan in the mixer, then add garlic and herbs and chop until fine.
Wear gloves and squish all together, roll in to teaspoon sized balls no bigger, they are supposed to be tiny bites.
Fry off and drain.
Sauce
2 medium onions
2 kg ripe tomatoes, chop coarse, tinned is okay
2 bay leaves
1 cup basil
2 TBS sugar
salt and pepper
2 bottles of passata
Barilla No 5 pasta
Cook off onion add tomatoes cook over a low heat for about an hour.
Use your bamix and puree until smooth.
Season to taste, add herbs and cook for another 30 minutes.
Meanwhile cook pasta
serve eat delizioso
