Ottolenghi Mania

The word 'mania' is derived from the Greek word meaning 'madness, frenzy'. Surely a fitting description for the popularity of Israeli-born London chef/writer/restaurateur, Yotam Ottolenghi's 'brand' at the moment.

Some very efficient unemployed browsing took place on Regent Street a few months ago, where I spotted two remaining copies of the most recent Ottolenghi book 'Jerusalem', reduced by 50% to a mere £13.90 each. While unemployment meant funds going down without coming back up, a quick consultation of the XE currency app calculated that I could buy both books for less than the price one would cost in New Zealand. It would have been rude not to.



Pretty fabric cover, absorbs spills

For George's return from a stint at home in NZ back in July, we decided 48 hours of plane and transit food would deserve a fresh and delicious welcome-back-to-London dinner. Joan had made a pretty epic Sunday night debut of 4 recipes the previous week, so we set to planning for the mid-week welcome.

The great thing about Ottolenghi recipes is that they basically force you to dive right in and try new ingredients and flavour combos - I think I went to about 4 supermarkets in W6 before I had to call in Canary Wharf backup for fresh fish and harissa paste. Totally worth using as many of the recipe ingredients as suggested, although I reckon you can get away with making some omissions. 

 

Everyone in Hammersmith was having fish for dinner that night

 On our menu for the welcome-home-to-London evening were

• Pan fried sea bream with harissa and rose (minus the rose) - page 219
• Na'ama's Fattoush - page 29
• Roasted sweet potatoes and fresh figs (with the optional goat's cheese) - page 26

Dinner for 3 - fish in the pan, fattoush with tiki salad spoons, sweet potatoes on plate

blurry close up of sweet potatoes

As I was a lady of job hunting leisure (not leisurely/fun after 8+ weeks), I did a load of the prep for Joan to masterfully throw together when she returned from work, but my main contribution was the sweet potatoes, so I will recopy the recipe below.

4 small sweet potatoes (1kg in total)
5 T olive oil
40ml balsamic vinegar
20g caster sugar
12 spring onions, halved lengthways and cut into 4cm segments
1 red chilli thinly sliced
6 fresh ripe figs, 240g total, quartered (thanks Europe/Turkey for making these crazily available a lot of the year..)
150g soft goat cheese
sea salt and pepper

1. Cut the unpeeled sweet potatoes into wedges, mix with 3 tablespoons of the olive oil and lots of salt and pepper. Roast for about 25 minutes at 220c until soft but not mushy. Leave to cool.
2. Make a balsamic reduction by placing the vinegar and sugar in a pan and bringing to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 2-4 minutes until it thickens, although remove from the heat while the balsamic is still runnier than honey.
3. Arrange the potatoes on a serving platter.
4. Fry the spring onions and chilli in the remaining oil for 4-5 minutes then pour over the sweet potatoes. Dot the figs around and drizzle over the balsamic reduction.
5. Serve at room temperature with the goat cheese scattered over the top.

Bon appetit!