Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Shelf Love

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Shelf Love is meant to be more of a simplified home cooking recipe book but, as this is still an Ottolenghi cookbook, you will have to take this with a pinch of salt. The recipes are not difficult but they are often time consuming and involve and number of different elements (and a lot of washing up)!! Set aside 100g of the beans in a medium bowl. Put the remaining beans, 600ml of water and one teaspoon of salt into a medium saucepan on a medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 15 minutes, or until the beans are nicely softened and warmed through. Keep warm on a low heat until ready to serve. Buy the book here: https://www.penguin.com.au/books/ottolenghi-test-kitchen-shelf-love-9781529109481

It’s the surest, fastest way to get all the juicy pulp and seeds – sans skin. All you need is a box grater and a wide bowl to catch the pulp and juice. You may also need a sieve if you want to drain the pulp of any juice. Place the grater upright in your bowl, gently push your ripe tomatoes against the coarser side of the grater and grate until you are left with just skin. Make sure to only go as far as you can – careful of your fingers! The riper the tomato, the easier it will be to grate. Discard the skin. With ‘Make it your own’ suggestions and swap-outs, and space to jot down your own notes, this cookbook is all about embracing rule breaking and putting your own stamp on every dish. Time and fuss-saving tips, simplified ingredient lists, and cravings-inducing photography ensure you’ll never be short of inspiration again. Mix the gherkins, herbs, the remaining tablespoon of lemon juice, five tablespoons of oil, one eighth of a teaspoon of salt and a good grind of pepper. Spoon this all over the potato mixture. Mix all the toasted seeds and the chilli, and sprinkle over the top. Serve at room temperature or cold. 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.OTK: Shelf Love is a result of that moment. Put together masterfully by Noor, it tells the story of the different crew members, of what we cook when we can’t go shopping every day – or simply don’t want to. It explores the humble ingredients lost in the depths of our kitchen cupboards. Eaten warm for breakfast, this will keep you full till dinner. Photograph: Louise Hagger/The Guardian This warming spiced rice is a definite show-stopper, the kind of meal you would make for a special occasion. We toyed over including this recipe in the book, laborious as it is, but rice deserves to be prized and treasured – taking centre stage at many a family table – so make this one as a weekend project, a feast of feasts, a real cause for celebration. Yes, it takes time, but it is oh so worth it. I have mixed feeling about this cookbook and have not cooked anything out of it, so I'm perhaps not the best reviewer.

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. Wipe out the frying pan, add five tablespoons of oil and put on a medium-high heat. Once hot, add the couscous mixture, using a spoon to distribute it evenly. Turn the heat down to medium and cook for 18 minutes – the edges will start to turn golden. Use a spatula to gently separate the cake from the sides of the pan, running it under the cake to try to loosen it from the bottom. Remove the pan from the heat and, very gently, invert the whole thing on to a large plate. Jazz up this veggie version with lemon, herbs and toasted seeds. Photograph: Louise Hagger/The Guardian What I thought:I am not a confident cook, so this is the first Ottolenghi recipe I have ever tried! I was blown away by how easy it was, using a lot of “store-cupboard” ingredients all thrown together into one pan. It was utterly delicious comfort food, with a great combination of flavours, and very little washing up afterwards too – result! Yotam Ottolenghi is the restaurateur and chef-patron of the four London-based Ottolenghi delis, as well as the NOPI and ROVI restaurants. His cookbooks have sold over seven million copies worldwide. Amongst several prizes, Ottolenghi Simple won the National Book Award and was selected as a best book of the year by the New York Times. Yotam is a weekly columnist for the Saturday Guardian and a regular contributor to the New York Times. His championing of vegetables, as well as ingredients once seen as "exotic," has led to what some call "the Ottolenghi effect": meals full of color, flavor, bounty, and sunshine. Yotam lives in London with his family.Perfect for showcasing winter lemons. Photography: Louise Hagger. Food styling: Emily Kydd. Prop styling: Jennifer Kay. Food styling assistant: Valeria Russo. Homeware: The Conran Shop If you’re thinking about buying the book (which is why you’re likely reading this review), you should know a few things: This magnificent pudding was made with the purpose of showcasing winter lemons, their bitter flesh a great way to cut through an otherwise decadent eating experience. In a happy accident, this was tested alongside a separate dish that included a maple-butter sauce. A squeeze of lemon and a generous amount of maple butter was spooned over the pudding because, well, why not? And it suddenly dawned on us that lemon‑maple butter had been the missing component all along. Lesson learned: sometimes that which is very, very wrong can turn out to be really quite right. Be sure to remove the butter for the pudding from the fridge well in advance – it needs to be super softened at room temperature before making the base.

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.

One-pan Crispy Chicken and Spaghetti

Drain the warm beans in a sieve set over a bowl, then add them and 100ml of their cooking liquid to the herb mixture, mixing well to combine. You want the beans to be well coated and for the whole mixture to be saucy (but not overly wet), so add a couple of tablespoons more of the cooking liquid if you wish (discard the rest).

If you want to get ahead, make the day before and keep refrigerated, loosening it with a splash of water to serve, if needed. 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. Peel the peppers and tomato, discarding the skins, and put the flesh into a food processor. Squeeze the garlic cloves out of their papery skins and add to the machine along with the vinegar, maple syrup, a quarter-teaspoon of salt and a good grind of pepper. Blitz for a few seconds, then, with the motor running, slowly drizzle in the remaining three tablespoons of oil until the sauce is smooth. the book is a small, flexibound format
2. don’t worry, there is still at least one (but usually several) photo of every recipe
3. the book will not fit in with your other Ottolenghi books
4. because it’s not meant to.

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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.