Ottolenghi: The Cookbook - Couverture rigide

Ottolenghi, Yotam; Tamimi, Sami

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0091922348 ISBN 13 : 9780091922344

Editeur : Ebury Press, 2008

Ottolenghi: The Cookbook

Extrait :

Our food impulse
 
We wanted to start this book with the quip, “If you don’t like lemon or garlic ... skip to the last page.” This might not be the funniest of jokes, but, considering lemon and garlic’s prevalence in our recipes, it is as good a place as any to start looking for a portrait of our food. Regional descriptions just don’t seem to work; there are too many influences and our food histories are long and diverse. True, we both come from a very particular part of the world—Israel/Palestine—with a unique culinary tradition. We adore the foods of our childhood: oranges from Jericho, used only to make the sweetest fresh juice; crunchy little cucumbers, full of the soil’s flavors; heavy pomegranates tumbling from trees that can no longer support their weight; figs, walnuts, wild herbs.... The list is endless.
 
We both ate a lot of street food—literally, what the name suggests. Vendors selling their produce on pavements were not restricted to “farmers’ markets.” There was nothing embarrassing or uncouth about eating on the way to somewhere. Sami remembers frequently sitting bored in front of his dinner plate, having downed a few grilled ears of corn and a couple of busbusa (coconut and semolina) cakes bought at street stalls while out with friends.
 
However, what makes lemon and garlic such a great metaphor for our cooking is the boldness, the zest, the strong, sometimes controversial flavors of our childhood. The flavors and colors that shout at you, that grip you, that make everything else taste bland, pale, ordinary, and insipid. Cakes drenched with rose-water-scented sugar syrup; piles of raw green almonds on ice in the market; punchy tea in a small glass with handfuls of mint and sugar; the intense smell of charred mutton cooked on an open fire; a little shop selling twenty types of crumbly sheep and goat’s milk cheeses, kept fresh in water; apricot season, when there is enough of the fruit lying around each tree to gorge yourself, the jam pot, and the neighborhood birds.
 
These are the sources of our impulse. It is this profusion of overwhelming sensations that inspires our desire to stun with our food, to make you say “wow!” even if you’re not the expressive type. The colors, the textures, and finally the flavors that are unapologetically striking.

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Sweet potato galettes \ makes 4
 
Spicy, sweet, and punchy, baked fresh and served warm, this is the sort  of starter that can precede almost anything. The generous sour cream base and the lightness of the puff pastry carry the sweet potato easily without the risk of a carb overdose. Serve with a plain green salad.
 
 
3 sweet potatoes,  about   12 oz / 350 g each
9 oz / 250 g puff pastry or   ½ recipe Rough puff pastry   page 280
1 free-range egg, lightly beaten
6½ tbsp / 100 ml sour cream
3½ tbsp / 100 g aged goat   cheese
2 tbsp pumpkin seeds
1 medium-hot chile, finely   chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
coarse sea salt and freshly   ground black pepper
 
 
1 Preheat the oven to 400°F / 200°C. Bake the sweet potatoes in their skins for 35 to 45 minutes, until they soften up but are still slightly raw in the center (check by inserting a small knife). Leave until cool enough to handle, then peel and cut into slices 1⁄8 inch / 3 mm thick.
 
2 While the sweet potatoes are in the oven, roll out the puff pastry  to about 1⁄16 inch / 2 mm thick on a lightly floured work surface. Cut  out four 2¾ by 5½-inch / 7 by 14-cm rectangles and prick them all over with a fork. Line a small baking sheet with parchment paper, place the pastry rectangles on it, well spaced apart, and leave to rest in the fridge for at least half an hour.
 
3 Remove the pastry from the fridge and brush lightly with the beaten egg. Using an icing spatula, spread a thin layer of sour cream on the pastries, leaving a ¼-inch / 5-mm border all round. Arrange the potato slices on the pastry, slightly overlapping, keeping the border clear. Season with salt and pepper, crumble the goat cheese on top, and sprinkle with the pumpkin seeds and chile. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the pastry is cooked through. Check underneath; it should be golden brown.
 
4 While the galettes are cooking, stir together the olive oil, garlic, parsley, and a pinch of salt. As soon as the pastries come out of the oven, brush them with this mixture. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Biographie de l'auteur :

Yotam Ottolenghi (Author)
Yotam Ottolenghi is a cookery writer and chef-patron of the Ottolenghi delis and NOPI and ROVI restaurants. He writes a weekly column in The Guardian’s FEAST magazine and has published seven Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling cookbooks: PLENTY and PLENTY MORE (his collection of vegetarian recipes); OTTOLENGHI: THE COOKBOOK and JERUSALEM, co-authored with Sami Tamimi; NOPI: THE COOKBOOK with Ramael Scully; SWEET with Helen Goh; and OTTOLENGHI SIMPLE with Tara Wigley. Yotam has made two 'Mediterranean Feasts' series for More 4, a BBC4 documentary, 'Jerusalem on a Plate’ and his hugely popular 'Simple Pleasures' podcast. ottolenghi.co.uk. @ottolenghi

Sami Tamimi (Author)
Sami Tamimi was born and raised in Jerusalem and was immersed in food from childhood. He started his career as commis-chef in a Jerusalem hotel and worked his way up, through many restaurants and ethnic traditions, to become head chef of Lilith, one of the top restaurants in Tel Aviv in the 1990’s.
Sami moved to London in 1997 and worked at Baker and Spice as head chef, where he set up a traiteur section with a rich Middle-Eastern and Mediterranean spread. In 2002 he partnered with Noam Bar and Yotam Ottolenghi to set up Ottolenghi in Notting Hill. The company now has four stores and two restaurants, NOPI and ROVI, all in central London.
In his position as the executive head chef, Sami is involved in developing and nurturing young kitchen talents and creating new dishes and innovative menus.
Alongside Yotam Ottolenghi, Sami Tamimi is co-author of two bestselling cookbooks: Ottolenghi: The Cookbook and Jerusalem: A Cookbook.

• Éditeur: Ebury Press
• Date d'édition: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0091922348
• ISBN 13: 9780091922344
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 304