Ottolenghi - The Cookbook

I could just cut to the chase and say, “Go and buy this book — you’ll love it” and know that I’d get nothing but thanks from anyone who did. It is quite simply one of the most fab books this obsessive cookbook collector has seen in a very long time.  It’s written by the partners behind the London restaurants, Ottolenghi, which have become famous for their generous vegetable dishes and salads as well as glorious cakes and meringues.

Yotam and Sami, an Israeli and a Palestinian, bring their various Middle Eastern influences to their work, but the overall vibe here is Mediterranean with a smattering of Asian, thanks to one particularly talented Eastern cook on the team. Everything’s designed to be piled high on platters and shared at table, echoing the sumptuous, yet simple, presentation in their four restaurants.

Most ingredients are simple and easy to find and, as the boys say, if you don’t like lemon and garlic, skip to the end of the book. Everything in a dish speaks for itself and nothing’s been too mucked-around with. Combinations are inspired in dishes such as French beans and mangetout with hazelnut and orange or the sweet broccolini with tofu, sesame and coriander. The dish synonymous with Ottolenghi is chargrilled broccoli with chilli and garlic — it’s great, gutsy and there’s not much to it.

Try the harissa-marinated chicken with red grapefruit salad whose dressing includes pink grapefruit juice, maple syrup and star anise. Deft combinations such as this characterise the food and ensure it’s endlessly interesting.

Then there are the desserts. Caramel and macadamia cheesecake, anyone? Or the dense, almost chewy chocolate fudge cake? That’s just the beginning. Teacakes, cupcakes, biscuits and brownies all look divine, but it’s the spectacular meringues in variations such as pistachio and rosewater or cinnamon and hazelnut that Londoners queue for. Somebody stop me. I love it.