Spring Green Vegetables

Last week's rain and grey have given way to this week's bright sunshine and the greening of the back yard! There are violets and wild strawberry blossoms, soft velvety grey pussytoes, and yes, the first dandelions blossoming out back! And the grass has greened up !

The Weirdest Salad I Ever Loved ...

Up til just a few years ago, you couldn't pay me to put a Brussels sprout in my mouth. No offense to my Mom, but she'd ruined the little cabbage for me. Her one and only method of preparation was to boil the heck out of the poor things until they resembled khaki bits of Army fatigues and serve them plain as can be with a pat of margarine and some salt and pepper. She also always bought the biggest (and thus more bitter) sprouts she could get. Why, I'll never know. Consequently, this little vegetable made it real fast to my shortlist of BLECCH!

It was SB who turned my attitude around. Oh, and Yotam Ottolenghi. SB showed me how to roast Brussels sprouts. YO showed me how to dress them up all pretty and sweet.

Can I Hear It For the Casserole ?

Under all those juicy tomato slices there sits a bubbling mass of orzo and vegetables - eggplant, carrots, celery, onions, garlic. I do believe that I got my five vegetables in one sitting this evening. Not to mention fresh oregano and lemon zest that filled the kitchen with the most wonderful smell, as this casserole did its magic in the oven!

Apricot, Walnut, and Lavender Cake

Today was a day for baking a cake and there is one that I have been meaning to make for a good time. It comes from a Yotam Ottolenghi cookbook called Plenty More. I have been waiting for the fruit to come into our markets, though. They have finally arrived !

Ottolenghi's Sweet Potato Galettes

Kate called the house the other afternoon, as she was walking home from the market. She was all about these little sweet potato galettes that she was going to make for a small dinner party she was having at her apartment. The recipe was coming straight from the first Ottolenghi cook book. As she was talking about them, I began to think that that recipe seemed all too familiar and when I went to my copy of the cook book, I found the recipe marked with a post-it note. Yup, mother and daughter think alike sometimes ...especially when it comes to food!

Harissa Ravioli and a Red Japanese Maple

... there is nothing like a good bowl of veg and pasta ...

Ottolenghi's Za'tar Roasted Chicken

There's something about the smell of a roasting chicken that I equate with the ultimate of cozy down home comfort. Take this latest Ottolenghi discovery, though, and it makes one feel like you're languishing somewhere on the beach near a Middle Eastern villa. I imagine the smells from this roasting bird wafting across the sands and enticing me back for a dinner on the terrace. The spices and colors are transformed to a crisp, za'atar dusted crust on the chicken. The onions and lemons are transformed to a soft tangy slurry that drapes well over your fork when you stab a slice of chicken and drag it through some of the accompanying green tahini sauce. Sigh ... Ottolenghi's recipes rarely disappoint and this one was utter bliss last evening, as SB and I dined on the cool back porch of our little grey cottage. No Mediterranean villa for us, alas, but the flavours? Oh yes,they were transporting !

IHCC - Soba Noodles With Eggplant and Mango

Golly! I love noodles! I plan to wax eloquent on this dish, but first...

Warm Glass Noodles with Edamame and Sesame Seeds

Could it get any greener ?

Mushroom Mezze - I Heart Cooking Club

Mezze - A spread of various vegetable and meat dishes that commonly act as a starter to a larger feast in Middle Eastern countries ... reminiscent of Spanish tapas or French hors d'oeurves. 

IHCC - Ottolenghi's Spiced Red Lentils and the Colors of Summer

Welcome to the first day of summer! Summer colors like warm terra cotta tiles and bright green grass and cool puffy clouds abound in this spicy dish that I found in Ottolenghi's Guardian column archives. He says he likes to have it in any season when he needs a warm comfy supper ... which is exactly how I approached it yesterday! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ... way back machine ...~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Green Pancakes with Lime Butter --- IHCC

These are pancakes that push the envelope a bit ... this from a Yankee who takes her pancakes seriously.

Pasta Ottolenghi - IHCC Uses the Noodles

Chef Ottolenghi calls this pasta bake 'luxurious' - the semi-fried carrots, celery, and eggplant give the pasta a nice edge. Ottolenghi's recipe calls for orzo pasta, but I prefer a bit more bite to my pasta so I opted for ditalini, little short tubes of macaroni. The neat thing about this recipe is that the pasta is rinsed and then cooked in the baking dish with olive oil, broth, the vegetables and their juices, and tomato paste. This process does make the flavour silky and yes, luxurious! Must be the starch from the pasta that makes the resulting sauce around the pasta and vegetables so silky! Put some cheese into the blend, oregano and thyme sprinkles on the tomato slices atop it all and you have one jazzy pasta and vegetable casserole!

IHCC - Ottolenghi's Asparagus with Polenta

Here is a star side dish for you ! My new friend Yotam has kindly shared his recipe for Asparagus with Polenta in The Guardian. Everything about this dish is pleasing to me at this time of the year - the bright colors of the polenta and asparagus, the lemon zest brightness that's added as a hint in the polenta and a flash of citrus to the garnish, the nutty crunch that comes with each bite.  It's Spring on a plate for me.

IHCC - Royal Potato Salad

Oh, what a warm green mess this is and oh, how utterly delicious! I found myself humming Mellow Yellow as I peeled eggs last evening while making Yotam Ottolenghi's Royal Potato Salad.  Whirling the basil, parsley, Parmesan and pine nuts in the blender made me giddy with the luscious shade of green that resulted. I switched over to trying to remember the Seuss text to 'Green Eggs and Ham'. Whenever, I plopped warm potatoes and eggs, pesto, and peas together and added some mint and tossed, I could tell by the texture, color, and scent that we had a winner here!

IHCC - Ottolenghi's Chard, Squash, and Chickpea Sauté

I wish I could say that  I was completely in love with this particular recipe ... which is a shame, as the freshness of the chard was terrific! And had I followed my instincts instead of the recipe, I might have been raving right now, instead of delivering a 'meh' review of Yotam Ottolenghi's recipe for a warm sauté of chard, winter squash, and chick peas. It all 'went South' when I added the yogurt dressing over all that fresh and beautiful chard, squash, and chickpeas - far too much tartness for my taste.

I think I want to make this again and have the dressing on the side, as a dipper for an accompanying flat bread. I really think that a warm bread alongside this vegetable dish would make for a perfect meatless meal - much more authentic than having it sit beside a medium rare steak, as I did this evening.!

IHCC -Greetings Ottolenghi ! Thanks for Sunday Night Supper!

Ottolenghi's Sweet and Spicy Beef and Pork Pie

Two weeks ago, what started out as a search for some good Indian recipes turned into the introduction to a new blogging group that concentrates their cooking efforts on researching and cooking one particular chef's work for an extended period of time. The I Heart Cooking Club was finishing up a period of time in which they had concentrated on Madhur Jaffrey's cooking and announced that they would be moving on to the work of Yotam Ottolenghi.

HMM! There has been quite a bit of chatter on-line about Ottolenghi over the last year. Between talk of his restaurants, his interesting take on fresh vegetables and use of spices in new and interesting ways, the cook book called Plenty, and his latest cookbook called  Jerusalem , I was intrigued to see just what all the excitement was about. I went here and after giving it some thought, I decided to join up.