Yotam Ottolenghi: new cookbook “Shelf Love” with great recipes

0

Ottolenghi’s “Shelf Love”
With this cookbook you will tidy up your pantry

Shakhsuka with a difference: with sweet potatoes and Sriracha butter, that’s Ottolenghi style.

© DK Verlag / Elena Heatherwick

Denise Wachter

by Denise Snieguolė Wachter

Cans are piling up in your pantry, the freezer is overflowing, and there are isolated sweet potatoes in the refrigerator? Then Yotam Ottolenghi’s latest cookbook will tell you how you can conjure up great dishes from it.

Do you know that? Are you standing in front of the open refrigerator, staring at your groceries and waiting for inspiration? All of a sudden, dishes begin to form in your head: eggs that turn into pancakes. Leftover rice that needs to be fried. Chicken that wants to turn into soup. This is how recipes are created at Yotam Ottolenghi, and this is how his latest cookbook, “Shelf Love”, came about.

2020 is the year that pulled the rug out from under our feet, as Yotam Ottolenghi writes in his foreword. A cookbook that has never been produced more publicly, because the recipes were cooked up and down by his team in his “Ottolenghi Test Kitchen”, posted on social media, rated and summarized in a recipe collection that primarily focuses on one thing: the ingredients that are in your cupboards, in your freezer, on your shelf. Using available supplies was the basic idea behind the recipes in this cookbook.

Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Shelf Love

Muck out! Five recipes from Ottolenghi’s latest cookbook


Grilled zucchini with yogurt sauce and saffron butter Ingredients: 30 g butter, ¼ teaspoon saffron threads, coarsely crushed, 4 small zucchini, freed from the stalk and cut in half lengthways (600 g), 2½ tablespoons olive oil, 1 teaspoon cornstarch, 300 g Greek yogurt, 2 cloves of garlic, mashed, ½ teaspoon dried mint, ¾ teaspoon coriander seeds, roasted and roughly crushed in a mortar, 1½ teaspoons mint leaves, ½ lemon, salt and black pepper Preparation: 1. Preheat the grill. 2. Put the butter with the saffron in a small saucepan. Melt over medium heat, then remove from heat, set aside and let steep. 3. Place the zucchini on a baking tray lined with baking paper. With 2 tablespoons of oil,. Fold through the teaspoon salt and a strong pinch of pepper. Then grill with the cut side up for 15–20 minutes until they are well browned and soft. 4. In the last 10 minutes of cooking time for the sauce, stir the cornstarch in a large bowl with 3 tablespoons of water until smooth, then add the yogurt, garlic, dried mint, the remaining ½ tablespoon of oil and ½ teaspoon of salt and whisk everything together. Pour the mixture into a large non-stick pan and heat on medium heat for 10 minutes. Stir continuously until the sauce is warm and slightly thick. It must not boil, otherwise it will curdle. 5. Pour the warm yogurt sauce into a bowl, arrange the zucchini with the cut surface facing up. Drizzle with the saffron butter, then sprinkle with coriander and mint leaves. Squeeze the lemon half over it and serve the dish immediately.

Grilled zucchini with yogurt sauce and saffron butter

Ingredients:
30 g butter, ¼ teaspoon saffron threads, coarsely crushed, 4 small zucchini, freed from the stalk and cut in half lengthways (600 g), 2½ teaspoons olive oil, 1 teaspoon cornstarch, 300 g Greek yogurt, 2 cloves of garlic, crushed, ½ teaspoon dried mint, ¾ Teaspoons of coriander, roasted and coarsely crushed in a mortar, 1½ tablespoons of mint leaves, ½ lemon, salt and black pepper

Preparation:
1. Preheat the grill.
2. Put the butter with the saffron in a small saucepan. Melt over medium heat, then remove from heat, set aside and let steep.
3. Place the zucchini on a baking tray lined with baking paper. With 2 tablespoons of oil,. Fold through the teaspoon salt and a strong pinch of pepper. Then grill with the cut side up for 15–20 minutes until they are well browned and soft.
4. In the last 10 minutes of the sauce’s cooking time, stir the cornstarch in a large bowl with 3 tablespoons of water until smooth, then add the yogurt, garlic, dried mint, the remaining ½ tablespoon of oil and ½ teaspoon of salt and whisk everything together. Pour the mixture into a large non-stick pan and heat on medium heat for 10 minutes. Stir continuously until the sauce is warm and thickened slightly. It must not boil, otherwise it will curdle.
5. Pour the warm yogurt sauce into a bowl, arrange the zucchini with the cut surface facing up. Drizzle with the saffron butter, then sprinkle with coriander and mint leaves. Squeeze the lemon half over it and serve the dish immediately.

More


Far back

Have you ever looked at the top shelf, far back, to see what you can find there? Polenta? Chickpeas? Flour? A whole chapter is devoted to “Far Back” and comes with recipes such as hummus, pita and cheese polenta.

The cookbook initially had the working title “Stripped” because it was about clearing out shelves, pantries, cupboards, refrigerators and freezers. The principle of “Shelf Love” is to put these products on the table, clean them out and create completely new dishes. Of course, no two clearing-outs are the same. Some have too many beans, others maybe too much pasta. Ottolenghi would like to encourage the readers of his cookbook to be creative themselves. There is a blank space for your own notes under every recipe.

Take what you have

The principle is to take what you have to replace something. Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipes are usually as long as they are in his bestsellers “Jerusalem” or “Flavor”. With ingredients that are probably easy to find in Great Britain, but for which you would have to comb through several delis in this country. “Shelf Love” is different and therefore so wonderfully refreshing.

One chapter is devoted to the refrigerator raid: Mac’n’Cheese, for example, a Persian version of meatballs in tomato sauce or a chicken soup with papardelle and parmesan. Another propagates the icebox as a “most loyal friend”. Because he takes what you just can’t use, conserves it and gives it back when you’re ready, Ottolenghi explains. For example frozen vegetables such as peas, which are wonderfully oriental with tahini and za’atar. Or frozen shrimp for a colorful, mixed salad.

This cookbook has what it takes to become an all-rounder, a notebook that is likely to have more turmeric stains than white spots because it is used.

This article contains so-called affiliate links. Further information are available here.

#Subjects

source site