Ottolenghi fans of which there
are millions around the world will be thrilled to hear that Yotam and his
brilliant team of ‘hungries’ have done it again.
Comfort food Ottolenghi style, jumps off the shelf with an eye popping
cover in a rich melange of oranges, reds, pinks, yellows, and greens designed
by Gaz Hildebrand.
A team of three, Verena Lochmuller, Helen Goh and Tara Wigley worked together
with Yotam each bringing their very own personal memories of childhood, their
travels and their individual interpretation of comfort food.
Between the four of them, they cover quite a bit of global ground. Yotam takes
in Italy and Germany (from his parents), Jerusalem to Amsterdam where he lived
and “ate his body weight in croquettes” to London. Helen’s stretches from China
from her grandparents to Malaysia then on to Melbourne where she was raised.
Verena’s experience takes in Germany and Scotland, to New York where she
trained. Tara from London is an alumna of the Ballymaloe Cookery School and has
been a longtime collaborator of Yotam’s
So what’s comfort food for you? It’s definitely true to say that no one size
fits all.
It’s probably food we grew up with as children, entangled with happy memories
of family, home, warm kitchens, Mum or Gran in their aprons…
Could be mac and cheese, spaghetti Bolognese, a bowl of slithery noodles. For
me, it’s the smell of a tray of Mummy’s sweet scones coming out of the Aga as I
rushed in from school, a pot of scalloped potato dotted with little pieces
of beef kidney, or the inherently soothing nature of a bowl of chunky
vegetable soup in Winter.
So of course, it depends on where you come from, those who have been misplaced
or travelled and lived around the globe will have very different cravings,
ramen to borscht, dahl to dumplings…or it could be a sauce or condiment,
Marmite, Coleman’s mustard, Tabasco, Ballymaloe Relish that brings
memories flooding back of happy times around the kitchen table or sitting on
the sofa in front of the fire.
But back to Comfort, this gorgeous new book, full of recipes that celebrate the
joy of comfort food. As ever, there are so many delicious riffs – a bowl of
pasta becomes caramelised onion orecchiette which with hazelnuts and crispy
sage, a warming soup is cheesy bread soup with Savoy cabbage and cavolo Nero
and a plate of mash transformed into garlic, aligot potato with leeks and
thyme.
The authors explore four elements of comfort in the book, Who to eat
with, What we eat and finally How we eat – as important as what we are eating
in the first place. Ottolenghi says ‘this book is full of dishes which feel
familiar yet fresh. It is also very much about our personal journeys and all
the stories these journeys contain. Food and words have an incredible power to
connect. I hope that these recipes become for you what they are for us,
reassuring on one hand and eye opening on the other.’
What’s not to like about that?
All Recipes are extracted
from Ottolenghi COMFORT by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh published by Ebury Press.
Chicken with Steph’s Spice
1 tsp whole allspice berries
(aka pimento)
2 bay leaves, roughly torn
1½ tsp hot chilli powder
1½ tsp paprika
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp mixed spice (the sweet one,
like pumpkin spice)
25g light soft brown sugar
1½ tbsp runny honey
1-2 green jalapeño chillies, finely
chopped
1-2 red Scotch bonnet (habanero)
chillies, finely chopped
1 small red onion, cut into 1cm
dice (100g)
2 spring onions, finely
chopped (30g)
50ml olive oil
1kg chicken thighs, bone in, skin on 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
salt
Steph was a Jamaican chef Helen worked with many years ago in Melbourne. A lot of time has passed since the recipe for Steph’s roasted jerk-spiced meats was handed on – passed around the kitchen, scribbled down on a scrap of paper – but it’s been with Helen ever since. Recipes, like postcards, flying around the world with the scent of a place on one side, scribbled greetings on the other.
We served the chicken with a simple slaw made with half a small cabbage and a quarter of a pineapple, both thinly sliced, some freshly flaked coconut, sliced jalapeño, spring onion, coriander and mint. It’s dressed with olive oil, lime juice and maple syrup.
Serves 4, with rice and salad
Put the allspice and bay leaves into a dry pan and toast them for 1-2 minutes, until the bay leaves have blistered. Using a pestle and mortar, crush to a powder, then tip into a large bowl along with all the remaining ingredients apart from the chicken and vinegar. Add 1 teaspoon of salt, mix well to combine, then add the chicken. Massage well, so that all the thighs are coated, then keep in the fridge, covered, for at least 6 hours (or overnight).
Half an hour before you are going to cook the chicken, take it out of the fridge, add the vinegar and toss to combine.
Preheat the oven to 180°C fan.
Spread
the chicken out on a large parchment-lined baking tray, skin side up. Bake for
about 45 minutes, rotating the tray halfway through, until crisp and golden
brown. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes before serving.
Verena’s Potato Salad
500g Pink Fir or Charlotte (or other waxy) potatoes
75ml olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped (125g) 1 garlic clove, crushed
175ml chicken stock
2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
½ tsp black peppercorns, coarsely
crushed in a pestle and mortar 15g chives: 10g finely chopped and
5g cut into 1½cm lengths
75g pack of diced smoked pancetta 1 tsp paprika
¼ cucumber, sliced lengthways,
deseeded and cut into ½cm dice (100g)
salt
Growing up in Germany, Verena remembers two camps when it came to potato salad: camp mayo and camp oil/broth. This is an oil/broth-based version, more prevalent in the southern parts of Germany, specifically Swabia and Bavaria. It’s less heavy and claggy than the mayo variety and gets its creaminess from the starch released by the potatoes as they sit for a couple of hours in the warm broth. We’ve strayed from tradition and added some pancetta (because, why not.) and a welcome freshness from some chopped cucumber.
Serves 4
Put the potatoes into a medium saucepan, for which you have a lid. Add just enough water to cover, salt generously and place on a medium-high heat. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, covered, for 20-25 minutes, until just tender. Drain and once cool enough to handle, remove the skins from the potatoes and slice into ½cm-thick rounds. Set aside in a medium bowl.
Put 2 tablespoons of the oil into a medium sauté pan and place on a medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 12-15 minutes, stirring regularly, until caramelised. Add the garlic and stock, bring to a simmer, then remove from the heat. Add the mustard, vinegar, 1¼ teaspoons of salt, the pepper and another 2 tablespoons of oil. Whisk to combine, then pour the mixture over the potatoes. Mix gently but thoroughly: it will look wet (and some of the potatoes will break up), but this is normal. Set aside for about 2 hours, for the potatoes to soak up about half the broth, and then stir in the finely chopped chives.
Meanwhile, wipe clean the sauté pan and place on a medium-high heat. Add the pancetta, reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for 10-12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the pancetta is crispy. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to a plate lined with kitchen paper – leave about 1 tablespoon of the fat in the pan – and set aside. Once cool, finely chop the pancetta into crumbs.
Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the fat in the pan, along with the paprika. Stir for 30 seconds or so, until fragrant, then remove from the heat.
When
ready to serve, fold the cucumber into the potato salad and transfer to a
serving plate. Scatter over the pancetta crumbs, along with the cut chives.
Spoon over the paprika oil and serve.
Butter Beans with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
500g cherry tomatoes
85ml olive oil
1 onion, finely diced (150g)
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp thyme leaves, roughly
chopped, plus a few whole thyme leaves to garnish
1 tsp fennel seeds, toasted and
lightly crushed
1 fresh bay leaf
80ml dry white wine
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 x 700g jar of good-quality butter
bean, drained and rinsed
salt and black pepper
To serve
75g thick Greek-style yoghurt thick slices of sourdough (or any
crusty) bread, toasted (optional)
Source the larger butter beans, or judiones, for this, if you can. They’re softer, more buttery and much creamier than the smaller ones (which come in a tin). This dish works well as part of a mezze spread, or can be eaten as it is, with something like crumbled feta or olives on top.
Keeping notes: Once made, the beans keep for up to 3 days in the fridge: just bring them back to room temperature before serving. The crispy tomato skins are a great thing to have around as well, to add to salads and pasta dishes. The recipe comes from a restaurant called Bar Rochford in Canberra, Australia, where they’re served with fresh green beans. They keep for a week in a sealed jar.
Serves 4
Preheat the oven to 210°C fan.
Toss the tomatoes with 2 teaspoons of the oil and spread them on
a parchment-lined baking tray. Roast for 20 minutes, until the skins have loosened, and the tomatoes are soft and have shrunk a little. Remove from the oven and transfer the tomatoes, along with all their juices, to a shallow bowl to cool.
Re-line the baking tray with a fresh sheet of baking parchment and reduce the oven temperature to 100°C fan.
Once cool enough to handle, pinch the skins off the tomatoes and place the skins on the lined baking tray. Return the tray to the oven for about 45 minutes, until the skins are dry and crisp, giving them a good stir a couple of times during baking. Set the skinless tomatoes aside.
Put
the remaining 75ml of oil into a medium saucepan and place on a medium heat.
Add the onion, garlic, oregano, thyme, fennel seeds and bay leaf and cook for
10-12 minutes, until the onion has softened but has not taken on too much
colour. Add the wine, simmer for 2 minutes to reduce, then add the paprika.
Cook for another minute, then add the reserved tomato flesh, along with 1
teaspoon of salt. Simmer gently for about 15 minutes, stirring often so that
the tomatoes break down. Add the beans and a good grind of pepper and stir to
combine. Cook for a couple of minutes, just to warm through, then remove from
the heat. Spread the yoghurt over a serving plate and then pile the beans on
top. Crumble over the dried tomato skins, finish with a sprinkling of thyme
leaves and serve.
