This was the first time I made a tortilla. I made a half recipe and added some bacon pieces, and less oil. this may have been a mistake, since the tortilla did not brown or free nicely from the bottom. I'll need to work on my technique.
The topping of parsley, capers, and olives is great, but I found the tortilla itself rather bland. It needed salt and more hot spice.
However, when I ate the leftovers (at room temperature) I found the whole thing worked much better in terms of flavour. I'd still add more salt and pepper to the eggs though.

This has become my standard recipe for cranberry sauce to go with the Christmas and Thanksgiving turkey. It is absolutely wonderful, with lots of flavour and texture.

This dish is not authentically Moroccan and it is mad, with a great mix of flavours. It is also a lot of work and when I made it, I did not get a crust on the couscous and the lamb did not get quite as tender as I would have liked.

I'd like to make it again, because it really was delicious, but this time I think I would cook the lamb longer(aybe even braise it) and remove it from the bone before assembling the whole dish.

I wanted to make a vegan cake to bring in to work (one of my co-workers is vegan) and this looked like an easy, dairy and egg free cake to make. I used the variation in the notes with coffee instead of water (3 teaspoons of espresso powder). As stated, it indeed took longer to bake through.

Despite other notes that said the cake never stuck to the bottom of the pan, mine did. I ended up having to patch the bottom together. Lesson: use parchment paper next time.

The texture and crumb of the cake are moist, the flavour is OK but nothing really spectacular. It's a weekday cake, easy to make, and handy to have in the repertoire for vegans.

I made this recipe with the parmesan rind but without the cabbage, which I didn't have on hand and often don't care for anyway. Even withouth the cabbage, the soup ended up being like a stew rather than a soup.

I was surprised that the recipe didn't call for any herbs besides parsley. I like the flavour imparted by the cheese rind, but I'm glad I used a full-flavoured homemade beef broth as the base. If I make it again, I would add some bay leaf and tyme.

I was surprised by the number of fruit recipes in this book. This is an unusual one in that it uses onions instead of fruit. But caramelized onions are sweet, so the idea of making an onion jam is not that much of a stretch.

My one caveat with this recipe is the amount of salt. Kim calls for 1 teaspoon of kosher (that is, coarse) salt. I used coarse sea salt (Baleine) and found it too salty. If you use regular salt, I suggest using just a quarter of a teaspoon.

I made this recipe exactly as written, except for using only a teaspoon of fine sea salt instead of a tablespoon of kosher salt. The result was excellent--a fine crumb bread with good flavour, that slices easily. It makes a big loaf and in the future, I might split the dough and use smaller bread tins.

It's a very soft, sticky dough that would be difficult to knead by hand.

This is great granola, but too sweet. I also found the coconut flakes toasted too much, so I've made the following adaptations:
Use 75 ml of honey instead of 120 ml
Add half the coconut flakes halfway through the baking process, and mix in the other half after it has finished baking.

Making sure you have lots of flavoursome gravy ahead of time is a good idea. And from this recipe I learned how important vegetables are to the flavour of gravy.

I adapted this slightly from the original recipe. Based on comments and my own gut feeling, I reduced the amount of star anise. I also added a couple of garlic cloves. I think it was a good call.

The resulting gravy has a hint of fennel/anise flavour but more would be overpowering. An alternative might be to include a quartered fennel bulb, but I didn't try this.

I saw Jamie make this on one of his Christmas specials years ago, and have made it ever since, with some tweaks. It really is a flavourful chicken/turkey gravy and having it made aahead of time is one less thing to do for a Christmas or Thanksgiving feast.

I use only 1 star anise and add a fennel bulb to the veggies. Fennel has natural affinity with poultry and is less overpowering than the star anise.

I love eggplant and this appetizer is one of my favourites. The recipe is simple, clear and straightforward. It calls for roasting the eggplant in the oven, as do most recipes for home cooks.

The best baba ghanoush I ever had was made with eggplant roasted in wood coals, so if you have that option, or perhaps a BBQ grill, it would be worth a try.

[Duplicate of review on another edition]

I have served this a number of times as an elegant lunch or a substantial first course at a dinner party. It is colorful, light, and delicious. The recipe calls only for white fish, but I often add some salmon as well. It adds to the color and deepens the flavour.

Although I love scallops myself, this tends to be a party soup, so I tend to omit them because many people have a problem with eating shellfish(allergies, religious restrictions, or they just don't like it).

[Duplicate of review on another edition]

Mine too. This may be my favourite all-time soup. It is easy to make and absolutely delicious. My mother always makes this soup with red lentils, but they fall apart so quickly. I prefer both the flavour and texture when this soup is made with green or brown lentils.

I love eggplant and this appetizer is one of my favourites. The recipe is simple, clear and straightforward. It calls for roasting the eggplant in the oven, as do most recipes for home cooks.

The best baba ghanoush I ever had was made with eggplant roasted in wood coals, so if you have that option, or perhaps a BBQ grill, it would be worth a try.

This is a basic recipe, with sweet red pepper being the main ingredient besides the tomatoes. I think it could really use an onion, but I think you can make up just about any tomato-based sauce and make it into shakshuksa, as long as it has some heat to it.
I found the cooking time for the eggs (8 to 10 minutes) too long. The egg yolks are cooked through on the bottom, although still a bit liquid on top.

Ooef, this was a lot of work. The hard part was hollowing out the quinces, which are a very hard fruit. In the introduction he mentions that a simpler variation is to just chop up the quinces and form the lamb into meatballs. I think that would be a smart move.

The picture in the book shows that the meat stuffing has been browned on top, but the instructions do not mention anything about it. And if you don't do this, it the filling ends up looking grey and unappetizing. A few minutes under the broiler before serving might be the thing to do.

Also, the instructions call for leaving a shell that 1.5 cm thick, but the picture and my own instincts are to make this .75 cm (.5 inch). Otherwise the hollow is barely worth stuffing.

There was a lot of liquid, so half way through cooking I removed the lid to let some evaporate off.

And the taste result? Very good, although I would have liked a bit more heat. I am rating it down because of the work and some questionable/incomplete instructions. But I'd make it again in its meatball variation.

This was good, but it made way too much dressing. The total amount of liquid is 335 ml, which would completely drown the vegetables if you used it all. I would cut the yoghurt mixture by at least a half.

I don't like radishes so I substituted fennel instead. I also used stale Lebanese pitta, but Turkish bread (as specified in the recipe) would hold up better.

This is not really a review of Ottolenghi's recipe, but of my rif on it. I substituted cavallo nero (palm kale) for the chard, used hard goat cheese instead of cheddar, an upped the feta because I didn't use ricotta. I also used coriander instead of dill. Why? Just because that is what I had on hand.

This recipe reminds me of similar ones I've seen for a Greek herb pie, and I think the point is that you use whatever greens and herbs that you have to hand.

The result was a substantial pie that can be eaten warm or at room temperature. It was delicious, but I had problems with the filo dough.

The picture in the book shows a very heavily oiled filo pastry. My filo broke up even as I unfolded it from its package so I couldn't even lay it out in nice sheets, so I ende up crumpling it and spraying it with oil. The top was crispy but the bottom neve browned properly. Maybe I'll use brick next time.

This is the first recipe I've made using poha, or flattened rice. It is the Indian version of instant rice, cooking in about 5 minutes, but so much better!

Brown some onions in fried mustard seed and fennel seed, add some salt, turmeric, and frozen peas, followed by rinsed poha. Cook for 5 minutes, top with lemon juice, pomegranate seeds, and sev.

It made a lovely lunch, with a combination of sweet and savoury, soft and crunchy. It's a true 15 minute meal, especially if you already have some pomegranate seeds ready for use in the fridge.

I usually turn to bhaigan bharta for an Indian eggplant recipe, but this has now gone into regular rotation because it is delicious and does not require the eggplant to be roasted first. A simple dish to make and only takes about a half hour to cook, it's great for a weekday supper.

I'm getting addicted to a cup or two of chai in the evening as a result of this recipe.

I have adapted ithe masala a bit by adding nutmeg to the spice mix, and I use 1 teabag of Yorkshire tea for two cups.

This is an excellent curry. I used 3 tablespoons of oil (instead of 8!) and a red chili instead of a green one. I also added a little extra water because I like a bit of sauce. That being said, this is a spiced cauliflower recipe with a lovely yellow color, not a sauced curry.

With its use of nuts and seeds in the sauce, I though this would be a good recipe for a vegetarian main course served with rice and a salad or raita. And it was.

This is a mild curry, slightly sweet from the coconut and sugar. The sauce really suits the cauliflower, since it is very tasty but still allows the flavour of the cauliflower to shine through.

If you don't have cashew nuts, you could substitute blanched almonds. That's what I did.

I make this recipe several times a month, and eat it for lunch as a salad.

I'm indifferent to courgette, so I leave that out. If I can't get the orange sweet potatoes (yams), I use butternut squash instead.

These days, I use 2/3 of the spice amounts given, since I find there is actually too much.

I love lentils but I found this soup very disappointing. Perhaps it is just too simple--onion, garlic, lentils, and cumin with optional spinach, topped with a bit of lemon or yogurt. Simplicity can often be wonderful, but in this case, it wasn't enough.

The instructions are also not entirely clear. Are you supposed to blend the yogurt or lemon into the soup when puréeing it or is it part of the serving suggestion?

The focus of this shakshuka (apart from the eggs) is peppers. I made about a third of a recipe, using green, yellow, and red peppers, adding a bit of garlic and using less oil and no saffron.
It was very good, but because it calls for a bit of muscovado sugar, and the onion partially caramelizes before you even add the sugar, I found it too sweet, at least to go with eggs.
Ottolenghi uses a lot of oil for this (and other) recipes. Even reduced by half, it could have used less.

This is essentially a quiche made with roasted vegetables, ricotta, and feta. It was delicious. Roasting the vegies is a bit of extra palaver but well worth it. As usual with this type of recipe, I used evaporated milk instead of cream to try to keep the fat down.

Although I blind baked the tart shell, it had a few holes and I was using a tart pan with a removable bottom, so some of the liquid leaked out, but it was still great.

Cross-posting from British edition:
http://www.cookbooker.com/recipe/35860/shakshuka

Cross-posting from British edition: http://www.cookbooker.com/recipe/35862/winter-couscous

This recipe for this Portugese salt code casserole/stew was just too plain. The kalamata olives were a good compliment, but it really lacked punch. If I were to make it again, I would first sauté the onions, along with plenty of garlic and a serrano or birds-eye pepper.

For years, my favourite Banana Bread recipe came from Joy of Cooking, but since Deb produced this one, it has become my standard. Not only are the spices wonderful, it easier to make, and uses fewer dishes (1 bowl!) than most other banana breads.

I never have bourbon on hand, so I skip that, and I top it with a pattern of pecan nuts.

These are excellent. I made them to accompany a roast chicken but have also served them as appetizers. They keep really well in the fridge and would make great hostess gifts.

I was looking for an bean dip as an alternative to hummus, and remembered seeing this on Deb's blog. I was trying to keep it low-cal so I substituted drained quark for the cream cheese. I have to say I found the dip rather bland.

I added more garlic, some sambal oelek, and some sumac to get it more punchy. After those adjustment, it was better, but I think it needs more tweaking.

I never would have thought of red wine in a cake, but this made a very tasty cake and was easy to make. I had some problems getting cake out of its greased-and-floured pan. Next time I'll make it with the parchment bottom.

I also loved the mascarpone-cream topping to serve with it. The mascarpone provides more body than normal whipped cream, and proved a wonderful compliment to the cake.

I had trouble with this recipe. At first I though it was because I made it with cake flour (patent bloem) which is a stupid thing to do with a yeasted cake. It works better with all purpose or strong flour (as the recipe calls for), but ultimately I think the batter just has too much butter in it, leaving it too dense.

A lot of butter is beaten into the dough which makes it very tender. However, I've made other plum kuchen now and I think you can get away with less. See http://inthekitchenwithbarbara.blogspot.nl/2012/10/glut-of-plums-cake.html.

I've made the recipe at least 3 times now, and used other recipes as well, and the recipes that use less butter work better.

That being said, I'm beginning to develop a plum cake addiction and it started with this recipe!

Oh my! This is good one. Egg yolks and maple syrup are cooked together, then beaten into a froth, then whipped cream folded in. The maple syrup flavour is subtle but distinctive. Everyone I've ever served it to loves it. It does require some care in making, because the yolks and maple syrup have a tendency to separate. Even if this happens, the dessert still tastes great, but it is a bit less smooth.

This gratin was delicious. I made a quarter of the recipe and ate it as a main meal. If I make it again as a main meal, I would add some cheese or nuts to provide some protein. And another clove of garlic would not go amiss.

I wasn't sure about this recipe on day one (not unusual; I often don't taste it as well after I've been busy cooking it). But I loved it on day 2. Not part of the recipe, but I added crumbled feta cheese, which really went well.

Next time I will try some pickled lemon instead of the lemon juice and zest.

These are good vegetarian burgers with chickpeas, carrots, and mushrooms as the base. The burgers were easy to form and held together well during the cooking. They are quite soft in the eating, so benefit from crusty rolls as a foil. I added a lot of black pepper and next time would add some cayenne pepper give it a bit more punch.