Queezle_Sister's Reviews
8 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 8Sort by: Title 
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Ottolenghi: The Cookbook
By Yotam Ottolenghi, Sami Tamimi
Ebury Press - 2010
I found this to be a flavorful and easy winter meal. I had garden tomatos roasted last September, and waiting for just this moment. I lucked into a bag of Mograbiah, but couldn't find normal cracked couscous, so used Israeli couscous as my second. The tarragon added a very nice flavor. I couldn't find Nigella seeds, and substituted a mix of sesame and cumin seeds.
I did follow Zosia's advice to reduce the oil, and gave the dish liberal salt and pepper.
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Crumble : page 279
I prepared this crumble for a topping for the Pear and Amaretto Crumble Cake, on page 218. This is a restaurant-styled recipe, it makes a lot. I only wanted enough for the cake, and guessed at 10%. That was just the right amount. It seemed really plain, though, and a bit too buttery. I added ground almonds, which did the trick for me - make it the texture I was looking for, and was delicious.
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Green Tahini Sauce : page 272
As Friederike says, somehow water added to Tahini causes it to be thicker. This was basically hummus without the chick peas. I prepared it to have with the eggplant dish, and it specified no parsley. I will revisit this easy recipe in the future to try it with parsley.
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This recipe is as good as Zosia said. I prepared it with store-bought harissa (my bad, but I had the jar in the fridge), and greek yogurt. So easy to get the chicken marinating and then cooking. The sauce took a bit longer. I suggest you get the sauce reducing before putting the chicken into the oven. In typical Ottolenghi style, this recipe will produce a flavor explosion in your mouth. Note that one could probably get by with 1/2 the sauce, or even less maybe. I don't like using so much maple syrup!
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What is a small eggplant? This recipe called for 3 of them, and I had a single smallish globe eggplant. As instructed, I cut it into 10 pieces, but it took about twice as long to roast to perfection, making me think I needed smaller eggplant.
Nevertheless, the marinade (largely lemon juice, garlic, and cilantro) on the eggplant was wonderful. My daughter and I enjoyed this for a light dinner.
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Pear and Amaretto Crumble Cake : page 218
Zosia is so correct about this cake - though it did taste good in the spring! Wonderful flavor, and I'm glad there is a bit left so I can taste more tomorrow.
The crumble topping benefited from an addition of ground almonds. I prepared 10% of the crumble mix (the recipe is geared toward a restaurant), then felt it had too much butter, so added about 3T of ground almonds.
Just make this cake, its amazing. That said, its preparation led to me using seven bowls!
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Roast Chicken with Sumac, Za'atar and Lemon : page 122
The only real complaint was that this was "too flavorful" - voiced by my 15 yr old daughter.
The chicken picked up the flavors very effectively after the 24h marinade. Next time I would use less red onion -- I used only one, but it was huge, and for just a single scrawny chicken. I might also use slightly less lemon - maybe only 1/2 sliced. The kids found the flavor a bit too sour, but adults just loved it.
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Sweet Potato Galettes : page 181
Superb flavor, impressive look - an ideal party appetizer (except for the work!).
I prepared this dish using commercial puff pastry (which I rolled out to be thinner, as suggested in the recipe). The combination of sour cream, sweet potato, and goat cheese was wonderful! I didn't have the hot pepper, and in place I sprinkled some chili powder on the sweet potatoes. They were not at all spicy, though, and I think next time I would either use more chili powder or something stronger. I also didn't trust my pumpkin seeds (which are now chicken food), and so substituted pine nuts. The final step is brushing on oil that has sat with crushed garlic and contains parsley. For me, this was somewhat difficult - the parsley is difficult to distribute. Next time I would prepare the garlic oil, brush that on the pastries, and then sprinkle on the parsley. Definitely an impressive appetizer for new year's eve, and enjoyed by all.
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