Ottolenghi cookbooks
  • Ottolenghi, Plenty, or Jerusalem. If you could have only one, which would it be and why?
  • Such a good question. My christmas list says "any book by Ottolenghi", but based on past experience, I expect to be doing my own purchasing.
  • Definitely Ottolenghi - it's not just my favourite of the 3, but it's currently my favourite cookbook. I bought it after I had cooked extensively from Plenty and as a non-vegetarian who loves to bake, was thrilled to see the characteristic Ottolenghi approach to food applied to meat/fish and baked goods. Plenty is an extension of the substantial (and mostly vegetarian) vegetables, pulses and grains section in Ottolenghi.

    Jerusalem is a gorgeous book but very different from the others in that it’s less about the unique Ottolenghi style and more about the comfort food (much of which seems to be very labour intensive!) the authors ate as children growing up in Jerusalem.
  • @QS, Santa definitely needs more specific help, at least around here. :-)
    @Zosia, Thanks, that's exactly the kind of the kind of opinion I was looking for!
  • For me, too, it's definitely Ottolenghi. The recipes in Plenty and in Jerusalem are much more complicated, yet (or due to that) they don't achieve that distinct Ottolenghi handwriting which I find very hard to describe: very simple, clean flavours, yet fresh and original. And I agree with Zosia, Jerusalem isn't about his own cooking, it's about the food he ate when he grew up.
  • Great responses Friederike and Zosia. Thank you so much.
  • Santa has noted both responses and done his job. ;-)
  • Hooray, more Ottolenghi reviewers! I think between us we could easily review the whole book... :)
  • OK, I'm convinced. I've gotten a copy too now.
  • At I Heart Cooking Clubs, the challenge for April through September will be cooking with Ottolenghi. Maybe folks want to join in there? (I've been cooking along with Madhur Jaffrey for the last six months.)
  • I really like this group's approach to exploring an author's body of work....thorough but with freedom of choice. But it looks as though you need a blog to participate....
    Thank you for the link - I'll be sure to follow along.
  • @Zosia, having your own blog with blogspot, wordpress, or typepad is easy. Everything can be easily set up using a choice of pre-defined layouts. Editing is easier than than most word processors. As long as you follow the KISS principle, it's pretty easy. (I chose blogspot, only because I observed more blogs there. wordpress seems to be second, and I've noticed at least one blog move there recently. typepad is third and I would worry about using them because of that.)
  • I agree. Using Blogspot or Wordpress isn't difficult (my personal preference goes out to Wordpress), it's keeping up with writing that's hard... somehow writing on cookbooker is so much easier than writing blogposts, perhaps because you can get away with writing a lot less...
    I do wonder whether posting at cookbooker would actually count as well. It does feel like micro-blogging to me. I guess it's something to try out or ask...
  • Posting at cookbooker might work. You need a URL to post, that's all. Most people are have a blog, but I don't see why that would be necessary.

    OT: Why o you prefer wordpress to blogspot? I haven't bothered to investigate beyond my initial observation that I was reading more of one than the other.
  • I started a blog in 2008 (long since discontinued...) and tested both back then. I don't remember why I eventually chose Wordpress, but I think it seemed more intuitive and user friendly back then.
  • You would probably need an url pointing to your review only, not to those of others reviewing the same dish. You can get such an url by adding '?review_id=' and then the ID of the review. The latter you can find out by hovering on the comment or the edit link, it's a number with currently 5 digits. So for example my review on
    http://www.cookbooker.com/recipe/27702/chickpea-saute-with-greek-yogurt would have the url
    http://www.cookbooker.com/recipe/27702/chickpea-saute-with-greek-yogurt?review_id=13321

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