*August 2009 COTM* OTTOLENGHI: Roots, Pulses and Grains, Soups

[Caitlin McGrath]

Our Chowhound August 2009 Cookbook of the Month is Ottolenghi: The Cookbook, by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi; and all online recipes by the authors.

Please post your full-length recipe reviews here for dishes from the cookbook chapter Vegetables, pulses and grains sections Roots, Pulses and grains, and Soups, and online recipes with those ingredients.

Please mention the name of the recipe you are reviewing and the page number, or include a link to the online recipe, if possible, as well as any modifications you made to the recipe. Let us know if you would like to make the recipe again, and if you would change anything in the future, too.

Please see the main Cookbook of the Month thread for some useful links.

Lists of the recipes from these book sections, along with links where applicable, and the opportunity to request paraphrases, may be found at these links:

Roots: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/641703#4914015

Pulses and grains: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/641703#4914020

Soups: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/6417...

A reminder that the verbatim copying of recipes to the boards is a violation of the copyright of the original author. Posts with copied recipes will be removed.


Thanks for participating and enjoy!

[Westminstress]

Roast Potatoes and Jerusalem Artichokes with Lemon and Sage, p. 60

This one was a winner! Fingerling potatoes are parboiled until semi cooked, then cut in half and tossed with thinly sliced sunchokes, olive oil, chopped fresh sage and s&p. Roast for half an hour, then add a thinly sliced lemon and roast for 20 minutes, then add cherry tomatoes and olives and roast for 15 minutes. Crown it all with some chopped fresh parsley. l turned out not to have olives and only half the tomatoes called for, but this was still a lovely dish. I really liked the mellow acidity of the roasted lemon, which highlighted the sweetness of the sunchokes. In winter I would leave off the tomatoes and it would still be very good, I'm sure.

[TxnInMtl]

Puy lentils with sour cherries, bacon, and Gorgonzola - p. 81

I took a few liberties with this recipe so I'm not sure I should be reviewing this one, but the flavors are so unique and no one else has mentioned it yet. This isn't the most attractive looking dish, but the mix of sour cherries, red wine vinegar, bacon, and blue cheese make it something special. I served this as a main dish, but I think it would work much better as a starter as it started to get a little too vinegary for me most of the way through the dish.

To make, while lentils are cooking, shallots are sauteed in olive oil. (I used a regular onion.) Water, sugar, dried sour cherries, and red wine vinegar are added to the shallots and simmered until it thickens. I had a jar of leftover sour cherries from when The Olive and the Caper was COTM, so I used those, leaving out the extra water and sugar. The sauce ended up a little bit runnier than I think it should have been (I was a bit impatient), but otherwise this substitution seemed to work out okay. (I estimated the weight for jarred cherries should be 2.5 times as much as the weight for dried.) The lentils are added to the sauce when they're done. Meanwhile, he calls for you to fry the bacon in olive oil until it's crisp. I skipped the olive oil and just cooked the bacon as I usually do (I'm running low on oil and don't want to buy more right before I move). Once cooked and cooled, tear the bacon into large pieces and add it to the lentils. Add baby spinach to the lentils (I somehow entirely forgot this recipe had baby spinach in it and didn't want to run to the store, so I omitted. I think it would've been an even better dish with the spinach.). Dot with chunks of Gorgonzola and serve.

[dkennedy]

This sounds fabulous! I am going to make this next week.

[smtucker]

Danielle's sweet potato gratin, pg 68

Darn do I love this book! At this point I just trust that anything I make from it will be good. This recipe didn't disappoint.

I thought I had two large sweet potatoes, but after a pantry search, only one could be found. So, I made a 1/3 of this recipe. Start by washing the potato vigorously and then slice thinly. Toss in a bowl with minced sage, crushed garlic, sea salt and black pepper. Place in a gratin pan with the peeled edges sticking up, tightly packed. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Then remove foil, add some cream evenly and bake for another 25 minutes.

Tossing the potato did not evenly distribute the sage-garlic mixture. Not sure if I needed a bigger bowl or if my potato was drier than a UK variety. In the future I will work harder to make sure that the distribution is more even. I used Malton salt and thought that it worked well.

This dish is really savory and I loved it. One diner found that some bites had a bit too much sage, but it didn't bother me. He notes that the dish can be assembled a day ahead something I might well do. Highly recommend if you like sage.

[Westminstress]

I have this book out of the library at the moment. I had sweet potatoes along with sage and cream that needed using, so i decided to make this recipe. Assembly was really easy. I took heed of smtuckers review and paid close attention to distribute the garlic and sage evenly. No problems there. The result was very yummy. The sweet potatoes were luscious combined with the sweet cream and sage. My garlic cloves were huge and I might have preferred it a tad less garlicky. Still and all, we liked this a lot.

[BigSal]

Camargue red rice and quinoa with orange and pistachios p. 76 (half recipe)

New ingredients, vibrant colors and fresh flavors. The Camargue red rice (a new ingredient for me, it has a texture similar to wild rice with an interesting red color) and quinoa is mixed with onions (sautéed until golden brown. I cooked with less oil and used more onions). Olive oil is added to the mixture ( I used much less than suggested). Then one adds, orange juice and zest, lemon juice, crushed garlic, roasted pistachios, sliced green onions, chopped dried apricots, arugula and salt and pepper. I used fewer apricots, as I was unnecessarily fearful that the dish would be too sweet. The flavors were nicely balanced. I really enjoyed the different textures in the dish as well as the combination of sweet, citrusy, peppery and nutty flavors. My husband was just ok with this dish (unfortunately, I think that may be the case for him this month with the grain recipes) – the textures of the grains were not as pleasing to him nor was the arugula. Half a recipe was meant to feed two, but we had enough left over for another meal. The flavors of the salad were even better the day after.

[blue room]

Roasted Sweet Potato with Pecan & Maple

http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk/recipes/r...

This is tasty.

I was expecting a sweet yam-casserole flavor, like Christmas or Thanksgiving fare. But this has citrus, and sherry vinegar and sharp green (scallion, parsley--I left out the coriander) flavors. A little red pepper and cinnamon, 2 nice teaspoons of fresh grated ginger. The sweeter ingredients in the dish are of course the potatoes, raisins, pecans and maple syrup. The result is a definite unusual (to us!) tang not associated previously with sweet potatoes.

I over-roasted the potato, so took the picture before mixing so it would be recognizable. The little bowl contains the fine tangy dressing.

[Breadcrumbs]

This sounds yummy blue room. Do you think it would be good cold or at room temperature . . . like a salad? I'm thinking this might be nice w some bbq'd pork chops.

[blue room]

We had it with baked-with-mushrooms pork chops, hot. Room temp would work for sure, with pork or maybe some creative chicken. Since it's salad-like, but hot-dish too, maybe the middle would be just right.

[Breadcrumbs]

Thanks so much blue room, that's very helpful!

[jen kalb]

Camargue Red Rice and Quinoa with orange and pistachio - page 76

this was the second time round on this dish, a terrific light textures and brightly flavored hot weather salad - a snap the second time. the two grains areseparately boiled until tender, thoroughly drained and allowed ot cool to room temperature, then mixed with grated orange zest of an orange., a crushed garlic clove, chopped scallions, pistachios, chopped dried apricots, oil, the juice of the orange and a cpl tbsp of lemon juice, copious salt and pepper, stir it up, adjust for flavor and then add a quantity of arugula (the baby stuff is good for this) Its absolutely delicious and easy after the grains are cooked and Im sure other dried fruits, yellow raisins for example, could be subbed in if you have no apricots.

[dkennedy]

Is this recipe posted somewhere online? it sounds great for my son who is GF but can eat Quinoa. I'd love to try making it for him.

[dkennedy]

Never mind, I found it! Here is the online link:

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/...

[jen kalb]

Re the online recipe, Im not sure the book includes the fried onion component - we certainly did not include it in this dish. the amount of olive oil is way out of whack - Id start with much less. I think the recipe called for two tbsp rather than 2 tsp of lemon juice. Unfortunately Im going to be away from my book for a few days so I cant verify these points, maybe someone else can?

[Westminstress]

Tried this salad last night and liked but did not love it. I am really wishing I had read these posts before trying this salad! I used the 101 cookbooks recipe linked above and felt the balance of flavors was off. The orange flavor was too dominant for me, and there were not enough nuts and dried fruit. I would have loved to have skipped the fried onions as I don't think they added much and made the dish more complicated than it needed to be for a weeknight. I also upped the amount of lemon juice substantially - probably put in something close to the 2 Tbsp from the original recipe as 2 tsp definitely was not enough. I made a couple of additional substitutions that were perhaps ill-advised -- red onion for spring onion and walnuts for pistachios. The red onion in particular was a bit harsh and I think spring onions would have been nicer. I used bhutanese red rice and quinoa and the grains cooked up very well and were good mixed together. I would try this salad again but would like to try the original recipe as written. Also it makes a huge quantity of salad as both the rice and quinoa expand substantially when cooked - for our needs I would probably cut the recipe in half next time.

[jen kalb]

just made this recipe again. The book recipe does include the fried onions. I think it would be fine with moe chopped scallions instead - the sauteed onions tend to create lumps and do not spread cleanly through the dish. I subbed chopped roasted almonds for pistachios this time and it worked ok.. A big favorite with the crowd and piles of leftovers I gave away. Used italian red rice that looked a lot like the camargue.

[oakjoan]

I first made the Camargue red rice salad about 3 years ago for a big party. It was a huge hit and I still love it. I hadn't thought about it for a long time until I came upon this thread tonight. I even have the red rice on hand.

[rarerollingobject]

Couscous and mograbiah with oven-dried tomatoes (p77)

Normally I tend to avoid couscous, as it's quite carby with little fibre (preferring spending my "carbs" on barley etc), but this recipe sounded so full of flavour and sunshine..with an uncharacteristic degree of planning, the night before making this, I scooped a cup of Greek yoghurt into a papertowel-lined sieve set over a bowl and left overnight in the fridge. This drains most of the water out of the yoghurt and effectively turns it into labneh, a fresh Lebanese 'cheese' I often make to eat for breakfast with tomatoes and pita. Labneh IS actually an inclusion in the recipe, despite the title not mentioning it.

The recipe calls for roma tomatoes, but I only had cherry tomatoes, so roasted them anyway with a litle olive oil, molasses sugar (substituted for muscovado), balsamic and sea salt. Then promptly forgot about them so pulled them out way later than intended to find charred tomato nubs, but delicious nonetheless. Set them aside to let them cool down awhile.

I then sauteed two sliced onions in a good slosh of olive oil, for about 15 minutes until dark brown and sticky; not having any mograbiah (large grain couscous variant), I just used extra couscous and steamed it up with boiling vegetable stock and olive oil under cling wrap for 5 minutes.

I then shredded two preserved lemons and stirred them into the fluffed up couscous, tasted and added two fat pinches of salt; piled it onto a platter and sprinkled the onions and their oil, and the tomatoes and their juices over the top. Pinched some rough blobs of labneh over the top and added some unauthorised additions; dried rose petals I had leftover from something else and a big handful of chopped mint.

Results very satisfying; the crumbly couscous marrying really well with the creaminess of the yoghurt, the caramelly umami of the onions and tomatoes, and the zing of the salty preserved lemon. Overall, it was delicious, nourishing, not too stressful and for a totally vegetarian dish, even my baconarian boyfriend liked it.

[Gio]

Great report RRO. I've been eyeing that recipe all month but since I don't have any preserved lemons at hand I've just passed it by. It won't be the same, but I think I can sub unpreserved lemons and make it anyway.

[jen kalb]

Ok I made this recipe yesterday and it was really quite good - I had the mograbieh in my starch collection - its a bit bigger than the large israeli couscous and fregola. Note that this recipe as written in the book DOES NOT include preserved lemon, but does include balsamic vinegar, kalonji (black onion seeds) and fresh tarragon of which I had barely enough in the garden. Amazingly, I found a container of labneh in the frig so I didnt have to do any draining of yogurt. this was a very full flavored dish, with the chicken broth and fried onions, and was well enjoyed. More like a vegetarian main dish than a salad. the seasoning were unusual and tasty and we will make this again. A good use for kalonji, which languishes unless I am cooking indian.

[oakjoan]

I laughed out loud, jk, when I read "my starch collection" because I immediately thought of "my Limoges collection". Right after that I remember my resolutions to organize my pastas, rices, and grains. Of course this never happens and I have to get on a milk crate to lift down one of the 800 plastic "organizers" from IKEA that I bought to make my pastas and rices, etc. into a model of efficient use of cupboard space. HAHAHAHA haahahahahahaha. Sigh.

Do you think one could use fregola for this dish? My husband really dislikes the perfectly round couscouses. For some reason, the little indentations and different colors of fregola don't bother him.

[jen kalb]

I think Ottolenghi recommends it as a substitute - sure. Whether you choose mogrebiah or fregola make sure you dont cook it too long - it needs to have a bit of spring in its texture for good contrast (I think I cooked mine a bit too long).

[rarerollingobject]

Good heavens, I just went back and checked the recipe and you entirely right about the absence of preserved lemon, and the presence of nigella seeds and tarragon! I must have completely mentally and physically bastardised the recipe without even realising it..sorry all!

[jen kalb]

we ate some leftovers of this dish last night and if anything it was even better - a very flavorful side dish. I think the mograbieh is a very interesting ingredient as a visual and textural contrast to the couscous.

[jen kalb]

I love roasted tomatoes but have a big jar of sundried tomatoes in oil in the refrigerator - do you think they would work with this dish? Ive been looking at it all month too/

[rarerollingobject]

I think so; the textures would be different, but a big sprinkle of lemon juice and a little brown sugar would get you closer to the flavour profile of the tomatoes in the original recipe.

And even if it doesn't, I bet it'd be delicious anyway!

[BigSal]

We made this tonight withcouscous and maftol which I was told was mograbiah. Both of us enjoyed it very much. It is a long way from tomato season in MN, but roasting the romas brought them back to life. This is quite a filling dish and awonderful mixture of textures and flavors (tang from the cheese, sweet and carmelly from the tomatoes and onions). Very hearty too. Will definitely make this again.

[jen kalb]

Mango and coconut rice salad, from the Guardian New Vegetarian series

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyl...

One of the fantastic Ottolenghi grain salads - this one is very south asian in style, with a base of jasmine or basmati and red camargue rice. I used some left over jasmine, steamed it in the microwave and mixed with some thai basil in lieu of cooking it up fresh and scenting it with the basil.I love the camargue rice but its expensive -this would work fine also with wild rice or other chewy grains in lieu of the red. Nothing complicated technically its all the ingredients, a handfull of roasted, salted peanuts, some flaked coconut, a cpls spoons of peanut oil,a sliced red pepper, a couple sliced scallions, grated lemon zest a red chile, chopped, an assortment of herbs, basil (I used both lemon and thai), cilantro and mint and the star ingredient, green mango., all mixed together. I chopped the green mango to the size of the rice (ottolenghi suggests laster pieces, which I think would be necessary for the riper mangos, but the flesh of mine was pale green, firm and tart - these are obtainable inexpensively at Indian greengrocers, pretty much year round). I also added some lemon juice along with plenty of salt to flavor it up. this was very enthusiastically received by my family group, which loves asian food and crunchy fullflavored salads.

[greedygirl]

This sounds great, and a good way to use the honey mangoes from Pakistan that are available at the moment. It's funny though, because round my way Camargue red rice is way cheaper than wild rice and I have a ton of it in the cupboard!

[jen kalb]

an advantage of being in the EU - here it is an exotic specialty item. Id assume that the asian red rices or even some brown rices would also work well in this dish.

[The Dairy Queen]

"crushed new potatoes with horseradish and sorrel" on page 63--these were great, but, well, I don't really see how the instructions lead you to "crush" but not "mash" the potatoes, but no matter, the mashed potatoes were GLORIOUS. Oh my, we just couldn't stop eating it. We used arugula and a splash of lemon sauce instead of sorrel (which was the authors recommended substitution for the sorrel), and didn't bother with the spring onion or sprouting herbs garnish (I couldn't find any sprouting herbs at my market...), but it was still great. Ours was a little too dry (maybe because we were not getting the essence of "crushed" potatoes and were effectively mashing them instead?") so, I added another 100 grams of greek yogurt (we used 2% Fage) and a splash of nonfat milk. This is a keeper!

Here's a link to the recipe on Ottolenghi's website which also includes a photo that is much better than mine: http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk/recipes/c...

My photo, such as it is, is below.

~TDQ

[dkennedy]

I am so excited to be posting my first recipe I cooked from this book! I spent all of July collecting favorite recipes off the internet, and I plan on spending all of August trying them. This post is for the Kosheri (lentils, basmati rice and vermicelli noodles with lots of yummy spices). I downloaded the recipe off the Cooking Up a Storm blog...sorry I don't have a site to plug in here but you should be able to find it with this much info. If you can't let me know and I'll paraphrase it.

I made this dish for a pot luck and it got rave reviews. I served it at room temperature with the sauce on the side. I was a little weary of the sauce but it turns out it really adds a nice extra something to the dish that ties everything together. I would highly recommend this dish.

[The Dairy Queen]

Sounds nice, and even a tad healthy! I assume this is the recipe? http://cookbad.blogspot.com/2008/05/k...

~TDQ

[dkennedy]

Hi TDQ,

Yes, that is the site.

[oakjoan]

Kosheri is also in the book, p. 86 and it is really, really good.

[roxlet]

Kosheri is one of those dishes that is served in special shops all over Egypt. We called it a salute to carbohydrates. I've yet to make it myself, but I may give this a whirl one day when my son isn't home for dinner. He didn't like kosheri and was teased relentlessly about it. I'm glad you used the sauce, dkennedy. That provides the real flavor to the dish -- that and the fried onions on top!

[cpw]

I made the crushed potatoes as the side to sumac and zaatar chicken.

I had picked some purple potatoes, so I thought this would be a good use. We were not at all impressed, but it could be because of my substitutions.

The potatoes were new purple, instead of regular.
Horseradish was bottled, instead of fresh.
Regular yogurt, instead of Greek.
No Sorrell.
No sprouting herbs.
No spring onion (I still think it is there in the fridge somewhere and hiding from me).

Net result was dry, tangy, lumpy potatoes! I don't associate any of these qualities with my mashed potatoes...........dreaming of Goin's mashed potatoes........

[The Dairy Queen]

Oy, what a bummer. We loved these, but we used our CSA potatoes, lots of Greek yogurt, arugula (+lemon) and freshly grated horshradish. I think all of these things combined made it really a knockout. I was going to say, "especially the freshly-grated horseradish." But then I'd have to add, "and the Greek yogurt". And "and the arugula..."

For the record, these aren't supposed to exactly be creamy mashed potatoes, but an "in between" mashed potatoes and potato salad. I personally have a hard time imagining that in between place, but they aren't supposed to be creamy.

Of course, I'm sure Goin's mashed potatoes are fab, so, if you don't have access to freshly-grated horseradish, Greek yogurt and arugula (or sorrell), then you might as well stick with what works for you!

~TDQ

[cpw]

I know that these potatoes were crushed and mashed, therefore I wasn’t trying to mash them. And I have had crushed potatoes before which I have enjoyed.

“if you don't have access to freshly-grated horseradish, Greek yogurt and arugula (or sorrell), then you might as well stick with what works for you!” – you are suggesting that I am not suppose to use substitutions?

[The Dairy Queen]

Hi cpw, sorry if my post was confusing, when I suggest that you should stick with what works for you (i.e., what you have etc.) I was fully supporting you in making whatever substitutions you need to/wish to for whatever reason, due to availability, personal taste, dietary restrictions or, if you're like me, you goof up or whatever.

If you've read any of my COTM posts from last year (not that you should have, but if you did)...you'd probably know that I am the queen of substitutions or adapting recipes, particularly when I was on Weight Watchers. Of course, I also wanted to try new things and learn new things, but I had other real constraints in life that I needed to work with. So, when I say, "Do what works for you" I mean it and live it!

Could you talk a little more about what you understand the difference between "crushed" potatoes and mashed potatoes to be? I was really struggling with that and think I was well on the road to making "mashed potatoes" when I realized maybe I wasn't supposed to be going down that road. I don't think I've ever had "crushed" potatoes. Any tips for me along those lines? I could sure use some help on that.

~TDQ

[cpw]

Thank you DQ. And, ofcourse I read your posts.

Crushed potatoes are boiled and sort of just crumbled, like a step before mashing. Crush them either with a fork or lightly with a masher.

I had a soup in Russia more than a decade ago, which had crushed potatoes, some tangy grean gently cooked leaves in a creamy base. I now think the leaves were sorrell. I had completely forgotten about this soup until you made me talk about crushed potatoes.

And Paula Deen (+many others) make their smashed potatoes, with loads of butter.

[beetlebug]

I made these tonight as well. They were ok but a bit dry. I used jarred horseradish (drained but I threw extra in) as well as the arugula and lemon combo. I also had spring onions that I added as well. Since I thought it was on the dry side, I added more greek yogurt, but I don't think I added enough. I didn't add all the spring onions because it looked and tasted like I had enough.

All the veggies and potatoes came from the CSA box or farmer's market.

[cpw]

My potatoes as well as the yogurt had also come from the farmers market, therefore pretty fresh. Same thing happened to me, I kept adding more and more yogurt, till I felt that I had enough. And there was enough tang already that I did not feel like adding lemon.
Oh well, we still ate it.

[The Dairy Queen]

We also added a splash of milk, in addition to another 100 grams of yogurt. In hindsight, I wish I hadn't. I think I added that milk because I was going for more of a mashed potatoes outcome, and this is really meant to be almost (but not quite, apparently) a potato salad. If you look at the photo on their website, you can see chunks of whole potato left. They say to make sure to crush most of the hard chunks, but I guess it's not clear to me how, exactly, to do that without going for a full mash. http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk/recipes/c...

Though the authors say jarred is okay, I really think this dish needs the fresh, not jarred, horseradish.

~TDQ

[jen kalb]

you wouldnt want the waxy neew purple potatoes for this dish - it just wouldnt have the right texture and without the greek yogurt and herbs?
too bad

[cpw]

I think you are right on the mark with the purple potatoes.

[L.Nightshade]

Crushed New Potatoes with Horseradish and Sorrel, Page 63.

Looks like some varied results upstream here, but we were very happy with this dish. I saw it as more of a warm potato salad. I used baby red potatoes, fresh sorrel, jarred horseradish (no fresh to be found), and fage yogurt. And of course, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. I just smashed the potatoes a bit, there was still plenty of particulate matter. I plated it with upland cress and sliced scallions. The sorrel added a nice flavor, next time I might even add a bit more than the recipe states.

The funny thing about this dish is that I kept wanting to taste more salt, even though I had actually added enough. I realized that I was looking at the red potato skins and expecting to taste prosciutto! Maybe I'll try it that way next time.

[greedygirl]

I made this last night using the king of new potatoes - Jersey Royals. I used sorrel, but didn't have any land cress so just used spring onion for the garnish. Absolutely loved this dish - had to force myself to stop eating it!

[blue room]

Broad Bean Burgers -- found online:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyl...

These are certainly tasty, and seem healthy and wholesome. Unfortunately I had to use a substitute for one of the main ingredients. The recipe calls for a mash of potato and fava (broad) beans, equal amounts of each. Unable to find fresh or even frozen favas I substituted a pairing of baby limas and pinto beans. (Why limas and pintos? It just seemed suitable..!) So these beans and potatoes were mixed and mashed with a small amount of chopped spinach, an egg, breadcrumbs, olive oil. Also turmeric, mild green chili, crushed garlic, cumin, fennel ."Fresh coriander" is cilantro--I used dry ground coriander seed instead. Once everything is patted into patties, coated in flour and chilled for an hour (to firm up), fry in -- sunflower oil. I never used sunflower oil before, but I noticed it's especially.. silken-- or something-- I liked it. No taste, like olive oil has, but can take high temps. ($3.99 for 16 oz. bottle @ Whole Foods)
The patties held together, and browned nicely.
Recipe calls for a sauce of sour cream & oil & chives & lemon juice--I just squirted a lemon half, stroked a butterknifeful of sour cream over the finished "Broad Bean Burgers". They're called "burgers", but I wouldn't serve them in bread or buns--just by themselves with a topping or sauce. Too mooshy to squeeze between 2 slices of bread with your teeth.
I should say I kept comparing these with falafel -- my falafel recipe is *somewhat* easier than these fava burgers. Similar in flavor, but the textures are different. Party, I'd use falafel. Dinner, or comfort food, or kids, I'd use Broad Bean Burgers.
Not much too see, but I took a picture anyway.

[Gio]

Roasted Red and Golden Beetroot, Roots, Pg. 63

This was the 2nd recipe I've made from this cookbook and it was one of the nicest presentations of farm fresh beets I've ever made. We shopped for the vegetables at one of our favorite farms (Tendercrop for those in the Boston area) and followed the recipe to the letter with one exception. I had 6 smallish red beets and 1 golden beet in the bunch I picked up. They were roasted in a 400F oven for about 45 minutes as per instructions. (Because of dietary restrictions I did not use the sunflower seeds that were called for).

While the beets were roasting I prepared the dressing: Maple syrup, sherry vinegar, EVOO, 2 garlic cloves (I pressed them), chervil leaves, and baby spinach leaves are mixed together in a bowl. When the beets are cooked through and have rested for a few minutes till ready to handle comfortably, they are pared, sliced and/or quartered and added to the bowl.

The finished dish was really quite tasty...slightly sweet.... a little acetic and made a flavorful accompaniment to the chimichurra marinated chicken we had grilled.

[blue room]

Oh oh oh this sounds nice nice nice--beets galore I saw yesterday and bought not one! I don't think I've ever used chervil--that will be interesting too.

[greedygirl]

Couscous with dried apricots and butternut squash (p 90)

I'd already roasted the butternut squash for the recipe above, so this came together quite easily. You sauté a sliced onion in a couple of T of olive oil, until golden. Soak the dried apricots for 5 minutes in hot water, then drain and chop. Bring chicken or veg stock to the boil (I used veg), adding a pinch of saffron and pour over the couscous along with some EVOO (I've just realised I forgot the EVOO!). Cover with cling film and leave for 10 minutes or so, then fluff with a fork and add the onion, squash, apricots, cinnamon, lemon zest and loads of fresh herbs. I used the suggested tarragon, mint and parsley, but he says pretty much anything goes.

It's the herbs that make this dish - you really do need a lot of them. I liked this dish, but I wasn't in love with it, probably because I'm not wild about dried apricots. People at the party really liked it though. It would be a nice side dish for all things lamb, and probably chicken too. I also think that you probably do need the extra EVOO which I forgot to put in!

[greedygirl]

Sauté of chickpea, butternnut squash and chard (from Ottolenghi website)

http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk/recipes/s...

I had all the ingredients to hand so made this for a weekday lunch the other day. It was slightly labour-intensive, but not too bad as I used canned chickpeas rather than dried. I also roasted a whole butternut squash and made the couscous salad recipe on p80 at the same time to take to a party.

You drizzle the squash with oil, season and roast in the normal way for about half an hour. Fry an onion with caraway seeds, sugar and cumin, then add chickpeas, butternut squash, chard and a little water and cook for 5 mins or so. Add lemon juice and serve with yoghurt sauce, which is greek yoghurt, garlic, lemon, olive oil and mint.

I loved the combination of flavours here, especially the caraway, which I would never have thought to use in a recipe like this. The yoghurt sauce is delicious too. It's healthy too!

[Caitlin McGrath]

This sounds very good. I've saved the recipe. I bet it would be nice with canellini in place of chickpeas, too.