Cooking in lockdown (with Yotam)
Jun. 14th, 2020 06:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anefI'm not one of these cooks who can make up recipes or who have a whole range of possibilities in their heads for whatever ingredients they happen to have on hand. I cook from books, and I enjoy trying new recipes. When I've had enough of the news (after about 5 minutes these days) I head over to the Guardian's recipe pages for comfort.
I've been doing a bit more, and more diverse, cooking at the moment as I seem to have a bit more time, or possibly more energy. I've got three of Yotam Ottolenghi's books and while Nopi is still a bit too complicated for me I have been doing new things both from Simple (Simple? Get a grip, Yotam!) and Plenty.
He's also been focusing on traybakes in these difficult times and here are some links to ones that have really worked for me: The chicken and split pea recipe here https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/jan/19/yotam-ottolenghi-recipes-traybakes-pork-mushroom-pasta-spicy-chicken-chickpeas is addictive, although I do have a problem getting the texture of the split peas right. They have a tendency to come out soupy, in which case I bung in some frozen peas at the end. I tried it with some very old split peas that I found in the cupboard and they were fine, though a bit crunchier than I was expecting. I still have some left so I'll use them up the next time I make this.
The salmon and wakame one here https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/apr/27/yotam-ottolenghi-30-minute-recipes-beans-leeks-eggs-fried-tofu-salmon-potato-bake is lovely for summer. I didn't have any wakame the first time I made it so I used nori instead which was fine. As there are only two of us I smear one pair of the salmon pieces with the butter and keep them in the fridge to microwave with the veg when I heat it up the second time.
And finally the spicy berbere ratatouille here https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/jan/04/new-years-resolution-recipes-yotam-ottolenghi-chickpea-pancakes-fish-fritters-berbere-ratatouille ; is addictive. It's not ratatouille, of course, but it is spicy. The first time I did it I didn't have berebere spice so I made a substitute from an on-line recipe and it was fine, but better when I got a box of the real thing. Well, from Waitrose.
Oh, and a plentiful supply of banana bread (Nigella's recipe) because there are always slightly old bananas.
I've been doing a bit more, and more diverse, cooking at the moment as I seem to have a bit more time, or possibly more energy. I've got three of Yotam Ottolenghi's books and while Nopi is still a bit too complicated for me I have been doing new things both from Simple (Simple? Get a grip, Yotam!) and Plenty.
He's also been focusing on traybakes in these difficult times and here are some links to ones that have really worked for me: The chicken and split pea recipe here https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/jan/19/yotam-ottolenghi-recipes-traybakes-pork-mushroom-pasta-spicy-chicken-chickpeas is addictive, although I do have a problem getting the texture of the split peas right. They have a tendency to come out soupy, in which case I bung in some frozen peas at the end. I tried it with some very old split peas that I found in the cupboard and they were fine, though a bit crunchier than I was expecting. I still have some left so I'll use them up the next time I make this.
The salmon and wakame one here https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/apr/27/yotam-ottolenghi-30-minute-recipes-beans-leeks-eggs-fried-tofu-salmon-potato-bake is lovely for summer. I didn't have any wakame the first time I made it so I used nori instead which was fine. As there are only two of us I smear one pair of the salmon pieces with the butter and keep them in the fridge to microwave with the veg when I heat it up the second time.
And finally the spicy berbere ratatouille here https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/jan/04/new-years-resolution-recipes-yotam-ottolenghi-chickpea-pancakes-fish-fritters-berbere-ratatouille ; is addictive. It's not ratatouille, of course, but it is spicy. The first time I did it I didn't have berebere spice so I made a substitute from an on-line recipe and it was fine, but better when I got a box of the real thing. Well, from Waitrose.
Oh, and a plentiful supply of banana bread (Nigella's recipe) because there are always slightly old bananas.
