The book is Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi, chef and owner of the wildly popular, highly acclaimed London restaurant that carries his name. It is a book of vegetable-based, if not strictly vegetarian, recipes, divided in 15 sections, according to the featured vegetable.
The recipes I picked for this years challenge are listed on a separate page on this blog. The only criteria I used was this: Does it sound like something my family might enjoy eating? The object for me was to expand my repertoire of interesting vegetable salads and side dishes while at the same time encouraging a certain amount of public writing. Challenging my family's tastes? Well, that was not quite so high on my list of priorities.
That means the recipes I selected are ones that most appealed to me, and they certainly do not represent any rigorous exploration of everything Ottolenghi might try to do. Fortunately, Ottolenghi and I share a love of greens and beans and mushrooms that made a number of his recipes obvious candidates for my list. Likewise tomatos. You'll notice, though, if you have the book in hand, that there are very very few options from Zucchini and Other Squashes section, and exactly none from The Mighty Eggplant. Please don't hold this against me. And, definitely do not let my tastes deter you from giving any of these other recipes a try.
The recipes are listed as I found them in the book: they are NOT listed in the order I intend to try them. I actually have no idea about the order I intend to follow. So far, all I know is that I intend to make them all. And as I finish them, each recipe in the list will link to its post
If you're curious, though, the first post, coming this Thursday, will be about the Watercress, Pistachio and Orange Blossom Salad (p. 154). If you feel like trying this yourself and writing about your own results, let me know, and I'll link to you in the post.
And that's the plan, as much as I have one. One post about one recipe each week, probably on Thursdays. I'll try to let you know then what I'm planning to do the following week. Just in case any one wants to join in.
Until then, bon appetit!
It's a wonderful plan and the salad sounds great! I'm so glad you are writing publicly again! Can't wait to see how it's turning out!
ReplyDeleteHey! I've got this book! Crazy-- I hadn't thought about it in a loooooong time but came across it when I was cleaning out my bookshelves. The recipes sound delicious but I've never actually made any of them because they usually require exotic ingredients-- no problem there but I just need to be better organized and not flip through this beautiful book 1/2 hour before dinnertime! ;-). Please keep us posted- am dead curious about how your dishes will turn out! (delicious, I'm sure. how could you go wrong with a salad like that?!)
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