Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Shelf Love

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Heat the oven to 180C (170C fan)/375F/gas 5. Line a 30cm x 20cm baking dish with a piece of baking paper large enough to cover the base and sides, with enough overhang to fold over the pudding as well. I will caveat my review by saying that I am a fan of Ottolenghi and had a number of his other cookbooks, which I love to read as much as cook from. This magnificent pudding was made with the purpose of showcasing winter lemons, their bitter flesh a great way to cut through an otherwise decadent eating experience. In a happy accident, this was tested alongside a separate dish that included a maple-butter sauce. A squeeze of lemon and a generous amount of maple butter was spooned over the pudding because, well, why not? And it suddenly dawned on us that lemon‑maple butter had been the missing component all along. Lesson learned: sometimes that which is very, very wrong can turn out to be really quite right. Be sure to remove the butter for the pudding from the fridge well in advance – it needs to be super softened at room temperature before making the base. You can tell a lot about a person from what they keep stashed on ice. This is what we always have to hand.

Meanwhile, cook the eggs in boiling water for eight minutes, or until just hard-boiled. Drain, peel and discard the shells, then use a box grater to roughly grate the eggs and add them to the potato bowl.

Retailers:

Shelf Love is meant to be more of a simplified home cooking recipe book but, as this is still an Ottolenghi cookbook, you will have to take this with a pinch of salt. The recipes are not difficult but they are often time consuming and involve and number of different elements (and a lot of washing up)!! Roughly chop the spring onions and add two-thirds to the spinach bowl. Add the cooked couscous, crushed coriander seeds, both cheeses, the garlic, basil, yoghurt, eggs, flour, half a teaspoon of salt and a good grind of pepper, and mix well.

Drizzle one-third of the lemon-maple butter over the pudding and serve warm with the extra maple butter and creme fraiche alongside. the book is a small, flexibound format
2. don’t worry, there is still at least one (but usually several) photo of every recipe
3. the book will not fit in with your other Ottolenghi books
4. because it’s not meant to.Set aside 100g of the beans in a medium bowl. Put the remaining beans, 600ml of water and one teaspoon of salt into a medium saucepan on a medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 15 minutes, or until the beans are nicely softened and warmed through. Keep warm on a low heat until ready to serve.