Book Review

Ottolenghi Flavour by Yotam Ottolenghi

WORDS VICKI RAVLICH-HORAN

The third installment in Yotam’s bestselling and multi-award-winning Plenty series, Ottolenghi Flavour celebrates the limitless potential of vegetables and reveals how to transform them into magical dishes.

Flavour-forward, vegetable-based recipes are at the heart of Yotam Ottolenghi’s food. In this stunning new cookbook, Yotam and cowriter Ixta Belfrage break down the three factors that create flavour and offer innovative vegetable dishes that deliver brand new ingredient combinations to excite and inspire. Ottolenghi Flavour combines simple recipes for weeknights, low-effort high-impact dishes, and standout meals for the relaxed cook. The book is broken down into three parts, which reveal how to tap into the potential of ordinary vegetables to create extraordinary food: ‘Process’ explains cooking methods that elevate veg to great heights; ‘Pairing’ identifies four basic pairings that are fundamental to great flavour; ‘Produce’ offers impactful vegetables that do the work for you. With sure-fire hits such as Aubergine Dumplings alla Parmigiana, Hasselback Beetroot with Lime Leaf Butter, Miso Butter Onions, Spicy Mushroom Lasagne and Romano Pepper Schnitzels, plus mouth-watering photographs of nearly every one of the more than 100 recipes, Ottolenghi Flavour is the impactful, next-level approach to vegetable cooking.

Published Ebury Press, RRP $60

Extracted from Ottolenghi Flavour by Yotam Ottolenghi and Ixta Belfrage (Ebury Press, $60) Photography by Jonathan Lovekin.

Chaat Masala Potatoes With Yoghurt And Tamarind

This dish is inspired by aloo chaat, an Indian street food that has many regional variations, all of which are not for the faint-hearted because they are loaded with sweet and sour and a fair bit of crunch. This is a slightly tamer version, though still pretty ‘noisy’, both in flavour and in looks. It’s absolutely perfect for a weekend lunch, alongside other vegetables, such as the aubergine with herbs and crispy garlic, or the radish and cucumber salad with chipotle peanuts. You can also serve it as a side with roasted lamb or chicken. Chaat masala is the slightly tangy spice mix that gives this dish its distinctive flavour. It gets its sharpness from amchoor, dried mango powder, which is used widely in Indian cooking as a souring agent. You’d recognise the flavour from samosas and pakoras, where it is often used. Both the coriander chutney and the tamarind sauce are great condiments to have on hand to brighten up sandwiches and wraps, to spoon over eggs, or to serve alongside tofu or fish. Double or triple them, if you like – the coriander chutney will keep in the fridge for up to a week and the tamarind sauce for up to 2 weeks.

750g baby new potatoes, cut lengthways into 1cm-thick slices 2 tbsp olive oil 1 tsp chaat masala ½ tsp ground turmeric 250g Greek-style yoghurt ½ small red onion, peeled and thinly sliced into rounds on a mandolin, if you have one, or by hand 1 green chilli, thinly sliced into rounds 1½ tsp coriander seeds, toasted 1½ tsp nigella seeds, toasted salt

CORIANDER CHUTNEY 30g fresh coriander 1 green chilli, deseeded and roughly chopped 1 tbsp lime juice 60ml olive oil

SWEET TAMARIND DRESSING 1½ tbsp shop-bought tamarind paste, or double if you’re extracting it yourself from pulp 1½ tsp caster sugar ¼ tsp chaat masala

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C fan.

2. Put the potatoes and 2 teaspoons of salt into a medium saucepan and top with enough cold water to cover by about 4cm. Place on a medium-high heat, bring to the boil, then simmer for 6 minutes, or until they’re almost cooked through but still retain a bite. Drain through a sieve and pat dry, then transfer to a large parchment-lined baking tray and toss with the oil, chaat masala, turmeric, 1 / 3 teaspoon of salt and a good grind of pepper. Roast, stirring once or twice, for 35 minutes, or until deeply golden.

3. Meanwhile, make the coriander chutney. Put all the ingredients and ¼ teaspoon of salt into the small bowl of a food processor and blitz until smooth. Set aside until needed.

4. For the tamarind dressing, whisk together all the ingredients in a small bowl with 1½ teaspoons of water and set aside.

5. Spread the yoghurt out on a large round serving platter. Top with the coriander chutney, swirling it through without completely incorporating. Drizzle with half the tamarind dressing, and top with the potatoes, onion and chilli. Drizzle over the remaining tamarind, then sprinkle over the seeds and serve.

ph. 07 214 2275 | w. RedKitchen.co.nz

HIAKAI Modern Māori Cuisine

WORDS VICKI RAVLICH-HORAN | IMAGE AMBER-JAYNE BAIN

Named one of the Greatest Places of 2019 by Time magazine, one of the 10 coolest places to Eat in 2020 by Forbes, lauded by National Geographic, the New York Times as well as Cuisine magazine, Hiakai has taken the New Zealand food scene by storm.

“Chef Monique Fiso is a special talent, a woman with a vision for merging ancient Maori techniques and traditions with modernist touches and boundless imagination.” – Forbes Magazine

Monique recalls from a young age helping her Nan prepare Sunday lunch. “I loved it,” she says. “The other kids would be outside playing but I’d be standing on a chair cutting the vermicelli noodles for chop suey. By the time I was seventeen, I knew I wanted to be a chef.” After training at Wellington Institute of Technology and working at Martin Bosley’s, Monique headed for The Big Apple where she worked for an array of renowned restaurants. She returned in 2016 and began the pop-up dining series called Hiakai which then evolved to the celebrated restaurant in Wellington.

“Hiakai is the Māori word for hungry or having a craving for food,” says Monique. “I think it captures everything about what we are trying to do; to fill up our bellies and our minds with the indigenous ingredients that nourished our ancestors.”

Monique says, “I didn’t grow up knowing a lot about my Māori heritage; as I got older I wanted to connect with it and realised I could do this through food.”

Just as there is no other restaurant like Hiakai, there is no other like its namesake the cookbook. In fact, to call Hiakai a cookbook is a disservice. Not until page 146 do we actually get a recipe, with the first half of the book a stunning resource for anyone interested in learning more about native New Zealand food. Monique says with Hiakai the restaurant “I wanted to create a modern dining experience and a new chapter for the next generation of chefs”. And with this beautiful resource she will continue to inspire and lead future chefs.

“It’s my hope,” says Monique, “that this book will help you look at Māori cuisine in a new way, to understand and respect the rich history, culture and knowledge that it contains.”

Fittingly, the first recipe is for rēwena bread, a dish that so many Kiwis have enjoyed since childhood, a dish that intertwines Māori food with Pākehā, for as Monique points out, pre Europeans there was no flour in New Zealand. And as you would expect, Monique has put her own spin on rēwena making them as flat bread and serving them with titi butter. “As a chef, I want my food to challenge people and their assumptions — it has to be delicious and creative but it also has to tell a story.” – Monique Fiso

At this point you might be wondering where you are going to find titi fat to make said butter. But as I mentioned, this is not a cookbook like any other. Monique admits “some of the recipes require equipment or skills not often found in domestic kitchens, but others are more achievable for home cooks. Either way, I hope the recipes will stimulate your curiosity and creativity.”

WANT TO EXPERIENCE HIAKAI THE RESTAURANT? Join us for our Nourish weekend in Wellington where dinner at Hiakai will be just one of the amazing experiences planned. www.nourishmagazine.co.nz/aboutus/nourish-foodie-tours/

© MANJA WACHSMUTH 2020

Published by Penguin Random House

RRP $65

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