Ottolenghi - The Cookbook By Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi
Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi met in London but both grew up in Jerusalem, albeit in very different worlds: Ottolenghi was raised in the Jewish area, Tamimi on the Arab side.
Their four Ottolenghi restaurants in London serve Middle Eastern-inspired dishes at communal tables: the feeling, they say, is of eating in your mother's or grandmother's kitchen.
The recipes in the book reflect the hearty home-cooking feel. The lists of ingredients for many of the recipes seem dauntingly long at first glance but closer inspection shows that that is because the chefs use a lot of dried spices and fresh herbs that are popular in Middle Eastern cuisine. The execution of the dishes is straightforward; even the pastries are suitable for beginners. Dishes include couscous with dried apricots and butternut squash; chickpeas and spinach with honeyed sweet potatoes; lamb cutlets with walnut, fig and goat's cheese salad; beef and lamb meatballs baked in tahini; harissa-marinated chicken with red-grapefruit salad; semolina and raspberry tart; and pistachio and rosewater meringues.