The extra good things in Ottolenghi Test Kitchen's star jars - The Jewish Chronicle

The pair’s latest book, Extra Good Things (“EGT”), published this week is the second in a series from the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen (“OTK”). The first — Shelf Love — dropped last year heralding a diversion from the coffee table tome the Israeli uber chef had delivered to our kitchens on an almost annual basis. With its wipe-clean cover and punchy prose, it was more of a kitchen workhorse than previous titles.

EGT has the same practical bent, but instead of sharing pandemic-inspired tips on how to make the most of limited stores, we’re being encouraged to fill those shelves and refrigerator drawers with jars of flavour to add to our food.
“Shelf Love was all about stripping the shelves in your kitchen. Extra Good Things is all about filling them up with the added little extras. Different condiments, sauces, sprinkles and pickles. All the things you need to accessorise your plates of food” explains Noor, who heads up the OTK team.

Since last year, the test kitchen team has grown to nine in number; each member adding something to the melting pot of flavours and textures that Ottolenghi-produced recipes have come to signify.

Noor writes in the book’s introduction that as diverse as they are, they all “speak the same food language”.

Blackened chicken

The book includes dishes like blackened chicken with caramel and clementine dressing that explode with flavour Photo Elena Heatherwick

She describes the process as “Ottolenghifying” — which she defines as adding flair and a slight twist to the familiar.

Yotam laughs when I ask how it feels to have your name used as a verb: “It’s useful shorthand and has made our lives easier, because we know what we’re aiming for when we say something is Ottolenghified,” he explains. “It’s using things with lots of flavour, making things different and exciting and full of surprises. A particular way you can turn simple things into things that have those layers of flavour which comes with condiments. Ottlenghifying signifies that. I think it’s really cool.”

When he and Sami Tamimi (co-founder of the Ottolenghi restaurants) launched their flavour-filled menu 20 years ago, all it took was a sprinkle of an unfamiliar ingredient such as za’atar to wow the crowds. Now the Israeli favourite herb blend as well as pomegranate molasses and tahina seem to be on pretty well every supermarket shelf, does it take more work to impress?

Noor doesn’t think it’s harder: “If anything, it comes naturally, because everyone in the kitchen is well versed in what it takes to make a dish ‘Ottolenghi’. We know how to take something and not try to be too clever, but change it in some way, maybe with a fresh salsa or by plating it differently. We always keep in mind how we’re layering the flavours.”

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Noor and Yotam want you to Ottolenghify your food with these jars full of flavour Photo: Elena Heatherwick

The book gives the home cook a number of elements — photographed at the start of each chapter in a selection of pots and jars — to build up those depths of taste and texture. Chapters are broken down into the different edible “accessories”: which includes ferments or pickles such as Aleppo-salted cabbage; sauces including umami-packed cultural hybrid, tahini parmesan dressing; crunchy toppings like pine-nut crumble; fresh salsas (think coriander pesto or carrot-ginger dressing; flavoured oils such as smoky chipotle — which they term the finishing flourishes to a dish; and finally a range of technique-based desserts to build on, which include a flakey pie dough and gluten-free pistachio macaron cake, the latter inspired by one of Noor’s childhood favourites made by her talented baker mum, Vanessa.

Noor confesses it’s one of her favourite recipes in the book. “It’s is a riff on my mum’s walnut cake. She’s a really excellent baker. Every week she’d get together with the other expat mums in Bahrain [where Noor grew up]. All of them would look forward to coming to her house , and when I was a kid I’d wish that the mums wouldn’t go for seconds of that cake as there’d be less left over!”

Each of these is a component in a second recipe — banana ketchup gives a sticky sweet glaze to chicken wings; feta cream is pooled under beets, charred spring onions and (old friend) za’atar; and saffron water adorns caramelised fennel and orzo. Suggestions are provided as to how to use your new flavour/texture bomb to Ottolenghify your next meal. “What makes this book so funky is the idea that you can Ottolenghify scrambled eggs or a sandwich. The most accessible things that people make without thinking,” explains Yotam.

What do his parents make of this neologism of their surname and their son’s worldwide fame? “My mum used to run a high school in Jerusalem. We’d walk down the street and constantly see ex-students. I remember it was so boring as she’d see someone every two seconds. Everybody knew her — it drove me insane! I used to have people asking me all the time if I was related to Ruth Ottolenghi and I’d say ‘yes she’s my mum’, rolling my eyes. It has turned and now she has to do that! She said recently ‘I think you’re more famous than me now.’”

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Polenta pizza will warm up winter evenings Photo: Elena Heatherwick

Does he get spotted frequently? “Not really. It depends where I am. Most people don’t recognise me, which I’m happy about, but it can happen sometimes when I’d rather not be seen. Like getting on one of those street bikes when I cannot get the seat up. I know I look ridiculous, and someone will stop me. I don’t want a selfie when I look like that!”

The book highlights family-friendly food. Do his children, Finn (seven) and Max(nine) turn their noses up at his recipes? “This time last year I would have said they do, but since then they’ve come on in leaps and bounds, especially Max — there were a lot of things he didn’t eat. Now he’ll try everything and that makes me extremely happy. I love food so much and I just want to share that with my kids. It’s frustrating when they won’t try this or have that.”

He proudly tells me that Max has even been helping him in the kitchen. “We were in Greece this summer and for the first time he wanted to get involved in cooking. He made tzatziki by himself. I showed him how to drain the cucumber. He was very excited learning about the processes. My dream is that we can spend time cooking together — to have that connection.”

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Meringue roulade packed with apples is a perfect autumn bake Photo: Elena Heatherwick

Is the timing of a book exhorting us to fill our shelves a concern when the cost of living is forcing us to tighten our belts? “The book‘s pretty apt for this economy,” explains Noor. “All the EGTs are how you bring luxury home and how you treat yourself in very accessible ways,. With things you can find in your greengrocer or local shop that are not hard to find, but you’ll feel you’re eating something a bit fancy because you’ve topped your beans on toast with this herbaceous pesto and it’s the most luxurious beans on toast you’ve ever had.”

The pesto-topped beans are Yotam’s personal pick from the book for its delicious simplicity.
“It’s about what you can do with extra effort with cheap ingredients (mostly vegetables, herbs and spices) to make your food delicious. And I think we will have to spend more time at home making more of an effort because buying expensive or too often will become complicated for many people. The jars will be your saviours, because that jar full of flavour will help you make something simple — toast, a roast potato or rice — special.”

Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Extra Good Things (Ebury Press)

Find the recipe for Yotam and Noor's Polenta pizza with bechamel, feta and za'atar tomatoes here.

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Ottolenghi