3 Mythical Dishes by *Yotam Ottolenghi !! 🌞

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*Hawaij chicken sandwich with quick herby slaw

We all know someone who makes the most incredible chicken sandwich -
usually involving some secret spice blend or mysterious frying technique.
This is my attempt at creating my own mythical sandwich: hawaij-spiced
chicken that's warming without being heavy, tucked into soft flatbread with
a herby slaw that cuts through all that richness. It comes together in about
an hour, most of which is just letting the chicken marinate while you get on
with other things.


1 jar Hawaij paste
700g (24 1/2 oz) skinless and boneless chicken thighs
½ tsp fine sea salt
80ml (2 2/3 oz) buttermilk
2 tbsp olive oil
200g (7 oz) white cabbage, thinly sliced on a mandoline
15g (1/2 oz) picked herbs (we used a mix of dill, parsley and mint)
60ml (2 oz) lemon juice from 1-2 lemons

TO SERVE

mayonnaise
warmed flatbreads
fine sea salt


Method

1. Place 50g (2 oz) of the Hawaij paste in a bowl with the chicken, buttermilk and ½ teaspoon of salt. Set aside to marinate for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

2. Place a large frying pan on medium high heat and once hot, add in the olive oil and cook the chicken in two batches for 3 minutes on each side until slightly charred.

3. Set aside to rest for 5 minutes then cut diagonally in 1 ½ cm thick slices. Stir in the remaining Hawaij with 2 tablespoons of the lemon juice and mix well.

4. In a bowl, mix the cabbage and herbs with the remaining 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and ¼ teaspoon of salt.

5. To assemble, spread some mayonnaise on the flatbreads, spoon over the chicken followed by the slaw. Wrap tightly in a burrito style, cut in half and serve.

*Hawaij Paste

Hawaij (pronounced ha-WAY-ij) is a Yemeni spice blend that brings together ginger, cardamom, and turmeric with warming cinnamon and cloves - we’ve blended into a ready-to-use paste that saves you grinding and mixing. Stir a spoonful into soups for instant depth, rub onto meat before roasting, or mix it with oil for a quick vegetable marinade.

Ingredients

Yield: About ¾ cup
¼ cup ground cumin
1tablespoon ground cardamom
2tablespoons turmeric
1tablespoon ground coriander
¼ cup freshly ground black pepper

Preparation

Step 1
In a black iron or heavy-bottomed skillet combine the cumin, cardamom, turmeric and coriander. Place over very low heat and toast, stirring constantly, for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, add the black pepper and stir well. Store the blend in a tightly sealed container for up to one month.

Step 2
Rub hawaij liberally into fish, chicken, lamb, pork or beef one hour before cooking.

https://ottolenghi.co.uk/pages/recipes/hawaij-chicken-sandwich-quick-herby-slaw



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Roasted aubergines and butter beans in chilli pesto

Every so often, there's a recipe you find yourself making over and over - the kind that slips effortlessly into rotation because it hits that perfect balance of effort and reward. Here's one for your collection. Aubergines go from sometimes-difficult to almost buttery when given enough time in a hot oven, butterbeans develop golden crusts (keeping their creamy interiors), and cherry tomatoes collapse into sweet puddles that bind it all together. The magic ingredient is our Calabrian Chilli Pesto – it does all the heavy lifting in terms of flavour. Serve with some rice or flatbreads for scooping up every bite.

Ingredients

5 garlic cloves, peeled
2 onions, cut into 12 wedges (360g)
1 large aubergine, cut into 6 wedges (400g)
120ml (4 oz) olive oil
1 jar butterbeans, drained (400g)
1 jar Ottolenghi Calabrian Chilli Pesto
240g (8 oz) plum tomatoes
greek yoghurt, to serve
coriander leaves, to serve
fine sea salt and black pepper

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 230C. (450° F)

2. Add the garlic, onion, aubergine, half the oil, ¼ teaspoon of salt and a good grind of pepper to a 30 centimetre shallow cast iron pan. Mix well and roast for 20 minutes until golden and softened.

3. Meanwhile, mix the remaining oil with the butterbeans, pesto, tomatoes and ¼ teaspoon of salt. Spoon the butterbean mixture over the aubergines and roast for a further 15 minutes until some of the butterbeans have slightly charred in places.

4. Serve alongside the yoghurt and coriander if using.


https://ottolenghi.co.uk/pages/recipes/roasted-aubergines-butter-beans-chilli-pesto

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Black and white hummus


Black chickpeas don’t get nearly enough attention. Nutty and toothsome, they add a whole new layer of texture to hummus when roasted—whether you’re making it from scratch (recipe below) or going shop-bought. Roasted cauliflower makes the ideal co-star, soaking up garam masala before being piled high over creamy hummus.
Serve with plenty of warm flatbreads for scooping, and don’t skip the drizzle of olive oil at the end.

Ingredients

150ml (5 oz) olive oil
1 pack fresh curry leaves (about 3 stems)
1 jar Bold Bean black chickpeas, drained, rinsed and patted dry (400g)
400g (14 oz) cauliflower, cut into small bite-sized florets
1 large onion, cut into 8 wedges (200g)
4 tsp garam masala
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 ½ tsp onion powder or granules
1 tsp garlic granules
½ tsp sugar
2 tsp cornflour
2 tsp lemon juice
*hummus, shop bought or home made (quick at home recipe below)
¼ tsp chaat masala, to finish (optional)
salt

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 220c. (425° F)

2. Add the oil to a small saucepan and place on a medium heat. When hot, add the curry leaves and let them sizzle for about 10 seconds until crisp and translucent (stand back as the oil will splutter quite a bit). Strain the oil into a large roasting tin and set the curry leaves aside for later.

3. Add the next 9 ingredients, along with 1 teaspoon of salt to the roasting tin and mix to combine. Place in the oven for 20-25 minutes, stirring halfway through, until the vegetables are well caramelised. Stir in the lemon juice and set aside to cool slightly.

4. Spread the hummus onto a serving plate and spoon over the chickpea topping, followed by a sprinkling of chaat masala. Scatter over some curry leaves and finish with a generous drizzle of olive oil.


*Quick hummus recipe

1. Add everything to the bowl of a food processor, along with ¾ teaspoons of salt and process until the chickpeas are broken down and starting to form a puree. With the machine running, stream in 80-100 millilitres of ice cold water (or ice cubes if you have some) and process until ultra smooth and creamy, scraping down the bowl as needed.

https://ottolenghi.co.uk/pages/recipes/black-white-hummus



Delicious veggie-magic from across the pond!


*Yotam Ottolenghi:

"VEGI-RENAISSANCE

Chunky green olives in olive oil; a heady marinade of soy
sauce and chile; crushed chickpeas with green peas;
smoky paprika in a potent dip; quinoa, bulgur, and
buckwheat wedded in a citrus dressing; tahini and
halvah ice cream; savory puddings; fennel braised in
verjuice; Vietnamese salads and Lebanese dips; thick
yogurt over smoky eggplant pulp—I could go on and on
with a list that is intricate, endless, and exciting. But I
wasn’t always aware of this infinite bounty; it took me
quite a while to discover it. Let me explain.

As you grow older, I now realize, you stop being scared of
some things that used to absolutely terrify you. When I
was a little, for example, I couldn’t stand being left on my
own. I found the idea—not the experience, as I was never
really left alone—petrifying. I fiercely resented the notion
of spending an evening unaccompanied well into my
twenties; I always had a “plan.” When I finally forced
myself to face this demon, I discovered, of course, that
not only was my worry unfounded, I could actually feast
on my time alone.

Eight years ago, facing the prospect of writing a weekly
vegetarian recipe in the Guardian, I found myself
gripped by two such paralyzing fears.

First, I didn’t want to be pigeonholed as someone who
cooks only vegetables. At the time, and in some senses
still today, vegetables and legumes were not precisely the
top choice for most cooks. Meat and fish were the
undisputed heroes in lots of homes and restaurant
kitchens. They got the “star treatment” in terms of
attention and affection; vegetables got the supporting
roles, if any.

Still, I jumped into the water and, fortunately, just as I
was growing up and overcoming my fear, the world of
food was also growing up. We have moved forward a fair
bit since 2006. Overall, more and more confirmed
carnivores, chefs included, are happy to celebrate
vegetables, grains, and legumes. They do so for a variety
of reasons related to reducing their meat consumption:
animal welfare is often quoted, as well as the
environment, general sustainability, and health.
However, I am convinced there is an even bigger
incentive, which relates to my second big fear when I
took on the Guardian column: running out of ideas.

It was in only the second week of being the newspaper’s
vegetarian columnist that I felt the chill up my spine. I
suddenly realized that I had only about four ideas up my
sleeve—enough for a month—and after that, nothing! My
inexperience as a recipe writer led me to think that there
was a finite number of vegetarian ideas and that it
wouldn’t be long before I’d exhausted them.

Not at all! As soon as I opened my eyes, I began
discovering a world of ingredients and techniques, dishes
and skills that ceaselessly informed me and fed me. And
I was not the only one. Many people, initially weary of
the limiting nature of the subject matter (we are, after
all, never asked in a restaurant how we’d like our
cauliflower cooked: medium or medium-well), had
started to discover a whole range of cuisines, dishes, and
ingredients that make vegetables shine like any bright
star."

From "Plenty More" by Yotam Ottolenghi
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20691056-plenty-more