Cooking with Ottolenghi's "Plenty"

[blue_dolphin]

Pear Crostini from Plenty p 278.  Very nice with a glass of wine.

I was so tempted to make some of these with gorgonzola instead of goat cheese but with the ground pine nut/garlic/oil mixture that gets baked onto the toast, goat cheese is really the right choice. The pears get a dip in a lemon juice/sugar/olive oil mix to help the grill marks along.  I substituted tarragon for the specified chervil. My copy of Plenty says to slice the bread 1.5 inches thick. Wrong - it's supposed to be 1.5 cm. So annoying that no one caught these incorrect unit translations.

 

[blue_dolphin]

Stuffed Portobello with Melting Taleggio from Plenty p 56.  The ingredient list is online here. 

I used some bigger cremini instead of portobellos and used a little less sun dried tomatoes than called for but otherwise followed the recipe. 

Stuffing contains onion, celery, sundried tomato, garlic, Parmesan, tarragon & basil.
I have had some tasty stuffed mushrooms in the past but I've never tasted a better melty cheese than Taleggio - so, so good!

[Anna N]

14 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

Stuffed Portobello with Melting Taleggio from Plenty p 56.  The ingredient list is online here. 

 Any thoughts on what might work in place of the Taleggio?  Even when I asked my well stocked cheesemonger who carries almost everything known in the cheese world at one time or another could not come up with this cheese.  And chances of finding it on an island in the  wilds of Canada are pretty much zero.

[blue_dolphin]

39 minutes ago, Anna N said:

 Any thoughts on what might work in place of the Taleggio?  Even when I asked my well stocked cheesemonger who carries almost everything known in the cheese world at one time or another could not come up with this cheese.  And chances of finding it on an island in the  wilds of Canada are pretty much zero.

Well, if you can find a slightly stinky, semi-soft, washed rind cheese that would be closest.

I might try some of that smoky blue cheese you had earlier.

[Anna N]

15 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

Well, if you can find a slightly stinky, semi-soft, washed rind cheese that would be closest.

I might try some of that smoky blue cheese you had earlier.

 I was hoping for something other than blue cheese since I don't think Kerry is a great fan. No worries. They do look tasty.  Thank you. Oh and by the way I spit my coffee all over my iPad when you suggested that I look for "a slightly stinky, semi-soft washed rind cheese" on "Moanitoulin"

[blue_dolphin]

49 minutes ago, Anna N said:

 I was hoping for something other than blue cheese since I don't think Kerry is a great fan. No worries. They do look tasty.  Thank you. Oh and by the way I spit my coffee all over my iPad when you suggested that I look for "a slightly stinky, semi-soft washed rind cheese" on "Moanitoulin"

Understood!  

I'll say that the Taleggio really added a ton of flavor to this recipe so I would choose the most strongly flavored cheese you can access, or a mix of a strong stinky and a soft melty. 

It's also quite salty so you'll probably want more salt in the stuffing if you go with a different cheese.

[chefmd]

On July 1, 2017 at 11:53 AM, Anna N said:

 Any thoughts on what might work in place of the Taleggio?  Even when I asked my well stocked cheesemonger who carries almost everything known in the cheese world at one time or another could not come up with this cheese.  And chances of finding it on an island in the  wilds of Canada are pretty much zero.

Try Brie or camambert, the texture is similar.  It will not have that lovely stinky aroma though...

[caroled]

How about some Morbier?

 

[Anna N]

8 hours ago, caroled said:

How about some Morbier?

 

On Manitoulin?  Not likely.  But thanks for the suggestion.   I may have to leave the mushrooms until we move south again.  

[Chris Hennes]

Parsnip dumplings in broth, p. 28

 

 

One of the few recipes in the book I still hadn't made, this is a straightforward vegetarian broth (with prunes added for body and color) and parsnip and potato dumplings. It works reasonably well as a first course, I think. Good, but not as fantastic as some of the other recipes in the book.

[blue_dolphin]

Caramelized Garlic Tart from Ottolenghi's Plenty p 38.  @Chris Hennes posted about making this upthread here. 

 

 

I cheated and used a regular crust (and yes, full disclosure, it came from Pillsbury )  instead of puff pastry but the finished product is still very rich and delicious.   For the hard goat cheese, I used a mix of goat gouda and goat cheddar.  Silver Goat for the soft chèvre.   

[Smokeydoke]

^^ that's lovely. I love that you did it in a pie crust, as I don't have a tart pan (yeah I know, I have everything else, but what I need). Did you do anything different to compensate?

 

I've got some frozen pie crests that are begging to be used.

[blue_dolphin]

6 minutes ago, Smokeydoke said:

^^ that's lovely. I love that you did it in a pie crust, as I don't have a tart pan (yeah I know, I have everything else, but what I need). Did you do anything different to compensate?

I've got some frozen pie crests that are begging to be used.

 

The recipe called for an 11-inch tart pan.  I used a 10-inch glass pie pan so I need to roll out the pie crust a bit bigger than the packaged size.  I used an egg wash, applied after removing the pie weights, as I usually do with a custard pie.  Since my pan was a bit smaller, I cut back a little on the filling.  I used the full amount of garlic but just shy of 4 oz each of the hard and soft goat cheeses and ~ 5T each of the heavy cream and crème fraîche.  Since some of the egg went into the egg wash, I didn't adjust that. 

[blue_dolphin]

Egg, Spinach and Pecorino pizza from Ottolenghi's Plenty p 156.  No onion or garlic here.  The only seasonings are sumac and za'atar.

 

 

 

Some modifications.  I used a dough ball that I had in the fridge instead of the one in the recipe.  Probably could have split it into 2 pies.   Used a mix of fresh baby kale, chard and mustard greens plus some frozen spinach, likely more overall than intended.  The recipe calls for 2.75 oz grated pecorino on a 7-inch pie.  Mine was 9-inches but that much finely grated cheese is rather a mountain so I used less.   The recipe says to add the egg towards the end of cooking and use a fork to spread the white around but don't break the yolk.  I didn't think I could do that so I separated the egg, spread the white around as directed and cooked until the white was set up before I dropped the yolk on top.  Still managed to break it 🙃 but at least I got a cooked white and runny yolk. 

Good flavor combination.  I may this again as I'd like to master the egg on a single serving pizza trick and I'm clearly not there yet!