Ottolenghi Flavor: A Cookbook

Have you noticed how negative reviews invariably get more helpful votes than positive ones. When I checked out the reviews for this much-awaited and celebrated book by Ottolenghi, the first one that popped up was by somebody from the UK who called it 'disappointing' but had 193 helpful votes. There were no reviews on Amazon India and I decided to go with my gut feel about this book and the fact that except for his book NOPI, Yotam Ottolenghi has yet to disappoint me. And boy, am I glad that I bought it. I think it has to be one of his best books. Apart from bringing in his usual Middle Eastern touches, he has cleverly used Indian spices and techniques, such as tempering with curry leaves and mustard seeds etc to add another layer of flavour to many dishes. I tried his Potato Gratin last night - the addition of coconut cream was masterful and added such a depth of flavour to an otherwise ordinary western dish. His hummus uses ginger in addition to garlic, not only as part of the paste but also as a fried aromatic along with onions, cinammon and red chillies to add on top. His sweet potato and yogurt and lime mash recipe is clever and now a family favourite. I could go on and on. At the end of the book, his menu suggestions for everyday cooking and feasts are very useful. In this book, all recipes, except for three or four, have accompanying pictures. His section on 'Flavour bombs' is particularly useful - there are 23 different marinades, sauces, condiments, pickles, nuts and sprinkles that you can make that can lift the flavour profile of any meal. What doesn't work is the layout which is segregated into processes (charring, browning etc), pairing (sweetness, salt etc) and produce (mushrooms, alliums etc). There are some pages wasted on explaining what each of these items means. Maybe this is needed for newbie chefs but experienced cooks might become impatient with it. I recommend this book without hesitation for any cook who loves to try new flavour combinations. This is mostly a positive review and I bet I don't get many helpful votes if any at all.

New unusual flavors and fab review of cooking methods ... only for serious home cook's who want to raise their game.

One of the best books with the best recipes..just blindly go for it

Loved how vegetables are given pride of place in delicious recipes. A beautiful cook book. Definitely worth the splurge to make restaurant quality dishes at home.

My first Ottolenghi book though I have tried plenty of their recipes before. This one is for the advanced and experimental cook and somebody with a larder full of things already. Recipes are necessarily not complicated but require ingredients which are uncommon sometimes in India (cascabel chillies and barberry!) and advanced planning. That said, many recipes utilise the Indian tempering (bhuna, phoron) technique and its exciting to use it with unfamiliar dishes. Buy it only if you have a deep interest in cooking and trying out new dishes.

It came without plastic protective cover so all the white cover was dirty stained

Hervorragende Rezepte, ausgefallene Kombinationen und viele neue Anregungen. Allerdings nichts für Anfänger. Man sollte (wie bei anderen Kochbüchern auch) in der Lage sein, die Rezepte an seinen eigenen Geschmack anzupassen. Die Kritik, dass ausgefallene Zutaten verwendet werden, verstehe ich nicht. Wer nur Senf, Salz und Pfeffer verwenden möchte, sollte Oma Emmie's Kochbuch für deutsche Küche kaufen! Alle Zutaten - wenn nicht schon vorhanden - sind in DE zu bekommen (manche online). Mein einziger Kritikpunkt ist, dass sehr wenig frische, knackige Rezepte zu finden sind. Trotzdem volle Punktzahl. ------------------------------------------ As I bought the English version, here are my comments in English: Excellent recipes, unusual combinations and many new suggestions. However, nothing for beginners. You should (as with other cookbooks) be able to adjust the recipes to your own taste. I don't understand the criticism that unusual ingredients are used. If you only want to use mustard, salt and pepper, you should buy Granny Emmie's cookbook for German cuisine! If not already in stock, all ingredients are available in Germany (some online). My only criticism is that there are very few fresh crisp recipes to be found. Still, five points.

Ottolenghi flavor è pieno di ricette interessanti. tutte nel suo stile. vegetariane. ho provato già diverse e sono rimasta soddisfatta.

Excellent recipes. Wonderful pictures. I read cookbooks like novels since I don't cook much. I have a very small kitchen. Everyone lives happily ever after in this one.

This is an inspiring book, not only from a methods perspective but combinations of ingredients and why didn’t I think of that moments, aubergine dumpling parmigiana, such a great idea, I’m doing that today with regular meatballs too....dumpling roulette! Swede I tend to mash and roast only but now will definitely be making the steak and gnocchi. I’m growing celeriac and now have 3 new recipes that I can’t wait to make! Spookily I had purchased mushroom growing kits earlier this week before the book came out, so glad I did! Lots of new recipes for mushrooms, baked ragu looks amazing. I am also a massive onion fan and to have new recipes I have not tried (and I have tried a lot) is great. I really like how this book is organised as quite often you find yourself fancying something smokey or charred or acidic or sweet, to have the recipes organised this way really helps. I really liked that at the end of the book there is a guide to which recipes can be done quickly, for a dinner party, in one pan etc so you can go straight to something you need and the flavour bomb guide to take you back to some of the dressings and sauces quickly, there are several dressings from previous books that we do all the time....so to have the quick reference is really helpful. I will come back when I have tried more of the recipes, the problem I am having is which to do next, so many I like the look of! So I have tried the aubergine parmiagana, and the comment was “the best tomato sauce ever” and I have cooked a lot of tomato sauces! The ingredients were roughly the same as other sauces I have tried, the method wasn’t, so must have made the difference. I have now also used this same tomato sauce recipe for pizza topping and a pasta salad, by stopping after first stage of the tomato sauce...3 for 1 recipe, inspired by the method, it works really well. Spicy potatoes with the tahini dressing were a big hit, and I used the dressing again with the cucumber salad. I chucked in an avocado as there was one in the fridge which was not in the recipe, but it went well, I might throw in some microherbs next time too. The roasted cauliflower in chilli butter was delicious, the method of roasting the cauliflower worked better than other recipes I have tried. I like the suggestion of roasting a chicken with this butter too, that is next on the to do list.