Plenty More

Starred review from October 6, 2014
Ottolenghi is a food writer for the U.K.’s Guardian, as well as the owner of three gourmet delis and London’s Nopi restaurant. The heart of his operation, though, is a test kitchen nestled in a railway arch in central London, where he and his colleagues perfected the 150 recipes found here in his fourth cookbook. Offered as a sequel to his 2011 bestseller Plenty, the book is fairly dazzling in its use of obscure vegetation in the service of highly creative dishes. Barley rusks from Crete, known as dakos, are mixed in a salad with tomato and feta. Upma, an Indian semolina porridge, is flavored with ginger, peanuts, and lime pickle. Candy beets are simmered with lentils and yuzu. And familiar flavors turn up in unexpected places, as with the eggplant cheesecake and the Brussels sprout risotto. The dozen chapters are named for various cooking methods, and taken as a whole represent pretty much everything that can possibly be done to an unsuspecting veggie: tossed, steamed, blanched, simmered, braised, grilled, roasted, fried, mashed, cracked, baked, and sweetened. Cracked refers to the addition of eggs into the dish, such as in the membrillo (quince paste) and Stilton quiche. For those who prefer to hunt by ingredient, a comprehensive index points the way, from 11 recipes that employ almonds to seven options for zucchini.

Starred review from October 15, 2014

London chef Ottolenghi (Jerusalem), famous for his Mediterranean and Middle Eastern-inspired vegetable dishes, is credited with popularizing previously hard-to-find ingredients and inspiring some of today's hottest culinary trends. When he developed recipes for this book's best-selling predecessor, Plenty, he worked alone. For this sequel, he worked in an official test kitchen with a team of dedicated chefs to create 125 brand-new vegetable dishes, including pink grapefruit and sumac salad, eggplant with black garlic, and coated olives with spicy yogurt. These are organized by cooking method (e.g., tossed, blanched, simmered), and while they require time and finesse (tomato and pomegranate salad calls for meticulous dicing), they are often revelatory, introducing textures and flavor combinations that readers won't find elsewhere. VERDICT Ottolenghi's latest doesn't disappoint. Expect demand.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2014
Vegetarian superstar Ottolenghi's fertile imagination generously yields more vegetarian recipes from his London restaurant empire. This new cookbook divides into a dozen categories based on the vegetable cooking procedures involved: tossed, grilled, mashed, cracked, steamed, and more. Ottolenghi does not embrace veganism: many recipes make use of eggs, cheese, and other dairy products. Most recipes have long lists of ingredients to transform familiar vegetables into uncommonly savory dishes. Middle Eastern spices, cumin and turmeric especially, tend to dominate. Ottolenghi likes to play with textures, too. A rich baked pasta dish calls for broiling 'til the ziti is crisp on top. There's even a collection of sweetened vegetables that branches out into what might more familiarly be termed fruits. Some, but by no means all, of the ingredients may be challenging to source, but many staples may be readily mail-ordered via the Internet marketplace. The international popularity of Ottolenghi's Jerusalem (2012) ensures this follow-up volume's demand.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)