e eats: 2013

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Last night was the first meeting of our new Cookbook Club.
For Hannukah, my friend D got Jerusalem: A Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi. She thought it would be fun for a group of food-loving people to get togethr and make dishes from a particular cookbook, or chef. The Jerusalem served as our first featured cookbook, and we added Ottolenghi's Plenty to offer more options.
The result was an amazing meal. Surprisingly, it was mostly vegetarian, but all the dishes were so flavorful, no one really missed anything.
Here's the recap - first, are the dishes made from the Jersusalem cookbook:
Our hostess D made my favorite dish of the evening, Pureed Beets with yogurt & za'atar (Pg 53)

D had found some amazing beets at the Marin farmer's market, and was inspired to make this dish Flavored with garlic, red chile, date syrup, and za'atar, the sweetness of the beets was still the star of this dish.
Jay and Stephanie, made a beautifully plated Swiss Chard with Tahini, Yogurt & Buttered Pine Nuts (pg 88-9)

Swiss chard and yogurt are very common ingredients in Ottelenghi's recipes (you'll see more....)
Ross made the only meat dish of the evening. Lamb-Stuffed Quince with Pomegranate & Cilantro (pgs 154-155). Ross has a quince tree, but sadly they were not in season, so he substituted pears instead.

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There were two desserts made from this cookbook.
The first, our hostess D made a Semolina, Coconut & Marmalade cake (Pg 264)

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Another one of my favorites I packed a few leftover slices to bring home. Bright and flavorful, the cake is soaked in orange blossom syrup after baking and served with Greek yogurt (again) flavored with a drop of orange blossom water.
Susie made molded filled cookies called ma'amul (pgs 288-289). She is fortunate to own a "tabbeh", a wooden mold that are used to give Ma'amul cookies their shape and ornate design. Each cookie is stuffed with dates and walnuts, baked and finsihed with a sprinkling of powdered sugar.

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These next dishes come from Ottelenghi's earlier cookbook, Plenty.
Ali made Spicy Moroccan Carrot Salad (pg 14). I happen to love the combination of carrots and cumin - these spicy carrots also had garllic, chiles, cloves, ginger, coriander, cinnamon, and a wonderful surprise with chopped preserved lemons. Served with Greek yogurt.

D, our amazing hostess, made yet another dish, Burnt Eggplant with Tahini (pgs 122-123). (I almost chose this dish too!) D put the eggplant in the broiler and roasted it until the flesh was soft and smokey, and the skin was burnt all over. What is interesting is that the eggplant is then hand chopped vs. pureed in a food processor. I loved the addition of pomegranate seeds.

My dish was Chickpea Saute with Greek Yogurt (pgs 211 and 213). This was my first time using caraway seeds - in a non-bread context. This dish also included cooked cilantro and mint - ingredients I would never have thought to use together, but it was delicious!! I served the yogurt on the side.

Carrie made a beautiful salad of Celeriac and Lentils with Hazelnut and Mint (pgs 216-217). We marveled at her perfectly cooled lentils, and laughed about how the recipe called for the celeriac to be cut into 3/8" "chips". She realized in the UK, "chips" are what Americans call "fries". The instructions should have specified "batons".

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Last but not least was Donna and Tom's Green Couscous (pg 255 & 257). This was a very fresh tastiing dish that involved making an "herb paste" with parsley, cilantro, tarragon, dill, and mint. She served it with arugula. I had to get seconds on this dish as well.