Yotam Ottolenghi Quotes
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I have been cooking with preserved lemon for years, using it left, right and centre, but I am still far from reaching my limit.
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On many occasions, an informal buffet and casual seating offer a little more intimacy than a loud gathering around a big table.
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Almost every culture has its own variation on chicken soup, and rightly so - it's one of the most gratifying dishes on the face of the Earth.
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The only way reliably to gauge the heat of any particular chilli is to cut it in half, so exposing the core and membranes, and to dab the cut surface on your tongue.
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These days, meals are more open to personal preferences. People like to serve themselves.
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Take your average couscous salad, and it's almost always a sloppy mush, no matter how much attention has gone into getting flavours in there.
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Stereotypical vegetarian food looks gray and brown.
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Sea spaghetti looks like dark fettuccine and has a similar texture - you can get it in health food stores or online.
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How can something that's 95% water be so divisive? Alone among vegetables, the poor, innocent stick of celery elicits the most vicious attacks.
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Sweet potatoes are ideal for lazy days: just bake, then mash and mix with yogurt, butter or olive oil.
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Celery leaves are an underused ingredient, most likely because supermarkets sell mostly leafless stalks.
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Most of my recipes start life in the domestic kitchen, and even those that start out in the restaurant kitchen have to go through the domestic kitchen.
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A great ratatouille is one in which the vegetables interact with each other but are still discernible from each other. The trick is to cook them just right: not over, not under.
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I like to talk about food, ingredients, and how to adapt recipes. It's a dialogue.
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A great fig should look like it's just about to burst its skin. When squeezed lightly it should give a little and not spring back. It must be almost unctuously sweet, soft and wet.
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The main distinction for fresh chillies is whether they are red or green, the difference being one of ripeness.
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Every era has its own list of ingredients that are considered exotic and then, 15 years later, they're not.
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I have a terrible tendency to lick my fingers when I cook. So much so that I got a telling off from my pastry teacher years ago, who said it would hinder my prospects.
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Fish cakes are perceived as being quite British, and they're always a bit brown and a little dull.
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Plums are a good substitute for gooseberries.
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Mackerel is sustainable and healthy.
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Yogurt sauce, as you may have noticed by now, is a regular presence in my recipes - that's because it has the ability to round up so many flavours and textures like no other component does.
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Kirmizi biber has a sweet aroma and can vary in spiciness.
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After all these years of cooking and writing recipes, I am still amazed every time I notice how even the minutest of variation in technique can make a spectacular difference.