Yotam Ottolenghi Quotes
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You can be vegetarian and eat fish. It's your choice, just say: 'I am what I am.' There are no hardcore divisions anymore.
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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 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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Food that's served at the table in a paper parcel always creates a remarkable culinary moment when opened, because the package is full of aromatic steam from the lightly cooked ingredients inside.
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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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Beetroot is a great salad ingredient, especially when still warm; the colour ain't bad, either.
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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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It's hard to beat the rough texture of steel-cut oats, with their slight resistance against the teeth.
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Date syrup is a natural sweetener that has wonderful richness and treacly depth; I drizzle it over semolina porridge.
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Halva works brilliantly in ice-cream.
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I now understand how varied the world of cultivated rice is; that rice can play the lead or be a sidekick; that brown rice is as valuable as white; and that short-grain rice is the bee's knees.
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For my money, celery hasn't got a mean bit of fibre in its body, and we all need to start being much nicer to it.
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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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There is a unique freshness when eating buckwheat noodles cold with plenty of herbs and citrus acidity. I can't think of any better use of chopsticks on a hot and sweaty evening.
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Many people struggle to make hummus that lives up to their expectations at home, and recreating a favourite brand or the stuff from your local deli is almost impossible.
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Rice and vermicelli is a common combination in Arab and Turkish cooking - it has a lighter texture than rice on its own.
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Many ingredients are called 'earthy,' but none comes as close to fitting the bill as buckwheat. I'm mildly obsessed with the stuff.
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Buttermilk's palate-cleansing tartness is one reason it's used a lot in southern India, where meals often end with a small bowl of the stuff served with plain rice and pickles.
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I enjoy meat, but I can do without it.
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Turkish cuisine is, to my mind, one of the most exciting and accomplished in the world.
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Fusion food as a concept is kind of trying to quite consciously fuse things that are sometimes quite contradictory, sometimes quite far apart, to see if they'd work.
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The natural sweetness of leeks, with their soft, oniony aroma, makes them the perfect winter comfort food.
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The differences between a tart, a pie and a quiche are a blur.
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Souffles don't deserve their reputation as potential disasters.