One of our kitchen bibles

I know we have a lot of cookbooks, and being truthful many don't get a look in, but this is one that is frequented often.

The cookbook is Ottolenghi by Yotam Ottolenghi. If I need to bake something, this will be one of the four books that I will flick through for its great Baking section.  Caroline has had the pleasure of making everything from the pastry section which is amazing.  I know it's easy to discard the salad section when the pastry is this tempting however, we can highly recommend this as well.

It seems like a bit of a cheat using this cookbook for our challenge as we've already made so many of the dishes.   A visit to London last year saw us visiting the Ottolenghi in Islington.  It was great to see in the flesh.  Giant counters full of tasty cakes and salads - a real feast for the eyes!  We have a bit of an inability to hold back, so we got an array of salads and sweets to try.  This bounty would have in essence feed us for 2 days, we instead choose to eat it in one sitting.  Later that evening we found ourselves wandering past Nopi. We were of course very satisfied from our lunch bonanza but eager to try the restaurant version of Ottolenghi.  We wander in.   Delicious.  Slow service - but we weren't in a rush (and who really cares when it's that mouth wateringly good?).

Anyway, back to the task at hand. We were invited around to our friends Myles and Amy's for dinner, and asked to bring a dessert.  First stop - our dessert list.  Apple and Olive Oil Cake with Maple Syrup Icing - BOOM!

The cake added the finishing touch to an array of seafood that was put on by our gracious hosts: Mussels in a creamy white wine sauce followed by  Ocean Trout on a salad of asparagus and smashed peas with some crispy prosciutto.


Verdict: Pretty, pretty good (to borrow the words of Larry David). The maple syrup frosting put us all in heaven. Everyone should have this cookbook on their bookshelf, even if it's a little more curated than ours.
Would we make this again?: Yes.  We even feel the need to have some maple syrup frosting pre-made at all times.. just in case.