Ottolenghi vs Heston

So the other day when I was at home for the weekend we started to discuss who would be the best chef to work for. Personally I am completely obsessed with any food that Ottolenghi makes, it's even starting to get a little embarrassing how much I talk about his recipes and every time I go to London, no matter how little money I have (credit card...), I always try to go to Ottolenghi in Islington.  Every time I see a picture of the food in the recipe books (Ottolenghi or Plenty) I go into some sort of food reverie and wish I could work for one of the restaurants. The food is so ridiculously pretty and better still tastes even more beautiful than it looks. Last night for instance I made two recipes out of the self-titled 'Ottolenghi' book; Cauliflour fritters and the sweet potato, pecan and maple salad. After later looking up the sweet potato recipe to see if it was online, I came across it on their website http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk/recipes/roasted-sweet-potato-with-pecan-maple HOWEVER the photo on here does not do it justice!

The picture surprisingly makes it look quite dull relative to how amazingly colourful it looked in real life! This warm salad has to be one of the most fragrant side dishes I've eaten in a long time, with the dressing of maple, orange + lemon juice, sherry vinegar (I improvised with a mixture of raspberry vinegar and rice vinegar) and oil suprisingly complimenting the potatoes, pecans, sultanas, coriander and parsley. I was initially worried that it would be too sweet but somehow by some sort of magic it isn't. I wonder how this recipe was thought out?
Furthermore the cauliflour fritters with their delicately spiced flavour were surprisingly filling (recipe not online!) and went perfectly with the accompanying sauce (300g greek yoghurt, zest of 1 lime, 2tbsp lime juice, 2 tbsp coriander, 2 tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper). I served this to my family with a side salad of mixed leaves with cubed cucumber and plenty of chopped mint mixed in (making it a very fresh accompaniment). I wish I could eat like this every day and experience the joys of being home and having more expensive ingredients.
I could not recommend Ottolenghi cooking books more to people, they have the most beautiful pictures in them that even people who don't like cooking could appreciate. I really have found these recipes to be the most inspiring I've come across in the past few years. Although enough of my outpouring (it's getting a little much I know) I will now talk about my views on Heston Blumenthal.

Now everybody knows Heston to be a wacky food scientist, and it was for this reason my mum suggested that in our fictional 'who would I like to work for conversation' maybe I would be on his wavelength (I love food, I study science etc.) and I definitely admire his creativity. However after watching 'Heston's Roman Feast' last night I came to realise my outlook was rather different.  Whilst preparing an intriguing array of cleverly crafted food, I still don't think I can get to grips with being comfortable eating calf brain (BSE/prion diseases anyone?) and I wasn't so sure of his cooking of a pig in a jacuzzi (seems a bit twisted) although still novel/innovative. I definitely respect his ability to challenge the norm but this poor pig had probably gone through enough that cooking it in a glittering pool of light was a bit macabre. Also restuffing the pig with fake intestines to create a reaction (though of course it was a Roman feast) did make me feel a little ill. Perhaps I'm becoming too sensitive.
One thing I did love though (apart from the name) was the ejaculating pudding; after watching the chefs blow up a cake tower Heston then managed to create a reaction between the custard and the inside of the cake to create a frothing bubbling dessert. I definitely loved this and given how much I've always enjoyed Chemistry it is definitely my sort of thing (who doesn't secretly like experiments that blow things up?). The question is what would it be like to work for Heston? Overall I think it would definitely be intriguing and maybe even enlightening but would I want to eat my scientific creations? If anyone would care to take me to the Fat Duck however I would be more than willing.
I would love to work for both Ottolenghi and Heston just to see how different their approaches are, but day-to-day I'll take the sweet potatoes over the brains....

Elaborate Valentine's Day Goat's cheese vegetarian lasagne

As most people are aware, this week contained Valentine's Day. Aside from many hilarious facebook statuses, my Valentine's day was spent without my boyfriend (Tuesday night - just not practical). This naturally called for a compensatory food frenzy with some friends;  home-made lasagne with rocket salad, garlic ciabatta and belgian chocolate brownie pudding (Sainsbury's) with Haagen Dazs 'Pralines and cream'. Oh and some Marlborough Savignon Blanc. The lasagne turned out amazingly with the indulgent combination of goat's cheese, sour cream, pesto, mushrooms, spinach and tomatoes. It was too good not to talk about...

Lasagne
The lasagne we made consisted of 4 layers between pasta sheets (it gets quite complicated) but the results were well worth it (see picture). The idea was to re-create a legendary lasagne created by my flatmate whilst she was living in Australia which involved mushrooms and feta. Our goat's cheese version however is as follows;

Ingredients (a lengthy list), Serves 4.

• Pack of fresh lasagne sheets

Layer 1

• 1 x 400g Tin of chopped tomatoes
• Fresh baby spinach (several handfuls)
• 1-2 cloves garlic finely chopped
• 2 tsp olive oil

Layer 2

• 300ml sour cream
• 250g soft goat's cheese

Layer 3

• 250g Chestnut mushrooms, thickly sliced
• 1 x Red onion, diced
• 1 x clove garlic
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Layer 4 - Pesto 

• 60g Fresh basil
• 45g Pine nuts
• 150ml olive oil
• 1 x tsp salt
• Pepper to season

NB: this layer can also include parmesan cheese (around 20g) but was omitted for vegetarian reasons, alternatively replace this step with decent shop bought fresh pesto (Sainsbury's/Tesco etc.) 

Method 
Layer 1 
Add the chopped tomatoes to a pan and heat on a medium heat for several minutes until simmering. Next add the handfuls of baby spinach (I used around 3 handfuls) stir, and place a lid on the pan. After 2-3 mins the spinach should be wilted and can be mixed in fully to the tomatoes. Take off the heat and set aside.

Layer 2
Pour sour cream into a bowl and crumble in half of the goat's cheese (125g). Mix together well although small lumps of cheese remaining are fine. Set aside.

Layer 3
Gently heat the onions in the olive oil on a low-medium heat for 5mins/until softened and translucent. Add the garlic and gently cook for 1-2 minutes. Add the mushrooms to the onions and cook on a medium heat until the mushrooms are lightly cooked (approx 3 mins). Set mix aside.

Layer 4
Roughly chop all the basil and place in a plastic measuring jug. Add the salt and olive oil and blend (we used a handheld blender) until a rough mixture. Add the pine nuts and re-blend briefly (only lightly breaking up the nuts). Season with pepper and set aside.

Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180 degrees. Prepare lasagne sheets as according to the packet instructions and place the first sheet in an oven dish of around the same size. Place the layers from 1-4 on top of the first sheet and place a second sheet on top of the final layer (layer 4). Repeat this layering on the second pasta sheet and again cover with a third sheet. Ensure there is some remaining layer 2 mixture (sour cream/goat's cheese) for the top of sheet 3 and spread evenly. Crumble the other 125g of goat's cheese on top of the mix and season with pepper.

Put in the oven for 20 mins, checking the cheese on top browns but does not burn. Serve with undressed rocket (unless you want a dressing but with all that cheese it didn't seem necessary).

Result - Amazingly tasty and rich lasagne that probably accounted for all our calories for the week. This recipe seems complicated but it is definitely worth it if you are feeling extravagant (which I usually am with food).  Also try substituting the goat's cheese for another cheese like feta.

Evening computer food

So after two weeks of pretty intense lab work (final year project) I have been coming home tired and craving bad food. I made an amazing discovery in Sainsburys local the other day: Mini Stroopwafels. If you are unfamiliar with these they are the minature version of the traditionally dutch caramel wafer waffle. I remember eating these as a child at a friends house (she had a dutch mother) and have noticed them appearing more and more in shops lately. Daelmans Mini Stroopwafels are ridiculously addictive (the most amazing texture) and come in a pretty packet (it shouldn't matter but it does...). I can't get enough of these, though must stop before I end up bed-bound from obesity. Crispy, chewy, caramel wafers. How could you not love them?