ottlenghi's chargrilled asparagus, courgettes and halloumi

This is one of those salad-y dishes I've been desperate to try it every time we make the recipe opposite it, roast chicken and three-rice salad, which as you know we have loads...

So with a fridge full of angiosperms and the inevitable four half-eaten punnets of cherry tomatoes, and without the usual eye-rolling accompaniment from Mrs Barnes, tonight is the night it gets its debut. I don't get Ana's attitude to this - halloumi, courgette, cherry tomatoes, salad - these are all key food groups of the McCarthy. We've also had plenty of amazing Ottolenghi dishes whether we've cooked them or supplied variously by Kendra Kats and Miss Smither, but she's strangely resistant to it's charms:

Two smokey, hellish hours later, I'm firmly in the HATE camp. It's not that it's difficult per se and it's not that it doesn't taste delish, it does. It's the multiple levels of admittedly-easy stages that essentially I'm going to boil down to 'blanch and grill the lot in one go' if, God-forbid I ever make it again. Add to that I simply don't have enough bowls to take various part-boiled, part-grilled marinading veg. It is nice though...

Wine Time
Should The Yummington Mummington ever take shape, and I get a chef to cook it rather than having me weeping in frustration in the kitchen, this has "Lunch" or "Light Bite" all over it, and it also has Sauvignon Blanc. And not just because it's the default fuel of all Yummy Mummies, but because it's perfect for this dish. The thing with Sauvs is there are loads of varieties you can choose from, you can go all classy with a Sancerre with it's mineral bite that'll cleanse your palate of the creamy halloumi, a lemony Bordeaux or Aussie number to match the dressing, or even go wild and crazy with an herbaceous Kiwi wonder to harmonise with the asparagus. You pays your money, you takes your choice.

sources
chargrilled asparagus, courgettes and halloumi - Yotam Ottolenghi, Delicious July 2008, p64, from Ottolenghi: The Cookbook.

ottolenghi's roast chicken and three rice salad

It's all go today, particularly as everybody has gone into hiding in the office leaving only two of us to man the phones, sort out logistical spaghetti, write thought-provoking blogs about Rioja, eat large baguettes from our favourite French ladies on Fulham Road, and try premium South African Wines. Who said the wine trade was hard?

By the time I get home, in the pouring rain mind, a newly-accepted-into-school little boy is passed out, and his mother looks like she's about five minutes behind him. She bravely soldiers through though, and from her throne on the sofa she commands wine and chocolate be bought to her during the bits of time I'm not creating possibly her favourite meal: Yottam Ottolenghi's roast chicken and three rice salad. Although we only use one rice of course, but you've all been here long enough to know that!

Though I say it myself, it's a pretty flipping good edition: Zingy, spicy, refreshing and filling. So I was slightly taken aback by Her Maj asking where the Fino chorizo and cherry tomato salad was. Why I oughta, back o' my hand!

Lady Muck's irrational demands aside, I love the fact it's warm enough to start eating this again even if it is turfing it down. It's a lovely dish to make, and delivers spades of flavour for pretty minimal effort. Hopefully this year I might get around to trying another of his recipes, there's a griddled courgette salad I've got my eye, so maybe next week the 'Ottolenghi' tag might make it past one dish...

Wine Time
It's a full-bodied, spicy little number this, bulked out by creamy chicken and carby rice, so if we'd had it in the fridge, an oily, fruity Kiwi Pinot Gris, which has a touch of residual sugar amongst the acidity and tropical fruit, would've been perfect. We had half a bottle of knackered Riesling though, which worked pretty well.

sources
yotam ottolenghi's roast chicken and three-rice salad - Delicious, July 2008, p64

ottolenghi's roast chicken and three-rice salad

You know the only reason we have roast chicken these days, is so we can have ottolenghi's chicken and rice salad the next day? Tonight team work makes the dream work (© B White), though as whilst I'm reading stories and snuggling up with Milo, Ana's cooking the rice.

However, her input means she's more-then-usually keen-eyed and spots the slightly gelatinous cold chicken gravy in the salad, which causes some concern. Usually it melts into lovely juice as the rice warms up, but due to snuggling/story duties, it's a bit too cold to do it's usual work. Still, it's bladdy delish, and Gelatinous Chicken Juice Gate means I've got loads for lunch tomorrow.

Incidentally, inspired by Brenda's impassioned defence of his new book, I've reappraised the recipes in Delicious, and I'm definitely going to give the cucumber and poppy seed salad a go, and possibly the chargrilled asparagus, courgettes and manouri (whatever that is).

Ash cloud permitting - 4 sleeps and counting until TimBit Mountain

sources
yotam ottolenghi's roast chicken and three-rice salad - Delicious, July 2008, p64

ottolenghi's roast chicken and three-rice salad, tomato, red onion and creme fraiche tart & green salad

What do you do when you're unexpectedly inundated with an influx of foreigners?

With only Hannae Signy booked in, the surprise arrival of Ellie, Dr Robert Manwaring and Sandra Joy Pitcher forces a change of plan. Faced with three more guests the only answer is to cook our next two planned meals, in one night, viz Ottolenghi's chicken and three rice salad for everybody except Rob. And tomato, red onion and creme fraiche tart for everybody including Rob.

Not a bad result given we had to make numerous runs to the shop for repeat top-ups of booze, and it's marvellously lovely to see everybody! The tart does push dinner back an hour or so though, so something to bear in mind there.

sources
yotam ottolenghi's roast chicken and three-rice salad - Delicious, July 2008, p64
tomato, red onion and creme fraiche tart - Delicious, 2005 or 2006, now the Parsley Book

ottolenghi's roast chicken and three-rice salad

It's funny the things you discover when you start SEO-ing everything. Who knew one of our favourite summery salads was a Yotam Ottolenghi creation? The girls at work were getting excited about his cookbook last year, but I've never been that impressed with the odd recipe which has turned up in Delicious over the years, but clearly I've been wrong because we love this one.

You notice by cooking it (and I added rocket because we had a huge bag left in the fridge), I'm implying it's summer *even though* it's still technically speaking spring. Suck it up kids, there's nothing like unseasonably sunny weather to bask in the park in!

Question though, what are all these people doing in my park, and where were they during the iron-cold winter? They shouldn't be allowed...

sources
yotam ottolenghi's roast chicken and three-rice salad - Delicious, July 2008, p64