The return of Ottolenghi

 

I’m starting to think that my occasional compulsion to cook Ottolenghi is a response to stress. It’s been lying dormant for a while, but then I found myself drawn back to it. This may be because my mental state at the moment fluctuates between “Yay, second jab this week! Freedom! Let’s book all the things!” and “Oh my God have you seen the number of cases! It’s out of control, I must never leave the house again,” with really very little in between. It’s somewhat tiring, and the wretched Boris’ announcement this evening has done nothing to help.

Perhaps I need to create an Ottolenghi Index of my current mental state: these recipes were both from Ottolenghi Simple, and one of them I’ve made several times before, so perhaps things aren’t as bad as they have been previously (see here, and here).  The thing I have made before was pea, feta and za’atar fritters, which have been mentioned in this blog on more than one occasion, so we’ll move on to the side dish: baked rice and confit tomatoes.

Put whole cherry tomatoes in a roasting tray along with several peeled garlic gloves and some roughly chopped shallots, season, and add olive oil, then roast at 160c fan for an hour (no, this is not a quick recipe, but at least you can do something else for a while at this point).

After an hour, then will be softened, at which point you turn the oven up to 220 fan, and sprinkle rice over the top of the tomatoes. 

The roasted tomatoes with the rice on top, about to add the water

When the oven is up to temperature, pour in boiling water, cover the tray tightly with foil, and then return to the oven for 25 minutes (I made the fritters at this point).

After that, take out the tray and leave it to stand for ten minutes, still covered in foil (I fried the fritters at this point).

The finished product

It’s a bit of a faff, but it is delicious (typical Ottolenghi, then). Lovely soft mellow tomatoes and garlic, and perectly cooked rice. At least we can still eat well, whatever else is happening.