by Yotam Ottolenghe
I have made five or six recipes from this book. The last one was Braised Eggs with Leek & Za’atar. & here I where I ran into a problem. I live in a small town in New Zealand. Za’atar is just too exotic for my location. Fortunately I can get sumac & I made quite a tasty spice mix from sumac, ground roasted sesame seeds & salt. While I could buy za’atar online I probably won’t. I have a sneaking suspicion that this book is also promoting Ottolenghe’s range of foods- which he lists as essentials at the back. But I am the Queen 👑 of the Substitutions. Our spinach didn’t thrive this year so I substituted silver beet, mizuna & spring onions. The resulting dish was quite magical & the spice/oil mixture I painted over the poached eggs really elevated it.
So this won’t be a cookbook I use every day, but I will pull it out every time I either go to our local Produce Swap or am getting bored with our regular diet.
Carol - She's So Novel! 