Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Hi! I've heard great things about Plenty, but what about Jerusalem? Does anyone have it? My MIL says she's been cooking out of it and loves it. She wants me to buy a copy and then reimburse me when she comes to visit. Is Plenty better, though? I don't see any mention of Jerusalem on here.

Thanks!

Oh, I see an Amazon review that mentions chicken... She told me it was a vegetarian book.

The New Yorker did an amazing piece on Ottolenghi in their Food Issue. I loved reading it so much, I read it twice. I want to buy Plenty so much right now.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012 ... act_kramer

It's not a vegetarian book but there are plenty of vegan and easily adaptable vegetarian recipes (I.e., use soy or coconut yoghurt, use soy or almond milk, use a non-dairy butter or an oil, leave off the egg or cheese). I think only the super egg-heavy dishes would not be easily veganizable, but maybe you can make a kuku with some omelette-y advice from Vegan Brunch?

There are two separate chapters on meat and fish (which are different because what?) so you can avoid those easily; there isn't much meat in the rest of the book, say, the beans and grains chapter or the vegetables chapter - but there is some. The meat and fish chapters take up 70 pages out of about 280 pages of recipes, not counting the introduction or the index.

I've looked at the meat and fish chapters for flavor profiling, &c, and think at least some of it would be agreeable to a tofu/tempeh/seitan/bean version. Beanballs with favas and lemon sounds crazy good, as does braised tofu with apricots, currants and tamarind!

They are both really beautiful books, and everything I've made has been both unfussy and super delicious. Incidentally, I did get both as gifts!

To sum up: I think it would be okay for you to say "Hey, there's this other really lovely book by the same authors and it is meatless, I have heard it is just fantastic!" But: it also probably depends on your relationship with your MIL. ;)

Thanks, guys. I decided to go for Plenty, instead. Just makes more sense to me, although I see your point about adapting recipes from the other book. Will have to do that here, somewhat, as well, obviously, but the meat chapters make me uncomfortable. haha. I'll think she'll enjoy looking through it, anyway, and I wouldn't be surprised if she decides to buy a copy for herself. She loves looking through my cookbooks when she visits.

Dooooooooo iiiiiiiiiit.

/enable

I think it's nice you guys have that kind of relationship!

Let us know what you decide to make! Uh, over in the Plenty thread, I guess. ;)

Edited because apparently I like to delete whole sentences.