Sep 26, 2013

Yottam Ottolenghi Favorites Round-up {and Cauliflower Soup w/ Mustard Croutons}

It's that time of year when I Heart Cooking Clubs says goodbye to one chef and hello to another.  This is our last week cooking with Yotam Ottolenghi.  Truthfully, I didn't know who the heck he was.  Contrary to what you no doubt think, I am not hip like that.

I know!  I just blew your mind.  Pretty much like Ottolenghi blew my mind with the Mustard Croutons that float on top of his Cauliflower Soup.


 

Whoa, these were good.  So good I made myself sick snacking on them before the soup was ready.  Seriously.  I ate so many my stomach was feeling kind of floppy.

But I had to, you understand.  It turns out these croutons didn't keep very well--they were soft and chewy the next day (although still tasty).  So, really, I was doing my family a favor by not subjecting them to too many soft, chewy leftover croutons.


I will always take one for the team when Mustard Croutons are involved.

The Low Down: the soup was just soup.  It was fine.  Though there are other cauliflower soups I prefer, the croutons were special.  So mustardy, tangy, addictive.  All three of us thought they were great.  I did have a hard time achieving that crouton crunch (which is probably why they were soft and chewy the next day), but they could have the texture of a soggy sponge for all I care as long as they taste like they taste.


The soup and crouton recipes can be found HERE.  The only changes I made were to use a mixture of 2 Tbsp Dijon and 1 Tbsp Creole Mustard for the croutons.  Also added some chopped chives and dill to the crouton mixture.

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Over the past 6 months, my Top Five Ottolenghi recipes were...

I'm not usually one to turn to turkey when making burgers, but these changed my mind.  The sour cream sauce didn't hurt a thing either.

This was a really fun thing to do with okra--which may not be everyone's favorite, but let's face it, fried food with a good dipping sauce rocks.

When it was announced that we would be cooking the recipes of Ottolenghi, I was kinda iffy.  Never mind that I'm always iffy when there's a change going down.  Just forget that.
YO's Sweet Potato Cakes was one of the first recipes I tried for this round of IHCC and it was one of the best.

This dish, with eye-popping red accents, has a fantastic paste made with capers, garlic, and parsley.

I can't say enough about this pie.  
Although it isn't the healthiest YO recipe, I thought it was the best.
Broccoli & Blue Cheese Pie: Ms. enPlace

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Next week we say Hey, Donna Hay!  If you'd like to join in, please visit I Heart Cooking Clubs for the details.
  IHCC

9 comments:

  1. Great roundup!! I've already got several Donna Hay recipes in mind!

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  2. Wonderful round-up!!
    I must say that the Mustard Croutons really caught me. I've never tasted such croutons and after ready what you have to say about them (LOL - you're funny as usual) - I must try them!

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  3. Hi Michelle,
    This soup was one of the recipes that I've bookmarked, the croutons sounds good, there's another recipe using saffron.
    Very delicious round-up, I'm eyeing the okra fritters!

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  4. Great roundup! The croutons sound delicious and since I love the combination of mustard and cauliflower, I think this dish would be wonderful.

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  5. Oh my goodness, I love anything with croutons, but I have never made them before! This looks SO good!

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  6. There really was some great food that came out of this session of IHCC! And you contributed your fair share! great round-up! That fried cauliflower caught my eye - so good! Have yet to make a cauliflower soup, but perhaps it's time!

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  7. I have this soup tagged to make--because of the toppings of course. ;-) I'll have to save it for a Potluck now. You had some fabulous Ottolenghi dishes! I can't believe I never ending up making any fritters--they look so good.

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  8. Okay, I'm of course laughing over here because we have so many favorites in common. We have simply got to meet up one of these days ;-)

    You know how I feel about those mustard croutons. I mean seriously...why even bother with the soup when you can just eat the croutons, right?

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  9. Wow, that was pretty good of you to take one for the team and wolf down all those croutons. They sound seriously good, and right now I'm wondering if I could get away with just making the croutons and forgetting about the soup. Mind you I could always make the croutons and toss them through salad instead - that always works.

    Love your round-up, and I'm still dying to try the fried cauliflower with capers and chill. I couldn't narrow my favourites down, but that Broccoli & Gorgonzola Pie definitely had it goin' on.

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