Extra Good Things: How the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen cooks it forward

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Our cookbook of the week is Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Extra Good Things by Noor Murad and Yotam Ottolenghi. To try a recipe from the book, check out: turmeric fried eggs with tamarind dressing, coconut broth shrimp with fried aromatics, and sunshine salad with carrot-ginger dressing.

Article content

The best recipes teach a skill, introduce an ingredient or plant a new idea — intangible benefits the cook carries with them long after the meal is finished. Co-authors Noor Murad and Yotam Ottolenghi go beyond the abstract in the second instalment of the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen (OTK) series, Extra Good Things. On top of the lessons and inspiration each recipe holds, there’s a tangible take-away: crunchy bits, a flavoured oil, ferment or pickle. A leftover bonus to help make future meals better.

Article content

Depending on your perspective, you might consider these finishing touches extraneous. Ingredients you can do without, or pick up at the grocery store. With recipes for 75 savoury condiments (and a final chapter on dessert foundations), Murad and Ottolenghi make a compelling case for creating your own.

Article content

Article content

As with the first OTK book, Shelf Love (2021), Extra Good Things was born out of the pandemic. Shelf Love showed readers how to make the best use of the ingredients in their freezers, fridges and pantries. In the followup, Murad and Ottolenghi set their sights on filling kitchens back up with condiments that flow from one meal to the next.

A tamarind dressing, for example, adds bright acidity to turmeric fried eggs. It keeps in the fridge for up to five days, during which time you can drizzle it over roasted vegetables or grilled steak. Fried aromatics top a bowl of coconut broth shrimp, and bring crunch to rice and fish dishes, or molten gratins.

“Shelf Love (came to be) because it was the way we were cooking. All of us were figuring it out and being as resourceful as possible and using what we had. But at the same time, we were also doubling up on different jars and filling our fridges and our cupboards with different condiments and sauces and pickles, and all those kinds of little flavour bombs that really elevate a meal,” says Murad, a Bahraini-born chef and head of the OTK in London. “That brought the idea forward for Extra Good Things.”

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Ottolenghi adds: “Noor and I thought that it would be really cool to teach people how to create condiments that are not bought in the supermarkets. Because many people buy their condiments in the supermarket, which is fine. But we thought, ‘Well, you go into the kitchen, you cook a meal. Why don’t you have a little something extra that comes out of that meal?’”

Since 2008, Ottolenghi has written 10 hit cookbooks, including Plenty and Simple. Murad, who joined the Ottolenghi team in 2016, has developed recipes for Falastin (by Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley, 2020), Flavor (by Ottolenghi and Ixta Belfrage, 2020), and various online publications, as well as co-authoring the OTK books.

Shelf Love and Extra Good Things, with their user-friendly format and flexible binding, stand apart. They channel the OTK as a whole; each member comes from a different part of the world, bringing their own unique palate, strengths and style. That collective voice, led by Murad, results in a distinctive approach to recipes.

Article content

“We try to fit in little stories and anecdotes as much as possible to invite people into the test kitchen world, and get to know the different faces and all the different characters in the team. Since Extra Good Things has come out, we’ve expanded our team even further. And it’s so nice that everyone has their own little touch and their own way of cooking. And once you get to know different personalities, you can almost know which dishes have come from whom,” says Murad.

“It’s like (going) from the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen to your kitchen,” says Ottolenghi. “And you can also turn your kitchen into a test kitchen if you’re creative. So, we’re trying to encourage that creativity, a lighthearted touch — a light touch in general — and lots of flexibility. But also very focused on particular skills that we can teach you.”

Article content

The OTK series explores a style of cooking that was especially useful during lockdowns and grocery store shortages, but the lessons are lasting.

Recipes promising quick and easy cooking often fall back on store-bought condiments in the name of efficiency. And they are efficient. With just one item, you can achieve complex flavour. The beauty of the condiments in Extra Good Things, though, is that most of them can be made using humble ingredients, proving that sometimes, a little bit of effort can have an outsized impact on meals.

Cooking it forward in this way offers more flexibility. Meals can easily be customized, and having a few flavour-packed items in the fridge or pantry eliminates the need to start from scratch. This is as true in the home kitchen as it is in the test kitchen, where there’s always some kind of salsa, sprinkle or pickle on hand. “You become obsessed with that one thing, and you have it in your fridge for a while. And then you find another thing, and it becomes part of your day-to-day eating,” says Murad. “It just gives (your meals) an energy boost.”

Article content

Murad and Ottolenghi think of the OTK series as a way to teach people skills. In Extra Good Things, that skill is a timeless one: being able to mix-and-match condiments, to be creative and to know what flavours go together in order to shape your own meals.

With massive databases, digital publications and a fresh crop of cookbooks released each season, home cooks have all the recipes they could want at their fingertips. In creating recipes, and giving people something that goes beyond them, Murad and Ottolenghi felt they could add something new to the mix.

“You can Google a recipe for every single dish that you can think of, and you’ll have thousands of options to choose from. So, I would probably go for something that feels that it gives me something extra: a story, a narrative, a lesson, a basic skill. And this is why we get excited about these things, because of that extra,” says Ottolenghi.

“The ability to teach someone something, it’s priceless,” adds Murad. “We get immediate feedback because of social media and people cooking the food, and then seeing what people make with the extras and how they carried it forward into another meal. That’s when you’re like, ‘Ah! It worked. People get it.’ They get the idea and they’re using it, and they’re getting excited about it. And that, in turn, is very gratifying to see.”

Article content

Our cookbook of the week is Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Extra Good Things by Noor Murad and Yotam Ottolenghi. To try a recipe from the book, check out: turmeric fried eggs with tamarind dressing, coconut broth shrimp with fried aromatics, and sunshine salad with carrot-ginger dressing.

Article content

The best recipes teach a skill, introduce an ingredient or plant a new idea — intangible benefits the cook carries with them long after the meal is finished. Co-authors Noor Murad and Yotam Ottolenghi go beyond the abstract in the second instalment of the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen (OTK) series, Extra Good Things. On top of the lessons and inspiration each recipe holds, there’s a tangible take-away: crunchy bits, a flavoured oil, ferment or pickle. A leftover bonus to help make future meals better.

Article content

Depending on your perspective, you might consider these finishing touches extraneous. Ingredients you can do without, or pick up at the grocery store. With recipes for 75 savoury condiments (and a final chapter on dessert foundations), Murad and Ottolenghi make a compelling case for creating your own.

Article content

Article content

As with the first OTK book, Shelf Love (2021), Extra Good Things was born out of the pandemic. Shelf Love showed readers how to make the best use of the ingredients in their freezers, fridges and pantries. In the followup, Murad and Ottolenghi set their sights on filling kitchens back up with condiments that flow from one meal to the next.

A tamarind dressing, for example, adds bright acidity to turmeric fried eggs. It keeps in the fridge for up to five days, during which time you can drizzle it over roasted vegetables or grilled steak. Fried aromatics top a bowl of coconut broth shrimp, and bring crunch to rice and fish dishes, or molten gratins.

“Shelf Love (came to be) because it was the way we were cooking. All of us were figuring it out and being as resourceful as possible and using what we had. But at the same time, we were also doubling up on different jars and filling our fridges and our cupboards with different condiments and sauces and pickles, and all those kinds of little flavour bombs that really elevate a meal,” says Murad, a Bahraini-born chef and head of the OTK in London. “That brought the idea forward for Extra Good Things.”

Article content

Ottolenghi adds: “Noor and I thought that it would be really cool to teach people how to create condiments that are not bought in the supermarkets. Because many people buy their condiments in the supermarket, which is fine. But we thought, ‘Well, you go into the kitchen, you cook a meal. Why don’t you have a little something extra that comes out of that meal?’”

Since 2008, Ottolenghi has written 10 hit cookbooks, including Plenty and Simple. Murad, who joined the Ottolenghi team in 2016, has developed recipes for Falastin (by Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley, 2020), Flavor (by Ottolenghi and Ixta Belfrage, 2020), and various online publications, as well as co-authoring the OTK books.

Shelf Love and Extra Good Things, with their user-friendly format and flexible binding, stand apart. They channel the OTK as a whole; each member comes from a different part of the world, bringing their own unique palate, strengths and style. That collective voice, led by Murad, results in a distinctive approach to recipes.

Article content

“We try to fit in little stories and anecdotes as much as possible to invite people into the test kitchen world, and get to know the different faces and all the different characters in the team. Since Extra Good Things has come out, we’ve expanded our team even further. And it’s so nice that everyone has their own little touch and their own way of cooking. And once you get to know different personalities, you can almost know which dishes have come from whom,” says Murad.

“It’s like (going) from the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen to your kitchen,” says Ottolenghi. “And you can also turn your kitchen into a test kitchen if you’re creative. So, we’re trying to encourage that creativity, a lighthearted touch — a light touch in general — and lots of flexibility. But also very focused on particular skills that we can teach you.”

Article content

The OTK series explores a style of cooking that was especially useful during lockdowns and grocery store shortages, but the lessons are lasting.

Recipes promising quick and easy cooking often fall back on store-bought condiments in the name of efficiency. And they are efficient. With just one item, you can achieve complex flavour. The beauty of the condiments in Extra Good Things, though, is that most of them can be made using humble ingredients, proving that sometimes, a little bit of effort can have an outsized impact on meals.

Cooking it forward in this way offers more flexibility. Meals can easily be customized, and having a few flavour-packed items in the fridge or pantry eliminates the need to start from scratch. This is as true in the home kitchen as it is in the test kitchen, where there’s always some kind of salsa, sprinkle or pickle on hand. “You become obsessed with that one thing, and you have it in your fridge for a while. And then you find another thing, and it becomes part of your day-to-day eating,” says Murad. “It just gives (your meals) an energy boost.”

Article content

Murad and Ottolenghi think of the OTK series as a way to teach people skills. In Extra Good Things, that skill is a timeless one: being able to mix-and-match condiments, to be creative and to know what flavours go together in order to shape your own meals.

With massive databases, digital publications and a fresh crop of cookbooks released each season, home cooks have all the recipes they could want at their fingertips. In creating recipes, and giving people something that goes beyond them, Murad and Ottolenghi felt they could add something new to the mix.

“You can Google a recipe for every single dish that you can think of, and you’ll have thousands of options to choose from. So, I would probably go for something that feels that it gives me something extra: a story, a narrative, a lesson, a basic skill. And this is why we get excited about these things, because of that extra,” says Ottolenghi.

“The ability to teach someone something, it’s priceless,” adds Murad. “We get immediate feedback because of social media and people cooking the food, and then seeing what people make with the extras and how they carried it forward into another meal. That’s when you’re like, ‘Ah! It worked. People get it.’ They get the idea and they’re using it, and they’re getting excited about it. And that, in turn, is very gratifying to see.”