Off the Shelf - 'Small Victories' by Julia Turshen

Bought at: Dymocks Broadway in Sydney. One of the many books I bought there over the time I worked nearby and desperately craved time away from the office and found solace in bookshops. 

Recipes Made: Parmesan Soup with Tiny Pasta & Peas (pp.64-66), Julia’s Caesar (p.83), Turkey & Ricotta Meatballs (pp.168-171) and Afternoon Cake (pp.229-230). 

Parmesan Soup with Tiny Pasta and Peas

The Parmesan Soup uses up parmesan rinds (which I now keep in the freezer we go through so much parmesan), and the flavour is amazing. And like Julia says in the recipe, your kitchen will smell like melted cheese whilst making this (yum). I have made this soup with both water, homemade chicken stock and bought stock, and while my preference is the subtler flavour of homemade stock, they all work well. I have made this quite a few times now, and I have learnt that I always need to make double as we enjoy it so much. 

Julia’s Caesar is an excellent and super tasty recipe for homemade Caesar salad dressing. I love a good Caesar dressing, but unfortunately I don’t think many (if any) of the supermarket varieties are that great. This homemade one is quick to put together and lasts a little while in the fridge. I find we always have the ingredients for it, however we do have a well stocked pantry. If you like anchovies in your Caesar then you will love this one, if not Julia gives a great vegetarian alternative using capers - both in my mind are really good and very flavourful. 

For the Meatballs, I have to admit I used Julia’s recipe as a guide. Turkey mince isn’t as easy to come by here, so I have used both chicken and pork on separate occasions. I also never used ricotta as we didn’t have any, so I just added some breadcrumbs (I will actually have to try the recipe as is at some point!). I loved that the meatballs were cooked in the oven rather than on the stove (it was so much easier!!), and the tomato sauce that is served with the meatballs made the dish a lovely warming Winter meal. 

Afternoon Cake

The Afternoon Cake is a great, and is inadvertently a diary free cake. You just need a couple of bowls and a whisk - no stand mixer required. The flavour of the cake is given by whatever citrus you have at hand. Julia’s recipe uses oranges, however I have used lemon, blood orange, bergamot and mandarin all with great success. This cake is one I turn to often, and can easily be doubled to feed more people. I have also often substituted the olive oil in the recipe for a flavourless oil like vegetable or sunflower to let the citrus flavours shine on their own. 

Afternoon Cake

Favourite Things About the Book: Being a food writer, Julia’s writing in this book is genuinely lovely to read and there is such a sense of cohesiveness about the whole book from start to finish. Each recipe comes with at least one ‘small victory’ about the ease of the recipe, a new skill learnt or a helpful tip to make the process of cooking seamless. Plus there are always extras at the end of each recipe on how to change it up and substitute ingredients. Julia is full of helpful advice, and her recipes have really become a staple in my kitchen. Her recipes are really the kinds of food I want to cook and eat, and I am very much looking forward to getting Julia’s newly released book ‘Now and Again’ (which focuses on utilising leftovers - she really knows what we need doesn’t she?!). 

Bookmarked Recipes (to make later!): Aunt Renee’s Chicken Soup (pp.74-77), Cauliflower with Anchovy Bread Crumbs (p.118) and Berry & Buttermilk Cobbler (pp.234-236). 

Off the Shelf - ‘Jerusalem’ by Yotam Ottolenghi & Sami Tamimi

Since buying, collecting, reading, using and dreaming about cookbooks is such a big part of my life and this blog, I have decided to dedicate some space to them here. Every now and then instead of sharing a recipe, I will share a cookbook profile from one of the books on my shelves. What books other people have, how they use them and what they cook from them (if at all) is endlessly fascinating to me so I hope you will enjoy taking a cookbook off one of my shelves and see how it has influenced me and my cooking. 

The first book I wanted to take off my shelf for you is ‘Jerusalem’ by Yotam Ottolenghi & Sami Tamimi. With all the (much deserved) hype around Yotam Ottolenghi’s latest release ‘Simple’, it seemed only fitting to dive back into some of his earlier co-authored works. I also am unable to buy the new book as with it being so close to the end of the year, and having both my birthday and Christmas in December, I am always told by my family not to buy any new books so they can potentially give me them as a gift. So I am feeling an extreme case of FOMO at the moment, as everyday on Instagram I see another post about the book or about someone cooking from the book - and it all looks so good.

Not to mention Yotam’s new podcast ‘Simple Pleasures’, where he invites someone round to his place and they chat and enjoy dishes from his new book. I am already seriously craving the gnocchi he made for Nadiya Hussain on the first episode.

But until I get my hands on a copy, I still have the vast array of recipes from ‘Jerusalem’ to keep me occupied. See below for a little profile of the cookbook, and what I have made from it. It is definitely one I would recommend! 

Bought at: gifted (I have also gifted this book to someone else as well I liked it so much!)

Recipes made: Shakshuka (p.66) & Clear Chicken Soup with Knaidlach (pp.144-5)

I really like making and eating Shakshuka, however this was the first actual recipe for one I have followed. Most of the time I just make it all up using a can of diced tomatoes, whatever else we have that will go with it, plus the egg. It can be quite a simple dish, and after I saw Molly Yeh demonstrate it at a Local is Lovely workshop a couple of years ago I knew I could replicate it at home. I imagine Yotam and Sami’s version is more traditional than what I often make, and includes harissa and ground cumin. It was really nice making a shakshuka without a can of tomatoes and having a slightly spicy chunky sauce to cook the eggs in (I actually found it easier to cook the eggs this way). 

Adaptations: I reduced the amount of harissa to about a teaspoon as I’m not into really spicy foods, and reduced the amount of eggs as I was only serving one. I also used yellow capsicums as thats what we already had! 

Shakshuka

This chicken soup was my first ever attempt at making a Matzo Ball Soup over Passover. It is an involved affair, but worth it. My soup was not as flavourful as I had hoped, so I’m not sure if I should have cooked it longer or maybe it was the cuts of chicken I used (I didn’t 100% stick to the recipe on that one). I also used freshly ground matzo rather than pre-prepared matzo meal for the knaidlach so I think they would have been a bit lighter and smoother with the shop bought matzo meal. Definitely a recipe to go back to! 

Matzo Ball Soup

Favourite things about the book: This book is beautifully photographed and I really love the lifestyle photography from around Jerusalem. It really brings the essence of the city into the book and the recipes, rather than just showing photos of the completed dishes in isolation. 

I also really like the fact that this is more than a cookbook. Whilst reading you take in recipes you want to try and discover dishes you might never have heard of, but you also get a history lesson through food. The introductions for each chapter and recipes are well worth reading as much of the cultural and religious or historical significance of a dish or ingredient are explained. And sometimes personal notes from both the authors are shared around specific recipes too. 

Bookmarked recipes (to make later!): Swiss Chard Fritters (p.54) & Latkes (p.92).

Lifestyle photography in Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi & Sami Tamimi