The other day I had one of the most stunningly awesome meals of my life and it wonderfully affirmed the deep pleasure of being alive. That counts as ‘happy’!
The Editor had cooked kofte and a tomato, herb and feta salad from the excellent cookbook Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi ( homepage here ) and Sami Tamimi. The two recipes The Editor cooked in that meal alone make the Jerusalem cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi 
worthy of purchase (click that link to do so, or if you prefer click here to purchase the Kindle version of the Jerusalem cookbook ), but then he went on and made other recipes that were just as good! It’s obviously brilliant to have found a reliable and cookbook that scales heights. It’s even more obvious how deeply irksome it is that The Editor is now quite clearly a far better cook than me. Bugger!
Here are the kofte (spiced lamb and beef meatballs quickly fried) in all their glory, simply sprinkled with a little fresh coriander. They were certainly the snake’s snatch.
The other dish I got a good picture of which also happened to blow my minging massive mind was some mejedra (lentils cooked with rice and spices fulsomely flecked with crisp fried onion). Felicifically flavoursome and fab fart fuel.
To summarise the book I’d have to start by saying it’s packed with recipes that would make any lover of fine food drool attractively in anticipation of getting them out of the book and onto the plate. Packed, I say, packed! Narrowing down all our favourites to ten dishes for The Editor to cook to test the mettle of the book lasted from 01:30 to 06:00 on market day morning. There were only brief breaks for me to scream and weep because of ludicrous back pain during that four and a half hours. Cooking these recipes has certainly shown the book to be corkingly reliable.
The recipes themselves are simply and tersely explained, with a dash of good humour. Ingredients, their possible sources and adequate replacements are made abundantly clear. Finally the associated exposition is engaging and writing with pronounced skill and style.
I admit the Elitistreview editorial team has been a bit slow in testing this book after its purchase a period of time ago, so it’s possible you’ve heard of the beezer book and plumped to purchase it. Should you has been as vacant as us, click one of those links above now and start planning an extension with patio garden for your stomach – it’s the best recipe book we’ve read and used in a different period of time .
