Cookbook Review: The World Food Cafe

The World Food Cafe Cookbook

I love cookbooks. Buying me a new cookbook is a failsafe birthday present. I read them like novels; from cover to cover. Inevitably, however, I only ever end up make 3-5 recipes from each book and then I remember them as old favourites and return to them again and again. I always seem to forget that all the other recipes exist. It's probably because I've got distracted by another cookbook. Do you find that the same thing happens to you? For any specific recipe or method I need (e.g. how to make homemade buttermilk), I'll just search for it on BBC Good Food rather than check out my encyclopaedic recipe books. Bad I know, but it's just so much quicker.

The World Food Cafe cookbook finally arrived from Amazon. It cost £9.59 (link) and, reassuringly, it's very highly rated. It's really the diary of a married couple's travels around much of the world. They don't attempt to comprehensively list all the recipes from a particular region - they merely give their particular favourites. The book itself is complemented by Chris Caldicott's beautiful photography of particular areas e.g. local tribes men in Africa. If I had to have one negative, it would be that I would prefer more photos of the dishes themselves. Most of the recipes are unfamiliar to me and I would appreciate a photo of the end dish so I know what I'm aiming for.

Food: Ottolenghi's divine broccoli with garlic and chilli

Yum yum yum. If like me you struggle to create interesting vegetable accompaniments to meat, try this. It's very easy and transforms broccoli from being a pretty boring vegetable to something quite delightful. Make sure you follow the recipe precisely - the few instructions are key to an excellent end result.

Serves 6

2 broccoli heads
3 garlic cloves, very finely slices
1 chilli, finely sliced
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

1. Prepare the broccoli by breaking it into florets. Make sure they're pretty much the same size to allow even cooking. Don't trim the stems too short - keep them longer than you usually would.
2. Add the broccoli to a large pan of boiling water. Don't over crowd the pan, do more than one batch if necessary. Cook for 2 minutes ONLY.
3. Drain the broccoli and cool immediately in a large bowl of iced water. This will keep the broccoli nice and crunchy and maintain its vibrant green colour.
4. Drain and place the broccoli in a bowl. Dress with a little olive oil and some salt and pepper.
5. Place a griddle pan on a high heat for 5 minutes. You want it really hot. Char the broccoli florets in small batches on the griddle, until they get nice char lines - a few minutes on each side.
6. Add 50ml of oil to a pan with the garlic and chili, heat on low for around 5 minutes, just long enough for the garlic and chilli to infuse the oil, but not long enough for any discolouration to take place.
7. Dress the broccoli with the infused oil and serve at room temperature.