The Food Diaries

Passion fruit jam (with lemon curd tarts):

Scoop out the pulp of around 10 passion fruits into a small saucepan. Add 150g sugar and simmer for about 5 minutes or until the consistency thickens (think honey). Pour into a jam jar and refrigerate. This will keep for some time and can be used to drizzle on cakes, meringues, etc.

How I served it:

At Ottolenghi (where this recipe comes from) they serve it drizzled on lemon curd meringue tarts. Here’s my easy at-home recipe for last minute desserts.

Fill mini butter pastry cases with lemon curd (I bought both ready-made at M & S). Place a dollup of passion fruit jam on top and serve.

Home-made biscotti (though not home-made by me, but by my friend Olivier, who is a great baker).

Did you know, biscottimeans twice-baked in Latin? These biscuits were traditionally baked in this manner in order to ensure they were dry enough to be preserved longer.

Though am not normally a fan dry/crispy biscuits, freshly baked biscotti are a real treat.

Recipe:

A basic recipe has 2 cups flour to 3/4 cup sugar to which is added 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt and 1 tbs lemon rind. Then add in 125g butter cut into little pieces and mix together till a coarse meal is formed. Now add 1 cup coarsely ground roasted hazelnuts, as well as 3 eggs (first beaten together with 1 tsp almond extract) and mix till a dough is formed.

The biscotti are first baked in long slabs (at 150 degrees celsius for 35 minutes) , and then cut into 1/2 inch slices (once cooled), and then baked again until they are toasted and dry (10 minutes on each side).

Note: If you find the dough too dry to form the slab you can moisten it with a couple tbs milk.

Ottolenghi has been my current favourite recipe book since it first came out a couple years ago. It’s a cookbook I actually use and browse through for inspiration. Yotam Ottolenghi has a fresh and modern approach to flavours and has a particular affinity with vegetables, salads and extraordinary desserts (I know, an odd but inspired combo). I recommend signing up to his New Vegetarian column in The Guardian Online where he publishes new recipes on a regular basis.

So what’s your favourite Ottolenghi recipe?