Lessons from a recipe
- rosemary
- Aug 4
- 8 min read
Yesterday we celebrated my older son's birthday here with the now almost traditional and compulsory spaghetti and meatballs - and a cake - in this case Ottolenghi's Clementine almond syrup cake. and now that I think about it there are lessons to be learnt from that as well as my main focus of attention here - the pre-dinner snack, nibble - call it what you will - another Ottolenghi recipe - Sweet and smokey cheesy garlic bread. Both of which, of course were delicious and both of which I now see contain lessons to be learnt - mostly about adaptation and improvisation.
For both of which Ottolenghi is famous of course.
I began this post with just the one recipe and an ingredient. Let's see where this now might lead.
The ingredient is this jar of Sweet and Smokey - one from the Ottolenghi range of spice mixes and things, that you can now find in your local Woolworths. Well maybe that depends on demographics, but we can here in Eltham.
It's just one of many jars, bottles, packets, hampers and things that you can buy from the Ottolenghi store. And they are not cheap. This small jar - a mere 50g for the price of $13.00 - although for a short time they were on a special at $11.00. Still not cheap.
A rip-off really, and not something that I would normally buy because most known spice blends have recipes on the net that you can follow to make your own. However, I was looking for something simple, quick and crowd-pleasing for this meal, to get us all into the birthday spirit. And the recipe that I finally settled on, required this particular jar. Not a known spice mix, but an invention from the man himself - or one of his team. So the recipe is obviously a selling device as well as a recipe.
And this is the reason I at first decided against my ultimate choice in favour of Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen's Focaccia with zucchini and potatoes. But I was running out of time, and also it was slightly more difficult - well probably not, but I thought so at the time - more difficult to organize the timing anyway. So I told myself that if this expensive jar was there in Woolworths I would buy it - and it was.
The recipe is really simple - you slice a ciabatta in half, drizzle it with half of a heated mix made with your expensive spice blend, butter, olive oil, garlic and salt, topped with grated cheese and some spring onions. Drizzle over the rest of your spicy mix and bake in the oven. Finally making it look pretty with some more sliced spring onions. And yes indeed it was absolutely delicious. But did it require that expensive jar? As my 'almost' daughter-in-law said - and she is not a dedicated cook - you could just make up your own spice mix along similar lines - or other lines in fact.
Well could you? I mean it's Ottolenghi and therefore special! I have to say that Ottolenghi and co are somewhat more generous with letting you know what's in this blend than many - who just say 'spices'. In the usual tiny print on the jar, you will find this comprehensive list of the ingredients even with some proportions:
Ingredients: Brown Sugar (27%), Paprika (16%), Ancho Chilli Flakes, Chipotle Chilli Flakes (9%), Garlic Granules, Roasted Ground Cumin, Aleppo Red Pepper Flakes (Red Pepper Flakes, Salt, Sunflower Oil), Ground Caraway, Onion Granules, Sea Salt, Roasted Ground Coriander (4%), Turmeric, Ground Bay Leaves, Kibbled Bay Leaves."
So you could have a go at copying it - well if you can find all of the ingredients, and you are good at maths. For us the ancho chipotle and aleppo chilli flakes might be difficult, but would it really matter if they were just chilli flakes? Or you could just make up your own completely different spice mix. Which although a worthy aim is probably beyond our pay level, as my husband tends to say when something is too hard. It's not really hard though is it? I mean you could always just pick a random selection of spices from your cupboard and mix them all together. You never know you might hit on something wonderful - so you should note what you have mixed together on the way. Or, more knowingly, you could choose things that you know go together and favour the ones you really like. It could be fun, and what's the worst that can happen? You won't kill anyone. It might just taste awful.
And there are other things that you can do with this spice blend. On the jar it says: "Flavour roast chicken, a great bbq rub, sprinkle on roasted veg, stir into olive oil", and each one of those suggestions leads to others, particularly if you follow the bolded techniques.
And there are other actual recipes online - just a few admittedly - four currently, of which this is one: Halloumi and Padrón skewers with sweet and smokey honey drizzle plus the odd Facebook Ottolenghi suggestion like this steak. There is no actual recipe there, but you can sort of see how you could go about it.
So is it a rip-off just designed to increase the Ottolenghi company's profit? Or is it a wonderful stimulus for us to learn from a few actual recipes and then spread your wings with your own inventions, whether it be a tentative recipe using the expensive spice, or the invention of a new dish - take the concept of cheesy toast, and play with it.
"Ottolenghi has subconsciously inspired the rest of us." says Lauren Sams in an article about the Ottolenghi brand in the AFR. I would actually like to think that he has 'consciously' inspired us, and certainly in all of his interviews he always stresses sharing and learning from others. Collaborating. The food excites, and eventually, when you have fully absorbed the vibe and the overall intention, you start to wander from the written recipe and make it your own.
"The man himself says his food has more in common with “Australian, or Californian food” than anything else, which is to say, “raw, fresh ingredients, add a grill and a marinade, herb-heavy condiments and lots of vegetables”. He calls it “new world food”. Lauren Sams/AFR
I have often thought that he must by now be a multi millionaire, because of all the books, the online products, the restaurants and delis, the world tours ... So I was mildly surprised to read on The Caterer website that last year - 2024 - they actually made a loss:
"However, the company said it had struggled with rising food and utility costs and a 10% increase in the National Minimum Wage while investing in new openings and developing a wholesale range for Waitrose. This pushed the business to a pre-tax loss of £941,725, down from a profit of £769,671 the previous year." The Caterer Dec 2024
Although: "The investment comes amid a period of growth for the business, which saw turnover rise 11% to £30.9m during the year."
And there are plans for further expansion - overseas - Geneva is on the horizon - and other parts of London and Britain. A new CEO has just been employed to better expand the business in new directions. On the plus side their staff turnover - now well over 400 people - is very low. But yes, expanding business is expensive. Just think of the cost of establishing new restaurants, and developing products. I doubt the Sweet and smokey blend was devised in 5 minutes.
And what did I learn from that cake? Bearing in mind that I am much more unlikely to fiddle with a cake recipe than a recipe for a cheesy toast. Well in fact that cake is also a demonstration of how Ottolenghi himself - or whichever of his team of recipe developers, created it - learnt from Claudia Roden's orange cake in particular and Middle-Eastern syrupy cakes in general.
I had to adapt this recipe slightly because we can't get Clementines here. You can use other mandarins - I settled for a variety called Phoenix becaue they were larger really. I also had no Grand Marnier left, but fortuitously had some Napoleon Mandarin brandy. I also did not have the right size pan - 24cm - having only a 22cm or a 26cm one. I went for the 26cm because there were ten of us - actually eleven it turned out because my oldest grandson's girlfriend came along too. So I did a 1 1/2 of ingredients, and also of course the cake was rather thinner than the original. In the book Jerusalem, from which the recipe comes, the picture is of an un-iced version but why wouldn't you go for the shiny chocolate icing? And I saw that others varied it slightly - like this one from 4jesstice who said:
"tried the amazing @ottolenghi clementine & almond syrup cake recipe from the Jerusalem cookbook - with a candied raspberry orange top! I also added a little fresh cardamom to the cake batter. This is my new favorite cake, it’s so good"
See - most of us either have to adapt, or like to meddle. On the left the original photograph, and on the right the 4jesstice version.
Somebody else topped it with candied orange peel, rather than the long strands of real peel on the original - and mine. There's a tiny bit left - just enough for David and I tomorrow. I'm fasting today. I need to.
As I said at the beginning I am really not into buying other people's spice mixes - well apart from the odd jar of a Patek's curry paste and I don't do that very often. I do consider them to be a rip-off, because surely I tell myself, it's just a few dried herbs and spices thrown together in a jar. And I'm sure that on a certain level that is true. And if I had the expertise I could certainly do it myself for virtually nothing. But one does tend to forget the other costs - research and development - not just of the mix itself - but the design of the jar, the recipes to accompany it, the manufacturing set up, advertising ... Over time these initial costs get absorbed into the ongoing selling, but then such products depend hugely on their novelty value I am guessing, particularly where Ottolenghi is concerned, because that's the Ottolenghi effect isn't it? Surprise, novelty, excitement. Which involves a lot of moving on. Dump the old, bring on the new.
However, in the process, we move on ourselves - perhaps tempted to make up our own giant cheese toasty next time - there are a few online now to choose from as inspiration - like this Indian inspired version from Georgina Hayden - Bombay chilli cheese ciabatta. The concept is simple, just fiddle with the flavours. And I should note here that it was Ixta Belfrage an Ottolenghi graduate, who first made - to my knowledge anyway - her Giant grilled cheese with spicy honey butter. Which I have now made a couple of times to great acclaim. So maybe Ottolenghi got the idea from her.
In the short term I shall just be seeing what else I can do with my luxury Sweet and smokey. The recipe for the garlic bread only used a tablespoon, so there's plenty left for experiments. I shall probably begin with something with chicken - well it's the obvious simple go to isn't it? The label tells me it will be best used before the end of November 2026. I wonder whether I shall have used any more by then?
And I've just noticed you can scan a QR code on the jar for recipes, although you could just do a Google search for 'sweet and smokey'.
But yes food labels are fascinating things these days.
Maybe soon others will have 'invented' recipes and posted them online.
So I searched and found, on Instagram perhaps, the first. Crosby-loves-cheese decided to add it to butter, to make a spicy butter. Well it's a thought, rather than a recipe. The only thing you might need to know is the spice blend/butter ratio, but that's a taste thing and a play it by ear - well tongue kind of thing isn't it? But well done Crosby-loves-cheese. Lots of possibilities for what to do with it too.
YEARS GONE BY
August 4
2024 - Nothing
2021 - Star anise
2020 - Missing
2019 - Peelers and peels
2017 - Shepherd's pie
2016 - Toast
You are amazing
It was all utterly delicious, as per usual!