10 recipes perfect for Australian winter from Yotam Ottolenghi | Food (2024)

Apple butter galette

Meaty portobello mushrooms – which are Swiss Browns harvested later and larger – are a staple of vegetarian comfort food. “This is a sort of vegan equivalent of steak and mash,” writes Yotam Ottolenghi. The mushrooms are slow cooked in oil, chilli and lots of garlic, leaving them “with a deep, umami flavour and a real kick”. The beans, meanwhile, are simple, creamy and can be served hot or cold.

Roast pork belly with apple, soy and ginger

Patience is a virtue with this slow-roasted pork belly, but while it takes a couple of hours in the oven, the dish takes very little pre-prep. It uses three kinds of apple – apple cider vinegar, apple juice and whole apples – to “cut through that richness”, writes Yotam Ottolenghi. “The flavours in this dish are inspired by Filipino pork adobo, in which the meat is cooked in a sweet and vinegary, soy-based sauce.”

Wait till midwinter to make this delicate broth, which uses swede and celeriac with leftover parmesan rinds. You can’t always find celeriac at the supermarket in Australia, but most specialty greengrocers will have the root vegetable by mid-June. The dumplings are made with nothing but parmesan, egg and a little cornflour, which means they “are a little finicky, but they’re special and worth the effort”, writes Yotam Ottolenghi.

It takes a bit of nerve to achieve the “crisp, caramelised layer at the bottom of the pan” that “makes this couscous particularly appealing”. “The trick to achieving this layer,” explains Yotam Ottolenghi “known as tahdig or socarrat (depending on where you are in the world) is to let the couscous cook undisturbed, resisting the temptation to stir.” Warming spices such as cinnamon, chilli and star anise give this dish a comforting flavour which you can offset with a dollop of yoghurt, dairy-free, if you want to make it vegan.

Potato and gochujang braised eggs

If you’ve got a single small kohlrabi at the bottom of your veggie box, this is a good way to use it up. Mixed with potato and Korean chilli sauce, it will form part of “a giant rösti with a crisp bottom” for the baked eggs to sit inside, “giving you a perfect brunch combination”. “Be sure to source a good-quality gochujang (a fermented Korean red pepper paste),” suggests Yotam Ottolenghi, “because they’re much punchier than most supermarket brands.”

With just five ingredients, this one-pot vegan pasta dish is quick to prep and slower to cook, baking for just over and hour to allow the flavours to deepen.

This one-pot, oven-baked salmon has a zesty crust of za’tar and sumac and plenty of “creamy, runny, nutty tahini”. Cooked with baby spinach, the whole dish is ready in just 25 minutes.

Most home-cooks have a roast chook in their repertoire, but in a departure from the norm, this one is tenderised with a yoghurt marinade. Yoghurt is used again to “bring together the roasting juices into a wonderfully tangy gravy”. The recipe calls for charlotte potatoes – which are not widely available in Australia – but small, elongated kipfler potatoes make a good substitute.

These doughnuts are vegan and, writes Yotam Ottolenghi, “I guarantee you won’t miss the dairy and eggs commonly used in doughnuts. Instead, these are made with olive oil, which makes them rich and velvety.” The doughnuts are deep-fried, glazed with a little hit of Grand Marnier, and finished with a sprinkle of sea salt.

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