There really is a potato dish for every occasion, but chances are, you don’t think to reach for the bag of spuds when you’re whipping up a hot brekky or brunch.
Well, that’s about to change. Yotam Ottolenghi – the megastar chef, restaurateur and cookbook author – is here to put Breakfast Potatoes on your culinary radar.
Ottolenghi’s Breakfast Potatoes could be your new favourite weekend brunch dish. Supplied/Penguin Random House
The dish is one of 135 recipes in Ottolenghi’s new cookbook, Simple Too, combining “two great Spanish potato dishes”: patatas a lo pobre (poor man’s potatoes) and huevos rotos (broken eggs).
Sliced spuds and eggs are teamed with red capsicums, oregano, banana shallots, paprika and garlic before going into the oven. “One tray, one mandoline … and you have easily fed a crowd,” Ottolenghi declares.
Of course, this isn’t the only mouth-watering recipe in Simple Too – a companion to the chef’s wildly popular 2018 book Simple. (If you have a friend or family member who loves cooking, you’ll likely spot it on their bookshelf.)
“We wanted to carve out a space that allows people to relax a little more in the kitchen, to use the pantry they’ve already built and the knowledge they already have,” Ottolenghi says of the aim of the book, which he wrote with test kitchen colleague Verena Lochmuller.
To give you a taste of Simple Too, here are three of the recipes you’ll find in its pages.
Breakfast Potatoes
While the two dishes that inspired this recipe are traditionally fried, this one is baked: “Not to be virtuous, it’s just easy.”
Serves 6Prep time: 10 minutesCook time: 1 hour, 5 minutesIngredients1kg Yukon Gold, Maris Piper (or other floury) potatoes, unpeeled and thinly sliced2 red peppers, deseeded and thinly sliced (300g)4 oregano sprigs3 large banana shallots, thinly sliced (200g)1 head of garlic, top 1cm removed1 tsp sweet smoked paprika150ml olive oil6 eggsfine sea salt and black pepper
Anyone else’s mouth watering? Jonathan Lovekin.
InstructionsPreheat the oven to 190°C fan.Put everything apart from the eggs on a large baking tray (about 28cm x 40cm x 4cm), along with 1¼ teaspoons of salt and plenty of pepper. Mix together well and bake for 30 minutes.Remove from the oven, turn everything over and bake for another 30 minutes (turning the vegetables over again halfway through), until the potatoes are soft and jammy and the peppers and shallots are frazzled. Remove from the oven, squeeze the garlic cloves out of their skins and fold them through.Crack the eggs into a jug, season with a pinch of salt and some pepper, then lightly break with a fork: just enough to burst the yolks. Create a few small pockets in the potato mixture, then pour in the eggs. Return to the oven for 5 minutes, or until the eggs are just cooked through.Chicken Meatballs with Pistachios and Spinach
“These Iranian-inspired meatballs don’t sit quietly on the plate,” Ottolenghi writes.
These chicken meatballs are “super bright” and “don’t sit quietly on the plate”. Jonathan Lovekin.
“They’re super bright with plenty of herbs and pistachios, and lightly sweetened with dried fruit.
“The food processor does much of the work for you and the result is a whole meal in itself, served in a shallow bowl, with some flatbreads if you like.”
Yield: Serves 4-6Prep Time: 15 minutesCook Time: 30 minutesIngredients100g pistachio kernels8-10 spring onions, roughly chopped (125g)50g coriander, roughly chopped20g dill, roughly chopped3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped1 tsp ground turmeric2½ tsp ground cumin25g panko breadcrumbs1 egg400g chicken or turkey mince105ml olive oil200g baby spinach leaves, roughly chopped650ml chicken stock100g orzo75g dried sour cherries (or cranberries), roughly chopped2 tsp cherry molasses (or pomegranate molasses)Lemon wedges, to serveFine sea salt and black pepperInstructionsPrepare the mixture and shape: Combine the pistachios, spring onions, coriander, dill, garlic, turmeric, and cumin in a food processor and blitz until finely chopped. Transfer 175g of this mixture to a small bowl and set aside. To the remaining mixture in the food processor, add the breadcrumbs, egg, mince, 1¼ teaspoons of salt, and plenty of pepper. Blitz to combine, then shape into 14 meatballs.Brown the meatballs: Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the meatballs and brown them on all sides for about 5 minutes, then remove them to a plate.Simmer and serve: Add the remaining 75ml of oil, the reserved herb mixture, and the spinach to the pan. Cook for about 3 minutes until the spinach is wilted, then stir in the chicken stock, orzo, sour cherries, molasses, and ¼ teaspoon of salt. Bring to a simmer, return the meatballs to the pan, and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover and cook for 10 minutes until the meatballs and orzo are cooked through. Remove from the heat and let stand, covered, for 5-10 minutes until the sauce thickens. Serve with a squeeze of lemon.Eggplant with Capers and Dill
Ottolenghi describes this dish as “a kind of simplified and sped-up caponata”.
“It’s sweet yet savoury, rich but not too much. That’s why it’s good in so manysituations: as a smart warm starter, a fridge staple to stuff into pita, or a side to go with meat, fish or a bowl of rice.”
This eggplant recipe is “a kind of simplified and sped-up caponata”. Jonathan Lovekin
These recipes feature in Ottolenghi’s new cookbook, Simple Too. Supplied/Penguin Random House
Serves 4Prep time: 5 minutesCook time: 35 minutesIngredients2–3 aubergines, halved lengthways and each half cut into 3 long wedges (750g)90ml olive oil3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced50g capers1 tbsp tomato paste1 tbsp maple syrup3 tbsp apple cidervinegar15g dill, finely chopped2 tbsp tahini, to serve (optional)fine sea salt and black pepperInstructionsPreheat the oven to 220°C fan.Combine the aubergines with 60ml of oil, ½ teaspoon of salt and a good grind of pepper on a large parchment-lined baking tray. Roast for 25–30 minutes, until caramelised around the edges.Meanwhile, put the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil into a small saucepan along with the garlic, capers, tomato paste, ¼ teaspoon of salt and plenty of pepper. Cook on a medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring often, until the garlic is golden. Add the maple syrup and vinegar, cook for a final 2 minutes, then remove from the heat. As soon as the aubergines come out of the oven, pour over the dressing and toss gently until well coated. Set aside for 5 minutes, then fold through the dill.Transfer the aubergines, plus any dressing left on the tray, to a serving platter. Drizzle with tahini, if using, and serve.
Extracted from Ottolenghi Simple Too by Yotam Ottolenghi and Verena Lochmuller (Ebury Press, $69.99). All photography by Jonathan Lovekin.