To think if Yotam Ottolenghi is going to complain about authenticity of olive oil in hummus, he shouldn't put out nonsense like Thai lentil soup

[AgaPanthers]

Seriously mate, if Mary Berry wants olive oil in her hummus it's up to her.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2789159/yotam-ottolenghi-attacks-great-british-bake-star-s-mary-berry-s-recipe-hummus-inclusion-olive-oil.html

You won't find any lentils in Thailand either.
www.westernlivingmagazine.com/2014/10/08/thai-red-lentil-soup/

Where did my photo go?

Where did my photo go?

They do sound lovely, but I need a magnifying glass to read that!!!

Which book is it from?

Ottolenghi - The Cookbook

Really? I can read it with glasses and some difficulty when I click on the photo.

There is also a sweet potato dish in here that is to die for, if you think you might be tempted.

His new cookbook is rubbish though.
Bloody black garlic and parsnips everywhere.
It feels gimmicky.

My aged eyes though!

Sweet potato, sadly, is out for me, as a low carber, but I love veggie stuff

You can buy black garlic in Sainsbury - DH cooked one of his recipes using that only a couple of weeks ago

Oh sorry, I thought you may be ok with sweet potato because it is low-GI.

Yes but parsnips FFS?
How authentic are parsnips?

Parsnips should only be seen for two weeks around Christmas and then go back to whatever circle of hell they came from.

I love parsnips! Roasted with butter they are totally fabulous. They may not be low carb, but once a year at Christmas I would allow them a million times over!

BIWI...You know, root veggies like sweet potato are good for your eyesight! (Research suggests eating sweet potato, pumpkin, butternut squash etc. can help prevent the need for cataract surgery.)

Parsnips are the most inauthentic of vegetables, followed closely by Jerusalem artichokes.

I don't cook chickpeas from scratch because it's authentic. I do it because it's cheaper. Which, when talking about peasant food, makes it more authentic, in a way.

Jerusalem artichokes give you the most horrible wind ever.

Mmm. I am starving. I hope yegods is right he was tongue in cheek - I want to think he's a nice man. I've not made many of his recipes as I don't often feel the need for guidelines for that sort of food (my mate when we were students taught me so I do the shortcuts) - but he writes in a way that really gets me hungry and wanting to cook. Mary Berry's food is quite 'safe' in terms of taste, I think, but that's nice too.

I make a chickpea thing (don't say it's hummus if that bothers you) with toasted sesame seeds mixed in, instead of tahini. It's very nice and has a bit of crunch to it.

Anyway, this thread is great, but (sorry, you can't be a snob and not expect it back), I had to pick this up:

We must be using different cooking books, Bunbaker. I have none that mention a single ingredient out of a can.

Don't you mean 'none that mentions'?

I do cook parsnips, and I ought to do chickpeas from scratch - but, however cheap they are, I don't have the space or the time!

BIWI - oh, god, they do that. It's a bit better if you serve them with plenty of parsley, though.

That is true. And they're ridiculouly knobbly and difficult to peel.

Inauspicious and inauthentic.

i agree with the comment early about authentic not always being superior.

of course, the "authentic" recipe (whatever that is) is a great guide, but modern cooking is both exciting and anything but authentic.

Jeanne - I'm happy to have brought such joy into your life by omitting the letter 's' at the end of a word.

For further entertainment, feel free to search for my other posts. I'm not a native speaker of English so it is quite possible that I may have omitted some more letters somewhere or even made spelling mistakes for you to point and laugh at.

Alternatively, get a life.

Oh, not you - the whole thread! I love it.

If we can't be petty and daft about things like pretending we never read recipes with tinned foods in them, when can we?!

Re authentic vs superior - Authentic recipes from a different region may just not suit your palate. When you change its ingredients, it will probably not be objectively superior, just tastier for you.

Chickpea fight!

Those chickpeas pack a punch!

Btw, cote, honestly, don't worry about SPAG. People who care about that sort of thing are almost invariably pretentious idiots - it is not an issue, any more than adapting recipes is one!

Are you drunk?

It's the Fail! Thy have literally taken a quote from the blessed Yottam, then gone and looked up other recipes for humous in order to manufacture a humous war. Don't let them win! Will no-one think of the chick peas?