Utterly divine veg dinner for one, a little bit of kitchen magic

My obsession with platters appears to be reaching a problematic state. I love platters. LOVE them. Of all shapes and sizes, earthily organic or modern as can be, unfinished or perfect, with a hint of decor or none at all. And today I may have bought one more. It was on sale, and I am sure to use it, but the stack in my basement closet (hee-hee, T never looks in there; it's like a tiny wifely-embezzlement nook) is quite tall. But this platter is so lovely, and I've been eyeing it for months, and it went on sale, and so I jumped. It's possible I bought a matching baker, but that's an admission for another day.

I did not get to any of the cooking on my list today, but I did manage to make myself a marvelous dinner for one: pumpkin ravioli with a brown butter sage sauce; and warmed Yotam & Sami leftovers from two nights back. Everything saved beautifully; in fact, it was all better tonight which is not really a surprise. Fried onions get better over time, and tahini sauce is a sit-in-the-fridge-and-improve champ. Yotam's tahini sauce is lovely, and in making it I am always amazed by the way disparately viscous ingredients can come together so uniformly. That sort of magic is one of the elemental reasons I love cooking. Try this yourself:

From Jerusalem:

3½ tablespoons light tahini paste 4½ tablespoons Greek yogurt 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed 2 tablespoons water

Place all ingredients in a medium bowl, add a pinch of salt, and whisk well until you get a smooth, semistiff paste.

Could.that.be.simpler?! No. And when you first put everything in the bowl and start whisking, you'll think, this biz ain't ever gonna come together into a paste. But it does, beautifully and smoothly, and in this rich ecru color that you want to paint your walls with, and that's the magic.

Dinner a la Yotam

As y'all might recall, I purchased my second Yotam Ottolenghi cookbook, Jerusalem, not long ago. It's a joint effort between Yotam and his childhood friend, Sami Tamimi; they grew up in Jerusalem, one in a Jewish family and one in an Arab Muslim one. I've really enjoyed all I've made from this book so far, and, like Plenty, it's beautifully photographed and clearly written. Tonight, I made two dishes I'd flagged several weeks back: chermoula eggplant with bulgur and yogurt, and a kohlrabi salad. I loved(!) both. T found the kohlrabi too bitter which I didn't sense at all. He must have the bitter allele in spades. Mother of god! Anyway, more for me.

Chermoula is a North African paste made of preserved lemon, garlic and some wonderful spices including cumin, coriander and paprika. Here, you put this together, slather it on a halved eggplant and then roast the concoction in a hot oven for about 40 minutes. In the meantime, you whip up a bulgur salad which is specked with chopped green olives, plump raisins, almonds and some herbs. That, Greek yogurt and sumac top the eggplant when it's done = DELISH!

I thought this kohlrabi salad was fabulous and refreshing; it's dressed with a terrific Greek yogurt-sour cream-mascarpone sauce into which you whisk lemon juice and pressed garlic. YUM! 

Plan B

As our dinner with pals has been rainchecked, it's T and me on tap for tonight. Poor guy has whatever's going around- awful cough, headache, he just really feels lousy. Anyway, I'm going to scratch our original meal plan and instead jump into my new cookbook, Yotam's Jerusalem. I mentioned this a month or so ago, and just received it yesterday. The recipes look fabulous, and I've got little sticky note tabs sticking out everywhere; the book looks like a Chia pet. Saffron rice with barberries, pistachios and mixed herbs? Swiss chard with tahini, yogurt and buttered pine nuts? Another burnt eggplant recipe? Aah, where to start. As many of these dishes require an overnight soak of beans, which I have not done, narrowing down to a plan won't be as troublesome as usual! In the meantime, I'm nursing my first-ever busted lip. This morning was visiting day at Ol's school, and in a fit of laughter, he threw his head back, its crown flattening my bottom lip against my teeth. It hurt like a &*&#^&*@ and is now less than attractive. Blimey.