Simplicity

Spending more time in Cape Town gave us time to explore and rediscover favourite places. Apart from loving our ‘new’ courtyard where Table Mountain is a constant presence, I had the opportunity to browse around in book stores. Books are my one weakness and I never manage to walk out of a book store without one.

Ottolenghi Simple

That is how I found myself on a busy afternoon in Kloof Street, Cape Town, with the latest offering from Yotam Ottolenghi, Simple, in my hands. If a cookbook from a favourite chef is in my hand, it will be in my library at Towerwater.

New season pomegranates

The title promised easy recipes. I am eager to add Yotam’s Middle Eastern inspired dishes to my lunch and dinner menus. If they are simple easy dishes, I am all for it. I was curious to see what he saw as simple because, in his own words, cooking for him “has always been about abundance, bounty, freshness and surprise.” A philosophy I like to follow at Towerwater.

Tomato seedlings

The Simplicity was in that one can make the recipes in 30 minutes or less, with 10 or fewer ingredients and in a single pot. The ingredients read like Towerwater’s sowing and harvesting chart, with tomatoes, dill, basil, coriander, carrots, aubergine, courgette, pomegranate, fig and many more.

Beetroot and carrots

Courgettes

Looking at all the young seedlings in the garden, I wonder if they realise what an important task they are facing. Adding the ingredients to meals from my new cookbook. While my seedlings are growing, I add my new cookbook to the rest of my Ottolenghi collection in the Towerwater library. I derive joy seeing the collection complete with the latest offering, plain and simple.