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Crushed new potatoes with horseradish and sorrel

Another gem from the Ottolenghi cookbook that didn't get a picture in the final version. Would be great made with Jersey royals; they are now in season! The recipe is on page 63.

Somewhere between a mash and potato-mayonnaise salad, this dish is satisfying both warm and ambient. Adjust the seasoning and the amount of horseradish to suit your sensitivity (re-check once it has cooled down).

Sorrel is not always available. Instead use rocket, or actually any soft herb, and a bit of lemon juice. Horseradish sauce or wasabi paste (beware, it’s strong) make good alternatives to fresh horseradish. Again, taste and judge how much you need.

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Sami on film

Watch Sami make our sweet and spicy beef and pork pie for channel4 online.

Food awards etc.

Have a look at the recent visit of Chicago based ABC journalist Steve Dolinsky at Ottolenghi Upper st and other London attractions, including the world's best 50 restaurants awards.

Love of food

I am normally good with criticism. I actually like it. I welcome any comment about Ottolenghi’s food, my style, the level of execution, clarity of recipes… the more the merrier.

There is only one kind of comment that really gets to me, and it is part of a growing trend that I find both annoying and silly; these are comments about the health attributes of certain dishes.

I particularly refer to a letter to the Guardian’s weekend magazine by a reader from Cardiff complaining about the amount of fat that went into a broccoli pie recipe I published a couple of weeks earlier.

This reader, as many others self-appointed guards of the nation’s welfare, don’t trust that people are smart enough to make the right decisions about their diet. He can’t imagine that someone would be responsible enough to have a small slice of the rich pie, along with a green salad, to create a perfectly healthy and delicious lunch.

I actually suspect that delicious doesn’t come into the equation at all here, that this type of criticism comes from people that don’t really like food.

I wish all this energy would instead go to the enjoyment of great food, whatever it may be.