My friend Rachel, another microbial ecology grad student, was the inspiration for me to buy the book Plenty. I went to a very fun tater tot and milk shake themed birthday party at her house and discovered Plenty on her book shelf. Rachel is a way more experienced and fancy chef than myself, and her subletter was a professional chocolatier (omg does it get any better than this??), so of course I invited myself over to cook a dinner at her house :) Rachel decided to make the Sabih from Jerusalem (pg. 90), and I made the very full tart from Plenty featured here.
Rachel chopping tomatoes for cucumber tomato salad to go with the Sabih
Her roommate Michael, who is also a professional chocolatier and cooking school graduate, showed me the proper way to chop an onion and made us delicious french onion soup.
Michael making french onion soup.
Michael’s french onion soup
I set to roasting the red peppers for my tart:
roasted red and yellow peppers for the very full tart
After chopping and roasting all of the vegetables, I added them to a frozen pie crust (to Rachel and Michael’s definite dismay).
Very full tart with roasted vegetables, cheese, and cherry tomatoes
Next I had to add the cream and egg mixture, which was a bit of a disaster to say the least. The recipe doesn’t mention anything about pie dish size- but save yourself the pain and get a super deep dish pie crust! They were not kidding when they called this a very full tart! Luckily Michael is very experienced in these matters and saved the day with a baking sheet to catch the overflow.
Very full tart explosion
Since Rachel is super fancy, she made her pita for the Sabih by hand. Next time I will be fancy like Rachel and make my pie crust by hand too :)
making pita from scratch
Rachel’s beautiful home made pita
This was a decadent meal to say the least, and also a bit incongruent – filled with dishes such as the Middle Eastern Sabih, Mediterranean savory vegetable tart, and French onion soup. And finally finished off with an incredibly decadent chocolate mousse in a chocolate cup made by chef Michael , which unfortunately I have no photographic evidence of, but I can assure you it was delectable :)
Sabih with zhoug, cucumber tomato salad, and eggplant
Not the best picture ever, but here is everyone enjoying the meal at Rachel’s house.
Enjoying the feast at Rachel’s house
The very full tart is definitely one of the richer dishes I’ve made so far from Plenty, and not quite as light and healthy feeling as the other middle eastern and asian themed dishes. But if you are in the mood for a decadent and hearty savory vegetarian dish, this might do just the trick!
Yotam Ottolenghi’s Very full tart