Roast potato and mint sauce make way in post-Ottolenghi era of enlightenment

Like many families, we had an Easter celebration last Sunday. It was an occasion where all were welcome to a Sunday lunch at our home. We had about 20 in total and served slow cooked lamb with a supporting cast of vegetables and salads.

Years ago, the lamb would probably be accompanied by cauliflower cheese, tomato and onion pie, peas, potatoes and gravy. But not in this post-Ottolenghi era of vegetable assortment and enlightenment! The array of complementary dishes was something to behold with each family contributing a dish or two.

We had tomato and cucumber raita, mustard cauliflower, Puy lentils with tomato and eggplant, cous cous with Mediterranean vegetables, carrot salad with yoghurt and cinnamon, snow peas and broccolini salad and perhaps a couple more I have omitted. There was not a roast potato or mint sauce in sight! Served buffet style, with everyone
helping themselves, our entertaining style has become far more European Middle Eastern than English.

With this type of presentation comes the issue of serving platters. I have observed over years of catering in private homes that platters are a little like a dinner suit hanging in the wardrobe. They are both items purchased at a point of time and are unlikely to be updated, as they usually last a lifetime (or beyond). This is fine but fashion dictates that styles of said items come and go over the decades.

The result is that your crushed velvet dinner suit lovingly purchased in the mid-seventies made you look like a Brownlow Medal winner of that decade well into the nineties and beyond (but strangely enough may put you at the cutting edge of hipster fashion today).

The ramifications for platters are not so outrageous. After all, they are mostly covered with food. We were married in the early nineties and were given an assortment of large, heavy platters either plain white or brightly coloured patterns. Many are beautiful but some make you feel a little like Graham Teesdale accepting his 1977 Brownlow medal in that infamous brown suit.

It’s nearly impossible to believe, but your Mud salad bowl of today with its minimalist artisan aesthetic will in time fall out of favour. What never goes out of fashion, however, are good food, family and friends. No matter what the Easter food offering or tableware we choose, the most important thing is gathering together. Following is the recipe for carrots with yoghurt – a simple dish with spectacular results.