Yotam Ottolenghi recipes: kafteji, plus tuna tartare with avocado, orange and chilli | Food (2024)

In Tunisia I came across a popular street food made from lots of fresh vegetables. Tunisians are obsessed with deep-frying, and they put all this veg in its prime into the deep-fat fryer and serve it with a deep-fried egg. That's seems a slight shame, but I can sort of see the point – after all, who doesn't have a soft spot for fried food? What I couldn't get my head around was the next stage, when the veg and egg are chopped up into a fine mush that's like baby food in both colour and texture. My take on the dish stops short of this. Kafteji is a great Sunday brunch dish with a good baguette. Serves four.

Pour both oils into a high-sided stockpot and place on medium to high heat. Test the oil's hot enough by dropping in a slice of potato – it should sink and then almost straight away form bubbles and rise to the surface. Add a third of the potatoes and fry for seven to 10 minutes, until soft and slightly crisp. Transfer to a plate covered with kitchen paper, sprinkle with salt and keep somewhere warm. Repeat with the remaining potatoes.

In the same oil, fry the courgettes for four to six minutes, remove, drain on separate kitchen paper and season with salt. Repeat with the green peppers (cook them for two tothree minutes), chillies (one minute) and tomatoes (two to three minutes). Watch out though, the tomatoes will make the oil spit.

Transfer all the fried warm vegetables to a large bowl and add the vinegar, ras el hanout and harissa. Stir gently with your hands, trying not to break up the veg. Addsalt and pepper to taste.

Remove most of the oil from the pan and fry the eggs, two at a time if need be, until the white is done and the yolk is still runny. Portion the vegetables and top with egg. Season again, and serve.

Tuna tartare with avocado, orange and chilli

Serves four to six as a first course.

2 medium tomatoes
2 small red chillies, deseeded and finely diced
Grated zest of 1 large orange (1½ tsp)
1½ tbsp lime juice
2 tsp olive oil, plus extra to finish
Salt and black pepper
1 medium-size ripe avocado
500g fresh tuna loin
4 spring onions, thinly sliced
1 small red pepper, deseeded and cut into 0.5cm dice
¼ tsp Aleppo chilli flakes (or other dried chilli flakes)
1 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and crushed
20g pea shoots

Peel the avocado and discard the stone. Cut the flesh into 0.5cm dice, put in a small bowl with the rest of the lime juice and fresh chilli, and mix gently.

Dice the tuna into 0.5cm pieces and put it in a bowl with the spring onion. Pour the tomato dressing over the fish, add the diced red pepper, chilli flakes and cumin, stir,then add the avocado. Add saltto taste, fold through the pea shoots and serve.

• Yotam Ottolenghi is chef/patron of Ottolenghi and Nopi in London. His new book, Jerusalem, co-written with Sami Tamimi, is published by Ebury Press at £27. Toorder a copy for £16 (inc free UK mainland p&p), go to theguardian.com/bookshop, or call 0330 333 6846.