The Sacred Art of Eating

We’re now into the second week of January, 3% of the way through the year if you will. I’m impressed to see that I have, with Dougal’s help, already cooked up 14 of Nigella’s recipes (and that’s not including the one or two we’ve done, but not ‘properly’.)

When we had friends over for dinner on Saturday I mused that it was going to be an expensive year. K proposed that I ought to make it my additional challenge to ‘Do Nigella on a Budget’. To be honest, that’s just not my way. I’ve always thought food was worth spending money on. Even as a student, I was more inclined to splurge on food than on going out and getting bladdered. Food is fundamentally a treat for me. I can recall unwrapping smoked salmon, chocolate spread, fontaluna salami, feta stuffed olives and who knows what else in birthday presents from a tender age. Particularly smoked salmon (which is why I rarely buy the ubiquitous smoked salmon and cream cheese commuter sandwiches….in my world, smoked salmon is still a delicacy, a rare treat!).

Don’t get me wrong, I will happily substitute wee leeks for baby leeks, if it’s the choice between having a meal or not. And I accept that there are some ingredients I am unlikely to get without going online, and I may not bother. I also don’t expect I’ll want to buy the multiple bottles of flavoured syrups for putting into cocktails that she mentions. I just can’t imagine actually using them. But if the block of cheese which will perfect the salad I’m making is going to be five quid…so be it. I’m looking to enjoy my food, to get that zing. If that means cutting back in other places, I am quite happy to do so.

In light of that I have already done a little bit of Nigella-inspired shopping. Before I was challenged, in fact, I popped round Waitrose and finally bought some Worcestershire Sauce, some wasabi powder, some prawns for the freezer. I may sit down later in the week and go through the whole book again, look at the more unusual ingredients and see how often they come up and whether I ought to be indulging.

Alternatively, Luncheon Vouchers can be sent to the usual address….

It is not, of course, just me that has been hard at it of late. Indeedy, Dougal too has been expanding his foodie horizons, by baking bread. Santa had a wee word with my folks before Christmas and they furnished him with some tins, a rather fetching apron, and a big jar of my dad’s smashing Ruby Chutney as a sort of incentive towards the finish line (it really does deserve real bread).So far he’s been using recipe’s from Delia Smith’s Complete Cookery Course (published 1982) and the results have been both entirely edible (my dad assures me that my mum baked a lot of bricks when she started out) and also pleasingly tasty. I think I preferred the brown so far, despite at the time thinking it still needed some work. I’ve been taking both to work of late, to perk up my lunchtime half carton of soup.

This evening we realised we’d not taken anything out of the freezer last night as planned. So Dougal flicked through NE before I got home, sent me out for a couple of ingredients, and then we flung together a meal.

• Cheddar Cheese Risotto

This comes from the Comfort Food chapter, and rightly so. It was thick and cheesy and by no means whatsoever could be classed as healthy…but it’s almost zero out there, and blowing such a gale that the Forth Road Bridge is closed with structural damage…so it was spot on. I can still feel it sitting in my belly. It is, in fact, probably the only reason I am still warm enough, an hour after we finished eating.

The recipe called for baby leeks- these are WONCAS ingredients (waitrose only, no chance at somerfield) so I went for smallish leeks rather than the suggested substitution of fat spring onions. I have a strange relationship with spring onions and don’t always appreciate their inclusion in recipes; I wasn’t willing to risk their ruining the meal.

Not only did the rice cook nicely in the prescribed time, but the flavours did meld convincingly. I’m not a total devotee of the ‘cheese in risotto’ camp but this worked really well, perhaps because it was suitably far from my personal impression of what risotto ought to be like.

Went very nicely with a cheeky glass of white wine, I must say. Not a sophisticated meal, but a most satisfying one :-)

Just because we could…

• Mexican Hot Chocolate

It was very, very cold (and we were very wet) when we got in from BSL the other night, and we still had full cream milk left over from the Budino di Ciocolatto, so we decided to whip ourselves up a couple of Mexican Hot Chocolates.

Now we didn’t have any (fresh or UHT) whipped cream to top them with, nor any wanky glass hot chocolate glasses (something to put on the wish list) but we figured, hey, we’re in this for the warmth anyway, right? We also didn’t have the called for Hot Chocolate mix, so in fact ours was Mexican Cocoa- probably more authentic anyway!

Trouble was, the volumes given in the recipe clearly called for said wanky glasses (rather than big tea mugs) and a good 1/3 total volume of cream. Because we ended up with only a half mug each of hot chocolate.

But what hot chocolate! The Kahlua was detectable but not cloying. And the cinnamon stick ‘drinking straws’, which I’d nearly made Dougal forgo as a ludicrous waste of money, were absolutely necessary as they imparted a warm, comforting aroma that filled the nose and warmed the tum.

We will definitely be making these again. With wanky glasses, fresh cream, and lots more hot chocolate. Pictures when we do.

I realised whilst preparing this meal that, for the course of this challenge, my friends will have to learn that “just supper, nothing fancy” only goes as far as to mean we’ll be wearing jeans, and they won’t be given cocktails. Beyond that, anything goes.

• Halloumi Bites
• Moonblush Tomatoes, and
• Slow-roast Tomatoes, Goat’s Cheese and Mint Salad
• Pollo alla Cacciatora
• Budino di Cioccolato
• Chocolate Macaroons

Two friends for supper, to really grasp the challenge by the horns, and to get some recipes under my belt as insurance for the working week ahead. I think managing five (six!) was pretty good going. The only pre-planned part of the meal was the salad, which you can currently see gracing the banner of this blog. I’d bought the special soft goat’s cheese on the 31st, intending to make this salad for my folks on New Year’s Day, but then I forgot to put the tomatoes on to cook in advance.

Not to be beaten a second time, I merrily (very!) prepared the tomatoes on Friday night, a little after 1am, after we got back from Fife. Easy peasy- heat the oven up, slice toms in half, sprinkle with good things, bung in oven, turn oven off, go to bed. I was concerned that the measurements were going to be a problem- I would personally have used half as much salt and twice as much olive oil- but decided to Trust Nigella.

The following evening, I scattered my salad leaves on the plate, dolloped about the goats cheese, and arrayed the now Moonblushed Tomatoes. Instant show-off salad!

(Instant- apart from the mint. My local supermarket failed me on fresh herbs. Thankfully our guests were able to bring us some and I’m really glad I decided to ask, as the mint really lifted the flavours and added that important je ne sais qois.)

All the other dishes were chosen on the basis of what I might feasibly find ingredients for in our local, small and grotty supermarket. I’ll pretend that I was doing the cooking in the true Express ethos, but actually I just couldn’t be bothered shopping the day before and left it till two hours before our friends arrived. Perhaps that is the true Express ethos anyway. I chose reasonably well too, seeing as the only ingredients I couldn’t get were the aforementioned fresh mint, and some fresh rosemary for the Pollo alla Cacciatora.

The Hunter’s Chicken was nice enough, but no great shakes. We had (over-)faithfully followed the recipe with Dougal boning chicken thighs for fillets (it was the only way I could get free range chicken, and anyway the recipe called for thigh fillets. The bones and skin will make great stock!). Nigella describes this as a dish she can construct from scratch in comfortably under half an hour; we had more time and so cooked it for longer, reasoning that no stew ever suffered a bit of slow simmering. It was nevertheless a bit thin (needed reduced) and just not very exciting. But I reckon I’d be happy enough with it after a lousy day at work, so I’ll not write it off altogether.

Perhaps the chicken seemed dull because it had followed on from such a fabulous starter. A starter which I’ve just realised I took no photos of; damn, I’ll just have to cook it again. Halloumi is one of my favourite nibbley foods, in the whole world and there are TWO recipes using it in this book. This was dead straightforward: dry fry your cheese and then toss it in citrus juices, oil and herbs. My only complaint was that I couldn’t eat the whole lot myself.

For pudding we served Budino di Cioccolato with Chocolate Macaroons; the macaroons use the two egg whites left over from the egg yolks that go into the choccy pots. I nearly didn’t make the macaroons, thinking them unnecessary additional effort, but the fact that they only need baked for 11 minutes spurred me into action. I’m glad I did as they were perfect; chewy and chocolatey and really good for dipping into the pots. I don’t feel so glowing about the Budino themselves, despite them turning out really well. Perhaps this is the fault of our lousy electric cooker, or perhaps it was the recipe, but Nigella’s cooking and whisking for about 3-4 minutes until the mixture thickens took well over half an hour for me. This took me firmly out of Express zone and into argh, why am I wasting so much time making sure the pudding doesn’t burn (the macaroons were finished and out of the oven by this point). I would also quibble with the illustration on the book, which was clearly taken before the things had been chilled. Mine weren’t quite so exquisitely shiny, but I think my take on her serving suggestion was pretty funky, in a cute and modern way.

A flat-warming party with a delightful theme, and an opportunity to try out two further recipes:

• Marshmallow Crispy Squares
• Party Popcorn
• Wok oil (ish)

The crispy squares were a cinch to make; we couldn’t get mini-marshmallows but found that full sized ones worked equally well. The advice regarding using vinyl gloves to push the mix into the tin was greatly received (not least of all because we had some of said gloves) as this is one sticky mixture. We didn’t have time to order edible disco glitter online, and being the 3rd of January, our local cake decorating shop wasn’t open. So our sparkle came from a jar of , and, whilst rather more Clyde built than Nigella’s efforts, fitted the bill perfectly.

The party popcorn was also a big hit. In essence you cook your popcorn as normal but in some tasty oil* and the, once popped, shake it in a paper bag with a spicy melted butter mix. We wondered at the actual need for the paper bag, but decided that a less substantial bag might stick to itself and prevent the spice mix from being distributed through the popcorn. As it was we could have done with a warm paper bag (or something!) as lumps of the buttery sugary spice solidified rapidly on the paper, which was a shame. However, whilst on first munch the popcorn was a bit too subtle, my hand kept going back to it…ultimately, this one was a hit with me! We made half quantities, for the party we were going to, and I’m sure it wasn’t finished. I can’t imagine the scale of party Nigella herself is catering for!

*Whilst I didn’t go so far as to make actual Wok Oil for this recipe, infusing garlic and ginger in a sesame and vegetable oil mix for 48 hours, I prepped the oil before I went to work. I threw some veggie oil and a bit of sesame oil into a jug, crushed in a clove of garlic and grated in some fresh ginger. It won’t have been as powwy as it ought to have been but I’m sure it will have made a difference, contributed to the general ’savoury’ flavour. Once I’ve bought some nice bottles I’ll make up all three of the infused oils properly.

• Roquamole
• Red-leaf, Fig and Serrano ham salad
• Spanish omelette

New Year’s Day saw me inadvertently begin The Challenge (Mike didn’t lay out the details until the 3rd) when, on Hogmanay, I had a Nigella-like moment and ‘discovered’ I had people coming to supper.

The situation was thus: my mum had mentioned her and my dad popping in on the first, and us all going for a walk up the Union Canal before taking in a movie and perhaps food at Chop Chop, our nearest (and best in Edinburgh) Chinese Restaurant. However, whilst I was at work on the 31st, a flurry of emails revealed that Chop Chop was to be closed on the 1st. I gaily offered to ‘do food’.

Theoretically, whipping up some sort of light bites for my family, particularly when any empty stomachs could be filled with ice cream at the cinema afterwards, was not a demanding undertaking. But I was heading into the beginning of a rubbish cold, and Waitrose was heaving as I made my way round at 3pm. Heaving, but pretty light on stock. I felt bewildered and overwhelmed by ingredients and recipes and possibilities; I’d not made any plans for what precisely to cook and as such didn’t really know what I was doing. However, I had read through some of Nigella Express by this stage and so I had an idea of what to make, grabbing ripe avocados and manchego cheese (eek it was expensive) and soft goat’s cheese. I had a vague notion of doing some salads and some dippy-crisps thing.

The roqualmole was an almost resounding success. Dougal made it up, rather than me, but I think it was fairly straightforward to create. We let the side down slightly by not having any of those sliced jalapeno chillis to put through it and give it oomph, but nevertheless the ingredients were good and the result was flavoursome. My family ate it with gusto, my brother announcing that it was really good, ‘like guacamole but not quite’… unfortunately the very moment I revealed that its secret ingredient was blue cheese, he magically lost his taste for it. Even at 21 he can be a total child sometimes. Sadly we couldn’t manage blue tortilla chips (we barely managed real tortilla chips, but I was resolute that I would not have it with doritos!) even though I have eaten them in Scotland before so they must be available somewhere in Edinburgh.

The serrano ham salad was something I’d known I wanted to make when I walked into the supermarket, and as such I’d shopped specifically for the ingredients I needed. Sadly, I was let down by the lack of deliveries/frenetic panic buying of the other shoppers, because try as I might I could not get any redder than average salad leaves. In fact, in Waitrose I couldn’t get any salad leaves at all and had to buy them in Somerfield when I got back to the flat. I didn’t include any figs in my salad because I’ve only knowingly eaten fresh figs once in my life and wouldn’t know where to start when buying the things. Also, we didn’t have any sherry vinegar, so I used a mixture of cooking sherry and white wine vinegar. Whether this was to the detriment of the dish I doubt I’ll ever know, as I’m not sure there is really room in my life (or my condiments cupboard) for sherry vinegar. Lastly; I think Nigella must have a sharper potato peeler than I do because I found that only 1/2 of my manchego slices had an artistry to them. The others had chunks at one end. I enjoyed this salad (cheese AND ham in the one dish, hurrah!) but I think I’d better make it again, for so as not to be accused to failing to take the challenge seriously enough. And also because I’d like to eat it again.

The spanish omelette was a last minute addition to the menu and suffered a little a lack of planned shopping. We had no caramelised peppers in the house and so I made a hopeful New Year’s Day trip to the corner shop at the end of our road. It has always seemed quite big; however I discovered that in fact most of their stock is alcohol and dogfood. Further to that you can buy anything as long as it is in a tin or pickled. (Except for jalapenos!). So the spanish omelette was in fact made fairly traditionally in that there were no caramelised peppers in it. However, despite misgivings, I used only the weight of new potatoes the recipe called for, and used them halved (as directed) rather than sliced any smaller. I felt that there was rather too much space between the potato, that the omelette lacked structural integrity. One certainly wouldn’t have sliced a wedge off and taken it in one’s lunchbox, for it would only have fallen apart. Perhaps it would have been better with slices of potato, or perhaps it merely needed the addition of the magic 75g of peppers to bulk it out. Either way I was a bit disappointed by this one; I’d have made an equally good, if not better, spanish omelette without taking her advice on the matter.

Sadly I don’t have proper photos of the above, as we didn’t start out photo taking in earnest until the challenge had been laid down. However we made the same salad a couple of days later (although in a bowl rather than artily on a plate) so you get that picture.

The finishing touch to our little New Year’s Day supper was a tray of Neapolitan cakey things I’d picked up from the Italian cafe across the road. Perhaps now my dad will be convinced to come and take me out for coffee! Pastry filled with sweetened ricotta and cream and crystallised fruit… brilliant, and suitably decadent for a festive occasion.