The Nigella Report

It’s been a long day of working (yes, I am actually working on something. I don’t want to talk about it yet though. Doing that is usually the kiss of death), cooking and lounging about tending the CLD (TM).

I have to go and get ready to watch The Killing in a minute or two, but while I am here I thought I would catch you up on the Nigella project.

I am still forging ahead with it.

I read somewhere, way back in the mists of time, that there are 190 recipes in Kitchen.  Had I actually stuck to my guns and started this at the beginning of the year I would probably have finished it by now.  As it is, I am definitely not going to finish the entire book by January.  If I even tried we’d be having to have the front doors widened for Christmas just so we could squeeze ourselves in and out of the house.

Considering that a couple of weeks ago I had made one item, I think I have made fairly good progress though.

Here is what I have covered so far:

1. mortadella and mozzarella frittata – very nice, except that nowhere in the East Midlands, including Waitrose (my fail safe) has heard of mortadella. I substituted it with chorizo. Good but we eat a lot of frittata anyway, so not stretching my culinary boundaries here. That’s fine. Not Nigella’s fault.
2. crustless pizza – This, as you may recall, was an utter disaster. Made twice just in case we buggered it up the first time. Nope. Just horrible. Horrible and took ages.  Never again.
3. crisp chicken cutlets – very nice, but wonder why the mix for the breadcrumbs had so many ingredients in. Would make it simpler and do it again.
4. Salad on the side (yes, there was a recipe for this!) – pointless and simple but I made it because it ticked another one off. Perfectly nice salad, but if you don’t know how to make a simple salad dressing this book will be way beyond you anyway.
5. Cheesy Chilli – as discusssed previously. Fine unless you wanted chilli.
6. Chicken teriyaki – made this today. Recipe demanded Sake. We don’t have any in the house.  I bought it specially, so I could  do the recipe faithfully.  Was nice but not exciting.  To be fair it was easy to make and tasty enough to cook again. Didn’t set my pulse racing though.
7. Egg and bacon salad – This was a hit. I used to cook this before I had children after I had discovered it in a lovely restaurant in Belsize Park and realised how easy it would be to make. Glad the recipe here jogged my memory again.  Fab and easy.
8. Speedy scaloppine with rapid roastini.  Nice, and again easy. Particularly enamoured of roasting gnocchi. Have always found them a bit meh until Nigella counselled roasting them with garlic olive oil. Nom nom.
9. Korean Keema – Very good. Rather like the pork larb I made a few weeks ago. Jason and loved this. Children feared it, fearfully.
10. Vietnamese pork noodle soup – loved this. We make this quite often.
11. Thai chicken noodle soup – Good. We love Thai flavours and chicken noodle soup. It works.
12. Flourless chocolate lime cake – This was a disaster. I think it is fair to say it was my fault. I didn’t leave enough time to cook it properly before I had to go out on the school run and it just died in a sticky mess. Shame. The mixture tasted good. Will definitely try again when I am less up against it.  This was supposed to have Margarita cream with it.  I confess that this is where I will not technically finish this book.  I am not buying tequila etc just so I can make fancy cream for a cake that would work just as well without it.  My drinks cupboard is shared with the pegs and the  cat food. Extensive it is not.
13. Buttermilk scones – easy peasy and tasted great. Jason loved them so also got top wife marks.
14. Sweet and salty crunch nut bars – This was amazing. Unbelievably decadent chocolate refrigerator cake with 250g salted peanuts and four Crunchie bars in. About 30000 calories per slice. Tastes like heaven. Everyone loved it. Top wife, top mama, top daughter. Just top. Takes ten minutes to make, four hours to refrigerate and about thirty seconds to scoff the lot.
15. Rice Krispie brownies – Posh name for Rice Krispie fridge squares. Extra choc in. Kids love ‘em. Too sickly for me.

All in all then, Nigella is coming out on the winning side. I have forgiven her for the couple of disasters and we are moving on.

As predicted, the puddings are where she really shines.  I did feel that if I got a few sterling dessert/cake type things under my belt, everyone, including me, would regain confidence, and it has proved to be the case.

I am feeling more optimistic about the whole thing now, although tomorrow there is nothing doing, as I am out all day, and part of next week will be taken up road testing recipes from a new cookery book that I have to review for Amazon.

Nevertheless I have made my peace with Nigella, and after having spied the fact that there are at least two cheesecake recipes, a key lime pie and a Devil’s food cake recipe in Kitchen, I know I am going to fall in love with her all over again, even if the waistband of my jeans isn’t.

 

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