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| Oddly, I preferred to look at - review! - Nigella Lawson over Paul Prudhomme... |
Inside TV 528
Publication date: 11-19-10
By: Hubert O’Hearn
For the Constant Reader, it will be no surprise that I’ve learned to love cooking, I suppose it was fate-determined, as this column ran for years behind the Food page in Wednesday’s Chronicle-Journal. You’d be amazed at how many incomplete recipes for Yummy Chocolate Brownies I have scissored on the back of saved columns. Actually, they’re usually recipes for Yum Cho Bro … which looks like a recipe for family cannibalism now that I consider it.
Although it was Iron Chef America that got me into this hobby, I have always held a deeper curiousity with Nigella Lawson and her persona as someone responsibly carefree - whisk some things together, be a perfect widowed mother and still have an Absolutely Fabulous time with the girls. You - you! - if you are a Nigellacolyte, will be that person who arrives with lovely gifts of food at any fashionable party you’re attending, unless you’re holding it yourself. If you’re holding it yourself, everyone will talk and look like Martin Amis or Helen Mirren. My darling wife Kimberly has, with a twinkle in her eye, long accused me of having a crush or a ‘thing’ for Nigella. Being a perceptive woman, Kimberly is of course correct. For while Nigella may rank second to Kimberly in everything, that still beats out the rest of the mob. Silver medals are not to be sneezed at.
But speaking of pepper, I requested a copy of Nigella’s latest cookbook ‘Kitchen’ to see if it worked: Test out the cookbook, kick the tires and break out the sharp knives. Could a simple man such as myself actually do what Nigella does effortlessly on TV?
It’s absolutely sumptuous to read. Nigella Lawson’s chapters and individual recipe instructions do read precisely the same as her television character: well-read and educated yet down-to-earth at the same time. I think when Martha Stewart writes or talks, this is the voice she thinks she hears in her head, but doesn’t. For example, from a hilarious short piece in the Introduction titled My Kitchen Gadget Hall of Shame:
‘Healthy-eating electric grill
I know, I know: what was I thinking? Who was I kidding? Myself, for starters. But just as (and here’s an unlikely issuer of the utterance in question) Samuel Beckett said that “probably nothing in the world arouses more false hopes than the first four hours of a diet”, so there is nothing that arouses more pleasurable self-delusion than those swollen, sleepless, post-prandial hours when, yes, actually a diet tomorrow seems positively welcoming. (But then, well full-up, the planning of a diet can seem excitably delicious.’ And so on.
As to the cooking, I had an advantageous weekend for testing out the recipes. Virtually the entire family was at the house for two nights. Kimberly of course, who is recuperating from an illness at her parents’ home, her parents, sister, two nieces, also her 14 year old son, 21 year old daughter and 3 year old grandson. Now there’s a pretty good span of humanity and Nigella always says on TV that her recipes are for friends and family of all ages. Game on.
So, what to make? I needed two main courses, a breakfast and a dessert. (If you think that’s skimpy, I remind you I’m a writer, not Iron Chef Bobby Flay.) One point that I hadn’t noticed which Kimberly’s mother pointed out is that except for the ‘What’s for Tea?’ section, the recipes are not laid out in the index by meal type or ingredient. The back of the book index is better, listing everything by main ingredient. Here again, the rear index is divided into two between regular length and Express meals. I acknowledge the criticism, having not noticed it by virtue of reading it straight through and noting what I’d like to test out.
I first chose the Cheesy Chili with a mix of sausage and mince beef, along with the usual kidney beans and tomato products. One thing I do like about Nigella’s recipes is that she uses practical ingredients: tins of this and packages of that. Realism is appreciated. It turned out very nicely. Interestingly enough, outside of Worcester sauce, cocoa and oregano, all the heat and the rest of the flavour came from the sausage which infused itself into the rest. The ultimate accolade for a recipe is saying you’d make it again. I’d make this again.
Similarly, I will definitely be doing her Mortadella and mozzarella frittata on the grander weekend mornings. I admit to slightly cheating with Nigella (that didn’t come out right, but I like it too much to edit it out) by using parmesan instead of mozzarella, but she herself states throughout ‘Kitchen’ that one should feel free to use personal and family tastes. No kitchen Hun here. Regardless, I have always been one of those men who start with a well-intentioned youthful visions of omelet and wind up with wrinkly scrambled eggs. The frittata emerged as round and firm and lovely as a well-chosen metaphor.
Next night: African Drumsticks served with my own rotini in my own pesto and Alfredo sauce - one has to feel involved, after all - with the piece de resistance of a Banoffee Cheesecake to follow. Both keepers, although I wish I had taken the time to have marinated the chicken overnight rather than three hours to get the combination of ginger, apricot jam and other goodnesses more firmly into the flesh. But the drumsticks came out almost drizzlingly juicy and were devoured forthwith.
As for the cheesecake, our daughter Amanda is a shrewd and vociferous connoisseur of cheesecakes and this one was actually a long-delayed birthday promise. She loved it, the family loved it ... unfortunately Stella Belle the border collie loved the extra piece I was going to sneak later. C’est la guerre, c’est la maison.
Seriously - Kitchen truly would be a fabulous gift for anyone who likes to cook and feed family or friends. And who says a gift can’t be for one’s self? Not Nigella, nor me. Be seeing you.
Publication date: 11-19-10
By: Hubert O’Hearn
For the Constant Reader, it will be no surprise that I’ve learned to love cooking, I suppose it was fate-determined, as this column ran for years behind the Food page in Wednesday’s Chronicle-Journal. You’d be amazed at how many incomplete recipes for Yummy Chocolate Brownies I have scissored on the back of saved columns. Actually, they’re usually recipes for Yum Cho Bro … which looks like a recipe for family cannibalism now that I consider it.
Although it was Iron Chef America that got me into this hobby, I have always held a deeper curiousity with Nigella Lawson and her persona as someone responsibly carefree - whisk some things together, be a perfect widowed mother and still have an Absolutely Fabulous time with the girls. You - you! - if you are a Nigellacolyte, will be that person who arrives with lovely gifts of food at any fashionable party you’re attending, unless you’re holding it yourself. If you’re holding it yourself, everyone will talk and look like Martin Amis or Helen Mirren. My darling wife Kimberly has, with a twinkle in her eye, long accused me of having a crush or a ‘thing’ for Nigella. Being a perceptive woman, Kimberly is of course correct. For while Nigella may rank second to Kimberly in everything, that still beats out the rest of the mob. Silver medals are not to be sneezed at.
But speaking of pepper, I requested a copy of Nigella’s latest cookbook ‘Kitchen’ to see if it worked: Test out the cookbook, kick the tires and break out the sharp knives. Could a simple man such as myself actually do what Nigella does effortlessly on TV?
It’s absolutely sumptuous to read. Nigella Lawson’s chapters and individual recipe instructions do read precisely the same as her television character: well-read and educated yet down-to-earth at the same time. I think when Martha Stewart writes or talks, this is the voice she thinks she hears in her head, but doesn’t. For example, from a hilarious short piece in the Introduction titled My Kitchen Gadget Hall of Shame:
‘Healthy-eating electric grill
I know, I know: what was I thinking? Who was I kidding? Myself, for starters. But just as (and here’s an unlikely issuer of the utterance in question) Samuel Beckett said that “probably nothing in the world arouses more false hopes than the first four hours of a diet”, so there is nothing that arouses more pleasurable self-delusion than those swollen, sleepless, post-prandial hours when, yes, actually a diet tomorrow seems positively welcoming. (But then, well full-up, the planning of a diet can seem excitably delicious.’ And so on.
As to the cooking, I had an advantageous weekend for testing out the recipes. Virtually the entire family was at the house for two nights. Kimberly of course, who is recuperating from an illness at her parents’ home, her parents, sister, two nieces, also her 14 year old son, 21 year old daughter and 3 year old grandson. Now there’s a pretty good span of humanity and Nigella always says on TV that her recipes are for friends and family of all ages. Game on.
So, what to make? I needed two main courses, a breakfast and a dessert. (If you think that’s skimpy, I remind you I’m a writer, not Iron Chef Bobby Flay.) One point that I hadn’t noticed which Kimberly’s mother pointed out is that except for the ‘What’s for Tea?’ section, the recipes are not laid out in the index by meal type or ingredient. The back of the book index is better, listing everything by main ingredient. Here again, the rear index is divided into two between regular length and Express meals. I acknowledge the criticism, having not noticed it by virtue of reading it straight through and noting what I’d like to test out.
I first chose the Cheesy Chili with a mix of sausage and mince beef, along with the usual kidney beans and tomato products. One thing I do like about Nigella’s recipes is that she uses practical ingredients: tins of this and packages of that. Realism is appreciated. It turned out very nicely. Interestingly enough, outside of Worcester sauce, cocoa and oregano, all the heat and the rest of the flavour came from the sausage which infused itself into the rest. The ultimate accolade for a recipe is saying you’d make it again. I’d make this again.
Similarly, I will definitely be doing her Mortadella and mozzarella frittata on the grander weekend mornings. I admit to slightly cheating with Nigella (that didn’t come out right, but I like it too much to edit it out) by using parmesan instead of mozzarella, but she herself states throughout ‘Kitchen’ that one should feel free to use personal and family tastes. No kitchen Hun here. Regardless, I have always been one of those men who start with a well-intentioned youthful visions of omelet and wind up with wrinkly scrambled eggs. The frittata emerged as round and firm and lovely as a well-chosen metaphor.
Next night: African Drumsticks served with my own rotini in my own pesto and Alfredo sauce - one has to feel involved, after all - with the piece de resistance of a Banoffee Cheesecake to follow. Both keepers, although I wish I had taken the time to have marinated the chicken overnight rather than three hours to get the combination of ginger, apricot jam and other goodnesses more firmly into the flesh. But the drumsticks came out almost drizzlingly juicy and were devoured forthwith.
As for the cheesecake, our daughter Amanda is a shrewd and vociferous connoisseur of cheesecakes and this one was actually a long-delayed birthday promise. She loved it, the family loved it ... unfortunately Stella Belle the border collie loved the extra piece I was going to sneak later. C’est la guerre, c’est la maison.
Seriously - Kitchen truly would be a fabulous gift for anyone who likes to cook and feed family or friends. And who says a gift can’t be for one’s self? Not Nigella, nor me. Be seeing you.
(Admittedly, this is a re-working of an earlier book review. BUT - Kitchen is fantastic and can be purchased at a great discount here. Cheers - H)
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