Oh Nigella

I recently got The Best of Omnivoire, hosted by Jane Farrow on CD.

Anthony Bourdain talks about militant foodies looking for purity and there’s a whole segment about what customs officers see people try and sneak through.

But my favourite part was hearing Nigella Lawson.

I have read all of her cookbooks and yes, I think she is stunning and sexy, but I didn’t really fall in love with her completely until this interview.

She tells us that she writes the recipe and then prepares the dish, often having it photographed despite its imperfections.

Ahem, what was that?

You mean, she doesn’t have a food stylist working away to make her dishes look other-worldly?

Nope.

Nigella just wants to cook something good that people will enjoy.

This isn’t how celebrity chefs do things, Nigella.  They might just kick you out of the club for that kind of behaviour!

My favourite part of the interview is when she says in her sexy British-lilt, that she just “bungs” things together.

That’s how I cook, Nigella! That’s what I do.

Sigh.

It’s so nice that in this world of better/prettier, Nigella tops the list on both counts, and yet something tells me that she has dust bunnies under her bed and isn’t too worried if she gets some tomato sauce on her dress.

Eating and living with abandon? Oh Nigella, where have you been all my life!

Balls!

So excited to be cooking again last night, I went for a walk to think through what I’d make.

Do you ever get so wrapped up in something that you can’t see your way out?  I was all over the place – minestrone soup, empanadas, homemade pizza, baked trout, keftas over quinoa salad.  I had looked through some cookbooks before heading out to get some ideas, but went to some fine food stores for further inspiration.

Thinking about how much fresh food I had in the fridge, I bought only an apple to eat on my way back, some sesame flatbreads to snack on throughout the week, some muffins for my fella and some pasta for either pasta salad (in case I just made a bunch of cold salads – it was almost too hot to cook) or to keep on hand for a baked pasta dish I had yet to try.

Since I had many of the ingredients on hand, I came back and decided to make Southern Sausage Stew from Jamie’s America, Jamie Oliver’s latest cookbook.

I loved Jamie when he was first starting out – his take on everything was so invigorating and refreshing.  But these last few cookbooks, I’ve found little to get excited about.  This stew sounded good though.

But after looking at it closely, I decided that some of my own additions would make it even better.

Instead of green and red peppers, I used yellow and purple carrots and I added in a Chinese eggplant, portobello mushrooms, black beans, leftover kale from the night before, along with the ingredients and spices he listed.

I have to say it turned out beautifully.

My dessert however, did not.

Having worked on this dessert for two night and many stages, I can’t believe that the part I couldn’t do was melting the chocolate.

As you know, I do not bake, so anytime anything calls for chocolate, I get nervous.  I mean, I barely eat it to begin with, so handling it doesn’t inspire confidence in me like working with any savory ingredient.

I was making surprise Cake Balls for my fella.  I had made an orange cake and left it in the fridge overnight so that it would be cold enough to form into big meatball size balls.

Done.  B-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l.

I simmered water in a pan and melted really good chocolate over it.

Good.

Now all I had to do was dip the balls into the chocolate and cover them, put them on wax paper and set back into the fridge to chill.

My sexy beau would be having delicious orange delights in just about an hour or two.

Except that the chocolate was so thick it didn’t really cover the ball, but swathed thickly around it, pulling it down into the chocolate.

F————————————–!

Then, I did the worst thing I could possible do – I added a little water to try and thin it out.

I don’t know these things.  I’ve baked about 10 times out of my life, so I didn’t realize this would create an immovable fudge!

I tried adding a little milk to further thin it.  Now I had a Dairy Queen Blizzard on my hands.

So I tried to save it by putting it in the microwave to melt it at least enough that I could hand form it around the balls.

Three fingers on my right hand have chocolate second degree burns and my wonderful little Cake Balls that I wanted to surprise the love of my life with now look like Tim Bits with sad melted fudge chunks on the top.

I was feeling really cocky earlier in the evening, because I thought my version of the stew was more Southern and creative than Jamie’s.

He must have heard me.

I think it will be awhile before I get the confidence to bake again (and I didn’t have any to begin with, so now I’m starting at like negative 10 or something).

Great.  And I just ordered 10 new baking books from the library…

Cinco de mayo

Oh my, it’s only 3 days to Cinco de Mayo and I haven’t put together any sort of plan.  Hmmm.

Well, at least it’s not too late.  I’ve still got time.

Will I go all out and make each course from scratch, finishing with homemade flan?  You’ll have to tune in to find out.

One things for certain – tequila is most definitely going to be involved.

I’m off to peruse my cookbooks.  What a lovely way to spend Sunday night…

Chomping at the bit

All of this week, I have had evening events:

Monday and Tuesday were book club at the most exquisite Japanese restaurant, last night I worked a good friend’s book launch and tonight I’m out in Scarborough giving a talk on Caribbean food.

I am dying for a night at home to cook. After all, I’ve been pouring over Caribbean cookbooks for weeks now and can’t wait to give the recipes a go here at home!

I’ll let you know how I do.  In the meantime, have a nice warm meal for me, would you?

Clubbing

Tonight I’m doing up my notes for our book club meeting tomorrow night (I’ve yet to start the ones for my other book club…) and I’m grinning like a crazy person.

Because not only do I get to eat and write about food for a living, but I get to read books about it and then meet with a bunch of folks to talk about it – over a meal.

Ahhh.

And in rereading sections of books about food, I assess and reassess my opinions, my patterns and sometimes even the dishes I make.  All based on things I’ve read.

I wrote awhile ago about making a cabbage dish around the frenzy that is St. Patrick’s Day and just a few nights ago, I went out and got celeriac, after skimming a recent article about how it doesn’t get enough love, and made a beautiful, velvety soup, daubed with fresh herbs and fresh ground pepper.  Now thanks to our most recent book, The Tenth Muse by Judith Jones, I’m craving James Beard cookbooks and simple American food like liver and onions and the hearty dishes of Miss Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock.

I learn something new out of each book and it turns out, I put it to the test in the kitchen, long after the book has been read and put aside.

I fully intend to make some of the recipes from the book – Frozen Maple Mousse, Sorrel and Leek Pancakes and Martha’s Paprikash with Little Dumplings.

But just you watch. I’ll go to the meeting tomorrow and we will be spouting a flurry of ideas, with exchanges of ingredients, books and recipes flying across the table.

And in a few days, weeks and months, somehow it will all end up as dishes being simmered on my stove.

Nudging inspiration along

I met with my good friend and co-editor Chris this weekend for breakfast, where we, of course, talked food for much of the meal.

Chris has food ennui and well, it happens to all of us.  I get it from time to time, especially in winter where I tend to make a lot of roast chicken, beef stew, chili and meatloaf.

I have found that it helps me tremendously to constantly be looking through cookbooks, cooking blogs and sites and magazines for new recipes to try.  I also try to change up where I shop so that I’m not tempted to buy the same things over and over (this takes a little more effort, but oh-so worth it!).  Just this week, I took my Mom to an area she doesn’t get to often and we food shopped like crazy.  We bought a ton of healthy ingredients that were somehow affordable, and have been inspired ever since.

I was trying to suggest similar things to Chris.  I thought that we could each make something new once a week and then write about it to one another.  I’m going to write about my new dishes here.  Oh, this oughtta be good!

When you cook often, it is hard to keep the inspiration going, but it’s there.  You just have to look around a little bit and you’ll find it.

I’ve already found something I’m going to make this week.  That wasn’t so hard.

Actually, I can’t wait!

Do you go through these kinds of things?  What tough spots have you hit?