Nigella Lawson - Nigella Express

Copyright 2007 Nigella Lawson

Design and Art Direction: Caz Hildebrand

Cookery Assistant: Hettie Potter

Editorial Assistant: Zoe Wales

Layout/Design: Julie Martin

Illustrations: West One Arts & Mark Paton

Index: Vicki Robinson

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information, address Hyperion, 1500 Broadway, New York, New York 10036.

eBook Edition ISBN: 978-1-4013-0602-1

First eBook Edition

Original hardcover edition printed in the United States of America.

www.HyperionBooks.com

I am grateful to Elinor Klivans and her publisher, Chronicle Books, San Franciso, for permission to reprint her recipe for Totally Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies from her book Big Fat Cookies.

HOW TO EAT

THE PLEASURES AND PRINCIPLES OF GOOD FOOD

HOW TO BE A DOMESTIC GODDESS

BAKING AND THE ART OF COMFORT COOKING

NIGELLA BITES

FROM FAMILY MEALS TO ELEGANT DINNERSEASY, DELECTABLE RECIPES FOR ANY OCCASION

FOREVER SUMMER

FEAST

FOOD THAT CELEBRATES LIFE

This is, as the title makes clear, a book about fast food, but it is a book about fast food for those who love eating. Perhaps thats self-evident: How could I write any other sort? But I start with this premise because so much is written about the need to reduce the time we must spend cooking, its as if the kitchen were a hateful place, almost an unsafe place, and that it must be only reasonable for us to avoid it. I love food, I adore being in the kitchen and I am happy to cook. But heres the problem: The day doesnt have enough gaps in it for me to do much shopping and the eveningwhat with the battles over homework, the still unchecked-off list of things I was meant to do, the calls I was supposed to returndoesnt yield much time to cook. But I must eat, and I must eat wellor else what is the point of it all? And then there are the people who need to be fed. I dont mention them grudgingly, either. I love to feed people, and rare is the person who comes into my home and leaves without a foil parcel of something from the kitchen.

I have had to adapt. I manage to have a fridge full of food and a life rich in the expectation of dinner, but within the confines of a timetable that is disorganized, busy, full of things I want to do as well as things I dont want to dothough sometimes Im so tired I cant tell the difference. In short, I have a normal life, the sort we all share. To be sure, I can occasionally find the odd weekend or rainy afternoon when I am able to lose myself in an afternoons stirring, chopping, kneading, or general pursuit of unhurried cooking, but for the most part, I am either in a hurry or in some state of psycho-fizz or obligation-overload, and food has to be fitted in.

Even if I might never have thought that a book of fast food recipes would be the natural one for me to write, it has been both pleasurable and easy. After all, the recipes are already there. For this is the food I do eat, day in day out. I dont know if I have quite spelled out my food obsessiveness before, but its the case that I take notes of everything I cook (even if the notes are sometimes hard to read later), and I keep a digital camera in the kitchen to record each finished dish, if not for posterity, for my own greedy archives. In a way, then, this book has written itself. This is just as well, since I left myself barely enough time to write it. My sister, Horatia, said I was like Wallace and Gromit, laying down the tracks just in time for the train to ride over them; and although its been a bit hairy at times, it does, however, seem entirely fitting for a book called Nigella Express.

I feel, though, that I must emphasize this: Cooking is only one part of the exercise; the shopping and planning can be the most stressful parts. I have tried to keep the ingredients lists as short as possible and, although I havent excluded all recondite items from them, I try to make sure any shopping trip pays for itself, timewise. Thats to say, if I ask you (or myself) to buy something for one recipe, I try to supply other outings for it. But avoiding the recherch or unfamiliar wouldnt be the answer, in any case: after all, there is no way, however basic the supplies required, that shopping can be dispensed with. Eggs and bacon dont magically appear in the kitchen: they need to be shopped for just as coconut milk or wasabi does. I make this embarrassingly obvious point, because I think we all need reminding of it.

Its not, however, for me to tell you how to plan your shopping or order your storecupboard. I do much of my shopping on the Internet (too much, some would say), go to specialty stores when I find the time (for me thats fun, not duty), and have the odd turn around the supermarket. In the occasional recipe, where Ive thought it might be helpful, Ive noted an online source for an ingredient that could be harder for you to find locally.

Ive also been quite strict with myself. I cantcouldnt possiblyeradicate all witter from my writing life, but I have tried to restrict the babble to the introduction to each recipe and have then given the method in a number of short, precise steps. This is to make sure you never have to turn a page to continue a recipe and to help every step read as clearly as it can. There isnt a recipe in here that isnt gloriously simple to cook, and I wanted to make that immediately evident on the page.

I could go on, but in the interest of brevity and the Express spirit, it seems only right to cut straight to the chase. The recipes that follow are not simply quick to cook, they attempt to make the whole of your cooking lifeand as a consequence all of your lifeeasier. They are arranged in chapters, but please dont feel confined by these. Read, browse, sample, fiddle about as you see fit. As in cooking, so in life: We muddle through as best we can and this is what Nigella Express is all about.

NOTE FOR THE READER

• ALL EGGS ARE LARGE, ORGANIC
• ALL BUTTER IS UNSALTED
• ALL HERBS ARE FRESH, UNLESS STATED
• ALL CHOCOLATE IS DARK (MIN. 70% COCOA SOLIDS), UNLESS STATED
• SEE FOR INFORMATION ABOUT INFUSED OILS

M ost days, I approach cooking supper with less than absolute perkiness. This is never because I cant face it or even that I resent it, but because, at the end of a long, working day, and after I have wrestled with childrens homework and other domestic demands, and feel that I am nothing more than the sum of my impatience and irritation and, of course, tetchy exhaustion, I just cant even think of what there might be to cook.

Actually, the cooking itself is the least of it, and this is not just because the kitchen is a place of sanctuary for me. Now, planning, shopping, deciding: These are the real drainers. I sometimes think how much easier things were in my grandmothers day. She had a schedule, and an unchanging one. Without looking at a calendar, I could know what day of the week it was by what I was given for dinner there. Of course, we are more adventurous these days and would not wish to inflict that tedium on our children. But a little of that order is desirable. I actually think it can lead to more variation rather than less. I dont like to own up to how often my children get pasta with pesto or meat sauce for supper because I am accustomed to life as a free spirit in the kitchen.