I was feeling slightly delicate today after a big night out last night, and I wanted to make a bowl of Keema from Nigella Lawson's Feast. Keema is an Indian spicy mixture of minced lamb and peas, which is apparently perfect for the day after the night before. Sadly though, my parents wanted to have leftovers for dinner,...

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Class ActYou're a glamorous Nigella in the kitchen. You like your food and your cooking to be sensuous. As far as you're concerned, eating should be all about slurping and unbridled pleasure. In the kitchen, you're mildly disorganized and you like it that way. So, pour yourself a martini and get into that pinny. You know you look...

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Oh dear, this blog’s been looking a bit neglected lately. Which isn’t to say that I haven’t been cooking or eating, but simply that I’ve been too busy to blog all the time. So here is a collection of small things that I have been making and eating recently, which are too small to warrant a whole post,...

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I've just discovered rosewater, and I love it! I've got lots of recipes for it, and I know that Nigella loves it - loads of the desserts in Forever Summer have flower waters in them. But I had always been reluctant to try them, because the mere thought of flower water summons to mind ideas of incredibly sweet,...

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I made muffins for breakfast this morning. These are (again) from the Breakfast chapter in Nigella's Feast. She actually suggests using store-bought granola in the muffins for ease, but I always have huge quantities of homemade granola at home (also from the Breakfast chapter in Feast), so why not?I also followed Nigella's ease-making suggestion of measuring out the...

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I've made this once before, and it turned out allright... but having recently seen Nigella make it on Forever Summer (the TV program), I was inspired to give it another go.You mix garlic, salt, chillies, oil, crab and lemon in a pestle and mortar, and toss it through cooked linguine, before adding watercress and chopped parsley. We didn't...

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I made pancakes for the first time in years on Tuesday morning. These are from the Breakfast chapter in Feast. They are just ordinary pancakes with buttermilk instead of regular milk and a mashed banana thrown in. The addition of banana makes it light and fluffy, with a great aroma – but without an overpowering banana taste (you...

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So it’s Valentine’s Day on Monday. And knowing me, of course I’m not celebrating it romantically (hah), but only culinarily. In the “Valentine’s Day” chapter of Feast, there are three sweet treat recipes – Love Buns, a Chocolate Raspberry Heart cake and Custard Cream Hearts. Given that I don’t think I need any more chocolate right this minute,...

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On Chinese New Year's day, you're not supposed to do any cooking, which means that you just eat leftovers. There were some of the dishes we had at dinner (chicken curry and duck soup), plus a huge tub of pasta salad primavera which I'd made for a picnic concert thang, the boiled whole chicken and the almond cookies....

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This year I took it upon myself to do a lot of New Year baking. Usually we just buy those incredibly delicious salty-sweet yam cookies, but I found a recipe for little almond cookies in Delicious magazine, and I thought that they would be a good alternative.And as I have said previously, I wanted there to be a...

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Chinese New Year was on Wednesday. Mum did all the cooking, and started on Sunday, because we had to offer food to our ancestors on that night. Including, amusingly, a whole boiled chicken - complete with head and feet - which she had never done before and which freaked her out immensely."Aiyo... the poor chicken couldn't fit in...

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On Monday, I received in the mail two more Nigella Lawson's Living Kitchen products from Peters of Kensington - the cookie cutters and another 3 litre storage jar, this time in white.I can't wait to use the cookie cutters. Making cookies (duh), decorating birthday cakes and so on. I could even write dirty words with them! Ooer! I've...

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I've never really been keen on leftovers. I think that it stems from my childhood, because my father never liked leftovers and was loath to eat them (which, thankfully, my mother very rarely 'forced' him or us to do), and of course I followed him.Despite Nigella Lawson's unbridled enthusiasm for them, up until recently, I would always very...

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Recently on the Nigella.com forum, someone posed the question: if you could choose 6 guests to invite to a dinner party, who would you choose? And, if we're talking celebrities, and not "real" people (so not, unfortunately, my friends and family who live overseas), here is my list. 1. Nigella Lawson - She's totally my culinary hero. I...

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On the request of some fellow forum members at Nigella.com, here are a bunch of soba recipes... Delicious. Just one caveat - these recipes are all copied straight from various recipe books I have - and in general I think that 100g of soba per person is way too much, and leaves me well bloated (or with lots...

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"A light, clean, healthy bowl of soba noodles topped with grilled teriyaki salmon is the perfect supper dish, quick to do and easy to digest." 400g soba noodles 1 knob fresh ginger 4 small salmon fillets, skinned 1 bunch of spinach, washed and stemmed 4 spring onions, sliced on the diagonal Dashi Broth 1.5 litres water 15g instant...

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This recipe, which is quite similar to Terry Durack's one, is light and tasty, and luxurious on a hot day. 2 cups water 2 tsp instant dashi powder 1 tbs mirin 1 tbs soy sauce 400g soba noodles 2 tsp dried wakame seaweed 2 spring onions 1 small cucumber 1 tsp sesame oil 12 freshly opened oysters, chilled...

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This was printed in Vogue Entertaining and Travel, Feb/March 2005, and has already become a staple in my household. Sometimes I leave out the prawns, and add sliced shiitake mushrooms on the top. You can also add grated or finely julienned carrot to the cucumber strips as they sit in their marinade for colour and taste. A picture...

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This is the traditional way of serving soba – cold noodles with a dipping sauce, and other condiments. Ingredients 1½ cups hon dashi 3 tbs soy sauce 1 tbs mirin 1 ½ tbs sugar 4 portions dried soba (about 700g) ½ sheet dried nori seaweed 1/3 c spring onions 2 tsp wasabi paste To make the dipping sauce,...

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Green Masala Roast Chicken (Cooking like Mummyji)Muttar Paneer (Feast)A guy called James posted up this recipe for Green Masala Roast Chicken on Nigella.com... it sounded delicious, and different from the usual roast chicken recipes, so I just had to try it.The chicken is steamed first, and then covered with a spicy-yoghurt paste, left to marinate for 30 minutes...

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I made these yesterday because I was incredibly depressed in the morning, and I thought that baking would cheer me up. By the time I started baking in the afternoon, I mistakenly thought that these were no longer commiseration-cookies, but celebration-cookies. Of course, this morning I discovered that they were, indeed, commiseration-cookies. But that does not detract, in...

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This one’s an oldie but a goodie. It was one of the first dishes I made when I first bought Forever Summer (which was the first Nigella book I’d ever bought), and it was the first dish that was a complete and utter success with my family… it inspired such confidence in myself and in my ability to...

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I've been doing a bit of cooking with pistachios over the past couple of days. They're great. I bought 250 grams from Nut King in Box Hill, even though all I needed was a handful for sprinkling over a pilaf. I just would have felt kinda guilty for going up to the shop (which hardly has any customers...

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My most-used chapter in Feast would have to be the Breakfast chapter. (See my previous post on the magnificent Andy's Fairfield Granola). It all started with the Granola. It’s delicious. It’s nutritious (I hope). Well, I know it's full of fibre! (Don't ask for proof, just trust me). And my family loves it. Andy's Fairfield Granola 1 In...

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Look what arrived in the mail on Friday! 3L storage jar, serving platter, citrus juicer Peters of Kensington had a 50% off special on Nigella Lawson's Living Kitchen range, so I just had to go and order some! All the products are "Dishwasher and Microwave Safe". Thank god, because I really, really want to microwave a citrus juicer....

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This is the second thing I've made from Jamie's Dinners. And I'm happy to say, it was a success! I first made it on Saturday night for Mum & I, and it was so tasty that we decided to do it for the whole family tonight (Monday) plus my friend Adri. Penne with Sweet Tomatoes, Aubergine and Mozzarella...

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