Recipes

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

I’m just going to say it: this is the best macaroni cheese I’ve ever eaten. I don’t feel it’s boastful to say as much, as the greatness lies not in any brilliance on my part, but in the simple tastes of the ingredients as they fuse in the heat. That’s home cooking for you. I do rather love the way these little macaroni cheeses, with their pixie-penne, look like they’ve been made with artificially coloured, cheap squeezy cheese or out of a box, when in fact their exotic glow comes courtesy of the earthy goodness of a sweet potato.

Nigella Lawson

I have this regularly for supper, and I tend to make life easier for myself by always having a stash of baked sweet potatoes in the fridge. If you don

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson · Nigella Express

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson · How To Be A Domestic Goddess

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson · Nigella Express

Nigella Lawson

I’ve always admired the Swedes for their serious commitment to pancakes. Not for them the once-a-year splurge, wonderful though it is: oh no, in Sweden pancakes are on the menu every Thursday. I don’t blame them: Swedish pancakes – unsurprisingly, given the amount of practice they’ve all had – are so very good. They look pretty much like French crêpes but they’re so much more tender, the simple reason being that Swedish pancakes have markedly less flour and milk (and a little more butter). They cook up crisp at the edges but are otherwise pliably soft, though the very tenderness of these pancakes means that you certainly mustn’t think of flipping them – which may come as something of a relief! Obviously, it’s up to you how you fill your pancakes, but the familiar practice in Sweden is to spread them with jam and roll them up into a cigar shape. But they are also – especially for a more formal offering – folded rather than rolled, and the filling is boosted with cream and fruit. I am more than happy to follow suit.

Nigella Lawson · How To Be A Domestic Goddess

Nigella Lawson

Swedish Cinnamon Buns are not radically different from other cinnamon buns (and do see my Norwegian Cinnamon Buns), but they do diverge in one fundamental way: rather than having the fluffiness of, say American cinnamon buns, they are more solid, more bready (and certainly less sweet) and yet they do have a certain bounce and softness, too. It took me a while to get the balance right — I will spare you all the various permutations, using different flours and amounts of yeast, ratio of butter to milk, what measurements to roll the dough out to, etc — and the route I eventually decided upon is certainly unorthodox: adding an egg to the dough made them a tad too fluffy, and leaving the egg out made them just a little too stodgy; the compromise of using the egg white in the dough and keeping the yolk for the egg wash turned out to be the perfect solution: they are soft and yet have that essential bit of chew to them. And please read the Additional Information section at the end of the recipe before proceeding.

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson · How To Be A Domestic Goddess

Nigella Lawson

There was a British singing outfit in the Seventies called Instant Sunshine and this is it in soup form. The silkiness comes from the peppers which are quickly blitzed in a hot oven, then blended with the sweetcorn which is cooked in stock. There

Nigella Lawson

You could argue that all hummus brings the sunshine with it, but there is something particularly sunny about this one, golden with turmeric. And perhaps I have been a little more whimsical than I might otherwise be in its photograph here, but I needed a dish to celebrate the summer solstice, and those strips of yellow bell peppers/capsicum (for dipping into the hummus) just begged to be the sun’s rays! When I first made this, I added some preserved lemons that needed to be used up, and if you also have some to spare, then chop up 75g/3oz soft-skinned preserved lemons and add them to the processor along with the chick peas, and add 2 tablespoons of the lemon juice first off. They bring a slightly perfumed and pickly note to the hummus, though I love the simpler version which leaves them out, just as much. Lemon juice alone — and quite a bit of it — offers the perfect balance to the earthiness of the turmeric; you will probably need two lemons to get enough juice, though one large lemon might do it. You will see that in the ingredients list I have stipulated either jarred chickpeas or dried, which you soak and cook yourself. That

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson

There was a time in my life when I had to make myself this every Sunday evening. And then I had to make it in the week, too; though no matter what day I eat it, I always only call it by its Sunday night name. It soothes and bolsters, and can be adapted happily to what’s in your fridge, really. And talking of adaptations, if you don’t have the sake and mirin, you could replace both with with Chinese Xiaoxing wine or a mixture of dry and sweet sherries. Of course, you don’t absolutely have to use alcohol: if your broth is to be booze-free, add a drop or two of lime juice and a little hot sauce to the soy and garlic when you steep the chicken.