Photo by Nigella Lawson
Well, I’m happily home, and much as I absolutely adored my long time in Australia (and, alas, a shorter time in New Zealand, but I hope to be back soon), I do love being back in my own kitchen. It won’t surprise anyone here to find out that for my first supper back, I cooked roast chicken! That is always my basic unit of home, but actually what I always miss most when I’m on the road are green veg. So with my chicken, I cut up this beautiful Savoy cabbage, melted some ghee in a wok, added some fennel seeds, then the finely sliced cabbage, and tossed it in the heat, before adding a little water and salt and clamping on a lid. Added to this, I cooked some green beans and cardamom-scented rice; and I should have said that I’d added some cut up logs of leeks to the roasting tray with the chicken in it. Makes me smile now remembering it, my first family meal for 6 weeks.
And just so that I could wallow in the warm joy of home cooking, I put the chicken carcass and leftover leeks, along with some chicken wings I’d bought expressly for the purpose, and some carrots and bay leaves in the slow cooker, filled it with water and put it on overnight to make stock: such a glorious thing to wake up to.
Photo by Nigella Lawson
Plus, I had a little cabbage over which I hadn’t wanted in the stock, and heated it up quickly and topped it with a poached egg for my breakfast. I agree cabbage is a strange choice for breakfast, but I have since decided it is a fine rejoinder to jet lag.
Photo by Nigella Lawson
I felt the best way to accept that I was no longer under beautiful blue Antipodean skies was to make food that cosily celebrated the wintry weather. I haven’t got a recipe for this meat sauce, but I might have to write one soon. All I must tell you is that I put some beef marrow in with the minced beef, and first slow cooked a couple of large onions in beef dripping until they were soft and sweet. The rich fattiness of the marrow is not for everyone, but it made us all very happy in Casa Lawson.
Photo by Nigella Lawson
For some reason I’ve developed a thing for sardines and had to eat them for a couple of lunches on the trot. I feel I will need to turn these lunches into recipes as I am desperate to share them properly with you. But for now, let me just tell you that lunch one was leggy broccoli, cooked then drained then added to a hot oiled wok with some finely chopped preserved lemon, broken-up sardines and crumbled walnuts.
Photo by Nigella Lawson
Lunch two was cauliflower roast with cinnamon, coriander, cumin, paprika and lemon, then tossed with sardines, a lot of wonderful Cretan olive oil, parsley, dill and toasted pine nuts.
Photo by Nigella Lawson
I seem now to find myself writing a cooking and eating diary for my first few days back, so I’m just going to have to ask you — in telephonist mode — to bear with me as I tell you about Sunday lunch, for which I reprised the roast chicken and savoy cabbage and fennel seeds, but added to it. So, alongside, I made roast potatoes (in beef dripping), a mixture of various mushrooms, cooked with thyme, garlic, marsala and a pinch of chilli flakes, a big tin of roast vegetables (purple carrots that I couldn’t resist buying, leeks, garlic, red bell peppers) and a sauce made with whatever herbs I had, a little bit of garlic, a couple of preserved lemons and olive oil. (I based this sauce moreorless on the mint sauce in At My Table). And I have to say, the leftover roast vegetables and sauce are just wonderful together. This is what I love so much about home cooking: from one meal, come many.
Photo by Nigella Lawson
Oh yes, there was pudding: some no-churn coffee ice cream and my newest (as yet to be written up) recipe: Chocolate Tahini Banana Bread. I promise I will finish my fiddling and get it onto the website soon.
Photo by Nigella Lawson
