Saturday 29 September 2007

NIGELLA EXPRESS

I can't resist buying a new Nigella book as soon as it comes out so as soon as I got back from holiday (well a few days after if I'm being honest) I went straight out to buy Nigella Express and looked through it a few times mentally bookmarking some must try recipes.

On Wednesday I made coq au riesling which was delicious, but then chicken thighs, leeks, bacon lardons, and mushrooms are never going to taste bad when they are cooked in a whole bottle of wine so that wasn't a huge surprise. I stupidly didn't buy the nice easy boned skinless chicken thighs that are recommended but went to the butcher and bought whole legs and proceeded to get very frustrated doing a very bad job of trying to bone them, definitely not one of my skills. We ate it with buttered linguine which was perfect but annoyingly hard to eat and there's a single portion left in the freezer for a solitary supper.

Then on Thursday as part of a ridiculously busy session in the kitchen I made mini meatloaves, rocky road and chocolate-chip cookies. The meatloaves came out looking more like giant meatballs and while they were good straight from the oven and eaten with a green salad they were so much better cold and dipped in mayonnaise (for me) and English mustard (for Chris). The rocky road and cookies were to sell at a Macmillan charity coffee morning at work, they were both good although I could have made the cookies a little smaller and flattened them a bit as they didn't spread as much as I thought they would and the rocky road was great but super rich, a small piece went a very long way.

Needless to say I'm pretty pleased with the book (but questioning just how express some of the recipes will end up being) and have more recipes waiting to be tried so let's see if they all live up to the first few.

5 comments:

Jules said...

I've been uming and ahring as to whether to buy this book. I've been watching her TV show and have tried some of her recipes.

Gemma said...

Hi Jules, I like all of Nigella's books so I didn't really think at all about whether or not to buy it. I am finding the show a bit heavy handed though with too many references to how busy she is or how she can't be bothered to chop an onion!

Gemma x

Kelly-Jane said...

Glad you are enjoying it Gemma, some of them are not that quick, you are right :)

Amanda at Little Foodies said...

I really want the book but I'm on a cookbook diet. I have flicked through it now and it looks great. I'm not loving the series however.

Gemma said...

Hi Amanada, a cookbook diet sounds like soemthing I could definitely use but I have zero willpower! I'm with you on the series, just much too cheesy and it seems to get worse each week! I love her writing and have loved previous series she has done but this time it just isn't working for me!

Gemma x