Cook, Eat, Repeat: Ingredients, Recipes and Stories

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Some cool recipes in this one but, really, I'm just not that into Nigella that I want to read her every thought on things. I enter into the exuberance, but a continuous diet (true of any stylistic author, including Wodehouse, Trollope, Dickens, Karon, and others) of Nigella drains the sparkplugs. Her style of presentation is often gently mocked by comedians and commentators, particularly in a regularly-occurring impersonation of her in the BBC television comedy series 'Dead Ringers', who perceive that she plays overtly upon her attractiveness and sexuality as a device to engage viewers of her cookery programmes, despite Lawson's repeated denials that she does so.

I'm a pretty mediocre cook myself, so I approach her cooking books more for her writing, not so much her recipes. Within these chapters are recipes for all seasons and tastes: Burnt Onion and Aubergine Dip; Butternut with Beetroot, Chilli and Ginger Sauce; Brown Butter Colcannon; Spaghetti with Chard and Anchovies; Chicken with Garlic Cream Sauce; Beef Cheeks with Port and Chestnuts; and Wide Noodles with Lamb in Aromatic Broth, to name a few.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. I always enjoy the way she effusively sings the praises of food she loves so had a lovely time reading through what are essentially essays in between the recipes. Pretože do istej miery si myslím, že varenie je jazyk: na úrovni fonetiky registrujete zvuky a vône; na úrovni morfológie kombinujete ingrediencie, až napokon staviate syntax z jedál a chodov.

I’m itching to make almost every single thing from this book, and really appreciate the way that she encourages home cooks to experiment and make dishes personal. Be patient, lift up and swirl the pan often and monitor it closely; as Tammy almost sang, Stand By Your Pan. It’s an eclectic mix and despite the fact that I’m not keen on anchovy, I found the chapter dedicated to that subject fascinating and tempting. You don’t have to take your pick: the glory of food is that, beyond sustenance, it comprises a little of everything—aesthetics and manual labour, thrown in. She has recipes that use old milk and banana peels, just so that nothing gets left behind, nothing is wasted, everything is turned into flavor.Cook, Eat, Repeat' obsahuje okrem lákavým receptov aj krásne eseje o jedle a ingredienciách, ktoré sú napísané svižným, ba priam elegantným jazykom (či dokonca niektoré pasáže majú nádych poetickosti). These are the type used by Nigella and her descriptions of the ways to prepare them ( the tinned variety) really whetted my appetite. Within these chapters are recipes for all seasons and tastes: Burnt Onion and Aubergine Dip; Butternut with Beetroot, Chilli and Ginger Sauce; Fish Finger Bhorta; Spaghetti with Chard and Anchovies; Chicken with Garlic Cream Sauce; Beef Cheeks with Port and Chestnuts; and Wide Noodles with Lamb in Aromatic Broth, to name a few. Lawson wrote a restaurant column for the Spectator and a comment column for The Observer and became deputy literary editor of the Sunday Times in 1986. It is also not the easiest binding to keep open at the chosen pages when the time comes to get in the kitchen and cook!

With this understanding of the relationship between recipe author and recipe user, I did make a few of the recipes and I did adapt them as I saw fit. And it is this; no one should feel guilty about what they eat, or the pleasure they get from eating; the only thing to feel guilty about (and even then I don’t recommend it) is the failure to be grateful for that pleasure.This is dense, essay-style food writing although it’s clear enough when it comes to the fundamentals (measurements, timings, ingredients, etc). It is exquisitely written with the language and turn of phrase that Nigella is known for -which all again enhances the prose for the reader.

She has had two series of 'Nigella Bites' in 1999-2001, plus a 2001 Christmas special, and 'Forever Summer with Nigella' in 2002, both of which yielded accompanying recipe books. But, it was less a cookbook and more a collection of her thoughts around food with recipes added in. When I made the No -Knead Black Bread, I left out the caraway and fennel seed and added additional nigella seeds because I like the oniony flavor of nigella better. She starts off with a chapter devoted to the humble anchovy, an ingredient that is small yet mighty. I don’t necessarily but Nigella Lawson cookbooks for their recipes, though her recipes are very good.And although I’m rarely “feeling fierce in the morning” (I need to get past 11am and three coffees for that) her scotch woodcock is to die for. I prefer the format of previous cookbooks where she gives a page or so of thoughts about a recipe and then moves on.