Nigella the Domestic Goddess!!!!

[Tigger2]

Well, having watched Nigella on UK Style and read her books as well, the woman is a God send!

Here goes and this is a recipe I made up for myself based on Nigellas marinading in the bag.

4 Lamb Leg Steak
4 Tablespoons Garlic Infused Olive Oil
1 Onion
2 Carrots cut into batons
Brocolli (as much as you want to us)
2 Tomatoes quartered
1 yellow pepper
Pinch of salt and pepper

Put everything into a food bag that seals shut, and put in fridge it tastes better if done the day before, but is ok if done in morning.

Empty the contents of the bag into a frying pan or wok and cook until the lamb is starting to colour on both sides. remove lamb and put in an oven proof dish and cook in hot oven for 15 minutes until the veggies etc are cooked in the frying pan/wok.

Serve with boiled or mashed tatties, and of course large glass of red wine!! it must be good even the kids ate it!!.

An alternative for vegetarians is to add the tatties instead of meat and any other vegetable of their choice.

Star - kikkomans is the only naturally fermented soy sauce made from soy beans and water only. Other brands are made from inferior beans (like black), may have additional ingredients to speed the process / thicken the result etc.Plus additional salt, which really isn't necessary. Really - it's all down to the taste - the big cheap bottles from the chinese supermarket taste both watery and salty compared to kikkomans. You would use less of the better brand and get a much richer, fuller flavour. I't 3 times the price, but lasts for ages. It's a bit like the difference between heinz tommy ketchup and those vinegary brands you get a cafes.

Bugsy - made the chocolate cloud cake last night and it was a triumph. Thanks for the tip!.

I made Nigella's yorkshire puds, the best and biggest I've ever made, if I remember correctly you basically make them the opposite way to the normal method - flour in last.

Bugsy, which book is the chocolate cloud cake in? Thanks.

Its in 'Nigella Bites' (my copy on loan from library and embarrassingly covered in food smears as I have used it so much)

thanks guys, I was trying to do a search on here earlier, for Nigella and chocolate, rather embarassinly, chocolate bought up about 185 threads!!!! Is that our second common interest apart from little people!?

Sticky toffee pudding? Nigella L's recipe et al sought.

Can anyone help? Thanks

And Horseradish sauce. Not asking for much am I?

Absaloutely EMS. I always seem to have a big craving for chocolate just before my period, anyone else the same?

MalmoMum, no time to type out recipes today but check out Delia . It's got loads of her recipes on it and I know she has a sticky toffee one in her books so it'd be worth a try.

Malmomum, definitely check out Delias site, for the Sticky Toffee Recipe.

Horseradish a la Nigella:

Apparently she usually buys a good bottled one and then adds a bit of creme fraiche, ordinary cream or greek yoghurt, but her recipe is as follows:

400ml fromage frais
4 tablespoons grated fresh horseradish *
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
8 tablespoons chopped chives

*(some supermarkets stock fresh horseradish root, if not buy bottled grated horseradish that has been preserved in soya bean oil and citric acid).

Beat fromage frais til smooth, then stir in the horseradish, mustard, vinegar and a good pinch of salt. Finally, stir in the chopped chives.

I made a fantastic Sticky Toffee Cake from the kids book Easy Peasey Sweetie Pie the other day, it's called 'Stick to your teeth cake' really light and yummy, when I get a minute I'll post it.

Thank you all. Never realised there was a direct connection to Delia Smith or I might not have bothered you guys! Not many Swedish books cover sticky toffee so a great help. We had some on a recent trip to the UK and it was whetted our appetites.

Got some horseradish in our organic box this week and want to get some use out of it. Made a mango salsa with it this evening (Swedish recipe) and it had quite a kick and livened up our fish (frozen and pretty tasteless).

Here's one my sister sent me for sticky date pudding:

Pudding Cake
1 1/4 cup (200g) chopped dates
1 1/4 cup water
1 tsp baking soda
60g butter
3/4 cup castor sugar
2 eggs
1 cup self raising flour

Butterscotch Sauce
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup cream
200g butter

Cake:

1. Grease and line a deep 20cm cake tin. Preheat oven to 180 degrees (moderate).
2. Combine dates and water in a pot. Bring to the boil. Remove from heat. Add baking soda (mixture will froth up). Let stand 5 mins. Blend date mixture until smooth.
3. Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. Gently fold in sifted flour then date mixture.
4. Pour into tin. Bake 50 mins. Cake may burn easily - cover with foil if it gets too dark.
5. Stand cooled cake 10 mins before turning on to a wire rack to cool.

Sauce:
Combine ingredients in a saucepan. Stir over heat without boiling until sugar has dissolved. Simmer 3 mins, stirring.

To serve:
Cover top of cake with 1/4 sauce and return to the oven for 5 mins to glaze before serving.

florence, that looks pretty similar to mine so I think I'll save on the typing, thanks!

I am a massive Nigella fan. I have all three books (if she has more than three someone will have to let me know as I must have it) although haven't paid full price for any of them thanks to The Book People, well worth a visit. The chocolate fudge cake in Nigella Bites is amazing only you have to remember to use deep tins, I tried this with ordinary sponge tins as she does not specify deep tins and ended up with cake all over the bottom of the oven. The chocolate fudge cake is massive and I would imagine a couple of slices would be more than enough for anyone with a pre-menstrual craving. I have also tried the clementine cake but being only a few weeks pregnant at the time and having a funny taste in my mouth found this rather like eating dish sponges soaked in fairy liquid, dh thought it was lovely though and probably his opinion is more trustworthy as he obviously wasn't pregnant. Her Domestic Goddess book is wonderful but I have to admit I spend more time looking at the pictures than making any of it as I am sure you could put on pounds just looking at it all. How to Eat is also one of those great all round cook books. Another cook book I would have to say I cannot live without is Leith's Cookery Bible, it is also one of those all round books. Just have to add that at first her TV programmes put me off at bit as she is a bit posh but now I just love to see her tucking into her fridge in the middle of the night to eat the leftovers and realise she is just like the rest of us!

I just wish I HAD a fridge the size of hers! I'm working my way steadily through Domestic Goddess, & can thoroughly recommend the Madeira cake, store-cupboard chocolate orange cake & dp says the cherry loaf cake is his favourite ever.

However I'd just like to put a word in for Nigel Slater, whose books we use most often and find the most simple & tasty. He also had a series on Channel 4, which I think Nigella guested on. He also does a yummy speedy sticky toffee pudding based on Jamaica Ginger Cake. Not for the purists but a great cupboard standby!

Mmmmm...I made jam doughnut muffins from Domestic Goddess last night and they are bliss... they are dead easy because they are from the children's section - can't wait till ds wants to do cooking!

You have all had me thinking about food since yesterday. Just had to add that in Nigella Bites her Thai Seafood Curry is amazing. If I had not seen her make this on TV it would not appeal, the very idea of curried fish made my stomach turn, but she made it appear very tasty. I tried it and it was gorgeous, unfortunately cannot eat it just now as I am still pregnant (prawns!! got a craving for them as well!!!). The other amazing dish in Nigella Bites is the meatballs and pasta. This is the easiest meatball recipe I have ever tried and I even went out and bought a pasta maker which is incredibly easy to use as well and the homemade past is gorgeous, just melts in your mouth. This always goes down well when we have friends over and most kids love it as well.

Malmomum, sorry I did not pick up on this yesterday, you are looking for Nigella's Sticky-Toffee Pudding recipe. This is also from Nigella Bites (who said this book is no good), I have not tried this recipe but have come close to making it a few times as it looks easy.

For the cake:

100g dark muscovado sugar
175g self-raising flour
125ml full-fat milk
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
50g unsalted butter, melted
200g chopped, rolled dates

For the sauce:

200g dark muscovado sugar
approx 25g unsalted butter in little blobs
500ml boiling water

Preheat the oven to 190oC/gas mark 5 and butter a 1 1/2 litre capacity pudding dish.

Combine the 100g dark muscovado sugar with the flour in a large bowl. Pour the milk into a measuring jug, beat in the egg, vanilla and melted butter and then pour this mixture over the sugar and four, stirring - just with a wooden spoon - to combine. Fold in the dates then scrape into the prepared pudding dish. Don't worry if it doesn't look very full: it will do by the time it cooks.

Sprinkle over the 200g dark muscovado sugar and dot with the butter. Pour over the boiling water (yes really!) and tranfer to the oven. Set the timer for 45 minutes, though you might find the pudding needs 5 or 10 minutes more. The top of the pudding should be springy and spongy when it's cooked; underneath, the butter, dark muscovado, sugar and boiling water will have turned into a rich, sticky sauce. Serve with vanilla ice cream, creme fraiche, double or single cream as you wish.

Serves 6-8

She may very well have another sticky toffee recipe but this is the one that comes to mind and the one I am always tempted to try.

I agree about the meatballs and pasta - they are delicious and we all love them. Dp even enjoys helping roll them up too!! And dd turns the handle on the pasta machine so its a real family effort (god! how sickmaking does that sound).

I can also recommend the double potato and halloumi bake - looks dull in the book, but tastes divine.

Made the choc pots at the weekend - I thought they were grim as they are very 'grown up' - no sugar and very dark chocolate, not my scene at all. Now heavily tempted by the jam donut muffins....

Thank you all for your recipes, had a great dinner last night. I'm sorry but I didn't get a proper chance to make the sticky pudding. When I started baking the other night at about 9pm I realised that I didn't have any dates and decided in the end that prunes might not be an effective substitute.

Thanks SarahN, I think the Nigella recipe was the one that I had in my mind!