I am needing to lighten up my household, pare down. There's way too much stuff around that I never use. So I've started weeding out my cookbooks, which I don't really have that much of for someone who's fascinated with food, maybe 150--I know people who cook less but have much more--but many have hardly been looked at since initial purchase let alone used. And some just make me sad. So they should go.
After I take one last look at them, that is. Most are easy decisions. Of the last ten books I reviewed, 10 went in the Go Pile with hardly a twinge of regret and only one merited a closer look. I read it over the last 24 hours and dog-eared 9 or 10 recipes I really want to try, an unusually high number. So it stays. I'm almost embarrassed to report that it's a Nigella Lawson book.
It was a Xmas gift from Bob in 2016, a surprise since I know I wouldn't have expressed any interest in her. I watched exactly one episode of one of her TV shows once upon a time and couldn't stand her overtly seductive presentations, the finger-licking and side glances. So I sweetly thanked Bob for the gift and stuffed Nigella on a shelf, where she remained untouched until yesterday.
Mind you, her writing style is laborious. She can't confine herself to 10 words if 50 will do and her prose is very purple. She doesn't tell you to cover a boiling pot and reduce it to a simmer, she says something like, "Now grab the lid. Doesn't have to be a perfect fit, and it doesn't matter if it is scratched and dented, just grab any lid, smash it in place when the mixture starts bubbling, then turn the fire down to low, or medium low depending on your stove, and go get busy with something else for 20 minutes, or even 30, because you can't overcook this." If commas were a crime, she'd be in jail. Every recipe is 3 pages long.
But still I plowed thru it, and her cooking style at the stage of her life documented here (newly divorced--anyone remember the famous footage of her famous art dealer husband trying to strangle her in a restaurant?) is very different from mine. She uses a lot of whole seed spices--cumin, coriander, fennel, nigella seed, red pepper flakes--where I'm more the fresh herb type. The appeal of the recipes that interest me has a lot to do with getting out of my own rut. Or trying things I've never thought to make at home, like Brazilian cheese bread.
But wow, Nigella. What a surprise.
