6.2.07

notes while reading nigella's 'how to eat'


definitely another cookbook worth reading cover to cover, recipe by recipe. she’s very engaging, chatty even, and makes everything seem simple and doable.

i like her mantra of picking a skill to work on and then practicing it until it feels natural instead of a challenge. will apply this to making pie crust (pastry crust?) over the next several weeks...

i’m just in the “basics” section right now--it seems to dovetail with the ease and serendipity of the nigel slater’s recipes. which makes sense, given how many times he states that nigella lawson is one of his favorite cookbook authors!

the section on stocking your fridge, freezer and pantry strikes me as totally common sense and yet utterly useful. i often fantasize about starting a kitchen from scratch, and i well recall how the last two times i moved i lugged along boxes of canned and boxed goods that ended up being useless, because i was trying to stock the pantry.

i’m less enthralled by her cooking in advance section, because although the advice is again sound and quite sensical, i’m less impressed with the recipes (largely for soups and stews that i can only assume are british-type favorites) but her writing is really shining through (“i loathe the acrid dustiness of standard-issue sherry,” she explains when she describes why she uses orange liquor in her trifles).

into the actual cooking sections now (one and two; fast food) and i’m starting to see very tempting ideas and recipes, instead of just “mere” inspiration for goals. i particularly liked the pasta recipes in “one and two” and am now enthralled by the simple soups and suppers of “fast food.”

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