KEEPING IT SIMPLE IN
KEEPING IT SIMPLE IN
THE KITCHEN…
ITS been a long, cold day in the lambing shed. Whats for tea? Ravioli des fruits de mer aux trois sauces. Er…. no thanks. Chef Nigel Slater sums up most peoples response neatly: "We want a big fish pie and crumbly puff pastry. Oh, and we want peas too – a big dish of them."
For finicky cooking, for nouveau cuisine, for fashionable fat-free recipes, look elsewhere. Nigel Slater is a man who loves to eat and loves to cook what he eats. Not for him complicated recipes to be slavishly followed by willing disciples.
His latest book* is nothing less than a treasure-house of cooking wisdom, a delight in excellent ingredients lovingly prepared and a passionate plea for culinary free-thinking.
The first half of this 448-page book is a complete kitchen philosophy. "Much of our cooking has become too complicated," writes Nigel Slater, "hence the need to attach ourselves so firmly to recipes – when in truth good eating depends on nothing more than fine ingredients simply cooked."
For him recipes are straitjackets. "Get complicated and we have somehow, surely, lost the point of the main ingredient."
As well as reviewing the main kitchen ingredients in the first half of the book, he finds room for lots of crafty advice that ought to become compulsory teaching in all sixth form colleges. Here are just a few gems of the best kitchen advice that your parents or your domestic science teachers never told you:
• Pour yourself a drink before you start cooking.
• Overestimate the amount of potatoes and rice you will eat. Anything not eaten today will be fine tomorrow. Think sauté potatoes and fried rice. Think bubble and squeak.
• Always keep a bag of frozen peas in the house. It will get you out of no end of trouble.
• A bottle of wine is not a challenge. You can put a cork in it and keep some for tomorrow.
Fortified by such culinary common sense, that normally takes years to accumulate, Appetite moves on to consider individual ingredients in detail. Theres a kitchen calendar which suggests, possibly for non-country people, which vegetables are in season in what month.
Then, in a section modestly headed "Some really useful stuff" comes a series of recipe ideas and inspiration that should make even the most enthusiast microwave addict reach for the rolling pin. Recipes range from what is described as "A creamy, calming pasta dish" to an oxtail "dark, sticky meat for a winters day". And in between theres room for what is described as rib-sticking pudding for a cold day, and a spectacular pavlova for a special occasion.
In addition to the basics of each recipe, the book tempts you to try variations on the theme. A cheap spaghetti meal has eight variations and readers are encouraged to discover their own additions.
Appetite is not so much a book as a friendly voice in the kitchen. Whether youre still wearing your first pinny, or are an old hand, theres something for everyone within its pages.
Two more final paragraphs of praise. One for the photographs taken by Jonathan Lovekin. In addition to the luscious, tempting images you would expect in a book about cooking, there are many enthralling photographs that would grace any coffee table: A moment of childhood innocence as a little girl lost in thought shells broad beans, and a selection of knives on a wooden board, are particularly memorable.
Finally, theres the humour of the author; passionate about food but who does not take cooking too seriously. "I would honestly rather part with my television, my stereo, possibly even the odd relative, than lose my dishwasher."
*Appetite by Nigel Slater, published by Fourth Estate (£25).
If you find cooking a
pleasure youll treasure
Nigel Slaters latest book
Appetite. Mike Stones
reaches for a pinny
Forget finicky food. Appetite is
packed with ideas for the best of British food; like this hearty bean soup from Nigel Slaters (inset) book..