Lawson, who is the first to point out that she is not a professional chef, favors the hands-on approach to food, literally -- if there's a point where plunging one's hands in the dish will work just as well as anything else in the preparing, she's not going to get food-safetyish about it. Her tactics are not just about ease. She wants people to appreciate food's sensual and pleasure-giving qualities more than to achieve culinary greatness. Her stated motto: "To achieve maximum pleasure through minimum effort." Her carefree demeanor comes through most in her show, where she can be seen snacking and finger-licking her way through a recipe. Here's a pertinent citation from How to Be a Domestic Goddess: "Perhaps the greatest joy of pastry-making is that it's mud-pie time; you get floury, sticky, wholly involved. I don't mean by this that you shouldn't use any equipment.... But you still need to use your hands for that last crucial combining, the rolling, and draping into the pan, and the piecing together of your pie. Just do it."
And while Lawson isn't exactly topping her BBC predecessors Two Fat Ladies on butter and lard consumption, save for a single chapter in How to Eat, she does generally ignore calorie counts, low-fat substitutions, and other concessions to the fitness establishment. If this philosophy means venturing forth on ham baked in Coca-Cola, lamb shank stew, or chocolate fudge cake, then so be it. "If it's something I don't want to carry on eating once I'm full, then I don't want the recipe," the famously voluptuous Lawson said in a Guardian interview in 2000. "I'm quite ruthless. I have to feel that I want to cook the thing again, and more than once. I need to feel that I have to stop myself from cooking it all the time."
The table of contents of Nigella Bites -- named for the BBC-TV/Style Network show she films at her West London home -- shows that Lawson is more concerned with the everyday than with stunning parties and dinners. Categories in the book include "TV Dinners," "Trashy," and "Family Food." She is not administering advice that is going to keep you running to specialty stores or trapped in your kitchen. She does not turn up her nose at frozen peas or other store-bought ingredients. She also acknowledges that mistakes can be made and tells you how to fix them (even if that just means throwing the whole thing out). For those who just want to make something delicious without a lot of fuss, Lawson's kamikaze approach is refreshing and should keep her in our kitchens for quite some time.
Lawson's husband, journalist John Diamond, passed away in 2001 after the couple had been married nearly ten years. They have two children, Cosima and Bruno. In 2002, Lawson became linked with Diamond's friend, advertising tycoon Charles Saatchi.
Lawson began her career writing the restaurant review column for Britain's The Spectator. She has also been food editor of British Vogue and had a makeup column for the U.K.'s Times magazine. She is also a staple on ABC's Good Morning America.
Rice Paper Rolls
I'll be honest with you: I had longed to make some version of these little rolls for years but either essential laziness or fear that they would be frighteningly complicated put me off. Now that I've made them, I can't quite see what I was on about. Fiddly they may be, but I think they must be one of the easiest recipes to make in the whole book. And also one of the loveliest: there is something about the light, unwheatenness of rice pasta (which in effect these sheets just are) and the bundles of fresh herbs within that make them compulsive and uplifting eating. you can, and this is how I ate them first in a Vietnamese restaurant, add some cooked prawns, and cooled, stir-fried chopped pork along with the herbs and rice vermicelli, but I can't honestly see that you need to.
You can often find the rice pancakes, or rice sheets (emphatically not rice paper) in the supermarket. If you're unlucky in this respect, you will have to track down an Asian store, which offers a gastro-reward of its own.
100 g rice vermicelli
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon Thai fish sauce bunch fresh mint, roughly chopped bunch fresh Thai basil, roughly chopped half a cucumber, cut into thin batons
6 spring onions, finely sliced
12 rice pancakes soy sauce for serving (optional)
Soak the vermicelli according to the instructions on the packet, and drain once the translucent threads are rehydrated.
Flavour the vermicelli with the rice vinegar, soy and fish sauces, and then add the chopped herbs, cucumber and spring onions. Mix gently with your hands to try to combine the noodles, herbs and vegetables.
Soak the rice pancakes (again, according to packet instructions) in a shallow bowl of hot water and then lay each one on a tea towel to pat dry. Run a fairly narrow strip of noodle mixture down the middle of the pancake, fold over one half and then carefully roll it up as tightly as you can. Slice each roll into four and then arrange them on a plate.
If you want, pour some soy sauce into a few little bowls for dipping the rolls into as you eat. They are also fabulous with the Vietnamese dipping sauce, in the form of the dressing on page 75.
Makes 48 rolls.
Anonymous
Posted February 25, 2010
This is the best Nigella has ever done. It focuses on intuition and bold flavors, rather than on ceremony and on kitsch. If you improvise with the flavors instead of trying madly to exact her recipes, you will be rewarded not only with a great meal, but also with having learned something; if you obsess about quantities and don't understand flavor combinations, buy some other book.
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Posted May 24, 2007
I have all but one of Nigella's cookbooks and this is one of my favorites. Having said that I must all say that each book has recipes that utterly fail and ones that are unbelievably great. In Forever Summer the Strawberry Meringue Layercake is good in theory, but the sponge cake part ends up very dry and the entire thing looks like a dessert hamburger. People were not impressed. The Coconut Slab, overly sugared and dry. However, her Chocolate Raspberry Pav was fabulous. And I couldn't go wrong with any of the pasta dishes, they were wonderful. Of course, the photos are gorgeous and the book itself is very fun to read through, especially when you are missing summer in the dead of winter. But, it s frustrating when the photos are gorgeous but the end results half the time isn't nearly as good as it looks. I'm happy there were less photos of her in this book eating and posing for the camera. That gets a little tiring. Overall, I'd recommend it if you can pick it up for less used
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted March 4, 2004
I have to say, this is quickly becoming one of my favorite cookbooks. I love the super-simple stuffed shells with cheese, and I am anxiously awaiting summer so I can try some of her suggestions for grilled meats. In general, these recipes are very simple, and I suppose some might not like that 'common sense' aspect. She expresses the love so many of us have for a simple 3 or 4 ingredient pasta dish, though, and makes you crave it all over again. It is full of Lawson's descriptive and sensual prose...I actually read it like a book! I think it's worthwhile if only for those great descriptions, but if that doesn't turn you on you might take the opinion that many of her recipes aren't 'new' enough. If you're new to Nigella's style, I think you will find this a delightful intro to her world!
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Posted June 20, 2003
I had this book as a present and I haven't stopped using it. Some of the recipes I have made over and over again for different people and each time have received compliments. What I like most is that apart from just using it the way Nigella suggests, you can also be inventive and add a bit of your touches to it. Fantastic!
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Posted April 17, 2003
This was a bit of a disappointment. Was it because the other two were so, so good? When I first started watching her I thought, wish I could throw a meal together like that. (I think the same thing about Jamie Oliver, though he's actually a chef, unlike Nigella.) After her first two books I could. But this was a stretch like they were strugling to make a point.
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Posted July 5, 2010
No text was provided for this review.
Overview