Book Choice Wobble

Oh dear! Doubts are starting to creep in! Do I really want to be 'saddled' with the Kitchen Diaries all year? Hubby has already pointed out that there are four recipes for red mullet. Four!? The only mullet I've had was a bad hairdo in 1976! (Kidding - my hair was always immaculate, and I have EATEN mullet on many occasions, but never cooked it).

I am fond of another book at the mo - Alistair Hendy's 'Home Cook' but maybe it won't be enough of a challenge?

NO! Stop prevaricating - Nigel's it will be, but I will also resolve to cook as many recipes I can from Alistair too.

As New Year will be spent away with friends, I shan't be blogging on here until a week into 2009. But I will already have a recipe to add, as I am cooking Nigel's Goose with juniper gravy and lemon puree

Happy New Year all!

Maggie

Christmas cooking

Nothing to do with the Challenge, but this time of year is a flurry of activity in the kitchen (sorry to sound like Fanny Craddock). Whipped up a batch of Chocolate Pistachio Fudge http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/chocolatepistachiofu_87639.shtml for some pressies. Sceptical that it would work as there is no boiling involved - just melting chocolate, condensed milk butter and pistachios and setting in the fridge. Turned out well, and made a lovely gift packed in little bags for a girlie drinks get-together on Saturday, and it is credit-crunchtastic

Some tips if you make it:

• Line the tin with baking parchment - it makes it so easy to get the block of set fudge out afterwards


• Set a good hour aside to shell 300g of pistachios in order to get the 150 shelled weight - I then rubbed the nuts (!) in a towel to get rid of as much papery skin as possible


• Cut the fudge with a really sharp, long-bladed knife for a clean finish and lovely neat cubes. I have a huge global, about a foot long! It scares the bejaysus out of me but it works a treat for this.

The more people I tell about this challenge, the more want to do it! Finding a good veggie book with not too many recipes for my mate Anu was a bit of a challenge in itself (although she is a very good cook, she has a - shall we say - active social life so being disciplined enough to cook 2 or 3 recipes a week from a book (or simply being at home for 2 or 3 nights during the same week) might be a tall order). I might have to settle for a pamphlet on lentils from the Women's Institute with about 15 recipes for her ;o)

Others on another food forum I visit are using diet books, which is a good idea. I thought of that too, but would need to use about 6 books over as many years for it to make an impact!

Nope, sticking with Nigel: seasonal, good mix of the simple and challenging, not all the recipes are bad for you (!)

The Challenge

Whilst googling a recipe from Nigella one day recently, I came across a brilliant blog called The Sacred Art of Eating http://helenhare.net/food/index.php/challenge/ where Helen undertakes to cook every recipe from Nigella Express during 2008. What a great idea, I thought.

I study with the Open University, and am part of their really active food forum. Several of us have decided that we are 'up' for this challenge in 2009. But which book would I choose? There were some rules!

• No massive cookery bibles, as it simply isn't practical to cook from the book every day! So something with about 200 recipes would be ideal



• No single cuisine - much as I love Italian or Japanese, I don't want to eat it three or four times every week



• No 'dinner party' cook books with nothing but rich food. I'm fat enough as it is!



• I love to cook with the seasons, so something that reflects this approach would be great



• Not all the food should be complicated - a good blend of simple everyday with more challenging stuff would do

The book? It had to be Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries, which is organised on a month-by-month basis. He aims to reduce his reliance on supermarkets, buy locally and in season, and the book contains around 200 recipes - perfect!

So, from the start of 2009, I shall attempt every recipe in his book, and will chart my progress on the blog, listing successes, failures, also-rans. Who knows? I might even learn how to upload photos to make it more interesting!

Maggie