Just one more recipe........Parsnip Soup

I know. I need help. This is a Nigel recipe but from 'Tender, Vol 1' rather than The Kitchen Diaries. It is such a miserable, sleety night tonight, with a scything wind that chills to the bone, that we just had to have soup. Nigel reworks the classic Curried Parsnip Soup recipe by playing down the 'Indian' qualities, and going instead for chilli and mustard heat, softened with some cream at the end, and chunks of Gruyere cheese added at the last minute. We eschewed this (although will do it for lunch tomorrow with the leftovers), and instead made mounds of Gruyere toasted cheese sandwiches from some multiseed bread, to give us bulk and carbs. The nuttiness of the Gruyere works brilliantly with the soup. A lovely, lovely recipe, and we are as warm as ticks in a blanket. Thanks again, Nigel, you are a star. Of course, there is no official online presence for this recipe yet, but it alone is worth the cover price of this most beautiful book. No photo - the joy of parsnip soup is not in its appearance!

A Startling Orange Sorbet #193]

Well, here we are, the final recipe in the Challenge - for this year, at least. This has been waiting since the April section of the Diaries, I don't know why! Anyway, it seemed like a good idea to make it for New Year's Eve, as an antidote to all the richness in our food at this time of year. I spotted a small variation on the book's recipe in Nigel's Guardian column - the addition of Campari. Now, anyone who knows me also knows of my abiding and incurable addiction to Campari. Usually, at this time of year, I make a Campari and Orange Jelly, so this is just meant to be! Tasting the unfrozen sorbet mixture of fresh orange juice, the juice from a pink grapefruit, a little sugar syrup and Campari, it is all I can do stop myself from adding ice and chuffing it back right now. But it is safely in the freezer (except, I shall probably do a 'Nigella' and sneak into the kitchen in my dressing gown in the middle of the night to pinch spoonfuls out of the container) and I will let you know how it works as a sorbet after the meal - how could it fail??! Tasting note: heaven, as I knew it would be. What a great one to end the challenge on - simple, elegant, foolproof, just right for the time of year - kind of sums up The Kitchen Diaries, really

Favourites from The Challenge

With one more recipe to go (the Orange Sorbet from April, being made today and consumed on New Year's Eve), I thought I'd round up my favourites. There have been many. On reflecting on which have been my favourites, I realise that many of them have been consumed in the company of good friends, which might account for them staying in the memory:

the delicious roast pork with Madiera that we had with our lovely friends Jonathan and Jess - the blueberry and peach cobbler and the lime tart, and the brownies, were eaten with them too, and were delicious (not all on the same day, I might add!).

Or the roast goose and red cabbage, and the truly splendid pot-roast pheasant with celery and vermouth with our dear friends Gi and Winston and their adorable boys Elijah, Alexander and Nathaniel, who make cooking and eating together such a pleasure.

And not forgetting the great nights with my wild and wacky veggie pal Anu, where we enjoyed the aubergine curry and also the startling tomato curry.

But cooking with and for my lovely hubby, Tom, is a constant - a more appreciative audience I could never hope for. Some of the dishes we have enjoyed and greedily consumed: the hot mussel soup, the clams with sherry, the whole broad beans with dill (marvellous!), discovering that I actually liked partridge, hunting for red mullet, the magnificent whole steamed sea bass, bream with anchovy potatoes, any and all of Nigel's meatballs and patties - he is a master at them, particularly if they have Asian flavours. In fact, Nigel's Asian food is very, very good, and I will certainly be looking for those in his new book 'Tender' which I got for Christmas and is in the Challenge for 2010 (see future postings!)

Another thing that Nigel helped me with this year is baking. My oven broke in early January, and getting a new one made me realise that it wasn't me who was a useless baker all this time, but my old oven! Whilst great for roasts etc, it was way too hot for reliable baking. The new one has changed all that and, armed with Nigel's recipes, I have made some memorable cakes to share with friends and colleagues: the double ginger cake is a star recipe, and one I have repeated. The Marmalade cake too, as well as the pistachio cake, the flourless chocolate cake, and the pear cake, and apple cake, both made with a pound cake recipe with fruit piled on the top, were great. I also particularly enjoyed Nigel's apple shortcake, with the crumbliest pastry imaginable.

My personal favourite of all? It has to be the chicken and pancetta patties - minced chicken and pancetta, rosemary and garlic, formed into patties and fried, then braised in chicken stock. Heavenly - comfort food of the first order and to be consumed with the obligatory pile of creamy mash with something like spring greens or kale - dark, bitter greens to off-set the richness of the meat and spuds.

Post-script: I had forgotten about Nigel's slow roast pork belly, done almost in the style of Italian Porchetta. We did it again tonight (January 3 2010) at it was magnificent, served with braised red cabbage, pureed parsnip and braised carrots. Total yum, and another candidate for my favourite recipe?

Nigel, thanks for a brilliant year. You are a marvellous, intuitive cook, and Kitchen Diaries is a masterpiece, although 'Tender' looks to be even better! You are Jane Grigson and Elizabeth David rolled into one, and certainly the cookery writer of our times. It has been such fun, and you have made me a better cook, and forced me out of a comfortable rut of everyday cooking into a world of exciting new tastes, textures and techniques.

And thanks to all my followers, on the blog, with the Open University and also on Facebook. If you are AT ALL interested, I am carrying on the Challenge into 2010, but this time with 12 books, and a recipe from each book per month, making a total of 144 recipes. Quite a bit fewer than the 193 with Nigel, but enough all the same! I shall publish the list of books before the end of 2009, so watch out for them! Happy Cooking!

One recipe to go!

So, here we are, down to the final recipe in the Challenge, an orange sorbet from much earlier in the year, whcih we will make for New Year's Eve.

Many people have asked me what my favourite recipes have been, so I shall take some time over the next few days to put together a list of the absolute hits. There have been many.

And if any of you are at all interested, I shall publish a list of the 12 books I am going to cook from for the next challenge - I am going to make a recipe a month from 12 books - 144 in total, in the hope that my repertoire (and waistline) will expand even more!

Happy Christmas!

Marinated Artichoke and Feta Salad [#192]

I am getting so blase now - another liberty taken with a recipe. But, I ask you, when it has been -8C this week, who wants to eat a cold artichoke, mint and feta salad? So, I made up the recipe as per the book, chopping all quite small, and used it to make little triangular pastries with filo pastry. It was then delicious, and went down very well with our pre-Christmas dinner cocktail (a Ritz Fizz, since you ask - a teaspoon each of Blue Curacao, lemon juice, Amaretto di Saronno and then topped up with ice-cold Champagne - yummy!).

Squid with Lime and Thyme [#191]

Well, I took real liberties with this one, but as it is near the end, I think I am entitled! The original recipe calls for squid to be chargrilled then dressed with lime juice and thyme. Here's how I changed it:

• used coriander leaf instead of thyme


• used a misture of squid, prawns and scallops


• quickly stir-fried in a stonkingly hot wok, rather than chargrilling, then tossed with lime and the chopped coriander


• stirred through egg noodles that had been dressed with sesame oil and soy

So, a radically different version using Nigel's recipe as an interpretation and idea. Jolly nice, though. Next time, will add some chilli.

Only two recipes to go!

Walnut and Candied Peel Tartlet [#190]

These are so dinky, and would be a good alternative to the Mince Pie at this time of year. Nigel's approach to lining tartlet tins is inspired - roll the ball of pastry into a cylinder with the same diameter as your tartlet tin holes, then, after chilling, slice thin discs off the roll and press into the tins. This saves rolling out and cutting, then transferring fragile circles of dough to the tins. The filling is like an Italian version of pecan pie - chopped walnuts, finely diced candied peel, crushed amaretti biscuits and some mixed spice, blended with golden syrup, melted butter and egg. The smell as these baked was divine - I shall report on the flavour after they have been consumed, shortly, with a dollop of whipped cream!

The Challenge - 4 recipes to go!!!!

Can you believe it? Only four left to go, with 189 under the belt...literally. The remaining recipes?

• Walnut and Candied Peel Tarts (being done tomorrow)
• Squid with Lime and Thyme
• Marinated Artichoke and Feta Salad
• Orange Sorbet

I am sure we'll get these in easily in the remaining weeks left of the year - and for the challenge. I am planning on the orange sorbet on New Year's Eve, as an antidote to all the rich food we will inevitably consume over Christmas. The squid with lime will be for tea one night. The artichoke salad appeals less, as the temperature plummets to below zero, but we'll probably get it in for lunch one day. Watch this space for The Challenge 2010....should you be interested!

Roast Partridge [#189]

A classic treatment, this. Excellent partridges from the Wild Meat Company in Suffolk, seasoned with thyme, smeared with butter, and draped with good bacon, then blasted in a hot oven for 25 minutes. They emerged succulent and bronzed, and were served with a Madeira gravy and bread sauce. However, I wimped out at the last minute because I really can't cope with whole little birds on my plate, so Hubby made a pig of himself. I made do with baked beans. This challenge is all about cooking every recipe from Nigel's book, not eating them! They did taste good, though, so next time, I might treat myself to boned birds to help me over my squeamishness. We drank a very good German Pinot Noir to accompany them - it even went well with baked beans!

Sauteed Chicken with Spices, Fennel and Cream [#188]

This turned out like a mild korma, very nice, but not really what we were expecting! Also, the fennel got a bit lost, and was more of a texture than a flavour that contributed to the dish. OK, nice sauce, but nothing very special. Of course, we used WAAAAY less cream than Nigel suggested, about 40ml rather than the 300ml in the recipe. Nigel's arteries must be made of steel to tolerate that amount!!!

Baked Onions with Parmesan and Cream [#187]

We used a large Spanish onion for this dish, boiled whole for half-an-hour (it makes for a really great stock, by the way) which was then sliced and baked with cream and Parmesan. A delicious accompaniment to a good smoked Gammon steak from M&S with steamed potatoes and broccoli. Surprisingly nice, elegant little dish, this. We did, of course, scale the recipe down by reducing the quantity of cream to about 4 tablespoons - plenty enough!