Nigella shares the rhythms and rituals of her kitchen and reveals the inspiration behind many of her recipes. Starting with her take on the bhorta, a dish of fried and mashed vegetables favoured in the Indian subcontinent, to which she introduces a very British - but very familiar - ingredient. The surprises don’t stop there. After creating a warm, spicy and aromatic dish of lamb shanks with wide noodles, Nigella turns her attention to very ripe bananas, which she uses to make a gloriously rich and gooey chocolate tahini pudding, and then goes on to create a warming curry with a surprising ingredient.
Once again, Nigella weaves her kitchen magic and shows how, with a little advanced planning and a minimal amount of effort, it is easy to produce delicious food. Nigella starts with a fluffy, white, no-knead bread, which she uses to sandwich her crispy fried chicken, accompanied by pickles and kimchi. Nigella then takes the fear out of making a fish stew, accompanied by a fragrant tomato base full of the warming flavours of mace, cinnamon and nutmeg. A daring dish of cherry flambe follows, using frozen cherries and kirsch, served up with her frozen cheesecake ice cream.
Nigella shares her go-to celebratory cake - a divine, layered chocolate and peanut butter cake that will make even die-hard haters of peanut butter relent. She goes on to create a colourful rainbow dish of vegetables and spiced bulgur wheat, suitable for vegans, vegetarians and anyone who wants a tasty dish with minimal effort. There are some new additions to Nigella’s liquorice toolbox, one of which provides the key element for a sauce to accompany her Basque burnt cheesecake.
Delving into an old cookbook inspires Nigella to champion the much-maligned bacon of the sea, the anchovy - an ingredient she loves and which she uses to create an elixir to accompany seared steak or crisp, red chicory. From her twinkling cocktail trolley, Nigella shakes up a lemon blossom cocktail using lemon juice and elderflower - a combination which inspired her lemon and elderflower pudding. Finishing with a final night-time love letter to the anchovy, Nigella creates a pasta dish of spaghetti with colourful chard and chilli.
As winter draws in and the nights get cold, Nigella creates recipes that deliver comfort and warmth to banish the winter blues. Nigella’s grandmother’s recipe for creme caramel provides the inspiration for a simple but elegant dessert of caramel custard. Nigella then rifles through her pasta collection to find the ideal pasta shape to go with her spicy sauce made from Italian 'nduja and cavolo nero. This is followed by a visit to the famous gadget cupboard for an electric potato masher to prep her brown butter colcannon, the perfect match to a dish of black pudding meatballs in tomato sauce.
Should you meddle with a classic? Nigella thinks that in the case of her crab mac’n’cheese, it’s a must. If the sight of glorious melted cheese isn’t enough, fear not, as she follows it with her aptly named 'mine all mine chocolate cookies' and a firm family favourite - chicken with orzo, a one pot dish designed to bring comfort and joy. Rice is the order of the day for dessert; inspired by the Italian torta di riso and her love of the very British rice pudding, Nigella creates a rice pudding cake with a vibrant raspberry sauce.
The Christmas tree is up, the tea lights are sparkling, wood is burning in the fire pit, and it’s the culinary highlight of the festive season and the year. Nigella is indulging in a little kitchen-table tourism with food from near and far to warm up the winter evenings and add a special sparkle to the season. Expect wintry walks bolstered by warming and celebratory food and drink: melt-in-the-mouth Linzer cookies, gloriously pink pomegranate cocktails, smoked salmon on black bread and Norwegian pork ribs with Swedish-inspired Jansson’s temptation.
