Nigel Slater’s fuss-free summer recipes. A summer lunch should feel carefree and effortless.
An assortment of dishes served cold or at room temperature, probably made earlier in the day. Perhaps the day before, brought to the table with very little fuss. (There is little worse than a cook arriving at the table hot and hassled.) I vote for one, and only one, dish that needs last-minute work. A plate of battered courgettes brought rustling from the kitchen or a dish of prawns tossed with butter, peas and dill. Prawns, peas and pasta A plate of hot, plump prawns with melted butter and dill is a good, if rather expensive, summer lunch.
Serves 2-3cavatelli 250g, or other small pasta peas 150g (podded weight)raw prawns 400g large, shelledbutter 60golive oil 2 tbspdill a good handful, chopped Bring a deep pan of water to the boil and salt it generously. While the pasta is cooking, roughly chop the peas. Finely chop the dill fronds. Chicken with sumac and couscous A good-natured chicken salad that can be eaten hot or cold. Nigel Slater’s chorizo and chickpea balls recipe. The recipe Remove the skins from 220g of soft cooking chorizo (that’s about 3 sausages), then break the chorizo into the bowl of a food processor.
Drain and rinse a 400g can of chickpeas, then tip half of them in with the chorizo. Process the meat and pulses to a smooth paste, then scrape into a mixing bowl. Set the oven at 200C/gas mark 6. Add 3 tbsp of flaked almonds to the paste and combine then divide the mixture into 6 and roll into balls. Cut 200g of cherry tomatoes in half and put them in a baking dish, then place the chorizo balls on top. The trick. Nigel Slater’s fry-up of cabbage, apple and ham recipe.
The recipe Peel an onion and cut it into rings.
Melt 30g of butter in a frying pan, and add the onion, together with 4 cloves and 12 lightly crushed juniper berries. Cover the frying pan with a lid and cook over a moderate heat for about 7 minutes until the onion is soft. Nigel Slater’s lentil recipes. There’s a surfeit of lentils in the cupboard.
Not only beautiful lentilles du puy, those diminutive beads the colour of country roof slates, but the less fashionable yet equally delicious brown lentils. This is the common variety – the sparrow of the pulse world – and it has a warm, spicy note and keeps its shape, rather than collapsing to a purée when cooked, like its khaki and orange cousins. I lightened my load by turning one batch into a creamy, mildly spiced dish (ginger, garam masala, crème fraîche) with a flash of deep red beetroot swirling through. The others found their way into an unashamedly retro dish of baked onions the size of tennis balls, with a cheese sauce so hot it almost took the skin off our lips.
Baked onions, lentils and cheese sauce The bay leaves don’t add a fat lot of flavour to the onions, but they do, I find, take the edge off the smell of the boiling onions. Serves 4onions 4, large and sweetbay leaves 2. Nigel Slater's bean casserole recipes. The bean casserole, a dish both frugal and intensely satisfying, has been a mainstay of my winter cooking for as long as I can remember.
I value it for its warmth, ease of preparation and its ability to fill for less. But above all I value the bean's quality of soaking up flavour to become the heart and soul of the meal. The king of the bean casserole is the traditional cassoulet, often made with white kidney beans and, depending on location and family tradition, a mixture of goose, mutton, duck and sausages. Sometimes it is made with tomato and often with a crust of crumbs – the only immovable ingredients are garlic, beans and some sort of fatty meat. The warming attribute of bean stews comes not only from the carb content but from the beans' ability to soak up stock and fat. It is wisest to keep to one variety of beans. Nigel Slater’s golden autumnal recipes. There is, I suggest, no better time to be in the kitchen than now.
The ingredients of the season – new hazelnuts and walnuts, the first pumpkins, locally grown pears and cider – are beckoning and the cooking goes into another gear. The cooler evenings bring with them requests for deep bowls of soup, roast vegetables and warm grains and, in my house at least, the need for a cake on the table. This collection of recipes celebrates the welcome return, the golden glow, of autumn cooking. Nigel Slater’s bubble and swede recipe. The recipe Peel 750g of swede then cut it into large chunks.
Place the swede in a steamer basket over a pan of boiling water, then cook it for about 30 minutes until soft. Set the oven at 200C/gas mark 6. Meanwhile, trim 2 medium-sized leeks, slice them and rinse thoroughly in cold running water. Melt 60g of butter in a pan, add the leeks and let them cook for 20 minutes or so until they are totally tender. When the swede is soft, crush it with a fork, vegetable masher or wooden spoon, and season generously with salt and black pepper. Spiced mushroom rice. The recipe Put 190g of sushi rice in a medium-sized saucepan and pour 300ml of warm water over it.
Set aside for 30 minutes. Place the pan on a moderate heat; add ½ tsp of salt, 2 bay leaves and 8 black peppercorns. Bring to the boil; lower the heat to a simmer and cover with a tight lid. Cook for 12 minutes; remove from the heat and leave covered for 10 minutes. Using a food processor, make a paste of 75g of salted peanuts, 100g of young spinach leaves, 50g (2 tbsp) of Thai red curry paste and 100ml of groundnut oil.
Cut 4 king oyster mushrooms into thick slices. When the rice is ready, add the paste to the mushrooms in the pan; stir for 2 or 3 minutes till the colour darkens slightly. Nigel Slater recipes: tarts, crumbles and meringues. A crisp crust hiding a soft filling has always worked for me.
Be it melted cheese inside the fragile edges of a filo or puff pastry pie; silky vegetables under a rough-textured crumble topping; a dark and delicious gravy with Yorkshire pudding; or buttercream held inside the crunchy case of a meringue. Each of the recipes in this month’s collection celebrates the delicious contrast of food that is both soft and crisp. A green filo tart The tart is best eaten fresh from the oven, while the cheese is still soft and melting. Purple sprouting broccoli with cashews and tofu. The recipe Bring a large, deep pan of water to the boil.
Trim 350g of purple sprouting broccoli, removing any very thick stems and leaving any fresh, healthy looking leaves in place. Nigel Slater's bean salad recipes. I am not sure any of us need to be cooking at this point in the year. Time to switch off and chill. If I am to be caught within six feet of a cooker, it will be in the cool of the early morning, boiling dried beans or potatoes for a salad for lunch, long before the sun comes overhead and turns my kitchen skylights into magnifying glasses. (Leave the Sunday papers on the table and you could start a small fire.) By nine o'clock, the hob is off and the bones of lunch are cooling. Once you have spooned up pale-green flageolet beans tossed with verdant olive oil and a bunch of parsley while they were still warm, you may wonder how our national bean salad - kidney beans, sweetcorn and raw green pepper - ever came to be. Get a bean salad right - warm, tiny beans, peppery oil, a barrowload of herbs - and you could, if you close your eyes tightly, be on a sun-dappled terraced in Tuscany.
If it is to be a dish of beans for lunch, then we had better go to town with the rest. Baked winter roots with feta and smoked garlic. The recipe Set the oven at 200C/gas mark 6. Peel a couple of red onions, cut them in half and then into thick segments. Peel and thickly slice 600g of swede, then cut each slice into pieces roughly 4cm long. Nigel Slater’s gammon steak with butter beans and kale recipe. The recipe Lightly season 2 thick slices of smoked gammon with black pepper. They need to be about 250-350g each in weight. Wash two handfuls of small kale leaves. Drain 2 x 400g tins of butter beans and rinse them of their liquor. Tip the beans into a saucepan, cover with water and bring to the boil. Warm a couple of tbsp of olive oil in a shallow pan, add the gammon steaks and fry for 6-7 minutes on each side until firm and the fat is pale gold.
Nigel Slater’s warming winter soup and cake recipes. There is a glow from the oven door. The reassuring golden light that tells us someone has been cooking for us. The light that, however briefly, puts everything right. More than ever before I want to open the oven door and find my old crock pot full to the brim with beans and spices baking sweetly, or a copper pan of fat-marbled meat braising on its bones. I need to come home to a veritable cauldron of soup thick with grains or pasta, or preferably both. I cherish these cold days. The festival of denial that reigns from New Year to early spring seems, at least to me, to come at the wrong time.
Well, not me. Baked spiced lentils with sweet potato Serves 4. Nigel Slater’s dreamy cheese recipes. Last week, I sat down to a lunch that included a fresh goats’ cheese, as white as chalk and mousse-like in texture. We spread it on thin rye biscuits and added nothing more than a few flecks of black pepper from the mill. We don’t always make enough of the lightness of cheese in cooking. The barely solid curds of a milky buratta; the open texture and hint of sharpness of ricotta in a pancake; the silken quality of mascarpone when used in place of custard as a cake or trifle filling. Cheese dishes that celebrate the subtleties of the ingredient rather than its oozing, melting butteriness. So, this month, a collection of ideas for ricotta, buratta and mascarpone – light, gentle cheeses matched to citrus zests and nut oils, crisp bitter leaves and sharp fruits. Nigel Slater’s winter soup recipes. There is a white china bowl in the fridge, its contents hidden under a plate. With luck it will be buried treasure: the remains of a casserole; steamed potatoes and greens ready for bubble and squeak; a squirrelled-away apple crumble.
Nigel Slater’s butternut soup with tahini and chestnuts recipe. Nigel Slater’s marvellous mussels recipes. There are tiny blue mussels on the fishmonger’s slab, their shells shut tight, glistening among the hills and valleys of crushed ice. Nigel Slater’s comforting cheese recipes. I like the idea of a small amount of full-flavoured cheese used more as a seasoning than a principal ingredient. Nigel Slater’s cod cheeks, pancetta and tomato recipe. The recipe Cut 300g of smoked pancetta into small dice, each piece measuring roughly 2cm. Warm 2 tbsp of olive oil in a frying pan, add the pancetta and let it cook over a moderate heat, stirring regularly, until the fat starts to turn a translucent gold.
Fennel, radish and mint. The recipe A fresh, crunchy salad to complement, rather than replace, the rich, sweet food of the season. Mix together 100ml each of natural yogurt and soured cream. The unstrained variety of yogurt is the most suitable. The pleasure of pies. Nigel Slater’s chicken schnitzel recipe. The recipe Cut 2 medium-sized leeks into 2cm-thick rounds. Rinse thoroughly in cold water. Nigel Slater’s gnocchi recipes. If I’m honest, I really don’t eat very much pasta at all. By which I mean I eat it regularly, but in small amounts. Nigel Slater’s recipes for the in-between days of Christmas. The tree is up. The holly is hanging from its hook on the front door. The house smells deliciously of the season. There has been much anticipation – and more than a little planning – for the major feasts of Christmas Eve and the following day, but Christmas cooking is always about more than the main feasts.
Nigel Slater’s mackerel with pear and red onion recipe. Nigel Slater’s perfect Christmas recipes. Nigel Slater’s butternut and feta fritters recipe. Nigel Slater’s pigeon recipes. Nigel Slater’s crab and coriander fettuccine recipe. Nigel Slater’s perfect Christmas recipes. Nigel Slater’s fennel with cream and pine kernels recipe. Nigel Slater’s oysters with chorizo recipe. Nigel Slater’s sausages, shallots and grapes recipe. Nigel Slater’s beetroot and spiced banana ketchup recipes. Nigel Slater’s autumnal polenta recipes. Nigel Slater’s spicy pork with nduja and spinach recipe. Nigel Slater’s drop scones recipes. Nigel Slater’s chicken fontina cakes recipe. Nigel Slater’s vegetables in coconut sauce recipe. Nigel Slater’s fishcake recipes. Nigel Slater’s chicken fontina cakes recipe. Nigel Slater’s sandwich recipes. Nigel Slater’s clams, pak choi and oyster sauce. Nigel Slater’s ricotta recipes. Nigel Slater’s marrow recipes.
Nigel Slater’s sardines with tomato and orange recipe. Nigel Slater's warming autumn recipes. Nigel Slater’s chicken wings with red peppers. Nigel Slater’s roast peppers and tomatoes, butter bean mash recipe. Nigel Slater’s pizette recipes. Nigel Slater’s gnocchi with tomatoes recipe. Nigel Slater’s grilled bavette recipe. Nigel Slater’s salmon with French beans recipe. Nigel Slater’s cod cheeks and hot summer pudding recipes. Nigel Slater’s grilled squid, tomato, basil and almond sauce recipe. Nigel Slater’s sausages with padron peppers recipe. Nigel Slater’s summer salad recipes.
Nigel Slater’s grilled chicken with miso recipe. Nigel Slater’s mackerel with sumac and orange recipe. Nigel Slater’s summer courgette recipes. Nigel Slater’s summer courgette recipes. Nigel Slater’s summer fruit drinks and salty nibbles recipes. Nigel Slater’s ham with cherries and mustard recipe. Nigel Slater’s ham with cherries and mustard recipe. Nigel Slater’s preserved tomatoes recipes. Nigel Slater’s courgettes and tagliatelle recipe. Nigel Slater’s lamb, spinach and feta and duck with couscous recipes. Nigel Slater’s new potatoes, ham and crème fraîche recipe. Nigel Slater’s kohlrabi with tomatoes recipe.
Nigel Slater’s grilled lamb, broad beans and soured cream recipe. Nigel Slater’s beetroot fritters recipe. Nigel Slater’s pâté recipes for summer picnics. Nigel Slater’s bresaola, peas and feta recipe. Nigel Slater’s grilled lamb, broad beans and soured cream recipe. Nigel Slater’s easygoing ready-when-you-are salad recipes. Nigel Slater’s spring vegetables recipes. Nigel Slater’s carrot and potato bake with Fontina. Nigel Slater’s radish recipes. Nigel Slater’s grilled mackerel and soup with fresh crab recipes. Nigel Slater’s pearl barley, bacon and Taleggio recipe. Nigel Slater’s shortbread and pancake base recipes. Nigel Slater’s paneer, cashew and aubergine korma recipe. Nigel Slater’s vegetarian spring recipes. Nigel Slater’s red mullet with pak choi. Nigel Slater’s broccoli, lentils and burrata recipe.
Nigel Slater’s roast guinea fowl and chocolate ginger mousse recipes. Nigel Slater’s sausage and beans toad in the hole. Nigel Slater’s butternut squash recipes. Nigel Slater’s bubble and swede recipe. Nigel Slater’s small dishes to mix and match. Nigel Slater’s crisp aubergines with chilli sauce recipe. Nigel Slater’s fettuccine with fennel and prawns. Nigel Slater’s za’atar lamb recipe. Nigel Slater’s Middle Eastern recipes. Nigel Slater’s smoked mackerel cakes with tomato sauce recipe. Nigel Slater’s unplanned supper recipes. Nigel Slater’s cauliflower slices with horseradish recipe. Nigel Slater’s desert island dishes.