Simply Nigella

Nigella is back on our screens with her new show 'Simply Nigella.' Unfortunately, she has been widely mocked after kicking off her latest series with, not so much a recipe, rather, a preparation of a dish she exclaimed is 'part of the fabric of my life.' The offending dish was simply a mashed avocado, dressed up with dill, salt, lime, dried chilli flakes and radish, served on toasted artisan bread.

Personally I thought it was a great introduction to 'Simply Nigella' (the clue's in the title) because let's face it how many of us do make delicious snacks like this? Ask yourself, when did you last add fresh dill and sliced radish to an avocado and pile it on seeded toast? It's all very well these yummy mummies guffawing that their four year old could make this, but I've had many a worse lunch at supposed 'foodies' homes.

It brings to mind one of my earliest cookbooks, 'Delia's How To Cook'. Book one had no less than 30 pages dedicated to eggs. Many poked fun at Delia, who on earth, they mocked, needed instruction regarding cooking eggs? Well, the popular saying: 'I can't even boil an egg' has often proven to be true in my experience and usually translates to, 'I can't cook anything at all'. We have entered a world of plenty, everything we want is available and ready-prepared, consequently, the simple act of making a soft, fluffy omelette, one of life's simplest and quickest dishes, is beyond many people, believe me, I've sampled a wide range of omelettes ranging from rubbery to crucified.

                     A perfect moist and fluffy omelette (courtesy of Delia's How To Cook)

As Delia succinctly put it in her book: 'We are in danger of losing something very precious, and that is a reverence for simple, natural ingredients and the joy and pleasure they can bring to everyday life.'

Many of the dishes which are part of the fabric of my life are simple, however, for those relying on everything to be ready-made this isn't always the case. As certain friends have pointed out: 'you know how to combine flavours' or 'you understand which ingredients compliment each other.'

Cooking is a learning curve and what should drive us is that the sensual pleasure of eating belongs to everyday life. If we can master the art of a well made, expeditiously served omelette or soft clouds of perfectly scrambled eggs (or deliciously seasoned avocado on toast) we're half way there. Cooking is about confidence, it's about experimenting, and if you want to learn to cook there's no better place to start than with eggs.

Softly scrambled eggs

Recipe
For 1 person
2 large free-range eggs
10g butter
Salt and pepper

Break eggs into a small bowl and use a fork to lightly blend the yolks into the whites

Add a good seasoning of salt and pepper
In a small pan add half of the butter and place over a medium heat, swirl the butter around so that the whole pan is covered

When the butter starts to foam, pour in the beaten eggs

Using a wooden fork or spoon, start stirring briskly, don't turn up the heat, the egg mixture must be cooked very gently
When you calculate that three quarters of the egg is now creamy and a quarter still liquid, remove the pan from the heat and add the remaining butter

Continue scrambling, the eggs will carry on cooking even when removed from the heat
As soon as there is no more liquid egg left, serve onto plates immediately with hot buttered toast

             The secret of success is removing the eggs before they become dry and flaky

Once you've mastered the art of perfect scrambled eggs you can start to experiment, for example, combining some smoked salmon trimmings and dill with scrambled eggs becomes a luxurious meal often served in top class restaurants.

'Everyone can make scrambled eggs, Remy, it's programmed into you at birth, the default setting. Like being able to swim and knowing not to mix pickles with oatmeal. You just know.'
- Sarah Dessen.

Love Donna xxxxxxxx