Thursday 2 August 2012

Forever Summer


It won’t be a surprise to regular readers that I’ve been a big fan of Nigella Lawson’s books for a long time now. I thought it would be good to visit one of my much cooked from books of Nigella’s.

I tend to blog about new books more than old favourites, but I’m hoping to redress this over the next while, and post about both. I’ve never posted about Nigel Slater or Rick Stein (yet), omissions that definitely need rectified as they are two of my favourite food writers! I digress though…

Forever Summer by Nigella Lawson published by Chatto and Windus in 2002. It was released as ‘Nigella Fresh: Delicious Flavors on Your Plate All Year Round’in the US with a different cover picture. Canada has the Forever Summer title with the US versions cover picture, as does the paperback one here. I cooked single minded-ly from it for months after its release. This was pre blogging days, pre digital camera even for most of it. I can hardly believe it has been 10 years since it was first released.

Forever Summer is a fairly healthy cookbook, well certainly for the savoury foods. Its chapters are pretty conventional for Nigella: First Course, Second Course, Puddings and Finally Drinks; though these are subdivided into pasta, salads etc. There are bright and colourful pictures of many of the dishes, and also (I think) really stunning and beautiful chapter heading scenic shots.

There are so many lovely recipes in this book that I’ve cooked, The Ultimate Greek Salad is wonderful, as is the Kerelan Fish Curry with Lemon Rice, the four chicken salads (my favourite is below), and Chicken and Cashew Nut Curry. On the sweet side there is Caramelised Pineapple with Hot Chocolate Sauce, Anglo Italian Trifle – a blackberry and Limoncello delight, Cheesecake Ice Cream and White Chocolate Ice Cream with Hot Blackberry Sauce.

I have blogged about some other dishes from this book see here if you like for Mint Chocolate Mousse, White Chocolate and Passion Fruit Mousse, Courgette Fritters, Rhubarb Fool, Vanilla Shortbread, Slut Red Raspberries in Chardonnay Jelly and Dime Bar Ice Cream.

Caesar Cleopatra
I do think this is my favourite ever chicken salad. It is simple but always so good. Mind you it was a close run for first with the Golden Jubilee Chicken - a mango and chicken salad, which I’ve also made a lot.


(Water) Melon and Feta Salad
I used a different melon here, and have tried all sorts of melons beside the watermelon which I’m not so keen on. Everything seems to go. This one is refreshing.


Lemon CupcakesI have loved these since the very first time I made them, yummy!


Seared Mustard-Coated Salmon with Beetroot, Dill and Mustard Seed Salad and Hasselback Potatoes
I adore this main course, the salmon is made special with a sprinkle of mustard powder and sugar. The beetroot salad is gorgeous, it should be raw, but sometimes I use cooked (not in vinegar here though!) and these potatoes just finish everything off beautifully.


Za’atar Chicken with Fattoush
Unusual, but good!


Raspberry and Strawberry Chocolate Pavlova
This chocolate flavoured pav should be served with just raspberries. I prefer it with either just strawberries or a mix of raspberries and strawberries.


Chicken Pilaf
This is another favourite I think it is at its best with a little yoghurt ‘sauce’ to go with it, either plain Greek or minty natural.


Strawberry Ice Cream
A classic.



Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream
Another classic and another one I just go mad for. Nigella adds in a bit of balsamic vinegar to the raspberry puree with works. I sometimes use raspberry liqueur instead of the vinegar too.

Next Up: Hairy Dieters by the Hairy Bikers

12 comments:

Nickki said...

Great post Kelly-Jane :-) I love FS and I 've made most of these recipes apart from the raspberry ripple ice cream which I will have to try before the raspberry season ends. I'm planning making the dime bar ice cream tonight!

Hello said...

A lovely selection of recipes from the Forever Summer book. I've made only a handful of recipes from this book (unless you count the drinks chapter lol), but now am inspired to dust of the book and cook and bake :-) x

Manu said...

I love your potatoes...
Have a nice week end

thecelticcookinshanghai said...

It's good to revisit old favourites, you've got me heading to bookshelf to pull out my Nigella's Forever Summer.
Have you see Silvena Rowe's book at all, think you might like them.

Kelly-Jane said...

Nicola, oooh dime har ice cream, need to get some dime bars again...

Miss Flash, I've only tried a few of the drinks, any you'd reccomend?

Manu, thanks, you too.

Celtic Cook, I'd forgotten about Silvena Rowe's books, will dig them out again :)

KJxx

Katherine said...

Hi Kelly Jane, only discovered your blog fairly recently and really enjoying it, thanks!
Obsessed with Forever Summer st the moment, made the salmon, beetroot salad and hasselback potatoes yesterday, it was delish!!
Have the white choc & passionfruit mousses in the fridge as I write, never made them before so I hope they work out ok!
Looking forward to future posts :-)

Brownieville Girl said...

I love this book too - though being a big fan of watermelon, I leave the recipe as is.

I haven't made the salmon yet - I'll give it a go soon.

Thanks Kelly Jane.

Cucina49 said...

Oh, I have this book--though it has a different cover! I pulled it out recently and intend to start cooking from it more. Thanks for the suggestions!

Kelly-Jane said...

Katherine, Thank you, hope you liked your mousses.
Brownieville Girl, I do love that salmon :)
Cucina49, It's a good book which ever cover we all have :)

Thanks for your comments.

KJ

Maggie said...

You have encouraged me to revisit this book now after seeing all your recipes - great post.

Susan said...

This is one of my favourite books. I had forgotten how old it is! I make the salmon with sugar and mustard regularly and the pavlova with raspberry and chocolate is my standard easy but has the Wow factor pudding for parties. Your post has sent me off to try a few more.

Shaun said...

Kelly-Jane ~ I really enjoyed your post and am glad that you're going to review old favourites, too.

This book is an oldie but a goodie for me as well. I loved the grilled aubergine with feta, mint and chilli, Sicilian vinegar chicken, broiled figs (figs for a thousand nights) and peach ice cream.

I've been meaning to try the shrimp and black rice for ages as well as the strawberry ice cream.


I loved the tv series that accompanied the book.