Well the wait is over, Kitchen, Recipes from the Heart of the Home by Nigella Lawson is here! I have so anticipated this new book, that at times I’ve wondered if it would be possible for it to live up to the thing I have built it up to in my mind. It does though, more than even. So many recipes, so many pictures, even some step by step ones and many of Nigella too. The book is divided into two parts Kitchen Quandries and Kitchen Comforts. The recipes are really varied, and there are so many of them. Loads of writing too, so it’ll be a book to read as well as cook from.
I don’t want to give you a blow by blow book review here, I’d rather leave a lot to the imagination, so that if you do buy it, or get it as a gift – it’ll still be a wonderful surprise for you. I hope you understand, I’ve not gone all lazy, I’m trying to be considerate! If you like How To Eat or Feast, then you’ll like this one, it’s similar, but a whole lot more too.
I was going to hold off a little while before posting about some of my first makes, but I couldn’t. Particularly since the forum has gone on Nigella.com I need to share my joy =) In my 'Books Cooked from So Far' column at the side I'm listing this as "Nigella Kitchen", and that's how I think of it. I’ll do a little project of this book, looking forward to it!
Chocolate Chip Cookies About an hour hout of the oven these are just perfection, crispy on the outside and cooked, but chewy on the inside. Mmmm.
Marmalade Pudding CakeThis is a dish-bound pudding cake, that is baked in the oven, but tastes like a light steamed pudding. I wouldn’t have believed a baked sponge could taste like a steamed one, but it does, there is no denying it. I used a mild mannered marmalade (golden shred) and it was really very delicious indeed! Leftovers can be used for a plate trifle… next time. Mine became quite dark on the top, but there was no burned taste, just in colour. I’ll cover it next time though, so it’s more golden. Recipe
here at the Daily Mail.
Date Steak
Oh my goodness! This was incredibly delicious. I’d have bought the book for the recipe for this alone. I made it with fillet steak, as that is our preference, hubby said he would have paid £20plus in a restaurant for it. It was a super treaty Saturday night supper for us. I don’t expect Nigella reads my blog, but thank you for a truly fabulous recipe Nigella anyway!
Salami Pasta
This was ok, not a wow for us, apparently we don’t like beans with our pasta! Mind you it’s the only one form this batch of pictures I wouldn’t make again.
Sunshine Soup
Or sweetcorn and roasted pepper soup. Sweet, savoury and a little bite with some sweetcorn kernels. My little one emptied the soup bowl. I have some more in the freezer too, result.
Fuss Free Fruit Tart
Very pretty this one, we thought there was a bit too much biscuit crust, but the filling is gorgeous will use it again, either on the cheesecake base from Express or an M&S tart base, to be inkeeping with the ease of the recipe.
Crustless Pizza
This is a fast filling little number. A crustles pizza seems to be somewhere between an oven baked pancake and cheesy Yorkshire pudding. We all liked it, and I am avoiding yeast just now, so it was nice for me to have a sort-of-pizza. Will top it differently next time. A perfect quick weekend just us lunch with some salad.
The chicken and veggies plus warmed tortillasChicken FajitasA good family supper, nice as everyone can pick and choose. I made this last night, on a busy Monday night, half hour of preparation for much reward. I even managed to use my party set which I was given as a birthday gift last year. I used a red onion to have a little extra colour, although I only did this because I happened to have one.
Chocolate Lime Cake with Margarita CreamA lovely zingy spin on a flour less chocolate cake, it’s almost unbelievable how one juicy lime can give such a lot of flavour to a cake. The margarita cream was divine, and I say this as someone who wouldn’t drink the cocktail. The cream would make a glorious pudding in a pretty glass with a biscuit on its own.
Recipe here on Nigella.com.
Red Velvet Cupcakes 
The batter This is the sample package I received, Icing Sugar, Caster Sugar, Fondant Icing sugar and Granulated Sugar. The only one I’ve not used before is the fondant one, but I have a friend who has had great success with it, and I’m looking forward to trying it. Thank you to Tate & Lyle for my samples. 
Sugars and Baked Cupcakes I chose to make Red Velvet Cupcakes from Nigella Lawson’s Kitchen, Recipes from the Heart of the Home. This is not the first version of red velvet I’ve made, but it’s the one I’m going to stick with. I love it when I find a ‘best of its kind’ recipe, and this is certainly that for me. This has been requested as a bithday cupcake already! If Nigella cooks this on her TV programme I’ll edit this post and link the recipe for you. It used some of my Caster Sugar and Icing Sugar very nicely thank you. 
Half frosted Anyhow Tate and Lyle have a great website here and a new Facebook Page here called We Love Baking, which looks good – I’ve ‘Liked’ it for sure. 
