It was such a pleasure to watch Nigel Slater cook in 'Dish of the Day' on BBC 1 before Christmas, and I did go on about it rather a lot, so it was probably not surprising, but very pleasing, to receive The kitchen diaries II as a Christmas present. I have dipped into this delicious book and found so many recipes that I would like to make that I thought I would create an 'event' to make sure sure that I do! It's not a formal, black tie sort of event, that would never do for Nigel, it's more of an informal invitation to drop in and join me once a month to share some home cooking.
My Dish of the Month for January is 'a soup of bacon and celeriac' from page 7 of The kitchen diairies II
This was a very simple soup to make, just the thing for a cold January day. The most challenging part of the recipe is grating the celeriac. But that is easy enough if you use of a food processor. The flavour of the soup is subtle but with a mustardy kick. It would be great served with a slice of baguette floating on top, loaded with melted grated cheese.
Sue at Heaven on a Plate is also a fan of the TV programmes and The kitchen diaries, and will be joining me in cooking a 'Dish of the Month' from Nigel's recipes. If you would like to take part, you don't even have to own the book as you can cook anything by Nigel Slater. You can access 56 recipes from 'Dish of the Day' on the BBC Food website. There are also many recipes from Nigel's regular column on The Guardian website.
The kitchen diaries II is divided by month and I plan to cook a dish from each month in that month, but that isn't compulsory either, you can pick and choose however you like.
If you would like to take part, then please:
- Make a Dish of the Month from ANY recipe by Nigel Slater
- Link to Farmersgirl Kitchen or A Little Bit of Heaven on a Plate
- Use the Dish of the Month logo in your post
- If you use twitter, tweet your post with @serialcrafter or Heavenona_plate and #DishoftheMonth and we will re-tweet it to our followers.
- If you own The kitchen diaries II please do not publish the recipes on your blog without permission, they are copyright.
- If you are using recipes from the BBC Food website, please link to the recipe on BBC Food rather than publishing the recipe. Likewise recipes on the Guardian website.
- One entry per blog.
- Recipes must be added to the linky by the 28th of each month.
This sounds like a great idea. Are any of Nigel's book valid for this challenge? I have 2 books which I've barely used so far.
ReplyDeleteHi Jen, yes any Nigel Slater recipe, it's a very loose and easy sort of challenge designed to get you cooking from those books!
ReplyDeleteBrilliant Janice!
ReplyDeleteI got the book for Christmas and I am in love with it! Great challenge! Karen
ReplyDeleteOh well it's hardly challenging is it? ;) Who doesn't cook at least one Nigel Slater recipe a month?????
ReplyDeleteI'm in. :)
Love it Janice, count me in. I have Kitchen Diaries no.1 and really want to cook more from it so I will be joining in. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's dishes and I hope to get a copy of Kitchen Diaries II at some point.
ReplyDeleteExcellent! Glad you are all on board.
ReplyDeleteCount me in, I adore Nigel Slater, he is such a darling. I also found him refreshingly approachable on Twitter, he even replied a couple of times to me, which made me literally walk on heaven. This made quite a difference from some food chefs and bloggers too who think they are so superior that you are only allowed to worship them from afar and they would never-ever interact with you unless you own a Michelin restaurant, lol
ReplyDeleteI've already cooked 3 Nigel Slater dishes in the past few weeks and got Kitchen Diaries II for my birthday so this challenge is a dream! I agree with Galina that other TV cooks talk at you and not with you so I stopped following all the others which was disappointing when you have held them in high esteem for most of your life!
ReplyDeleteCount me in too, got this from Santa to join number 1 already on the bookshelf. All his books are fab and he is the only TV cook my hubby will watch.
ReplyDeleteSo pleased you are all keen to take part, I think we are a collective Nigel Slater fan club!
ReplyDeleteCan highly recommend the lemon and thyme cake, chocolate and banana cake, leak and taleggio pies and the mushroom and spinach pie. All cooked in the last month or so.
ReplyDeleteI'm also game. I am currently reading my way through Kitchen Diaries 2, in the same way as I did for KD. Much better than reading a novel in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteMight be nice to change it up and take a recipe from one and two on alternate months.
Thanks for this great idea Janice
Was also given the book for Christmas, can't wait to go to bed every night to read a bit more of it. Another one in!
ReplyDeleteWestonNewcastle - thanks for recommendations.
ReplyDeleteEdiblethings - Sounds like a good idea!
Helen - good to have you with us Helen.
Ahh, the lovely Nigel. Nice idea Janice. I only have one of his books and it doesn't have a deal of chocolate in it, but I'll see what I can do. Does it have to be a book or can it be from a magazine or one of his online recipes?
ReplyDeleteChoclette - anything you want, there are loads on BBC Food and the Guardian/Observer web pages, must be some chocolate in there!
ReplyDeletelovely idea will be joining you as I love Nigel. Going to try the almond, marzipan and berry cakes I think.
ReplyDeletewonderful idea. Love Nigel. Adore celeriac. I do my soup with caraway & cumin. But I've never done a straight from book recipe on my blog: can we 'freestyle' or should we faithfully render it?
ReplyDeleteMelanie those sound like a great choice
ReplyDeleteKellie I'm sure a little bit of licence is allowed, otherwise I'll be in trouble ! As long as it is recognisably a NS recipe, should be fine.
I'll have to look into some sweet recipes! :-)
ReplyDeleteHi I'm not a food blogger as such but I am tempted to join in with this because Nigel Slater is fab. I found out about this through KaveyF's RT.
ReplyDeleteCheers!
Laura, good to have you with us
ReplyDeleteNyssapod you are very welcome to join in, you don't have to be a food blogger, who knows you might be ome one!
ReplyDeleteI don't have Kitchen Diaries II - they were sold out but hubby is buying it for me soon. I have not entered anything like this before so might need some assistance linking etc but will give it a go!
ReplyDeleteHi Heidi
ReplyDeleteHope you get your copy soon, but you can still use the recipes that are online the links are in my blog post. Let me know if you have any problems linking. Look forward to seeing your Dish of the Month!
I have kitchen diaries volume 1 which is also divided into monthly chapters so I will have to see if I can join in too!
ReplyDeleteHm ... eh ... so, I could take part looking up a recipe fromm the BBC food website. Hm, will see!
ReplyDeleteSarah - that would be ideal!
ReplyDeleteChris - go on, you know you want to :-)
I'm yet to be converted to celeriac, but your soup with the bacon does sound more promising and looks yum!
ReplyDeleteHave a few of Nigel's books..will go have a rummage through!
I like this challenge and will do my utmost to take part:) Strangely, the only book I don't own of Nigel's is Kitchen Diaries II.
ReplyDeleteThe soup looks lovely and comforting.
can't believe I nearly missed this challenge!... I too received this book for christmas and will be cooking from it over the weekend and will include the post in your excellent new challenge! xx
ReplyDeleteI was obviously a bit over-excited about the lovely new challenge - I have put my own name on the recipe instead of saying that it is the almond, marzipan and berry cakes!
ReplyDeleteCan we amend it?
Anne - look forward to seeing what your rummage brings.
ReplyDeleteMaggie - there are lots of online recipes you can use if you don't own any of the books.
Dom - you have been away, so I will forgive you ;-)
All sorted Rachel!
Wow this sounds great Janice! Might not manage this month but will definitely take part next month as love Nigel Slater! I hope you had a great Christmas & New Year :D
ReplyDeleteHello my dear, as requested have added the link for my old post on Nigel's stroganov. :-)
ReplyDelete