Nigella Kitchen S01E10 Easy Does It

just because some recipes start off life is trixie or time-consuming doesn't mean they can't be made surprisingly simple in my kitchen easy does it I tweaked that French classic tarragon chicken into a quick and scrumptious after work supper my buttermilk scones are unexpectedly effortless and what's more make for an instant cream tea my Mexican lasagna is a bit of a party piece and along with a cool green avocado salsa makes light work of feeding friends and for pudding there's my no fuss no churn pina colada ice cream inspired by the cocktail need i say more tarragon chicken is rightly one of the key dishes of the French culinary cabin but while the original requires a certain amount of loving patience my version is speedy and simple thing is I don't like the passion just the time while I may not have the time I do have the tarragon and that's what counts here anyway this is one of my absolute favorite suppers perfect after a long day at work because although it's quick it's comforting first into the pan with its shimmering veil of garlic oil because some spring onions it's not that peeling and chopping proper onions is difficult it just can feel that way when you're tired and anyway I love the way that spring onions add a little freshness as well as taking just a minute or so to cook I'm attempting to chop them finely but not all together succeeding but you know what just doesn't matter in these go already a reassuring sound and now the tarragon or one part some dried tarragon half a teaspoon here the chicken got a couple of chicken breasts here I normally go in for the brown meat and I make no bones about that but I like chicken breast here there's something about the delicacy of this dish which is very important and the white meat really works so while the chicken is searing I shall get on with the beans this is my patented method topping and tailing straight to the plastic right and into the steamer basket won't leave those for a moment I'm just gonna turn the chicken it should be perfect now and it is obviously they're slightly golden but this is what I think makes the chicken so tender a good generous blush of murmur the scattering of salt lid on beans can go in there everything is done tailing nicely now all my pots and pans are bubbling away I'm gonna have a slight clear down and get the fresh tarragon because this is a two-tone tarragon affair when you add the fresh version of the herb there's something about the call of the wild and the dried herb kind of jumps up into action and tastes even more resonantly of itself this is an example of the curious magical alchemy of cooking but don't understand it I'm grateful for it they're skipping jointly towards supper now plates beautiful cutlery and now let's have a look at this I think I'm just going to test it to see if it's cooked through just pierce the thickest part with the tip of a knife and there you are not a trace of pinkness left that you can see everything's going to be really lusciously tender well nothing's gonna happen to that if I just leave it there while I beam up my plan let's see if I can manage it is to go first like a wreath effect so that the chicken is encircled by Verde gloriousness mm slightly cubist with now the chicken pieces everything ready for it ah now in deference to the classic I'm adding an uzi of cream bit of white pepper and a bit not all of the fresh tarragon let me have a little taste mm-hmm I'm in a bistro in some glorious village and they luckily then have to leave home right now the sauce mmm serene puddle encircled by beans I know cranly of fresh tarragon here we go for the past two summers I've been taking family holidays in Cornwall on one of the rainy blustery days I went to a cotton creamery and and this picture really shows that my sense of comedy is greater than my vanity cuz that's me in a rather unflattering white coat and a hairnet I think taking the temperature of a tub of clotted cream the thing about clotted cream well I have to have scones with it and I'm always happy to rustle up a quick batch it's easy-peasy my buttermilk scones are a two-fold treat well apart from the fact that they are gloriously old-fashioned they satisfy both greed and impatience to be honest I can make these in 20 minutes start to finish make em bake sort off with flour 500 grams of plain flour allow two teaspoons of bicarb two T's of cream of tartar two teaspoons of castor sugar and now might just a bit of a mix-up so that's the dried ingredients sorted now for the fat not much actually because we do have all the lusciousness of the clotted cream later 50 grams of butter squating it into roughly speaking cubes very roughly speaking so that's that done and on top of the butter I want 25 grams of vegetable shortening always makes me feel wonderfully old-fashioned using this of course in the old days I think they would have you'd just vegetable shortening and no butter whatsoever and in fact really they would have used lard which is all good in my book anyway that's enough fat rub in the fats it's roughly oh there's something about getting your hands covered in cool flour like dry swimming in a pool of cool air right these are butter nuts gone so here's the buttermilk you can use ordinary milk and just before you start with the flour and everything put about three teaspoons of lemon juice or vinegar in a little stand just five minutes the idea now is just to stir together until it clumps into a dough now here is the really glorious part no rolling out just put a flower on the surface tip this out or just empty it out and then you simply Pat this into a shape that's approximately four centimeters deep and now this ramshackle fatty dimpled rectangle will be turned into scones need a fluted cutter six centimetres although the six centimeters is the top bit not this bit odd but that's how it is into the flower just so it doesn't stick and then cutting out I love the way that those squeezes up into the cutter I just carry on doing this and I know they do look a bit as if they've got cellulite I don't want everything looking fake and perfect there you can pop these in the oven as they are quite plain I am going for the luxurious option and making an egg wash it's just makeup really make up the cakes if you beat ma stop so that the whiten it combined and then take the scones they will come out of beautiful burnished gold and you can see that each stone is a slightly different height that's just because the oblong wasn't even I like that get some character last door Bing with fake tan and within 12 minutes these absolute beauties will be ready and while they bake I can pretty fie my tea table a conventional cream tea consists of scones clotted cream and jam and that is fantastic without doubt but I prefer a twist on another tradition from Cornwall our own rugged Southwest and that's called thunder and lightning now really what thunder and lightning is is on top of the scones you have clotted cream that's the lightning and the Thunder of black treacle I love the poetry of thunder and lightning but really it's golden syrup I prefer and that's what I gave for Russians hmm you I think I need to be alone with my score it's breakfast time when you find me buy my drinks cabinet and there I'm not starting le but I need something from here for spot of cooking only it were this that I needed my dagger Oh rum longing to use this but as it is I want ROM of a different hue white and flavored with coconut when I say cooking but actually I've plan on doing no more than a little light stirring I'm making my nature and pina colada ice cream without embarrassment has such a weakness for a kitchen at all and it makes a fantastic ice cream and eccentric they may seem to be making at breakfast or perhaps at any time so quick I can get this done before I get on with my day right I wonder hundred 25 milliliters of pineapple juice as you can see out of a carton not proud and talking if not proud 80 mils of coconut wrong mmm Sun Lodge is out I'm at the beach now hundred grams of icing sugar few drops of coconut flavoring this makes the morning while the bright actually and now just couple of teaspoons of lime so all right I'm gonna mix this slightly for said Queen goes in now slowly and now as I say is a no Chan ice-cream idubbbz sickness in the deep freeze mmm oh my god it's like a bliss with snow this is a very heady start today the the coconut is just wafting up as it thickens it also aerate and that's what makes it melts so smoothly on the time when you eat mmm look at that so gleaming beautiful when I serve this I'm going to strew it with strands of sweetened shredded coconut actually and what I do is I toss it in a very warm but dry frying pan and just toast all these pieces until they're wonderfully golden now I'll be honest with you I think people will be happy if I just give them this but and planning ate dinner with a slight Latin theme so I'll stick this in the deep freeze it'll be ready tonight and now I must get a move on but I will be able to buy all the ingredients for the main course while I'm out and I'm done I love having a table full of people to feed and in order to make supper entirely stress-free and very sociable I know I have to cook food that is straightforward but still it has to be secured with a bit of gutsy glamour what this means is a little kitchen trip than make it go away I mean I always know I'm on safe and sunny ground when I've got a shopping list that starts off with an avocado a pepper some chillies and coriander I need some jalapenos sure and I want sweet corn black beans and tomatoes you can see why I've got the trolley now and now I've got the shredded coconut to get on top of the ice cream I think a bit of grated or chopped that's not a bad idea as well I'm a complete dolt penny nearly forgot my key ingredient led astray by chocolate what my Mexican lasagna is ludicrously simple it's really a case of doing a few stages stage 1 I've got some garlic oil in a pan in goes an onion chopped next the gorgeous gleaming red like a looking pepper heat comes from two red chilies a bit of a stir I don't want any of these to brown I just want the flavors to come out and have them to soften a little finally scrunch in some salt and this needs to cook for about 15 minutes the salt will really help prevent the onions from catching and I can get on with stage two I call this my Mexican lasagna but actually it's really just a question of having the piling up thing going on I've got those rather fantastically moody black beans and the sunny sweet corn lover niblet and now some cheese I'm using goat's cheddar because I love the tan so good against the sweetness of the legumes but in fact regular cheddar is just fine now this is the way I prefer to grate cheese when it's in any quantity and I've got 250 grams here or there abouts I know a rotary grater which this is looks very old-fashioned but it's quite easy to use only thing I must do is remember to leave some for the topping at the end I'll mix these together in a minute first I want some coriander not however the leaves nusers later just the stalks are so often thrown away in coriander and yet actually there's so much flavor in them most flavor I'd say in the stores go look at that on top of the red and now some canned tomatoes I'm gonna swill out the can with some water I want the sauce to be runny enough to help meld all the layers together taste wise they'll often use this in cooking but it works here a tablespoon or there abouts of ketchup Buster here and this needs to bubble away for about 10 minutes so while it cooks walk this way these chilly lights are a testament to my passion for the piccante and I must say it's my love of that sort of fire and flavor that draws me to Mexican cooking and Latin American cooking now I haven't actually been anywhere in South America or Mexico but until I go there by plane I go there via the pantry this is my Mexican hot sauce great for when you need a bit of instant heat aha this is lime corner when I haven't got fresh limes I am really embarrassed about using this plastic squirty line this although not actually edible is really part of my line paraphernalia it's a bottle opener I'll need my lime press for later but for now I need this for my Mexican lasagna right my tomato sauce is ready and I'm ready so I can get on with the grand assembly I put a third of the sauce or thereabout on the bottom of the dish see bit more and then on top of that a couple of tortillas now the dish is a bit bigger than each tortilla so I put them in like this in an approximation or what I seem to remember is a Venn diagram and then as I pile up I will start swapping over so they'll be on this side instead before I add the beans I just want to mix them together so the cheese the corn and the black beans combined so there's been some tomato sauce in tortillas in and now this layer I need a third of the bean and cheese mixture and then it's just a case of continuing until it's full I should say that this Mexican lasagna though could also call it a tortilla pie is in fact sliced like a pizza confusing isn't it everything is in a dish now nothing actually needs cooking it just needs to be made piping hot so 30 minutes at 200 degrees should do it so to the oven Oh no I know I promised you at Mexican lasagna but I have to say I think an Italian and a Mexican would be rather startled but I'm so happy to leave them to you know slice up I am after a bit of a light last minute tweak I'm making my avocado salsa I mean obviously makes sense to do this the last minute because avocados just go Brown so last call smooth Jade cube goes in couple of spring onions and now a bit more flavor from Mexico in slice Queen Philippine years good lime squeezer oh my goodness me is just pure joy but you only want one line and ready to serve coriander that's it vamos now just a minute be served I'm gonna grab a little sweets at this stage in the evening that I'm very glad I'm wearing something as forgiving as stretch Jersey I'm afraid my attire has to pitch my appetite in lieu of maracas I am ready to scoop the sweet and now my Gordy garnish this is a sweetened shredded coconut I just toasted it you could use some fresh coconut because supermarkets now tend to sell it out of it's sort of hairy case I've got some chocolate I've embarrassingly small amount of chocolate hi spoons and now that song if you like pina coladas and getting caught in the rain got my umbrellas for that a cocktail in ice cream incarnation DUI understated something now I think there's some more crunchy coconut just for strictly I think I need to shave long to lie down you

Channel: William Baker

Views: 340,091

Keywords: nigella express episodes, Nigella Express, nigella express full episodes

Id: y52n-OHD4G4

Length: 28min 57sec (1737 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 16 2015