Notes about Recipes in this book

• Steamed bacon and sausage pudding

  • joneshayley on February 07, 2018

    A delight. Lovely to have a meaty, rich gravy filled pudding on a cold winters day. This is proper rib sticking traditional British food.

• Slow-roast ribs with honey, anise and creamed cauliflower

  • joneshayley on April 08, 2019

    The ribs and sauce are divine- meat falling off the bone, completely infused with flavour and a thick flavourful unctuous sauce. The cauliflower purée beautifully smooth and bland- perfectly balanced against the strong flavours of the rib and sauce. I used wild garlic to make the oil as it’s fresh and in season- delicious

  • FJT on January 01, 2016

    The ribs and sauce were absolutely delicious. Whilst the meat was falling off the bones after 2.5 hours, I wish I had left them in for another hour or two as not all of the fat had melted out of them. I made the recipe a day in advance, then roasted the ribs again on day two and reduced the sauce (having skimmed off huge quantities of fat!!). The flavours were really good. No-one was particularly taken with the creamed cauliflower although once it was doused in the sauce from the ribs it was okay!!

  • ncollyer on February 15, 2016

    I agree with FJT about how good these ribs were. However, in my house the cauliflower also went over very well. Perhaps it was the butter...and it did take a while to get it well pureed. Great recipe for a mid-winter weekend.

• Pasta with dill and bacon

  • eatdrinkstagger on June 19, 2017

    If you use amazing quality cream, you won't even need to melt Parmesan cheese for this to taste delish; maybe use more bacon.

  • joneshayley on March 15, 2019

    Very nice pasta dish - the bacon and cream are reminiscent of an (inauthentic) carbonara but the dill adds a new twist. I’ll make this again.

• Mograbia with chorizo and tomato

  • eatdrinkstagger on March 30, 2020

    If you don’t have good supermarket tomatoes, one jar of semi-sun dried & one can of tinned, and perhaps a punnet of cherry tomatoes instead. I usually serve on top of mixed salad greens regardless of season.

  • SACarlson on June 02, 2016

    Super-simple weeknight dish. Very tasty, though I would add a handful of chopped parsley to serve.

• Hemp seed pizzas with egg and rocket

  • joneshayley on May 03, 2018

    Very nice- great lunch. Needs plenty of seasoning

• Green olives and thyme focaccia

  • joneshayley on May 07, 2018

    This is perfect. Salty and savoury and absolutely delicious. The dough is very wet- but it works very very well.

• Salmon with macaroni

  • lilham on March 16, 2016

    The recipe asked for 400g of salmon and 150g of macaroni for 3-4 serving. That seems a lot of salmon for not a lot of pasta. Also 600ml seems a lot of cream too. I adjusted to the proportions to my taste - 200g of salmon, 200g of macaroni, and just enough cream to cover the pasta in the baking dish (about 300ml). I also added grated cheddar on the breadcrumb topping. The result is a creamy pasta bake with a hint of mustard. If you like a bland creamy pasta bake, you will like this one. Myself, I'm not a fan, but the children likes it.

• A salad of spiced chickpeas and puffed rice

  • e_ballad on April 21, 2018

    This simplified bhel puri is ok, but we prefer other recipes.

• Asparagus and Roquefort tart

  • KateW on May 24, 2016

    This is so delicious! I did not use this pastry recipe as I used up some Leith's shortcrust (very good,online) but the tart was fantastic. I love both asparagus and rocquefort but had never combined the two, it worked spectacularly well!

• Sirloin steak with aubergines

  • joneshayley on March 25, 2020

    Brilliant recipe - quick and surprisingly delicious.

• Roast courgettes

  • lilham on November 02, 2015

    The original recipe used halved courgettes with a baking time of 45min to an hour. I made this for a weeknight meal. So instead I diced my courgettes, sprinkled the breadcrumb mix on top, and baked for 20min. We loved the olive breadcrumbs. But I thought the courgettes a bit watery and bland. However this could be due to bad courgettes, or too short cooking time.

  • eatdrinkstagger on August 01, 2020

    Used the topping on aubergines and tomatoes when trying to use up extra garden produce. Especially delicious on aubergines - be sure to score deeper than you would courgettes. The topping can also be made in advance to use on any similar vegetables big enough to be scored and roasted though best if the veg can be halved and is naturally watery.

• Fig and Gorgonzola flatbreads

  • Glinys on August 13, 2020

    the flat bread section says divide the dough into 12 balls but then the filling states six- I think the latter is correct Fig and Gorgonzola amazing.

  • Glinys on August 17, 2020

    Just looked at this recipe more carefully - it calls for half the dough when filling- hence six balls for each of the two suggested fillings- both divine

• Aubergine and thyme flatbreads

  • joneshayley on March 25, 2020

    Lovely buttery bread and delicious herby filling. I’ll make these again

• Carrot, tomato and feta soup

  • FJT on August 26, 2019

    Very tasty, easy summer soup.

• Stir-fried marinated tofu

  • Astrid5555 on January 05, 2016

    This is a delicious and quick stir-fry that ticks all the boxes. Substituted the vegetables from the recipe with what I had on hand and added the optional fish sauce at the end, topped it with cilantro and served over steamed jasmine rice. Yum!

• Lamb steaks, creamed cannellini

  • joneshayley on May 25, 2018

    The bean purée is delicious and compliments the lamb perfectly. Don’t miss the stage of warming the purée in the lamb pan- the added flavour of the lamb cooking juices and garlic butter is what melds the dish together

• Pappardelle with leeks

  • Astrid5555 on October 02, 2016

    Nice quick and easy weeknight dinner. Halved the butter, still enough butter flavor and sauce.Will go into regular rotation!

  • FJT on October 27, 2016

    Even though I reduced the butter as per Astrid5555's note, this was still too greasy for me. Some lemon might have helped (one of Nigel's suggestions), but I didn't have any on hand.

• Chickpea, courgette and pepper stew

  • PennyB2309 on November 20, 2017

    Quick and tasty. Definitely a repeater.

• Lamb kofta

  • Melanie on July 27, 2016

    Good but not great. Would skip the anchovies next time.

• Beef, chilli and sun-dried tomato burger

  • FJT on November 28, 2017

    Tasty burger recipe; it came together really easily and, after a few hours chilling in the fridge, didn’t fall apart during cooking. Will make again.

• Butternut and red onion gratin

  • e_ballad on October 20, 2019

    Tasty, though it was very liquidy despite allowing 20 mins standing & only 200mL each of the creme fraiche & double cream.

• Thai fried chicken wings

  • joneshayley on February 06, 2018

    Crisp, fragrant and delicious. The marinade really comes through, and eating crisp coated flavourful wings is a real treat. A minced chilli in the marinade might be a nice alternative

• Warm marzipan buns

  • danibattle on November 22, 2020

    The dough was quite hard to work with after the rise, very sticky, and the filing was a massive amount. A bit disappointed with this one really, but I might try again with different marzipan (not oozy), an enriched dough, and a bit less filling.

• Feta with blood oranges and sesame

  • joneshayley on January 27, 2019

    This is a lovely salad- the salty feta contrasting beautifully against the sweet dressing and salad. Sadly I didn’t have spinach, so used a rocket salad instead.

• Gnocchi Dolcelatte

  • lilham on January 23, 2016

    I agree with FJT that this is winter comfort food at its best. A very good creamy pasta bake indeed. I made it with dolcelatte, frozen spinach and fresh gnocchi. Mr lilham thinks it's a bit salty (no salt was added so it's the cheese) but I disagree. I'm not sure who Slater serves this to. But with 2 adults and a 4 and a 1 year old, we have just enough to left over for a small lunch. There is no way this serves 4.

  • FJT on December 30, 2015

    Winter comfort food at its very best - this was absolutely delicious and required very little effort to make. I made it with gorgonzola as I couldn't get dolcelatte - the gorgonzola and cream made a great sauce for the spinach and gnocchi. A note about portion size (and I realise that this is subjective) - Nigel Slater says this will feed 4 people but I think 4 adults would be very unhappy with that. My 500g packet of gnocchi (exactly the amount stated in the recipe) said it was for 2-3 servings and I would agree with that - it made 2 very hearty portions or 3 standard size portions. This will definitely be made again in this household ... but not too often as it's wickedly rich. Now I probably should go for a long walk ....!

• Minced turkey chilli

  • sharifah on February 19, 2016

    First recipe to be tried from Nigel's new book - and I'm seriously disappointed. I followed the instructions, and my turkey chilli does not look anything like the picture and was dry as a bone! So I added a can of chopped tomatoes, and hey presto, it looked exactly like the picture and tasted a lot more like a 'chilli'! So, 4.5 stars, but only after my modification (otherwise I would've scored it a 2!). He also does not tell you when to add the sauteed onions back to the pan - so I added it back with the haricot beans. And because I added the chopped tomatoes, I had to let it cook for a bit longer than the stated 5-7 minutes. Hmmmm.....I'm a little disappointed, Nigel.

• Lentils with sausage and pecorino

  • sharifah on February 19, 2016

    So....as I read the ingredients first prior to cooking....I thought...this serves 2 and lists 400g of Puy lentils. I checked the box of Puy lentils for serving amounts and on the box it states 500g is for 8 people! So I ended up using only 125g of Puy lentils and 450ml of stock instead of 1 litre. I followed the instructions for rocket and pecorino topping, which again was way too much. In the picture it shows just a scattering of the topping, if you follow his amount of 50g rocket and 75g pecorino (which I did), the sausages become absolutely covered in it! Half should suffice! The measurements in this recipe is seriously off! But after all that, once the adjustments have been made, it's quite a nice, easy comforting dish!

  • dichohecho on November 04, 2018

    As noted by Sharifah below, the quantity of lentils in this recipe is mad. I halve the lentils and stock for two people and we're usually stuffed.