THE SIMPLE THINGS
Nigella Lawson visits the Star’s test kitchen and whips up an easy-to-make feta and avocado salad,
“Cooking,” declares Nigella Lawson, “is about ideas and enthusiasms.”
Simply Nigella, her 10th cookbook, is about life as a 55-year-old divorcee and mother of two who has set up a new house and turned it into a home.
It’s about the Chicken Traybake with Bitter Orange and Fennel that christened her new kitchen, and the Chicken Cosima she cooked vats of to celebrate her daughter’s 21st birthday.
It’s about the feta and avocado salad, studded with pomegranate seeds and vinegared red onions, that is inspired by her sister Horatia and sprinkled with nigella seeds.
This quick dish becomes dinner with warm Turkish flatbread.
“Food is actually how you furnish a life,” says Lawson.
She has come to the Star test kitchen on her book tour. Uncomplicated. Relaxed. Pleasurable. Satisfying. That’s the kind of food Simply Nigella promises.
Uncomplicated and relaxed is how Nigella now dresses. On the book cover, she wears a demure white collared shirt with three-quarter sleeves. At the Star, she wears elegant black wedge boots, skinny black jeans and a drapey longsleeve black shirt.
From a short list of recipes Nigella is willing to demo, I’ve picked the quickest, easiest dish. It’s a salad that seems to exemplify her call for simplicity, and for “mindful cooking” alongside mindful eating.
“When I cook, I am absorbed in the simple rituals of chopping, stirring, tasting, losing myself in the world of flavour, sensation, and straightforward practicalities,” Nigella writes.
Nigella, you might remember, is not a chef, “not even a cook,” but a journalist turned food writer, cookbook author and TV personality. She credits her first husband and father of her two children, the late journalist John Diamond, with convincing her to pursue a cooking career.
Her second marriage, to art collector Charles Saatchi ended in divorce after a British newspaper published photos of him grabbing her by the neck in public during a 2013 argument.
We don’t discuss these distant unpleasantries. Simply Nigella, after all, is about “food without stress.”
Nigella is quick to point out that this avocado-feta salad “is not a cooking type recipe” and that “there’s so little cooking, it’s almost embarrassing.” Almost, but not really.
The sensational salad is about simple, balanced flavours — creamy avocado, sharp and salty feta, red onions “steeped” in red wine vinegar to mellow their bite. The “sour fragrance and crunch” of pomegranate seeds adds excitement.
Nigella drizzles olive oil over the whole dish, saying it’s “really one of the two essentials of life” along with good bread.
She sprinkles the salad with nigella seeds, acknowledging they’re “in a way a form of culinary egomania.” The seeds — used mainly in Indian cooking, where they’re called kalonji — are a mainstay in her pantry.
Nigella was named after the Nigel- la damascena (love-in-a-mist) flower. “My grandmother was a bit of a gardener,” she reveals. Her father was named Nigel.
She is often given nigella seeds (the flower) to plant and nigella seeds (the slightly peppery edible ones from the nigella sativa flowering plant) to cook with.
“Nothing goes too wrong if you use a different seed,” she is quick to add. Toasted sesame seeds, za’atar and even black mustard seeds are all fine substitutes.
“Yes, I write recipes, but every time I cook I might change something depending on what’s in my fridge.”
The salad is ready. Nigella is pleased with how it looks. “I love making this and seeing something beautiful emerge in front of me.”
She’s also pleased with how it tastes, taking not just one obligatory bite for the camera, but several.
“It’s a jumble of ingredients that I like to put together in a way that makes you taste each one slightly afresh.”
Nigella’s Feta + Avocado Salad With Crimson Onions
Star Tested Use the best chunky, Greek feta (made from sheep or goat’s milk) you can find and a fragrant olive oil. Nigella Lawson eats this simple supper with warm Turkish flatbread. Nigella seeds ( kalonji) are popular in Indian cooking. If you can’t find them, Lawson offers three substitutes. Adapted from Simply Nigella. 1/2 medium red onion, peeled About 1/2 cup (125 mL) red wine
vinegar 8 oz (225 g) feta cheese About 1/2 tsp (2 mL) nigella seeds (kalonji) or black mustard seeds, toasted sesame seeds or za’atar (spice blend) 1 ripe avocado, halved, pitted, cut into long, thin slices About 2 tbsp (30 mL) pomegranate seeds Extra-virgin olive oil Slice onion as thinly as possible in fine half moons. Put in small, nonmetallic bowl. Cover with vinegar. Let stand, covered, at least 2 hours or up to 1 week in fridge until onions are a vibrant crimson.
Set out 2 large plates. Divide feta between them, breaking into uneven chunks. Sprinkle with nigella seeds or substitute. Arrange avocado around feta. Scatter everything with pomegranate seeds. Drizzle with oil to taste. Lift onions from vinegar and drape over salad.
Makes 2 main servings. jbain@thestar.ca