Review: Nigella Feasts

Feast - Food to Celebrate Life
   Nigella Lawson
   Hardback 2004 ISBN 1-4013-0136-3 1st Edition
   Publisher Hyperion NY, NY
   photographs Yes wonderful color ones

   I'm sure I won't do this book justice in this attempt at a review, but here
goes. It is a great book to have in anyone's collection who enjoys cooking for
celebrations and likes trying new recipes.

   Sarita and I both love Nigella's books and between us we have them all except
her first - How to Be a Domestic Goddess. I know we'll remedy that oversight one
of these days. Actually they all belong to Sarita except one. Harold bought me
an autographed copy of Forever Summer at Sur La Table either at the Farmers
Market or the one in Santa Monica for our 24th anniversary.

   We first discovered Nigella on her cooking show on either Style or E. It used
to come on both channels but later only came on the Style Channel, which we no
longer get in our basic dish package. I was thrilled to learn she was getting a Food Network show called Feast baised on this book.  It didn't seem to produce many episodes before it starting showing repeats of her Nigella Bites shows. That sure was a disapointment. I do hope they will do more shows. 

   Back to Feast, the book -- This is a huge book, 462 pages not including the index and
with over 300 recipes for all kinds of celebrations and any time you want to get
together with friends and family and celebrate with good food.

   I love the way she writes something to go along with each recipe. The photos
are great too.  Nigella says in one chapter when she plans a trip she never
reads travel books but instead looks to cookbooks from where she is planning a
trip. Nigella collects cookbooks. She also collects cookie cutters and lists the ones she has in the chapter on Cut out cookies in this book.

   If you've ever watched one of her shows you can tell Nigella loves to cook and
she loves to eat. She has a wonderful sense of humor and it often comes through
as she talks about her recipes. She includes a few meatless feasts in this book
but makes it plainly clear she is in no way a vegetarian, although she loves
vegetables. Be warned though some people may be offended by the names of a
couple of recipes included in this book. For instance Rudolph Pie - her version
of a seasonal shepherd's pie, and Hot Cross Bunny - which is a rabbit curry she
invented especially for the Easter Chapter so she could include it in the book.

   We were thinking about making her Hot Cross Buns for Good Friday and maybe her
Ham in Cherry Coke for Easter but didn't do it last year so maybe next. I did made her Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake since I was craving something chocolate and had been reading this book. I didn't have quiet enough sour cream on hand so used buttermilk in the cake batter as suggested in How to Cook Everything by Mark Bitman. I did use the sour cream in the icing though.

   This was an interesting recipe  in that everything for the cake itself was
dumped into the food processor and whizzed around, then put into the prepared
cake pans. She said you could go the long route and add things in stages in the
big mixer and she proceeds to tell you how to go that way but also asks why you
would want to when her preferred way works just as well and is much easier.

   Harold fell in love with this cake and said it was the best one I had ever
made. He liked the icing even better than the Chocolate Butter cream I usually
make which he has always loved. Sarita and I liked the cake too but liked the
frosting better and think it would be wonderful on Robin Miller's Chocolate Cake
which Sarita has made a couple times since we saw it on her Quick Fix With Robin
Miller Show.

   You could spend many wonderful hours just reading this book even if you never
actually try a recipe from it. I think it would be a worth while addition to the
shelves of those who say they read a cookbook like a novel, in which case I do.
I also think anyone who enjoys cooking and trying new recipes will enjoy this
one and I fall into that category as well.

   To get a feel for the types of celebration she includes recipes for I am
including her contents list.

   Contents:
   Introduction
   Thanksgiving and Christmas
   New Year
   Meatless Feasts
   Valentine's Day
   Easter
   Passover
   Breakfast
   Kitchen Feasts
   Cut-Out Cookies
   Chocolate Cake Hall of Fame
   A Georgian Feast
   Eid *
   Ultimate Feasts
   Hallowe'en **
   Rosh Hashanah
   A Venetian Feast
   Festival of Lights
   Partytime
   Midnight Feast
   Wedding Feast
   Funeral Feast
   Bibliography
   Stocklists
   Acknowledgments
   Index

   *Eid- I wasn't familiar with this celebration but found upon reading what
Nigella had to say about it that it is a Muslim feast for Ramadan and a very
interesting chapter.

   ** Hallowe'en - In this chapter there are many recipes that children will love
to use to gross out everyone. Recipes like Slime Soup, Blood & Guts Potatoes,
Blood Clots and Pus.

   I really enjoyed this book and reading about some of the celebrations I wasn't
familiar with and hearing about others traditions and how they celebrate with
food. I'm looking forward to cooking many recipes from this book.