Top Chef Las Vegas Drags On; Thank Goodness Nigella Spices Things Up...A Bit

Plus Toby Says Some Odd Things About Michael

Bryan is talking to his young son on the phone. Yawn. That’s not nice, but I still kinda mean it.

Jen is being subjected to more chatter from Robin. Jennifer needs to get an energy infusion and step up her game. What IS the deal? Her out of control hair mirrors what her cooking has been like lately. Messy and needs shine.

They arrive at the kitchen of The Venetian. That place looks like fun. They get a call from Padma, saying they’ll be preparing breakfast in bed for her and Nigella Lawson. They’re both lounging in thick bathrobes under the covers, waiting for their food.

Some of the chefs are concerned. Jennifer says she does room service all the time, so it’s not a big deal. Then WHY did she choose such an unappetizing dish – Creamed Chipped Beef? Maybe she thought because Nigella was English she would appreciate something nasty like that.

I don’t know how they do their dishes in 30 minutes. Michael has to work in Robin’s station and she rushed out of there, so he spends 5 of his 30 minutes cleaning up after her.

Robin goes first.

Robin

Blintz With Goat Cheese, Caramelized Pineapple & Blueberries

She goes on for way too long. We hear no comments.

Eli comes in next. This is kind of weird. Nigella looks glorious in bed being served breakfast, but Padma looks kind of like an invalid. The whole scenario is a little strange. If Mike I. were still there, he probably would have jumped them.

Eli

Fried Egg Reuben Benedict With Thousand Island Hollandaise Sauce

He had me at fried egg.

This would be “a really great…hangover breakfast” comments Nigella.

Michael is finishing up and Robin gets in his way. He’s kind of brutal when he tells her to get out. She is clueless about stuff, though, and I could see how she would be underfoot without realizing it.

Michael

Huevos Cubana With Banana Purée, Rice, Bacon & Arugula Salad

What is it with him and bananas? Remember when Michael added bananas to polenta and Natalie Portman called him Picasso?

Nigella remarks that you can eat breakfast at any of time of the day. Michael’s not one for small talk and looks like he just wants to get out of there.

Kevin

Steak & Eggs With Crème Fraiche, Aged Cheddar & Green Onion

Padma: “Everything is nice and warm.” She seems slightly unwell. Isn’t she past 3 months in this episode?

Jennifer thinks Nigella looked at her plate with distain, as she put it down in front of her. It's probably Jen's non-lustrous hair that Nigella is thinking about.

Jennifer

“S.O.S” Cream Chipped Beef With Toast, Potatoes & Tomatoes

Bryan actually giggles as he enters the room and sees the two ladies in bed.

Bryan

4 Minute Egg With Vanilla Beurre Fondue, Crab, Asparagus Spears & Corn Polenta

Nigella instantly smells the vanilla. The minutes he leaves, she tells Padma, “The vanilla has thrown me off slightly.” She would have adored the dish without the vanilla.

I wonder if their legs have gone numb after lying there all that time being served 6 different dishes. Do you think they were allowed out-of-bed breaks?

They all meet up back in the suite. Padma and Nigella are actually up and dressed, although their hair looks like they just got up. (What is it with hair this week? Maybe their hair dresser was busy playing craps.)

The first loser is Bryan (because of the vanilla). Nigella didn’t like breathing in vanilla and eating crab at the same time. Robin is the other loser. N says there was not enough contrast in her dish.

Robin says she wasn’t proud of what she did…as usual. WHEN IS SHE EVER? Okay, this is it. I don’t care what happens the rest of the episode. Robin HAS GOT to go this week. I mean it!

Her favorites – Kevin demonstrated an understanding of the challenge. And “Eli’s take on the Rueben had wit. I felt the tang of the sauerkraut slapped the jet lag out of me.” Eli wins. His Quickfire recipe will be the only one in the Quickfire Challenge cookbook from a chef this season.

The Elimination Challenge is to create a dish inspired by a casino. They each get to visit a different casino (alone, kind of weird) and use their impressions to create the dish. They’ll be catering for 175 people of “Las Vegas’ elite”. Is that an oxymoron?

Are you getting a bit weary of this season? It HAS been the best one so far...of the regular Top Chefs, but it doesn’t come close to my Mikie on Top Chef Masters. (Great video of him on the Today Show.)

I am so sorry they wasted a week on that dumb dinner party. We’re more than 2½ months in and we still have a month to go until the finale, which I believe is on December 9^th.

They each visit their respective casinos. Michael visits New York, New York and thinks of fire fighters.

Jen visits Excalibur and sees a show, where you’re fed a meal from the Middle Ages and have to eat with your hands. She’s sitting in a huge long row of seats at a table and she’s the only one in her row. Really strange. And she leaves with absolutely no idea what to make.

Bryan goes to Mandalay Bay. He checks out the shark aquarium and reads about sustainable fishing. That’s kind of a no brainer. He tells us he misses his son in the same tone as someone would say I have to cut my toenails.

Robin goes to The Bellagio, which I think she said she had never heard of. She loves the Dale Chihuly glass sculpture in the ceiling (who wouldn’t?) and she says she considers herself mostly an artist. I hope her fine arts are better than her culinary ones.

Kevin arrives at The Mirage and notes the waterfalls and tropical setting. He says he’s not just a redneck, but that he supports slow foods, organics and less is more in cooking. He says he doesn’t believe in flashy food, just as we see him walking in front of a rock face shooting steam and fire shooting out at the edge of the water. I truly hope that’s supposed to be ironic.

Eli gets to Circus Circus and thinks he should be seeing circus stuff. He sees a lot of junk food, but that’s it. I’m getting tired. I wish we were we further along.

They have 3½ hours to cook. They’re rushing around. Robin chatters. Bryan bores, Jen is not confident…the usual.

Eli agrees with me that Robin really has to go.

They get to the World Market Center, where they will be catering on the rooftop overlooking the strip. They have one hour to set up.

The judges arrive and go to Jennifer first. A producer probably told them she was completely not ready. She puts their plates together really quickly.

Jennifer – Excalibur

NY Strip With Red Wine Reduction, Beets, Truffles & Herbs

Uh-oh, Nigella says she needs Excalibur to CUT the steak. That can’t be good. She picks it up, saying she has to be very unladylike and takes a bite. “This is the stone.” Arrrrgghh. Jen has managed to NOT do it again.

Kevin – The Mirage

Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon With Napa Cabbage & Cucumber

He wants them to eat the dish and then slurp up the tomato water at the end. They love it. Tom says the tomato water is stunning.

When was the last time you heard that said about tomato water? When was the last time you heard OF tomato water?

Michael – New York, New York

Boneless Chicken Wing Confit With Curry & Blue Cheese Disc

Michael says he confited the wings (of course, he did) and then pulled the bones out. I actually was wondering how he boned 200 chicken wings. Nigella and Padma love it. Toby doesn’t love the flavor of the blue cheese. Maybe he doesn’t get the whole chicken wing and blue cheese combo thing.

Robin – The Bellagio

Panna Cotta

She goes on way too long and actually shows them the failed sugar garnish which was her homage to Dale Chihuly. Robin is a nut. I’M voting her off right now. Even if she comes back next week, I’m boycotting writing about her.

Predictably, her dish is a failure. There’s way too much gelatin. It’s too solid, Toby says, and the syrup tastes like the kind in a slushy.

Bryan – Mandalay Bay

Escabeche Of Halibut With Bouillabaisse Consommé, Parsley Coulis & Garlic Chips

Do you think that name is long enough?

They all like it. Nigella says it has fantastic balance. Tom says the sauce is really nice. Toby says it tastes like a professional dish.

Eli makes the huge mistake of saying he went a little risky.

Eli – Circus Circus

Caramel Apple Peanut Soup With Popcorn & Raspberry Froth

They get TINY tastes. Nigella is “more frightened than (she) can say” and she refuses to be the first one to “go in”.

Padma looks ill and says she doesn’t like it at all, but she’s looked pale the entire episode. Tom says he could have used some of Robin’s gelatin.

Toby “admires Eli’s willingness to go all in…Death or glory… Like most people who have to Vegas, he gambled and lost.” I’m liking Toby so much more these days.

Back at Judges’ Table, they call in Kevin, Michael and Bryan. They love the texture of Kevin’s. Toby loves the broth. Nigella says Bryan’s dish was quiet and elegant. Interesting. The quiet part, at least, describes him to a T.

Tom is impressed by Michael’s ”reworking” of chicken wings and coming up with something much better than the original.

THIS is weird. Toby tells Michael he loves his dish, because it really showed who he is and that it was really delicate and somewhat effeminate. DID HE REALLY SAY THAT?...not that there should be anything wrong with that.

Wait, let’s hear that again. Yup, Toby DID just call Michael’s food (or him, maybe?) effeminate, not that there’s anything wrong with that.

And then Michael says, “I’m a strong believer that your personality is definitely on the plate.” Did he not just hear what Toby said? I’m confused. I don’t think of Michael as being delicate or effeminate. Bryan is biting his cheek as he hears all this.

And the winner is… Michael. I guess cooking like a girl is a good thing. He wins a bottle of Terlato wine and a two day trip to their vineyard. They call the others in.

Okay, make this snappy and just send Robin home.

Jennifer says she didn’t have a clear vision of what she wanted to do. Tom says she should have used tons of spices to season her meat. Toby says there wasn’t enough sauce.

Robin talks. Mistake. She says she screwed up with the sugar. Nigella says it was too stiff. She says a proper panna cotta should have the quiver of a courtesan’s thigh. Nigella could say, “Soup’s on,” and it would sound learned and lush with her accent.

They hated everything that was going on in Eli’s dish. Padma says of Eli’s dish, “I personally would never want to eat that again.” Okay, okay, just deep-six Robin.

The judges agree they were all bad. Nigella says Jennifer’s dish was almost hostile, it was so bad. They say Robin’s was such an elementary dish that she should have been able to make it. Nigella says she had to bring every bit of her upbringing to bear NOT to spit out Eli’s.

Nigella has been fabulous. Every word she says is worth listening to…even with the sound off, you can still look.

Robin is talking in the stew room and no one is listening.

And the loser is…Robin. Finally. Amazingly, the guys are gracious enough to give her a hug as she leaves. She’s proud she made it through 11 elimination challenges. SEE? This really has been going on for way too long. I liked it when 2 people got eliminated one week.

We have Thomas Keller to look forward to next week. I love Michael’s quote next week, “The food that Kevin cooks is the food I cook on my day off.“ At least, we can’t accuse him of being boring and at this point in the season, I'm grateful for that.

Top Chef Las Vegas News

The two part Top Chef finale has been filmed at the Rutherford Hill and Chimney Rock wineries in Napa Valley. We get to see it starting on Wednesday December 2^nd. In Part One, we follow the final four to Napa and learn who the 3 finalists are. Then we see the final challenge and the naming of the Top Chef on December 9th in Part Two.

* * * * *

I’m so conflicted about who I want to win. I am pretty clear, though, on who I DON’T want to win. Robin and Eli better have high-tailed it out by then. Jennifer was my early favorite. Sadly, I just don’t think she can pull it off.

Even though I’ve been talking trash about him all season, (I can’t believe I’m saying this) I think Michael will win and I kind of want him to. Why? Last season, particularly, the winner was sooooooooo not the Top Chef of the group and he was so mediocre (Eww) that I guess I’m leaning in the opposite direction of milquetoasty and wishy washy.

* * * * *

I’m dipping my toes into Twitter. Please say hi, if you tweet. Toby, not always a favorite of mine, is actually quite amusing in 140 character bites. He tweets under the name of Toadmeister, which IS what he looks like, so I guess it’s appropriate. I’m not being mean, that's the name HE picked. Anyway, he tweeted a pretty gorgeous picture of Padma getting ready for the finale. Here it is.

* * * * *

Other news:

This Wednesday is an “All-Star” reunion of some popular past Top Chef folks. It will be hosted by former foul-mouthed contestant Fabio. That should be fun, especially since there’s no mention of my unfav being there.We’ll see the lovable Carla and, apparently, she meets up with Casey for the first time since Casey stabbed her in the back. But not my Dale, L just this one.

* * * * *

Nigella makes an appearance on Wednesday, November 11 as a guest judge. The chefs are asked to make breakfast in bed. Ooh! Do they get to serve it to Nigella in her boudoir?

Jamie Gives Away All His Money And Nigella Angers Angie Plus An Addendum

Wait, sorry, it's the other way around...You see how rumors start. And really who sits around reading this drivel about celebrity chefs?!! Oops, I do.

This first story is so dumb, it must be true. Jamie was having a bit of a chat with the Angelina Jolie and he referred to their child as Piloh Sh__, screwing up her Shiloh Pitt name. Wait, I only just got it this second. HE CALLED THAT BEAUTIFUL BLONDE LITTLE GIRL A PILE OF SH__??? THAT is funny.

Listen, if you're going to name your kid a weird name, then you can't get mad when people get it wrong.

The truth is Jamie is hardly one to talk about weird names with his little Poppy Honey and Daisy Boo. Actually, except for Boo, those ARE completely adorable names. I know the English have a thing about fruits and flowers, but naming your kid after a seed IS kind of different.

Nigella's story is rather interesting. She's decided not to leave any of her growing fortune to her children and she doesn’t think that multi-millionaire second husband Charles Saatchi should either. She thinks it will impede their desire to work for a living.

Warren Buffett certainly agrees with her, although not to such an extent. He says, "I want to give my kids just enough so that they would feel that they could do anything, but not so much that they would feel like doing nothing".

What do I think? I think I WISH I had that problem.

It’s fine that Nigella feels that way, but she had money as she grew up and worked ANYWAY, so why does she think her kids won’t? Remind me not get adopted by Nigella.

Hey, I wonder what the Jolie-Pitt's philosophy is on inherited wealth. Maybe Jamie could ask the next time he phones.

ADDENDUM:
Here's Nigella's response to all those nasty comments:
You might have noticed in the press that I have (apparently) cut my children out of my will, cruel mother that I am. Of course I have no intention of leaving my children destitute and starving - rather, this is a story that came from a comment I made about my belief that you have to work in order to learn the value of money.

I think next time I'LL refrain from commenting.

Nigella Tells Regis To Fork It!

Using his best Cary Grant accent, Regis tried to make a Caramel Croissant Pudding with Nigella this morning. Nigella, looking prosperously zoftig and always captivating, deals with Regis's inability to even crack an egg with aplomb and good humor. The recipe is gorgeous and definitely worth trying.

I Don't Think Nigella Has Anything To Worry About

The (London) Times Online website is reporting that the raven-haired British cooking beauty feels that Martha Stewart has been spending too much time admiring HER - Nigella's - husband, Charles Saatchi.

In an interview with Britain's Radio Times magazine, Nigella says she has suffered a diss or two from Martha. Nigella feels it has to do with Martha having "a soft spot" for her husband. Well, who wouldn't want a fabulously wealthy man, who appreciates art and, perhaps, good food, as well. But Martha has her own billionaire, so I think they can both rest easy.

That's some choice though. Gorgeous great cook with 2 youngish kids from a good family versus a VERY VERY VERY wealthy do-it-yourselfer with a grown daughter and many homes, (oh, and a criminal record too, but I think that was unfair).

Nigella Can Do Healthy Too

Nigella Feasts with Nigella Lawson

Feel Good Food

Citrus Yogurt
Antioxidant Fruit Salad
Red Salad
Vietnamese Shrimp and Glass Noodle Salad
Baby Spinach, Avocado, and Pumpkin Seed Salad

To get the recipes:

Click here

Nigella explains that food is about pleasure and you should never sacrifice that, even if you're eating trying to eat healthier.

For the glass noodle salad, Nigella begins by “blanching” sugar snap peas and bean sprouts and then immersing them in cold water. This isn’t a true blanching, but rather she’s just pouring boiling water over and then dunking them in ice water. That’s ok, because these vegetables only need a quick cooking to be made more delicious. (Actually, the sprouts would be just fine raw.)

She moves on to make a dressing, which is “lean but packed with flavor." She grates 1 tablespoon of ginger - Nigella leaves the skin on, which I don't advise – and mixes it with 1 minced clove of garlic. She slices a long red chili in half lengthwise and removes most of seeds, wanting “warmth rather then heat.” She says that LONG red chilis are milder than the teeny ones. She chops it finely and adds it to her other ingredients.

A whole lot of other things go in: the juice of half a lime, fish sauce (or soy sauce with a little vinegar), water, a bit of sugar ( “balance is everything says our raven-haired host), a tiny amount of groundnut oil - 1½ teaspoons – and a splash of sesame oil. Everything gets stirred together to make a spicy and spirited dressing. Note: Groundnut oil is peanut oil. If you don’t want to blow your food budget for the week, just use a flavorless olive oil.

Nigella adds 1 cup of cooked tiny shrimp to the dressing. (I sure hope they didn’t come from China.) She tells us to take the time to chop a few “fat” scallions finely, leaving us with the impression that she normally just throws in enormous chunks and calls it a day. She chops “a huge handful of cilantro.”

The noodles for this dish are easily dealt with. Nigella just pours boiling water over the cellophane noodles and leaves them for a few minutes before draining. She mixes all the various bits and pieces together and tops with more cilantro. She revels in the salad as she tastes it, saying she hates the term “life-enhancing”, but, darned, if that’s not exactly what this salad is. I hear ya, honey. It looks positively salubrious.

Next we see the virtuous stash in her larder and fridge. She retrieves beautiful green pumpkin seeds as she explains, “Of course (they’re) good for you. I feel better even looking at (them).”

She’s serving smoked salmon alongside an avocado and spinach salad. She loves the convenience of the smoked salmon, because it enables you to serve fish, without having to buy it fresh that day. She snips the salmon into pieces and strews it on the plate. Black pepper and lime juice go on top.

For the dressing, she juices a lime, loving its sharpness against the smoothness of the avocado. She adds salt, which is essential with the avo, Nigella believes. She adds just a bit of olive oil and mixes it well. She drops 4 cups of spinach leaves in a bowl. She takes 1 small avocado and “gouges out lumps of it with a teaspoon.” I’m don’t know why that’s preferable to a nice dice, but Nigella has decreed it so.

She sprinkles pumpkin seeds over and pours over the dressing in a Food As Porn moment. She makes it look totally tantalizing. The Domestic Goddess arranges it delicately on the plate. She adds “a final few teaspooned-out hillocks of avocado.” I’m not entirely what that means, but it sure sounds good.

Next Nigella pours a glass of healthful, of course, red wine. She’s on to “a virtuous version of syllabub.“ A real syllabub is light as a feather, rich as a Rockefeller and as boozy as witches' brew. This ersatz syllabub starts with 1 tablespoon honey, a tiny amount of the requisite wine and some orange zest. These get whisked together first and then ¾ cup of lowfat "bio yogurt" gets whisked in next with a pinch of cinnamon.

Nigella quarters several of the plumpest, ripest figs just bulging with sweet buxomness. (Who do I sound like? Ok, who am I TRYING to sound like?) She places each in its own special vessel – that’s Nigella-speak for a bowl – and pours over the creamy syllabub. (FAP) She sprinkles over pistachios and next we see her enjoying the meal with a friend. It is interesting, the salad and the smoked salmon are being enjoyed by both ladies from the same plate. I think that’s rather touching and intimate…and highly unsanitary.

Next scene is Nigella food shopping. She picks up peppers and brazil nuts, oh and some herbal tea. And why not? She goes home (well, if that WERE her home) and brews herself a cup.

For a fruit combo salad, that takes full advantage of the anti-oxidant properties of the fruits. She shows us how she deals with a mango. I have NEVER seen anyone do to a mango what Nigella did. I tried it myself and I must say I wasn’t woman enough to handle it. She scores the skin of the mango and then REMOVES JUST THE SKIN. I thought I was seeing things. Then she cuts “down to the bone”, as she calls it, making a crosshatching design as she goes. She cuts right against the pit, freeing the fruit. THAT is unique. She squeezes all the good juiciness left on the pit into the bowl.

The usual way of dealing with an mango is to first cut against the pit and remove the entire half, with the skin still on. Turn the fruit over and do the same on the other side of the pit. You score the FRUIT in a crosshatch pattern and then cut it away from the skin.

Next Nigella whacks a pomegranate half with a rolling pin. I’ve seen her use a wooden spoon, which always seemed a bit ineffectual. The rolling pin does the job beautifully. She also squeezes the pomegranate over the bowl. In goes the juice of half a lime and she mixes gently. She serves herself some in a lovely lime green bowl. Gosh, that looks good.

As usual, the omega of this week’s visit with Nigella is her raiding the fridge. But for what? Some salutary morsel that she’s prepared this week? Yes, but she accompanies her snack with some dark chocolate. Only for its health benefits, of course.

Spicy Nigella

Nigella Feasts with Nigella Lawson
Spiced Up

Mughlai Chicken
Pomegranate Raita
Pilaf for a Curry Banquet
Muttar Paneer

To get the recipes:
Click here

Nigella is preparing an "Indian influenced banquet". She says it has a real "WOW factor." Her first dish is mild creamy chicken curry that she exhorts us to use boneless chicken THIGHS for, because the breasts are just too dry. I'm with her on that. Boneless thighs are a great invention.

She goes through 3 easy steps for the curry. The first one is to brown the chicken on both sides. The second step is to add the onions with bruised cardamon pods and a couple other whole spices. I adore cardamon. You do have to smash it a bit to get its full flavor. Step 3 is processing together ginger and garlic with spices (cumin, coriander and chili) and then adding ground almonds and water. She adds that to the cooking onions and that becomes the base of the sauce.

That's a good basic beginning for the sauce. Madhur Jaffrey, the doyenne of Indian cooking, does it just about the same, but she adds the onions to the paste, which means you need to add less water. And she makes her base in the blender, which makes it finer. But besides that, Nigella did well.

To the nicely spiced underpinning of the sauce, Nigella adds whole milk Greek yogurt (which is soooooooooo good and creamy, if only it didn't have 300 calories per cup), heavy cream, chicken stock, salt, garam masala and sugar. How about instead of sugar you just add some raisins? Oh look at that...she heard me. She just added golden sultanas - yellow raisins to us Yanks. Chicken goes back in. She simmers it for 20 minutes. I really like this recipe, but I don't think it would hurt to increase the spices by half or even double them. I really think 3 pounds of chicken can take it.

We come back to Nigella in the store buying chutney and turmeric. She's amused, because she just has to buy these little black seeds called Nigella.

She goes on to the pilaf. She sautés a food-processed onion. She adds cloves and 3 cardamon pods, crushed. She tells us not to be apologetic about using the same spices in different dishes. That's what unifies the entire meal. Now she throws in 1/2 teaspoon whole cumin and her little black seeds, which she says are like "deep black tears." Well, not really...Then she adds cinnamon, which has been crumbled into small pieces. WAIT! HOLD ON! Broken Tooth Alert.

I have personal knowledge of a BIG problem here. My brother always bestows on us at Christmas many tins of wonderful oatmeal cookies. He believes strongly that grinding his own cinnamon gives the cookies a particularly great spicy flavor that cannot be attained with commercially ground cinnamon. That sounds like a good idea, except for one thing. We, in our home kitchens, can never approximate the fineness of the ground cinnamon that we buy in the stores. The result is that his cookies, although excellent, offer the real possibility of causing damage to one’s dental work.

I had sworn myself to secrecy. I was never going to mention it to him. But, then, he told me he was preparing a batch for an elderly friend. He was very excited about grinding the cinnamon and I felt I had no choice but to tell him the truth. Let’s just say it didn’t go well…And if I want oatmeal cookies next Christmas, I’ll be making them myself.

Notwithstanding that uncomfortable conversation, I had to warn YOU not to do the same thing. NEVER try to GRIND your cinnamon at home and don’t break it into pieces, unless you THEN wrap it in cheesecloth. Okay, where were we?

The pilaf. Nigella adds 2½ cups of basmati rice and turns it “gently, slowly, firmly” over the heat. 4 cups of hot chicken stock go in. She “clamps on” the lid and cooks it over low heat for 15 to 20 minutes.

The next dish is a beautiful rendition of a classic Indian accompaniment - Raita. She starts with plain yogurt, to which she adds scallions “chopped finer than usual” and salt. Then she adds the “jeweled seeds of a pomegranate,” which she “thwacks” over the bowl with a wooden spoon. She squeezes in the juice as well and “decants the glorious balm into 2 waiting pots.” This is an elegant raita with excellent eye appeal and a tangy fruity flavor. Bravo Nigella.

Now she shows us her freezer for some reason. Oh, because she’s telling us to freeze pomegranate seeds in a ziplock bag. Good idea. She grabs frozen peas and brags about how she’s called “the Queen of the Frozen Pea” by Nigel Slater, English food writer extraordinaire.

An onion gets processed with garlic and ginger and is fried in oil. Then she adds garam masala and turmeric and cooks them for a bit to get rid of their raw taste. Good girl. The peas go in, and because she wants “a splash of Bollywood color”, she adds tomato paste mixed with stock. She covers and cooks the mixture for 15 minutes.

Nigella tells us that paneer is “milk in solid form.” She chops it up and fries it in what looks like tons of oil. Oh, she heard me again…”I like living dangerously in using so much oil and having quite a lot of hot splattering going on.” “We’re on the last lap”. The “moment of truth” has come and she tastes the chicken curry. It’s good. Toasted flaked almonds go on top.

Next…”let’s see how well-behaved this rice has been.” I do love her turn of phrase. She reminds use to a fork ONLY when fluffing the rice. She sprinkles over cilantro and more flaked almonds.

Hot mango chutney goes into a bowl. We have a sexy close-up of......the food. Nigella serves her guests in deep bowls. They are happily engrossed in the meal.

Later Nigella tucks into a healthy taste of leftovers right out of the fridge. I love a woman who isn’t afraid to drop curry down the side of the refrigerator in her midnight postprandial wanderings.

Granola - My Way

Nigella's Raspberry Swirl

made with My Granola

I was thinking about Nigella's Granola. I have what I think is a less sweet and even more delicious alternative. It's made in the microwave, which is good and bad. It's good because it's easy and quick. It's bad, because, as with all things microwaved, increasing the recipe is tricky. And once you try this, you'll want to make GOBS of it. What I do in my prime granola making season - Christmastime - is to get two batches ready at once in two different glass 9" by 13" dishes, so that when one comes out, the second can go in immediately.

Sue's Best Granola

2 cups rolled oats, not instant
2/3 cup chopped nuts - walnuts, almonds, pecans, cashews, hazelnuts
1/3 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1/3 cup raisins, dried cranberries or dried cherries

In a large glass bowl or dish, mix oats, nuts, wheat germ and brown sugar together. Stir in honey. (Warm it for 10 seconds in the microwave, WITHOUT LID, to make it easier to pour.)

Cook on high for 3 minutes. Stir well. Cook on high for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes longer. Cool slightly. Add raisins and/or dried cranberries or cherries.

Store in jar or zip lock bags.

Notes: My microwave is fairly old, so your microwave may be a lot more powerful. Watch cooking times carefully, so granola doesn't scorch.

If I'm making 2 batches, one right after the other, I add all walnuts to one batch and all almonds, for example, to the second. Then when I mix them together, my granola has a variety of nuts. I do the same with raisins and dried cranberries and/or cherries.

The almonds can be in any form whatsoever - slivered, sliced, whole, skinned or unskinned. You can save yourself any chopping by using slivered or sliced almonds.

As with so many things, the better the honey you use, the better the granola.