Nigella Express: Good Food, Fast

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Ms. Lawson brings to life the sensual aspects of cooking, helping you understand not only what you are after, but also the pleasure of the journey." -- The New York Times

"Nigella is an icon; a smart, sexy woman who promulgates the idea that it might be fun or even tempting to make time to cook again." -- Gourmet

"This media goddess is refreshingly down-to-earth." -- Newsweek

Product Description

The Domestic Goddess is back, and this time it's instant. Nigella and her style of cooking have earned a special place in our lives, symbolizing all that is best, most pleasurable, most hands-on, and least fussy about good food. But that doesn't mean she wants us to spend hours in the kitchen, slaving over a hot stove.

Featuring fabulous fast foods, ingenious shortcuts, terrific time-saving ideas, effortless entertaining tips, and simple, scrumptious meals, Nigella Express is her solution to eating well when time is short. Here are mouthwatering meals, quick to prepare and easy to follow, that you can conjure up after a day in the office or on a busy weekend, for family or unexpected guests. This is food you can make as you hit the kitchen running, with vital advice on how to keep your pantry stocked, and your freezer and fridge stacked. When time is precious, you canít spend hours shopping, so you need to make life easier by being prepared. Not that these recipes are basic, though they are always simple, but it's important to make every ingredient earn its place, minimizing effort by maximizing taste.

Here too is great food that can be prepared quickly but cooked slowly in the oven, leaving you time to have a bath, a drink, talk to friends, or help the children with their homework, minimum stress for maximum enjoyment.

Nigella Express features a new generation of fast food, never basic, never dull, always doable, quick, and delicious.

Featuring recipes seen on Food Networkís Nigella Express series.

Praise for Nigella Lawson and her cookbooks:

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion (October 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401322433
• ISBN-13: 978-1401322434
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #9,949 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #59 in	Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Regional & International > U.S. Regional
  #67 in	Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Quick & Easy

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

180 of 185 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's what she promises: good food, fast, October 29, 2007

By	Esther Schindler (Scottsdale, AZ USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I couldn't wait. I was in London right after Nigella Lawson's newest cookbook was published, so I bought my copy immediately. The only real difference between the UK and American edition, I'm sure, is the measurements (grams versus ounces, etc.) so you get the benefit of the fact I've been cooking from this book for the last several weeks.

This new cookbook, which accompanies Nigella's new series on the FoodTV network (at a really dreadful, inconvenient hour on Sunday), follows in the now-popular "make a decent sit-down dinner in half an hour" theme. Unlike Rachel Ray (to whom I have no objections, but also no particular tropism), Nigella's idea of "in half an hour" is not necessarily in consecutive minutes. That is, if something takes a short time in the kitchen, but bakes for an hour, it's fair game. That works just fine for me -- I telecommute full time, so slow-cooked fast food is compatible with my lifestyle -- but those who rush to the store on the way home from the office and still have a desire to get dinner on the table by 7pm may sometimes be a teensy bit disappointed.

That might, however, be the only real disappointment in this rather exhaustive set of recipes. Because, based on the handful of things I've cooked from this book so far (and a careful reading of the rest of the book), these are just darned good meals. They aren't the special dishes she included in Feast: Food to Celebrate Life -- for holidays when spending all afternoon in the kitchen is part of the pleasure of the meal -- and they take a lot of shortcuts that Nigella admits freely *are* shortcuts. But they're far better than a takeaway meal, and it's good food, fast. (Duh.)

Everything is organized in meals or moods rather than subjects. That is, there's no chapter for appetizers, another for desserts, etc. It works well given the theme of the book -- who has time to construct a whole menu during the week? -- and also because she can tell you that, while the meat is underway, turn your attention to the vegetables. So "quick food slow" collects recipes that can be prepared ahead to save time later; "instant calmer" offers super-fast soul food; "get up and go" is for breakfast at breakneck speed.

So far, as I said, I've made a few things. Orange French toast is pretty simple -- your basic French toast, but with a syrup made with orange marmalade and juice -- but made a special brunch for visiting family. Her prawn and mango curry uses stuff that I mostly have in the house, such as frozen shrimp, a can of coconut milk, cilantro and bottled red curry paste. With some mango, lime juice, and butternut and sweet potato cubes (apparently available in pre-made packets in the UK, though I've never seen such things here)... in about half an hour we had a great dinner. Truly excellent. Her "sausages with sauerkraut" is a much simplified choucroute garnie and... well, that one was okay. It might have been excellent if I had made the trip to the German grocery for better sausages... or maybe some things shouldn't be simplified *too* much.

There's plenty more here to try: chicken in Riesling (looks like under an hour to the table, with half that in chicken-simmer time), Swedish salmon (with dill and mustard, served with a cucumber salad and potato salad). She has lots of quickly-prepared desserts too, but since I generally shy away from refined sugar I don't pay that much attention to them; nothing personal, Nigella.

Great cookbook. Recommended.

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great addition to my recipe book collection, November 17, 2007

By	Julia Flyte - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

I love Nigella Lawson's recipe books. She writes so well that the books are a pleasure to read as well as being a good source of recipes. She always makes everything sound so delicious that you can't wait to try it. The photography in this book is also excellent and every recipe is illustrated.

The theme for this book is good food fast. The "fast" is somewhat loose (I can't see how her version of coq au vin could be turned around in less than an hour, which rules it out as an after work option in our household). Besides evening meals there are breakfast options, party foods and (as always with Nigella's books) plenty of cakes and sweet things. If you try to follow a low fat diet, this is probably not the cookbook for you. Her instructions are easy to follow and she suggests substitutions for hard to find ingredients.

We have tried and enjoyed the mustard pork chops (though I prefer pasta as an accompaniment rather than the potato gnocchi that she suggests), the mirin glazed salmon (though I already had similar recipes that were similar and equally good) and the quick calamari. They were all very simple to prepare and went down well with the family. I had less success with the croque monsieur bake which emerged burnt at the edges (although that could possibly be the fault of my oven). And while the chocolate peanut butter fudge sauce went down well with my children, it was too sickly sweet for my and my husband's tastebuds.

Overall a beautiful recipe book which I'm happy to add to the collection. I'm sure it will get a good workout over the pre-Christmas period.

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I wanted to like this, but recipes just didn't taste very good, April 14, 2008

By	Belinda (United States) - See all my reviews

I really wanted to like this book. It has beautiful photographs, and Nigella is so cool and all. But everything I've made from this cookbook has gotten the "thumbs down" from my family. The asian-fish chowder was too fishy tasting. The meat loaves were too dense and greasy. The salad dressings seemed off. Oh, and I made some squash casserole that tasted very strange. And a lot of the ingredients are hard to come by. I live in the New York metropolitan area, so I thought I could track down just about anything, but even I couldn't find some of the items she calls for. And she doesn't offer any alternatives. I don't know what people would do if they didn't live in a metropolitan area with tons of international groceries.

Maybe quick cooking just isn't her thing. I think Martha Stewarts Quick Meals is a much better book in this category. And it's arranged by season, so you never have trouble finding items in the grocery.