I PICKED UP Nigel Slater’s “The Kitchen Diaries” last night from the shelf it’s lived on between uses here since 2006, when first released. I have all these winter squash, you see, and all these onions, and I recalled a happy marriage of them within its pages. What a serendipity to find that the book has recently been re-released after a time out of print, and that I could get a couple of copies to share with you. The latest giveaway, then, and Slater’s recipe for a soup of the moment, the one that kicks off the book’s year of in-the-moment cooking: dal and pumpkin, topped with onions sautéed with a kick of chili and garlic.
I almost went for Nigel Slater‘s baked onions with Parmesan and cream, and oh, the chickpea and sweet potato curry called out, too (it calls for pumpkin and onions both).
“The Kitchen Diaries” is a book about “right food, right place, right time,” in Slater’s words, and though the precise diary days he fills in this delicious year may not match mine, exactly—Slater is in England—they unfold in similar order. “Learning to eat with the ebb and flow of the seasons is the single thing that has made my eating more enjoyable,” he writes, eschewing the modern-day supermarket’s all-possibilities-all-the-time approach.
Slater’s kitchen doors open onto a small urban London garden, and as I read the recipes and other musings on the weeks and months in the year, I can imagine him moving in and out to gather springs of this and that as a recipe bubbles on the stove–the dish evolving with each such interaction. His handcrafted, informal approach to cookery encourages us to improvise and find our inspiration with the moment of the market, and the garden.
“By growing something myself, from seed or a small plant,” he writes, “I feel closer to understanding how and when a pear, a crab apple, a fava bean or a raspberry is at its best.”
And so today is the day of onions and pumpkins, and into the pan and pot they’ll go, hopefully coming out like this (in Slater’s words and a photo by Jonathan Lovekin, all from the book):
nigel slater’s dal and pumpkin soup
Recipe and photo excerpted from THE KITCHEN DIARIES by Nigel Slater. Copyright (c) 2012 by Nigel Slater. Reprinted by arrangement with Viking Studio, a member of Penguin Group (USA), Inc.
ingredients
- a small onion
- garlic – 2 cloves
- ginger – a walnut-sized knob
- split red lentils – 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons ground turmeric – 11⁄4 teaspoons
- chili powder – 1-1/4 teaspoons
- pumpkin – 2 cups
- cilantro – a small bunch, roughly chopped
for the onion topping:
- onions – 2 medium
- peanut oil – 2 generous tablespoons
- chili peppers – 2 small hot ones
- garlic – 2 cloves
steps
Peel the onion and chop it roughly. Peel and crush the garlic and put it with the onion into a medium-sized, heavy-based saucepan. Peel the ginger, cut it into thin shreds and stir that in too. Add the lentils and pour in 6 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to an enthusiastic simmer. Stir in the ground turmeric and chili powder, sea- son and leave to simmer, covered, for twenty minutes.
While the soup is cooking, bring a medium-sized pan of water to a boil. Peel the pumpkin and scoop out the seeds and pulp, then cut the flesh into fat chunks. Boil the pumpkin pieces for ten minutes, until they are tender enough to pierce with a skewer without much pressure. Drain them and set them aside.
To make the onion topping, peel the onions and cut them into thin rings. Cook them in the oil in a shallow pan until they start to color. Cut the chili peppers in half, scrape out the seeds and slice the flesh finely. Peel and finely slice the garlic and add it with the peppers to the onions. Continue cooking until the onions are a deep golden brown. Set aside.
Remove the lid from the lentils and turn up the heat, boiling hard for five minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, then add the drained pumpkin. Puree the soup in a blender (for safety, a little at a time) until smooth, then pour it into a bowl. Stir in the roughly chopped cilantro and check the seasoning. I find this soup likes a more generous than usual amount of salt.
Serve in deep bowls with a spoonful of the spiced onions on top. Makes four good-sized bowls.
more about nigel slater
NIGEL SLATER is a prolific producer of award-winning books, exceedingly popular BBC cooking series and documentaries, and food columns for “The Observer.” His latest book, “The Kitchen Diaries II,” was released in September in the UK, and is gradually making its way here. Oh, dear, seems as if another cookbook is eventually headed to my already-sagging shelf.
how to win ‘the kitchen diaries’
ENTER TO WIN a copy of the newly reissued “The Kitchen Diaries” by Nigel Slater by commenting below, answering this question: What ingredients are “in season” for you right now–the ones you think are the “right food, right place, right time” at this very moment in your year?
I’m still working on my crop of homegrown Brussels sprouts (usually just roasted), and of course all those winter squash I mentioned.
If you are feeling shy, just say “count me in” and I will, but I’d love to hear what’s in your pantry or pot. I’ll choose two winners at random after entries close at midnight Thursday, December 20. Good luck to all!
Hi – Onion and pumpkins are here too. Dee
I can’t get enough of satsuma oranges that are so delicious this time of year.
Carrots, Parsnips and Turnips stil coming out of the ground…lots of squash and onions from cold cellar…and of course apples, lots of apples. Roasted veggies and apple crisp using my Grandmother’s recipe!
Both look wonderful, would love to try the recipe and the book!
Sweet potatoes and baking potatoes, skins on, cut in wedges and roasted in the oven with olive oil, rosemary, a little salt. Small red beans, soaked, cooked, then made into spicy chili. Fresh cranberries and tart apples in a muffin recipe. Oatmeal cookies with sweetened dried cranberries and freshly grated orange peel. All this hearty food calls for long underwear and plenty of fresh-air exercise…heading out just now, in the pre-daylight stillness! Have a great day!
I’m still harvesting and eating Swiss chard from my community garden.
Would just Love a copy of the “Kitchen Diaries”!!
Goat cheese! I just can’t get enough of it this time of year.
Sounds like a wonderful writer to read, thanks for the introduction! I’ve been storing 2 gynormous cabbages, one savoy and the other green standard on my screen porch bought from our local farm stand. They’ve made it through cold freeze and thaw and are still my friends. I’ve been dreaming of making Korean pickled kimchi since my Hawaiian honeymoon 30 years ago, and the savoy cabbage gave itself up to kimchi this past weekend. So grateful for this gorgeous cabbage and for delightful kimchi for days to come. Still also pulling beets from the ground and enjoying turnip greens sauteed with scrambled eggs on the weekends. Thanks for asking Margaret.
Pomegranates, yams, onions, spaghetti squash, and winter greens. I love my CSA share! (ok, poms are not local, so thosee are from the grocery)
In the markets, the cole crops, potatoes, onions and the brassicas, as well as cranberries! The root veggies are just begining to come in as well. Sounds like a great book since I try to eat seasonally.
December 11th, 2012
Madison County, KY
Zone 6
I have kale, lettuce, French sorrel, thymes, sages, and celery leaves, which I ‘ve been using in soups.
Lentils, butternut squash, sweet potatoes and Ras el Hanout sprinkled over everything! Can’t get enough of those warm, aromatic Moroccan spices!
Root vegetables, squash, apples. Sadly my Brussels are used up already.
What a fabulous cookbook! For us in the south, we are eating collards, swiss chard, brussel sprouts, beets, turnips, parsnips, blueberries, winter squash . . .
…you had me at sauteed onions….
Apples, lots of them! Applesauce, apple breads, apple stuffing for our winter squash, and the rest are being dehydrated.
… ginger for those gingerbread men and houses!
Rosemary garlic roasted potatoes, onion soup with gruyere and bakery baguette, lots of roasted veggies. Pasta e fagioli using still-from-the-garden swiss chard. And lots of apple crisps! Would so enjoy the “Kitchen Diaries”, seems like a perfect companion for me now, on my own kitchen adventures!
I have a ton of winter cabbage, Chinese cabage and collards.
Persimmons …. discovered them this year and am enjoying them totally.
Just picked the last of my kale from the garden.
Also, apples are still big in my kitchen right now … applesauce and apple muffins top the list.
So please count me in for your giveaway.
Thanks,.
Sweet potatoes, Shiitakes and Arugula!!
Just dug up several fat stalks of Leek from the Garden, even after a snow yesterday! Ready to make some Potato Leek Soup, using
my mothers old German recipe!
I just recently moved to coastal Northern CA and am still learning what is seasonal at what point here, pretty sure a lot of greens mostly right now :)
I can’t seem to stop the orangey butternut squash, sweet potatoes and pumpkins from showing up in meals this time of year. The forementioned, and kale seem to be my go-to foods. Then there are apples and feshly-fermented sauerkraut, a great combination with their tart-salty-sweet flavors (with a little bit of fennel seed thrown in -YUM!). Fall and winter are my favorite cooking seasons as I love the hearty, earthy flavors of these seasonal vegetables.
I’m still getting kale, some asian greens, and some herbs out of the garden – so strange since it’s mid-December in NE Ohio!!
Pumpkin and onion together sounds pretty close to perfect today. Also enjoying brussels sprouts right now and fresh oranges.
We’ve been eating lots of kale, onions, sweet potatoes, and butternut squash the past few weeks. I’ve just found the joy in eating a simple raw kale salad with oil, lemon juice, and parmesan…what a wonder! Thanks for the chance to win this book…I somehow had not heard of it yet and checking out the description it sounds like something I should have in my library!
I’m enjoying butternut squash in lots of recipes: roasted with olive oil and rosemary or in a creamy soup with pears, or with Indian spices and shrimp.
Wow this soup sounds delicious! I roasted a big pumpkin on Sunday without a real plan for what to do with it, because it was on the verge of rotting and I figure it was now or never. Now I have about 3 pints of pumpkin in the fridge so this looks like just the thing!
Otherwise lots of kale and potatoes around here lately.
count me in.
The kale is still producing very well and it’s certainly enjoyable in the cool weather. Cooked with some seasonings and a few potatoes, it makes a great side dish that smells and tastes of my childhood home! Rosemary is a year round treat but seems to me to be better in the fall and winter and bunching onions that I planted late are doing very well in a pot beside the back door. Even if I don’t win Mr. Slater’s book, I plan to check the local library for a copy. It sounds wonderful! Happy gardening (and cooking!)
COUNT ME IN
apples and tangerines and oranges.
Potatoes and leeks – perfect for lots of fall weather soup-making!
Kale and spinach, still coming up plentifully.
an abundance of beets and leeks are from my garden -
I also have potatoes, turnips, and cabbage which I purchased -
would love to learn some creative ways to prepare them!!!!
Right now, I am suffering from lentil lust; last night I made Melissa Clark’s friend’s red lentil soup with mint and Aleppo pepper. It is memorable. Tonight, I ‘m going to try Serious Eats French lentil soup with chickpea purée. Serious Eats also has a 15 minute tomato soup which is very good considering how quick it comes together.
Cabbage. Making peasant soup with cabbage, onion, white beans and a ton of garlic to help ward off colds!
As winter has descended good and proper here, then it is whatever is in storage now, so squash and onions for definite, carrots, beets, celeriac and potatoes. Anything else is in the freezer or in jars.
Suddenly I’m really into beets! And more beets and beets and beets! They are so good!
Pak choi, tatsoi, and potatoes every way.
I’m finishing up squash that I stockpiled and starting on citrus.
Acorn squash and some really nice baby beets! Fresh at the farmer’s market this past Saturday! Cooking the squash tonight — maybe making some soup.
I have a few carrots left, lots of potatoes and onions, some mystery keeper tomatoes (love those!), and parsnip, parsnip, parsnip! :) I also have salsify but haven’t attempted to cook it yet.
Lots of meat now, elk and venison, with root vegetables and some greens still growing in the greenhouse.
Bok choy and chard are still growing in our garden. They make delicious additions to stir fry!
Squash, sweet potatoes and greens are forming the backbone of a lot of my cooking right around now. Pecans aren’t rotating as heavily, but I’m definitely enjoying them while I can.
sweet potatoes…pie, fries, any way they come…
Loving leeks this time of year!