Nigella Lawson: Cook, Eat, Repeat author on winter food, music and literature

"I never listen to music while cooking as I prefer the orchestra of the kitchen" - Nigella Lawson. Photo / Matt Holyoak

Nigella Lawson talks with Canvas about winter food, music, and good ingredients.

Q You are an ingredient for a winter pudding - what are you?

A Black treacle: I love its depth, darkly spicy warmth, and savage intensity: it's an essential ingredient in my Luscious Vegan Gingerbread and, indeed, any gingerbread. I make a lot over the winter.

Q What piece of food literature is a touchstone - an anchor that transcends merely food?

A I feel that all good food writing transcends food, really (and for me it's never "merely food") as it evokes so much that matters in our lives: our connection to the past and to others; the richness of various cultures; the life-enhancing generosity of hospitality; our relationship with the bounty of the natural world; and the comforts that sustain us, both physically and emotionally. And the book that instantly comes to mind here is Home Cooking: A Novelist in the Kitchen, by Laurie Colwin.

Q If you could define winter by one comfort food, what would that be?

A There is so much to choose from. Winter is such a comforting and inspiring season for the home cook ... There are two recipes in particular that I return to again and again throughout winter in particular, and they are my Soupy Rice with Celeriac and Chestnuts and Chicken in a Pot with Lemon and Orzo.

It pains me to have to choose between them. Still, if I must choose just one, I think I'd go for the everything-in-one-pot chicken, as it as gloriously comforting to cook as to eat: a sustaining, simple family meal that brightens up even the greyest day.

Q What music inspires you while cooking and evokes the joy of winter and winter food?

A I never listen to music while cooking as I prefer the orchestra of the kitchen: I want to hear every bit of onion frying and water bubbling. However, I certainly find music uplifting when I'm washing up and, for the Northern Hemisphere winter, it's Christmas, so I do adore a Christmas compilation - from Christmas carols to Wham's Last Christmas; taking in Baby, It's Cold Out There, All I Want For Christmas Is You, Fairytale Of New York, Diana Ross' cover of Paul McCartney's Wonderful Christmas Time, Santa Baby, and so many other favourites.

Q What life hack - food-related or otherwise would you suggest to our dear Southern Hemisphere readers heading into winter?

A

I'm afraid I have no huge words of wisdom to impart here, but I do need to share this small tip with you. Mix up a batch of cookies, form the cookies, place them on a plate or baking sheet - depending on room - in the freezer and, as soon as they are set hard, take them off the tray, put them in a freezer bag or bags, sealing them airtight. Then, whenever someone drops in over the winter all you need to do is heat the oven and pop as many cookies - no need to thaw them - in to bake; they'll need perhaps two minutes' extra cooking time. There's something just magical about being able to summon up freshly baked cookies almost instantly and the house will smell gorgeously inviting. Not that you need to wait until a friend drops in to cook them, of course! When the air is chill and the days dark, there is nothing quite like the blessing of a biscuit fresh from the oven.

Cook, Eat, Repeat, by Nigella Lawson (Chatto & Windus, $55).