Comfort Food with Presence

I've always assumed that semolina is similar to rice pudding - one of those stodgily traditional British desserts, to which English people have an extraordinary attachment, but everyone else finds just a little bit odd.

263. Baked Semolina

This recipe directly follows bread and milk in the "Comfort Food" section of the One & Two chapter, but is much, much better. According to the instructions on the packet, making ordinary sweet semolina porridge necessitates stirring it over heat for 2 hours!! Nigella's recipe for baked semolina, thankfully, requires no such feats of endurance, and "is just a snip above" the stirred variety.

You start by whisking semolina into hot milk, and then stirring it over heat for about 10 minutes until thickened. Then let it cool, and fold in egg yolk, vanilla sugar and a whisked egg white, before baking it in a buttered dish for about 40 minutes.

The recipe serves 2 and is supposed to be baked in a 500ml capacity dish, but as I was only making it for myself, I halved all quantities and baked it in a 250ml ramekin. (I didn't halve the "1 egg yolk", because I forgot to, and impatiently mixed the whole thing into my semolina. It didn't seem to have any disastarous effect.

Fabulously, upon baking, the little homey-sounding pudding rose up into an impressive soufflé-type thing.


Semolina

How good does that look? I reckon I could easily sell these at a trendy eatery for nostalgically minded, rich yet culinarily-challenged customers at $12 a pop, just like they do with mac & cheese in New York City.

And it tasted good too. I tried the pudding with honey, and with strawberry jam. Both are nice, but neither is strictly necessary. The pudding is lovely as it is.

Warning: Eating a piping hot, honey-drenched semolina pudding balanced precariously on one knee, with a cup of coffee in the opposite hand, sitting at the computer, watching a hysterical episode of I'm Alan Partridge, is not a good idea.

Babyfied Comfort Food

***Don't forget to post any questions you may have for me regarding the project here***

I found myself at home today, with not that much to do. At midday, the Nigella! program was screening on the Lifestyle Food channel. (Yes, that is Nigella! with an exclamation mark, which refers to her chat show). She had that Anthony Warrol Thompson dude on, she made these insanely rich chocolate chip cookies, and they guessed the prices of kaftans. It was quite entertaining. A really interesting fact though, is that Anthony Warrol Thompson was sent to boarding school at the age of three! THREE! How fucked up is that? I don't understand how kids that young could be sent to live away from their parents. Can they even talk properly at that age? Are they fully toilet trained? Who teaches them right from wrong, how to tie their shoelaces, how to eat politely at the table? Who gives them love??

Anyway, this spartan image of British boarding school, combined with the fact that I was still in my PJ's, really made me want comfort food.

259. Bread & Milk

This recipe, which is just a suggestion, really, opens the "Comfort Food" section of the One & Two chapter. Nigella describes it as "babyfied comfort food", rood to run to when you "lust for something soft and sweet". It's what she, following her mother, makes for herself to eat - white bread, torn up in a bowl, sprinkled with vanilla sugar and covered with hot milk.



I followed the instructions, and sat "in armchair, bowl on lap" to eat this. I was expecting warm vanilla scented fuginess, just like a hug in a bowl. But for some reason, it just tasted... wrong. It had some weird uninviting taste to it. Maybe it was the milk? Did I get it too hot? Or the bread? Too stale? Or maybe it was just the combination of ingredients that I didn't like.

Well, whatever. I only got about halfway through it before I couldn't handle any more and needed to get the taste out of my mouth, fast. So I went to the kitchen and got some McVitie's Chocolate Digestive Biscuits. They were good. Mmm'hmm.