|
How to be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking |  | Author: Nigella Lawson
Brand: Books
Category: Book
List Price: £17.99
Buy New: £10.51
as of 22/11/2009 18:48 GMT details
You Save: £7.48 (42%)
New (27) Used (9) from £8.50
Seller: Amazon.co.uk
Rating:  100 reviews
Sales Rank: 376
Media: Paperback
Edition: New edition
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.6
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 7.5 x 1.1
ISBN: 0701171081
Dewey Decimal Number: 641
EAN: 9780701171087
ASIN: 0701171081
Publication Date: October 2, 2003
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
| |
| Also Available In:
|
| Accessories:
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
This is a book about baking, but not a Baking Book. The trouble with much modern cooking is not that the food it produces is not good, but that the mood it induces in the cook is one of skin-of-the-teeth efficiency, all briskness and little pleasure. Sometimes that's the best we can manage, but at other times we don't want to feel stressed and overstretched, but like a domestic goddess, trailing nutmeggy fumes of baking pie in her languorous wake...' How to be a Domestic Goddess is not about being a goddess, but about feeling like one. What this deliciously reassuring and mouthwatering cookbook demonstrates is that it's not actually hard to bake a tray of muffins, or a sponge layer cake, but that the appreciation and satisfaction they bring are disproportionately high. The 'domestic goddess' has to maintain her (or his) cool when faced with pastry, too, of course - but with Nigella Lawson's guidance even puff pastry can be pain-free. Here at last is the book which understands our anxieties, feeds our fantasies and puts cakes, pies, pastries, pudding, breads and biscuits back into our own kitchen. This is the art of baking and comfort cooking made simple and alluring for the modern cook - with everything from cup cakes to certosino, brownies to bagels, peach cream pie to pizza, game pie to blueberry boy-bait, from rhubarb schnapps to Barbie cake - not to mention children's cooking, festive foods, pickles and preserves.
Amazon.co.uk Review
Those who love comfort food have cause to be grateful for Nigella Lawson's book IHow to Be a Domestic Goddess/I. Cause, too, perhaps, to wonder that she isn't the size of a house, since baked comfort foods typically encompass large quantities of butter, cream, eggs, sugar, chocolate, nuts, cream cheese and all the other foodstuffs to which with dreary inevitability attaches the deadly word "sinful". But in Nigella Lawson's hands these dangerous, even feared, substances are transmuted alchemically into the healing balms of the goddess, who presides (perhaps a little ironically) over a harmonious kitchen realm.p The recipes are suitably divine, covering cakes, biscuits, pies, puddings, breads, with special sections on cooking for (and by) children and Christmas. Most are sweet, though there is a choice selection of savoury pies and puddings--Pizza Rustica, Steak and Kidney Pudding, Cornish Pasties. The sweet things range from the airy elegance of Pistachio Macaroons, through the luscious spiciness of Norwegian Cinnamon Buns, to the trailer-trashiness of Coca-Cola Cake.p Nigella Lawson's poise never falters, whether she is discussing serving mulled wine with mince pies ("Don't fight it") or a strange passion-fruit liqueur required for one of her trifles ("the most divinely camp liqueur you could ever come across"). She plays a kind of game with her readers, insisting constantly on her greed, but really invoking our own. What a fascinating book: hints of obsessiveness revealed behind the beautifully projected personality of a laid-back voluptuary.--IRobin Davidson/I
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 100
 I challenge you not to drool over this book.... January 22, 2004
52 out of 53 found this review helpful
...I've always liked the way Nigella Lawson writes....her books make you want to read them, not just abandon to a dusty life on the kitchen shelf...She has a lovely way of making the recipes seem effortless, and most of them are as simple as they sound...I love the variety of recipes in this book, the little anecdotes that go with them, and the constant encouragement to experiment at home...the reader is made to feel that the recipes are not 'cast in iron', that it is possible to tweak and change them at our will...pThe other thing I like about this book, is that Nigella is not selfish about her sources for recipes...if she finds a good recipe somewhere else, she gives the name of the book...like Nigella, I do a lot of 'middle of the night' browsing on the internet, especially in Amazon...and most of the books she mentions, or includes in the bibliography, I've been able to track down to purchase for myself...pThe proof of the pudding is in the eating, and my teenage son is testimony to the success of the recipes that I've tried. My favourites? the Chocolate brownie recipe, the Christmas-Morning Muffins, which take 25 mins from start to finish, (I've even been known to make these on a school-day morning, and I'M a teacher!)The easy danish pastry recipes, the calvados syllabub....I'd list more, but I really think you need to get your own copy!!
Recipes that will make your mouth water. December 29, 2001
47 out of 48 found this review helpful
Nigella Lawson makes cooking a pleasure. This book has a healthy balance between cooking for the family and cooking for guests that you want to impress. There was not a single recipe that I didn't want to try and by the time I had read the book I felt I knew Nigella and her family as old friends. Nigella encourages you to alter her recipes and feel confident doing so. I have never before bought a cookbook by a famous chef because I felt the recipes were too fancy or the ingredients were too difficult to buy, the majority of the ingredients in Nigella's recipe's can be found in most kitchen's or in the local shop. I cannot praise this book highly enough.
A Stunner! February 24, 2004
SecretSweets (Caxias, Portugal)
16 out of 16 found this review helpful
No, I am not refering to Ms Lawson. I recently bought this book and have already tried over 10 recipes - each one a complete success and by that I mean absolutely no left-overs.pIf you are looking for something to impress without having to spend many slavish hours in the kitchen, this book will give you enough ideas to keep you busy for many weeks to come.pThe recipes are easy and I mean dead-simple! No fuss, no fiddling about with kitchen gadgets, no watching over the stove - nothing. Each recipe is stripped down to the basics and presented in a simple, idiot-friendly manner and yet the results are worthy of a nod from a gourmet chef!pI love the Sweet and Salty Peanut Biscuits, so different from the peanutbutter type biscuits we know. The Brownies are spectacular given that they are so easy to make, but wait...the Molten Chocolate Babycakes will leave you quite lost for words!pThere is also a chapter on breads all all things yeasty. Here Ms Lawson pleads us to use old potato water as the liquid. Huh?! Well, yes, that's what she says! Who am I to dispute a guru. So, improbable as it sounds, I tried it. And .... well, frankly I don't quite see the big difference. I have turned to making my own bread for a few months now but it always finishes in two days. I have yet to test the theory that bread lasts longer with old potato water.pI also love the chapter on pies. Loads of easy stuff here to make and bake and I must confess that I am guilty of using family picnics as an excuse to make the Pizza Rustica and Cornish Pasties.pAnd finally, do not over look the chapter on puddings. For something unusual, try the Red Gooseberry Clafoutis and Om Ali. They are different and guaranteed to get you some 'ooohs' and 'aaahs'. pIn general, I have enjoyed the reading the recipes in this book as much and making them - but not as much as eating them!!!
sumptious cakes, cookies, cupcakes and tarts, simply yummy November 9, 2000
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
nigella has done it again, we all knew she could cook when we read HOW TO EAT, but she has excelled herself with HOW TO BE A DOMESTIC GODDESS, she has simply made it desirable to be able to cook anything from a cupcake to a sumptious chocolate fudge cake. even for those of us who get the jitters just passing the kitchen gadget section of debenhams, she has made the very cover and pages of the book seem luxurious, dull gold and chocolate brown, even the very feel of the pages exudes luxury. nigella manages to put forward her recipes in a friendly, chatty form, quite unlike young Mr Oliver, who, whilst a refreshing change from the earlier tv chefs is still a bit brash, but i digress, with nigella, you feel like you are being given a little bit of her personal time and history with each recipe, she relates each one to a time and place, or a passage from a book, quite simply nigella is fab, so go, buy the book, read the recipes, buy the flour, eggs, butter, cocoa, etc put quite simply, ENJOY! pr
Wonderful, Simply Wonderful August 3, 2007
Bookworm (Dublin, Ireland)
24 out of 25 found this review helpful
I've had this book ever since it came out, but the only reason I'm writing this review now is because I feel the need to defend Nigella's recipes. Any person who says her recipes are 'guesstimates' either doesn't own this book or hasn't ever cooked from it.Of the 100+ cookbooks I own, this is the one I've used the most and have yet to come across a recipe that has failed. If you love to bake then you must have this book and if you love to cook, then it is imperative that you own all her books.
br /
Showing reviews 1-5 of 100
|
|
|
CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON EU S.à.r.l. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’ AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME. | |
