Nigella Lawson's 'Easter Friday' Recipe Is A Must-Try
That Nigella Lawson loves this time of year is no secret. Spring has special meaning to her because, as she put it to NPR, the season "does feel like the reaffirmation of life and nature. And I think it's impossible not to be touched by that. And if you're someone who likes eating, it's impossible not to exploit that in the kitchen." To celebrate her love for the season and mark the holidays of Easter and Passover this weekend, Lawson took to social media to share what she described on the Nigella website as "an Easter favorite": Kedgeree Risotto.
The Nigella website calls the recipe, which brings together elements of British-Indian and Italian cooking, a "strange hybrid of a recipe." Judging from a recipe for the traditional British breakfast Kedgeree supplied by The Spruce Eats, the ingredients Lawson uses in her risotto sound nearly identical. But she asks that arborio rice be used in place of basmati rice, which is as called for in a BBC recipe with the same name. She also recommends that those making her British-Indian-inspired rendition "add no grated Parmesan to this risotto. Italians never grate cheese on fish pastas or fishy risottos and even if this dish is not Italian, their strictures still hold good."
Nigella's recipe is a culinary mash-up
There are other differences that make Nigella Lawson's version of the dish delightfully different from the original. Kedgeree can also call for the addition of optional frozen peas, while Lawson's does not. She also calls for a more flavorful blend of spices that include cumin, coriander, and turmeric, while traditional kedgeree is happy to dress up with curry powder in the BBC's recipe.
Cooking methods vary, too. A traditional kedgeree uses rice cooked traditionally – and separately from the other ingredients, while Lawson's kedgeree risotto needs the same TLC that traditional risotto dishes do, which is that you need to add soup stock to the rice ladle by ladle, and only after the rice has already absorbed the liquid that was added previously. Traditional kedgeree doesn't appear too fussy about the kind of egg used, while Nigella suggests quail's eggs might work best – if you want to use them that is – because they are seen as an option.
Fans appeared to appreciate Lawson's extra touches and reached out on Twitter to tell her so. One fan tweeted: "This is a perfect Good Friday dish, and I was just discussing this with my son as a great dish to balance out an Easter brunch he's attending. I may just have to change my menu for today, and save the Nursery Fish Pie for another day. Ah, joy!"