Nigella on why she's a 'Domestic Catastrophe'

Indeed, the mother of two and popular TV personality is the first to admit she often relies on shortcuts and time-saving tricks to minimize effort and maximize taste.

In "Nigella Express: 130 Recipes for Good Food, Fast," the often-verbose, ever-effusive food lover offers up recipes for tasty tidbits and delectable dinners for the busiest of home cooks.

CTV.ca: It seems like we all have less and less time to get food on the table. What was the source of inspiration for your latest book?

Nigella Lawson: As much as I love cooking and food I seem to have less and less time to cook and to get everything organized. I just wanted to remind people that I think they complicate food in their minds, they think it has to be a three-course restaurant meal and it doesn't.

I'm always interested in banging the drum for home cooking because I feel that really liberates people to see they can cook, they don't need to be an expert.

CTV.ca: What sort of meals do you whip up when you need something "express"?

N.L.: I often do any sort of flash fried meat or grilled meat with white bean mash. Using the cans of white beans, which you can keep in the cupboard all the time, I add depth of flavour by adding minced garlic and lemon zest and then I add some oil sprigs of rosemary to infuse the mash with flavour. Then I squish the beans against the side of the pot. This probably takes two minutes. It's not same as mashed potatoes and doesn't pretend to be, but it's delicious.

I will also do flash-fried steaks, about a quarter-of-an-inch or half-a-centimetre thick. I cook them quickly in some oil and then squeeze the lemon juice in the pan to make a kind of gravy.

I will also do mustard pork chops. I flatten them a bit with a rolling pin -- always good for getting out the stress of the day -- and cook them in garlic-infused oil. This is a flavour booster when you're against the clock.

I cook the pork chops for five minutes on each side and put them on two plates. Then in the pan that has the garlicky pork juices, I add mustard seeds in it, then a splosh of cider and then a teeny splosh of double cream, and heat all this together, which bubbles together and thickens.

Baking is a very precise art and science; it's chemistry. But whether you put a sugar snap or green bean or a bit of bok choy or broccoli in soup, it's completely up to you, it's not going to make it different.

That's what it's about, having an idea and what's in your fridge. Some of my most fruitful recipes come from my Monday clear-outs, when there is too much hanging about because I over-catered on the weekend and I have leftovers.

CTV.ca: How many of the meals you cook in one week are "express" meals?

N.L.: I would say in my way of seeing it, 95 per cent of my meals are express, which is perhaps not what everyone else would say. When they say quick they look at the time the recipe takes from beginning to end.

In life there are different demands and each day we need to cook differently, many days it's food I just talked about ... some days I am not in a rush to get the meal on the table but I have a thousand chores to do -- those days I've got recipes that take a two minute prep, two hours in oven.

For me, express cooking means the amount of it I need to spend on it is reduced. The other thing is, I suppose, it's like an espresso coffee, stronger than regular coffee. It has a real impact with flavour and it's concentrated. Express cooking if food that makes my life easier, because in a way some food can be really quick to prepare - like some of those fancy stir-frys -- but they are frenetic and they are not restful.

CTV.ca: You've often been called the Domestic Goddess, after your book "How To Be A Domestic Goddess." Is that a flattering title or is it difficult to always live up to?

N.L.: I never intended it to be applied to myself. If I were a Domestic Goddess I never would have written the book. It is for those who lead busy lives who have busy jobs and a full life. How can we feel like domestic goddesses when we are not domestic goddesses and we don't really want to be one? We want to have the perks.

And I do feel like one when I am cooking. But you don't want to see my sock drawer -- I am a domestic catastrophe.

CTV.ca: In this book, there are many references to the nostalgia of childhood meals. Do you draw on this for your cooking?

N.L.: I have to come clean with you and tell you I was a terribly picky eater as a childhood. I have to look at it with eyes I didn't have then -- maybe that's what nostalgia is.

Everyone is so keen to rediscover their new Mediterranean specialty or whatever that sometimes we can forget our childhood recipes. ... Luckily I came from an impatient family so recipes were often fast. I love new flavours and new taste experiences but I don't want to feel some of the foods from childhood must remain there.

CTV.ca: Where do you think culinary trends are headed?

N.L.: I never quite know. I am fortunate in my respect because I am not a chef. ... I just ordered a book on Puerto Rican food because I've actually never been to South America and I don't know that kind of food. ... I admit I did do Mexican (in my new book) because I really wanted to have the title 'Speedy Gonzales.'

What I like of Latin food is it has those direct flavours like Italian does -- that sprightliness which I adore. For me that is a new taste, for many people it may not be.

My way of cooking authentic food is to learn about other ways and see how they can be brought into my kitchen. My cooking is Nigellan, it's not Mexican.