CONTENTS
COVER
ABOUT THE BOOK
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DEDICATION
TITLE PAGE
FOREWORD BY JAMIE OLIVER
INTRODUCTION
HINTS, TIPS + SHOPPING
A SUNNY START TO THE DAY
SLOW-COOKED PINHEAD PORRIDGE
QUICK FLAPJACK CHERRY GRANOLA
GRIDDLED FRUIT SALAD WITH HONEY GINGER DRESSING
CARAMELISED APPLE, RICOTTA AND HAZELNUT PANCAKES
WHOLEGRAIN NASI GORENG WITH SPINACH
BOMBAY OMELETTE
MENEMEN WITH LEMON-ROASTED FETA AND OLIVES
KIPPER HASH WITH WATERCRESS YOGHURT AND GRIDDLED CUCUMBER
GIN-CURED SALMON WITH CREAMY SCRAMBLED EGGS
CHORIZO, TOMATO AND CHICKPEAS ON TOAST
REFRIED LENTILS WITH CRISPY SAUSAGE, PEPPER SALSA AND AVOCADO
ROAST SWEET POTATO, PANCETTA AND MAPLE LOAF
COURGETTE, COCONUT AND CARDAMOM LOAF WITH HONEY BUTTER
BREAKFAST ON THE RUN
BOWL FOOD
ZUPPA DI FARRO WITH ROSEMARY AND PINE NUT OIL
CHILLED AVOCADO SOUP WITH GINGER SESAME RADISHES
PARSNIP, MUSTARD AND COMTÉ SOUP
PETE’S BROCCOLI SOUP WITH STILTON SOLDIERS
ROAST SWEET POTATO, SPINACH AND CHICKPEA SOUP
ROASTED CAULIFLOWER AND COCONUT SOUP
SALMOREJO
BREAD, LEEK AND CABBAGE LAYER SOUP
CRAB AND PRAWN WONTON BROTH WITH CHARRED CORN
CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL
PORK AND BLACK BEAN SOUP WITH GREEN GODDESS DRESSING
PHO FOR ONE
FENNEL AND SAUSAGE MUFFINS
ROASTED SEED SPRINKLE
QUICK GRIDDLED MULTIGRAIN FLATBREADS
QUICK + LIGHT
LENTIL, FETA AND SPINACH FRITTERS
PUDLA
BROCCOLI, KALE AND GORGONZOLA TART WITH GRIDDLED PEARS
CREAMED GREENS ON TOAST WITH POACHED EGG AND DUKKAH
KIMCHI AND PRAWN OKONOMIYAKI
MISO TUNA SARNIE
MY FAVOURITE QUICK NOODLE BOWL
HERBY PUY LENTILS, GREENS AND SMOKED MACKEREL
LEMON SOLE WITH PRESERVED LEMON, CORIANDER AND CAPERS
POMEGRANATE CHICKEN SKEWERS WITH WALNUT AND PARSLEY PESTO
ROASTED STICKY PLUM CHICKEN WITH PICKLED CUCUMBER
ONE-PAN CREAMY SQUASH PASTA
SAUSAGE AND WILD GARLIC LINGUINE
ROASTED CHICKPEA, CAULIFLOWER AND SESAME LAMB
STICKY SPICED MEATBALLS, NOODLES AND PICKLED WATERMELON
BRESAOLA WITH SHAVED CELERIAC AND HAZELNUTS
LOW, SLOW + HEARTY
BLACK DAL
SPINACH AND BASIL GNUDI
JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE AND THYME BARLEY RISOTTO
PORK AND PRAWN GYOZAS
HEARTY FISH STEW WITH ALMOND SKORDALIA
SLOW-COOKED CHICKEN RENDANG WITH GENTLY SPICED RICE
ROAST HARISSA BUTTER CHICKEN AND CRACKED WHEAT
HAM HOCKS, FENNEL AND BEANS
STICKY PORK BELLY SALAD WITH FENNEL AND CHILLI
PECAN AND SAUSAGE STUFFING MAC ’N’ CHEESE
LANCASHIRE PIE BARM
ADOBO BRISKET WITH GRIDDLED PINEAPPLE SALSA
SPICED LAMB WITH DATES AND HERB-DRESSED FARRO
CINNAMON-BRAISED LAMB SHANKS
VENISON, WILD MUSHROOM AND CELERIAC TOPPED PIE
ROASTED GUINEA FOWL AND PUMPKIN PASTILLA
VERSATILE VEG
GRIDDLED APRICOT, LETTUCE AND FETA
GARDEN SALAD WITH BUTTERMILK DRESSING AND CARAMELISED SEEDS
A VERY SPRINGTIME SALAD
GRIDDLED RADICCHIO WITH HAZELNUT AND ROSEMARY
CHARRED BRASSICAS WITH TAHINI YOGHURT AND SUMAC
KHICHDI
INDULGENT POLENTA WITH ROASTED GARLIC BUTTER
WHOLE ROASTED MISO AUBERGINE
TOMATO, BREAD AND ROASTED RICOTTA SALAD
HONEYMOON CORN ON THE COB
APPLE, PEAR AND TARRAGON SLAW
STICKY HARISSA CARROTS AND BEETS WITH DATES
KILLER DRESSED ROAST POTATOES
GREEN CHILLI GREENS WITH CASHEWS
BAKE YOURSELF BETTER
ALMOND, OAT AND RAISIN COOKIES
AN INSANELY GOOD BLONDIE
CHERRY BAKEWELL BUNDT
MY FAVOURITE CITRUS CAKE
PRALINE ORCHARD PIE WITH BOURBON
BRITISH SUMMERTIME STACK
BANANA CAKE WITH PEANUT BUTTER FROSTING
PUMPKIN AND GINGER LAYER CAKE
CREAMY RICE PUDDING WITH SHERRY AND ROSEMARY POACHED PRUNES
MALTED MILK CHOCOLATE AND RASPBERRY TART
NECTARINE, CHAMOMILE AND HONEY GRANITA
CHOCOLATE, RYE AND PECAN CELEBRATION CAKE
BLACK BREAD
CARAWAY, HONEY AND BUTTERMILK BUNS
NO-CHURN CHAI ICE CREAM
A BIT ON THE SIDE
HOMEMADE YOGHURT
LABNEH
HOMEMADE BUTTER
PUMPKIN SEED BUTTER
PROPER CUSTARD
HIGHLY ADDICTIVE SEA SALT CARAMEL
CLASSIC STOCKS
PEACH AND BASIL CORDIAL
MY SPECIAL MINT TEA; TURMERIC, LEMON AND BLACK PEPPER TEA
ENGLISH COUNTRY GARDEN PUNCH
DUKKAH
HOMEMADE MUSTARD
THE PERFECT CHEESE SARNIE CHUTNEY
ADDICTIVE ROASTED CHILLI OIL
ROASTED MIXED BERRY JAM
INDEX
THANK YOU
COPYRIGHT
ABOUT THE BOOK
Whatever your day looks like – there is a recipe here that is just right.
Whether it is a quick and comforting noodle bowl or a hearty slow-cooked pie, this book celebrates food’s power to restore, revive and rejuvenate.
But it isn’t just about the food on your plate: it’s about how it gets there. Stirring Slowly celebrates time spent in the kitchen. Wile away a happy hour stirring a creamy black dhal, or give your undivided focus to flipping caramelised apple, ricotta and hazelnut pancakes – because cooking nourishes you inside and out.
ABOUT GEORGINA HAYDEN
Georgina is a cook, food writer and stylist from North London.
Growing up above her grandparents’ Greek Cypriot taverna in Tufnell Park, she developed a love of cooking from the recipes passed down to her. At university she studied Fine Art after which her passion for food landed her a job as a food writer and stylist on various food magazines. She went on to join Jamie Oliver’s food team where she has worked for ten years. She writes, develops and styles for magazine features, books, television projects and campaigns.
Georgina’s work is inspired by her visual eye and her love of travel. Be it sourcing props at flea markets, travelling the world for street-food, or cycling round London with her camera in tow, she documents her food adventures on her blog. Stirring Slowly is her first book.
To Peter and Archimedes.
My boys, my all.
‘and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
I carry your heart (I carry it in my heart)’
E. E. CUMMINGS
FOREWORD BY JAMIE OLIVER
Welcome, lovely people, to Stirring Slowly. It is my absolute pleasure to write the foreword to this beautiful book and to introduce you to a gorgeous, vivacious Greek Cypriot girl – the wonderful Georgie Hayden. She is a bundle of joy and she cooks fantastically well, with diligence, restraint and good taste.
Most importantly, she writes super-solid recipes that you know are going to deliver every time.
I have the authority to say this because Georgie has worked with me for more than ten years now, and I can still remember the d
ay this avalanche of energy first came bounding through the front door of our office, ready and raring to go. And I have to say, a decade later, just standing next to her makes you feel good about pretty much everything in life, which hopefully gives you an indication of just how much joy you’re going to get from these recipes.
What Georgie has achieved in this book, and what is truly unique, is that she’s got right to the heart of what makes cooking so profoundly important – its ability to help us destress and re-energise, to heal and calm, and as Georgie says on the cover, to restore and revive. She has tapped into this beautifully in both her introduction to the book, and also in the words that set the tone of each chapter and introduce you to her recipes.
Not many people focus on this side of cooking, and the incredible power food has to help us through a bad day or to help us celebrate a good day. Yet both of these things are so important. Going out and choosing your ingredients with love and care, putting them together with a positive frame of mind, and with a sense of excitement, knowing you’re going to tuck into a gorgeous bowl of home-cooked grub, or even better, share it with the people you love – you can’t beat that. It’s about all the wonderful processes of cooking – peeling, tearing, drizzling, kneading, whisking, blending and, of course, stirring.
Georgie – I love you like a sister (and Jools wants to marry you!). I’m so proud of what you’ve achieved in this brilliant book. I’m impressed and charmed by its beauty and inspired by the incredible words and recipes that fill its pages. I can’t wait to get a copy on my kitchen shelf.
INTRODUCTION
My earliest memories revolve around food.
That’s not a total surprise given I spent the first year of my life – and then most weekends after that – living above my grandparents’ restaurant in Tufnell Park. It was a classic family-run Greek Cypriot taverna, always noisy, always busy, and it was the heart of our family for many years. As kids, my sister and I would sit and pod peas, fill the salt and pepper shakers and occasionally cause chaos while my grandparents scurried around in the kitchen – it was always the most fun place to be. But my food memories go right back to when I was very little – and I’m surprised by how vivid they are. I can remember being taken in my buggy by my mum and sister to ‘the smelly shop’. ‘The smelly shop’ was the most wonderful Italian deli, around the corner from the restaurant. It was filled with hanging salamis and cured meats, and every Saturday we’d make a pilgrimage. It had a multicoloured plastic strip curtain at the entrance, and when you walked in the smells were intoxicating – focaccia, olive oil, Parmesan, Parma ham – it was smelly, but in a good way. We loved it: it meant salami and honey sandwiches for lunch.
Growing up Greek Cypriot, family always came first. Three generations of my family would sit round the table together at least once a week. And in between we’d find any excuse for a get-together, be it big events like Greek Easter or just a proper barbecue. Whatever the occasion, there was – and still is – always food to match. On Sundays it’s a roast or, if the weather is good, souvla. Poorly? Avgolemono soup, olive-oil-soaked cotton wool in your ear and zivania (a potent Cypriot spirit) on your chest. Birthdays equal cakes; celebrations equal feasts; and if someone is unwell or unable to look after themselves, there is Tupperware filled with comforting meals for days.
With food at the centre of my childhood, perhaps it was inevitable I would end up working with it. As a teenager I started a farmers’ market stall in north London selling platters of salads, homemade breads and painstakingly decorated cakes. Shortly after, I went to university to study Fine Art (I wanted to practise my obsession with styling on more than the cakes) and to this day I love sketching and photography. But when it came to choosing a career, food drew me back in. It wasn’t a difficult decision – for me the kitchen has always felt like the most exciting place to be. And I still get to indulge my creative side, particularly now that the way food is visually presented gets more and more thought.
For the last ten years I’ve been incredibly lucky to work as part of Jamie Oliver’s food team. There I develop, write and style recipes for books, magazine features, television and campaigns. Devising recipes is the highlight of my job and I get a real kick out of trying new things, understanding ingredients and figuring out dishes. But – no less important – along the way I have learnt about how and why people cook. Researching food traditions, learning about other food cultures, and simply observing what recipes strike a particular chord with readers all give me such a buzz.
So, while it goes without saying that how a dish tastes – and even how it looks – are important, I have realised over the years that these are only part of the picture. What truly brings food to life is the making, the eating, the sharing. Our restaurant days epitomised this; and, to this day, my yiayia’s dishes have the same qualities. They may be rustic but that is, without a doubt, my favourite type of meal. They’re made with love, they taste incredible and they feel like a symbol of family togetherness.
We all have an emotional attachment to food; it evokes memories, provides comfort and can often be a centre point in our day and lives.
It provides a break and a time to rest, socialize, restore and replenish. There are days when I am insanely busy and need a quick meal, but just because I don’t have time doesn’t mean I don’t want to eat properly. And then there are days when I just want to stand in my kitchen and lose myself in baking, or preserving, or stirring something for hours on end. Food and flavour is important, but the process is key too. All I knew, when I started writing this book, was that I wanted to capture that – the entire process. The beauty, the deliciousness and the way cooking makes you feel.
Whether your life is going brilliantly right now or the opposite is true and you’re having a hard time, we all need to eat and food can play a huge part in any journey. I know that from experience. A couple of years ago my husband Pete and I had our lives turned upside down. After a heavenly pregnancy, our son Archie died just before birth and it felt like our world had fallen apart. Some days it feels like yesterday, other days it feels like so much has happened since then. That’s the thing with grief and loss, it really isn’t linear. But even in those early days when nothing felt OK, there were a few constants. And despite being the last things on our mind, we had to eat, we had to get through the day.
When Pete went back to work, he would come home at lunchtime every day to see me. It was then that I stepped into the kitchen for the first time since we’d lost Archie (we had survived on food from incredibly generous family and friends up until this point – something I will never forget). The plan was to make scrambled eggs and avocado on toast. Something so simple. In actual fact we pretty much just ate avocado. I burnt the toast and I ruined the eggs. How can you ruin scrambled eggs on toast when you cook for a living? Who knows, but I did.
After the scrambled egg incident, cooking went on to become an interesting and integral part of my healing journey. I wanted to focus on something I could control – I used cooking as a form of therapy. I decided to turn to the books from my groaning bookshelf and reteach myself to cook. Every Sunday I’d find recipes to make during the week, write a list, go to the shops and spend ages picking ingredients. It started out as a challenge, a way of getting into a routine, and in turn it helped rebuild my confidence and became fun.
The ingredients I used were nourishing, the process was relaxing and the eating was pure comfort.
Along the way there have been the meals that are nutritionally sound, such as mackerel and lentil salad (here), which I know are sorting me out on the inside. And there are recipes that take time and patience (the cakes, the breads, the pies) and there are the ones that are almost meditative (the gyozas here spring to mind – you could definitely practise some breathing techniques making those bad boys). Through cooking I have looked after myself, and my little family, and regained my strength and confidence.
Writing this book took time, and it has changed along the way – it isn’t
just a collection of my favourite meals, it has been a work in progress and I’ve lived it. The subtitle is ‘recipes to restore and revive’, as I believe this applies to us all. Maybe you’ve just had a bad day, or maybe you want a lifestyle that makes you feel amazing – whoever you are, the right food at the right time is hugely uplifting. I’ve thought hard what that means to me, and what it might mean to you.
In here you’ll find breakfasts that make you want to get out of bed and won’t weigh you down, soups that act as the edible equivalent of a warm hug, light week-night meals that are quick and nutritious, and heartier indulgent ones for when you want to relax. There is an all-important veg chapter, there are puddings and cakes that will leave you relaxed (and very popular), and, lastly, there are all the extra bits that make cooking, and eating, such a pleasure.
Having been vegetarian and pescatarian for almost a decade, my diet is pretty well rounded. I’ll now eat almost anything, but after years of a plant-based diet I do still turn to veg and fruit a lot of the time. I adore meat, and I love dairy (cheese beats cake for me, and pork wins every time), but I don’t rely on them for every meal. I’ve been lucky enough to work with Jamie’s nutritionist – Laura Matthews – for almost eight years now and she was kind enough to read the book for me. It’s not calorie-counted but she’s talked me through the health benefits of some of the recipes, either as a whole or by picking out key ingredients.
The current trend for healthy eating is great, and I’m sure it has made many of us a little more aware of what we put into our bodies.
But for me any meal that is made from scratch, lovingly, is good and clean.
Cooking with raw ingredients is just as important as anything else. So much can be said through food. Sure, some foods are healthier, more nutritious, but surely the ones that aren’t shouldn’t be considered ‘bad’; just more of a treat – it’s all about balance. Often friends will ask what I’d like to eat if I’m invited round to dinner, and I will always say ‘anything’, because I genuinely feel that if someone is willing to take the time to make me something and cook for me, then that in itself is wonderful. I’ll eat whatever they enjoy making. There is so much scope for pleasure in making, sharing and eating food. Whatever my day looks like – food is always a highlight.
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