by Tom Stobart
NATIVE. See oyster.
NAVY BEAN. Variety of *kidney bean.
NECTARINE. See peach.
NEPAL PEPPER. See chilli.
NETTLE. There are many species of nettle (Urtica), some of which have a savage sting. Of the three European species, the Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica), which is distributed in temperate regions throughout the world, has been used since ancient times as a source of fibre – nettle cloth is excellent – and in spring the young tops are eaten before other vegetables come in. The stinging hairs are destroyed by boiling, but the nettle tops must be gathered with gloves. Cooked in the water that is left on them after washing, plus a little butter, they make a tasty green vegetable which was once considered to purify the blood (they even used to be forced under glass). Nettles were sometimes blanched by earthing them up, but that destroys part of their value, and they are sweet enough without. My grandmother, who came from Lancashire where nettle beer used to be sold on stalls, made it every year for the men working in the hayfield. At that season, great stone flagons frequently exploded in the larder during the night, or so it seemed to me as a child. Nettle beer is an excellent drink, more delicious and refreshing than ginger beer.
Nettle Beer
A bucket full of nettle tops and 4 good handfuls of dandelion leaves makes 9 It (16 pt) of nettle beer. Some people also add a few handfuls of goose-grass (or cleavers – Galium aparine – a common plant that sticks to clothing) and other herbs. Boil the lot in the 9 It (16 pt) of water with 50 g (2 oz) of bruised ginger. After 40 minutes’ boiling, strain off the liquid and add to it about 2 cups of brown sugar plus the juice of a lemon for acidity. When the liquid is almost cool, float 25 g (1 oz) of yeast on top and leave it to ferment for 6-7 hours. Skim, stir in a tablespoon of cream of tartar and bottle, leaving room for expanding gas. The beer is ready as soon as it is judged gassy enough.
[Nettles – French: ortie German: Nessel Italian: ortica Spanish: ortiga]
NGAPI. From Burmese nga (fish) and pi (rotten, decayed), this is a dark grey paste of decomposed fish used in Burma as a relish and flavouring; without it Burmese food would be incomplete. The best quality is said to come from Moulmein, and the beauty of the local girls is attributed to its body-building qualities. The liquid drained from ngapi is similar to the Malaysian balachan, Vietnamese *nuoc nam, the Thai *nam pla, and is used in much the same manner. In Burma, the seed of the jungle tree (Pithecolobium lobatum) is also used, raw or cooked, under the name ngapi nut; it has a strong smell, reminiscent of ngapi itself.
NIACIN. See vitamins.
NICOTINIC ACID. See vitamins (niacin).
NIGELLA (Nigella sativa) is a plain-looking species of love-in-the-mist with creamy flowers; it is grown for its black seed which has a spicy taste and is sometimes known as quatre épices in France. It is a moderately important spice in Indian cooking and is often confused with onion seed and with black *cumin. In Punjabi cooking, it is sometimes mixed with sesame seed and sprinkled on nan bread before baking.
[Nigella – French: nigelle German: Schwarzkümmel Italian: nigella Spanish: neguilla, pasionara]
NITRITES are formed from nitrates – potassium nitrate or *saltpetre and sodium nitrate or *Chile saltpetre – by heating or by the action of bacteria during the brining of meat. Nitrites turn meat pink and, even in small quantities, are lethal against many sorts of bacteria. Nitrites are also toxic to humans in any but very small amounts; the maximum amount permitted in food is officially laid down in most countries. Quantities used by commercial curers are of the order of 7-15 g (¼ to ½ oz) for 45 kg (100 lb) of meat, which in household quantities would require such accurate measurement that the use of nitrites as such in the home must be ruled out.
Fortunately, nitrite poisoning is rare. A well-documented outbreak did occur a few years ago in the US, when a waiter put sodium nitrite in restaurant salt-cellars by mistake. A number of citizens were admitted to hospital having turned blue – a symptom of nitrite poisoning. Good detective work was necessary to trace the offending restaurant, since only some of the salt cellars had been filled, and only those customers who had salted their breakfast lavishly were ill. Most of the poisoned also turned out to have hangovers, which cause an increased demand for salt. Nitrites (and so the nitrates from which they form) are currently under suspicion of combining with meat to form nitrosamines which are carcinogenic, but so far no safer substitute has been found to guard against botulism in preserved meats.
[Nitrate – French: nitrate German: Nitrat Italian: nitrato, azotato Spanish: nitrato]
NIXTAMAL. See masa.
NON-DAIRY CREAMER. See milk (milk substitutes).
NOODLES in oriental cooking may be made from wheat flour, with or without eggs, much in the manner of Italian *pasta. However, many other types are called for in Chinese recipes and may be obtained from Chinese shops around the world. Noodles made of rice flour, which have a flavour of their own, are sometimes fried until they puff up, or soaked briefly and stir-fried, or used in dishes with anything from pork to lily buds. Noodles made with a basis of mung bean are as shiny as nylon and need soaking before they are cooked. They are mainly mixed with other ingredients; although they are rather tasteless, they have a special gelatinous texture when cooked. Noodles can be made from all manner of starchy substances, such as arrowroot. Japanese noodles include udon, which is similar to macaroni, and somen, which is like vermicelli. Soba is thin buckwheat noodles, while chasoba (tea soba) is made of buckwheat and green tea. Harusame is made with soya bean. Shirataki is a very fine vermicelli which is made from a glutinous, yam-like tuber, devil’s tongue (Amorphophallus kanjac).
[Noodle – French: nouille German: Nudel Italian: pasta Spanish: pasta]
NOPALES. See prickly pear.
NOYAU. To good peasants who do not like to waste anything, the kernels of apricots, peaches, plums and cherries present a challenge. Like bitter *almonds, they contain a glucoside which, when mixed with water (or the saliva in the mouth) is converted by enzymes into a mixture of benzaldehyde and deadly poisonous hydrocyanic acid. Noyau (from the French noyau, a fruit stone) is a *liqueur, cordial and useful flavouring, which consists essentially of a sugar syrup, usually with alcohol, flavoured with macerated kernels or sometimes with peach leaves or bitter almonds, which contain similar principles. Noyau had a reputation for being ‘unwholesome’ – naturally so, if there was cyanide in it. However, a quick boil will drive off the volatile poison, leaving only a delicate taste of benzaldehyde behind.
Noyau
Collect apricot stones, peach stones and plum stones. Wash them and dry them in the sun. When you have enough to produce a cup of kernels, crack them by hitting on the edge with a hammer, and extract the nuts. Put them through the liquidizer with water and leave them to macerate overnight. Strain the liquid, squeezing the last drops out with a cloth. Add enough sugar to make a syrup and boil for a minute. Cool. Add a little lemon juice gradually, tasting, adding more sugar (or honey if you like) until you get the balance to your liking. The acid lemon will have made a cloudy precipitate form. Let it settle, then decant the clear liquid and mix it with an equal quantity of brandy – the rather sweet Spanish 103 brand is excellent for this – or any grape or other spirits will do, provided the flavour is not too pronounced. The noyau can be drunk immediately and usually is.
NORI. See seaweed.
NORWAY LOBSTER. See scampi.
NUOC-NAM is the best known of the salty, matured fish sauces and is very important in the cooking of Vietnam and adjacent Laos and Cambodia. It is available in specialist shops, and quite generally in France where the old colonial connection is still evident. Its simplest use is as a dipping sauce.
NUTMEG is the seed of a tree (Myristica fragrans) that is native to the Molucca Islands of Indonesia, but now grown in other tropical countries, notably in Grenada. Nutmegs should be bought whole (if they are white, they have been treated with lime), as ground nutmeg quickly loses its fragrance. A small grater kept in the jar
with the nutmegs is a convenience. In quantity, nutmeg is a narcotic, but in ordinary amounts it is a most useful flavouring for meat, fish, vegetables (especially onions and spinach), sweets and cakes. The aril around the nutmeg seed is *mace.
[Nutmeg – French: muscade German: Muskatnuss Italian: noce moscata Spanish: nuez moscada]
NUT. Any large, dry fruit or seed with a hard shell and edible kernel is called a nut. There are hundreds of different kinds, most of them unknown outside the areas in which they grow, and the definition also covers sunflower seeds, melon seeds and other kernels which many people would perhaps not regard as nuts.
When thoroughly dry, most nuts may be stored in their shells for varying periods, depending on the kind, and can be held for longer periods in cold storage provided they are left in the shell.
Commercially, nuts are graded and, if they are for dessert use, the shells may be bleached or dyed to improve the appearance. However, the bulk of the nuts produced for sale are cracked and shelled in the factory, since the public prefers the convenience, even though nuts keep better in the shell, which protects them from the oxygen of the air and from micro-organisms. Many kinds go rancid rather easily once they have been shelled, unless they are packed in gas or in a vacuum. Rancid nuts are not only unpleasant but actually harmful.
Nuts are generally rich in oil. The very oily nuts like walnuts, pecans and Brazils have around 65% fats, and even the less oily peanut has 50%.The oils are released from the cells by pounding. Some nuts, however, like chestnuts and acorns, are mainly carbohydrate. As many nuts are also rich in calcium and iron (e.g. almonds and Brazils), as well as being high in potassium and low in sodium, they have important possibilities in the diet. A few (e.g. peanuts) are also high in protein.
Nut butters can be made from any of the oily nuts. The best known, of course, is peanut almonds, cashew nuts, Brazil nuts and even walnuts and pine nuts, although the product tends to be too oily. Nut butters can easily be made at home using the special nut butter attachment of a nut mill or even a meat mincer.
Details and techniques are given in the appropriate sections.
The most important nuts are *almonds, *peanuts, *Brazil nuts, *hazel nuts, *walnuts, *chestnuts, *coconuts, and *pistachio nuts. These are always generally available and are most used in cooking. A few other nuts, such as the *macadamia and the *cashew have recently become popular or, like *candlenuts, feature in important regional cooking styles. There are, however, many other nuts, especially from the tropics, which are of local importance and will be met with by travellers or as an occasional curiosity, but are not regularly exported.
[Nut – French: noix German: Nuss Italian: noce Spanish: nuez]
o
OATS and OATMEAL. Oats (Avena sativa) have been cultivated at least since the Bronze Age and in Britain since the Iron Age, but their origin is uncertain.
They are essentially a cereal of cold, wet places and so did not play a part in the economy of the early Mediterranean civilizations. Oats and rye grow further north than other cereals, and so are important in the less hospitable regions, such as Alaska and Norway .(Another species, the Black oat or Bristle oat, A. strigosa, is grown in hilly areas that are unsuitable even for A. sativa.). In Scotland, oats used to be a staple food, and part of a farm labourer’s wages were paid in oatmeal.
However, oats are now mainly grown as an animal foodstuff. They do not contain a gluten that will stand up to make leavened bread, and the dominant flavour is slightly bitter and very characteristic. However, oatmeal is valuable from a nutritional viewpoint, as it has much the analysis of wheat but with more fat and biotin. Simple oatmeals are made by stone-grinding the grain, and fine, medium and coarse (or pin-meal) grades are available. Fine oatmeal is used for oatcakes; coarse oatmeal for porridge, haggis and white puddings. For many purposes, oat meal is better after being parched, that is, slightly roasted. Rolled oats, for breakfast porridge, are made from carefully dried, clean and graded oats, which have been pearled: they have the husk ground off and are then steam-softened and rolled flat.
Rolled oats keep because heating destroys the enzymes which would act on the fats in the germ of crude meal to produce free fatty acids and thus cause the meal to go rancid; straight oatmeal is a bad keeper, which is why the Scots like pin-meal for porridge to be freshly ground. Oatmeal porridge (there are porridges made from other cereals, and during the Depression it was often made of stale bread, sugar and water) used to be the ubiquitous British breakfast starter. The technique of making porridge is similar to that used for polenta – grain is sprinkled into boiling water with the left hand while the right hand stirs it with a spoon or fork to prevent it going lumpy. Porridge can be made even from plain oatmeal by boiling for 20 minutes (most porridge oats are much quicker) but as half cooked – and often lumpy – nursery porridge was unpleasant, it became usual to leave it on the stove overnight in a double boiler (the stove would of course be a solid fuel one which provided a suitable heat), or to use an old-fashioned hay box – campers may boil the porridge up at night and roll the pan in a blanket to have ready-made hot breakfast. Porridge should always be sufficiently salted and may then be eaten with no more than the addition of fresh milk. With plenty of ice-cold thick cream, the combination of hot and cold is fabulous, but then even dry parched oatmeal and cream (crowdie) is splendid. Porridge lovers do not use the sugar, syrup or treacle that most people south of the border have on it. Porridge has regrettably been largely ousted by nastier breakfast cereals, even in Scotland.
Oatmeal, though, is more than a breakfast food; there are few things more delicious than small brown trout straight from the burn, rolled in salted oatmeal and fried over the camp fire; a similar treatment is excellent for herrings. Oatmeal has an affinity with onions, as in onion and oatmeal soup and in white puddings, all hearty food for the winter mountains, but for really heroic Scots winter fare, a *kale brose (bone stock, kale and oatmeal) would take some beating, though you could well prefer the famous Atholl Brose, which consists of oatmeal with Scotch whisky and heather honey.
White Pudding
Take 225 g (½ lb) of good coarse oatmeal parched to a light brown in a dry pan, 225 g (½ lb) or more finely chopped beef suet, a small onion, very finely chopped, and a good seasoning of salt and freshly ground black pepper or allspice.
Mix together – no water – and tie in a cloth into a sausage shape. Plunge the pudding under with a plate if necessary to begin with, and simmer it for 1½-2 hours. (More sophisticated versions are made by including minced pork or chicken and eggs in the mixture, and by cooking in sausage skin rather than cloth.) When the pudding is cool, remove the cloth. Slices of pudding can be fried or grilled.
Oatcakes
The simplest way of making oatcakes is to mix fine or medium oatmeal into a dough with salt and water, then to knead it for a couple of minutes. Sprinkle the top with a little oatmeal, and put the cake straight on to a hot, ungreased girdle or bakestone. Bake on both sides without allowing the cake to colour, and then put to dry by the fire or in a very cool oven. However, a little fat, butter or dripping is usually rubbed in before the water is added, and some people add a pinch of baking soda. Making neat oatcakes is not easy. It is best to knead enough for one cake at a time; as the dough must be slack. It gets very sticky. When the dough is rolled out, the edges crack (pinch them between thumb and finger). Round oatcakes are cut with a plate and then quartered to make the shape in which they are sold in packets. Use plenty of oatmeal for dusting, but keep the girdle brushed clean.
[Oat – French: avoine German: Hafer Italian: avena Spanish: avena]
OCCA or oca. See yam (oka).
OCTOPUS is a creature that is widely regarded with revulsion (a local name for them is ‘mansuckers’); a terrible fight with a giant octopus was described in Victor Hugo’s Toilers of the Sea. lt is true that octopuses are very strong and divers have occasionally been attacked by large specimens which they have disturbed, but skin divers usually find them to
be rather shy and to have a certain nobility. The salivary glands of a few species, notably the little blue octopus of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, secrete a poison, and their bites can be rapidly fatal. European and American species, though, are harmless, and, unlike cuttlefish, octopuses rarely bite. Octopuses are highly regarded as food on most warm sea coasts, although in Britain and America no *cephalopods are traditionally eaten. An Aberdeen trawler skipper I once sailed with was horrified when I suggested that there were people who would be glad of the octopus he caught in his nets and threw away.
Octopuses are molluscs, so have no backbone and during evolution have lost the stiffening they once had. Unlike squids and cuttlefish they prefer to crawl rather than swim; they hide in holes. The lairs of octopuses are usually surrounded by the shells they have eaten and by stones, which they gather together and, when disturbed, pull over their door. There are hundreds of different species, of variable quality as food. Some are too big or too small, some very tough, and others have a strong and musky taste. The best have been compared to lobster.
Most European octopus recipes come from the Mediterranean and Portugal. The best known species is the Common octopus (Octopus vulgaris); the rather similar O. macropus has longer, thinner tentacles and is called polpessa by the Italians. They will be distinguished by shoppers in Mediterranean fishing ports, but most people elsewhere will not acquire that degree of expertise. Smaller octopuses of the genus Eledone can even be bought canned. There are two kinds. The Red (E. moschata) is the more tender, but has a strong musky flavour, while the White (E. cirrosa), which has a pale colour, lacks the musky taste but is tougher. The main problem with octopuses lies not in recognizing the kinds, but in cooking them so that they look presentable and are not tough.
In 1874, a gentleman named Sir John Burrows, gave an Octopus Luncheon in Brighton. His chefs were not versed in Mediterranean lore and neither were his guests. ‘Its skin, which in process of boiling had become lividly purple, and had not been removed, was in places offensively broken, and its arms, shrivelled and shrunk, sprawled helplessly on the dish and somehow looked, as they proved to be, as tough and ropy as so many thongs of hunting whips. I shall never forget the utter loathing, ludicrously mingled with determination... which was depicted on the countenances of the guests.’