Nigella Lawson’s Spiced Peaches
Much as I love, love, love the holidays, I am not exactly a stranger to the stress they can induce. We all know what it’s like to go into hostess meltdown, when instead of feeling glad everyone’s coming over, you start feeling panicked and resentful, and even a little tearful. And the pressure to come up with original and exciting gifts is not only challenging, it can be ruinously expensive.
But while I don’t deny that this time of year can be both costly and exhausting, I do feel there are so many ways of having a good time, of giving a great time, and of really wallowing in the holiday spirit without breaking the bank or sacrificing your sanity.
Not only does food not have to be fancy to be good, I am of the firm belief that the simplest meals are the most welcoming. The holidays are a celebration of home, not of restaurant traditions, and if your friends and family are anything like mine, they’d be a lot happier coming to a holiday feast where they gather around a roquamole dip (the recipe can be found in Nigella Express) or sup on golden split pea and frankfurter soup (the recipe can be found in Feast) than they would be if faced with a caviar and eggplant stack. What the season demands is coziness, not glitz.
I’m not saying you can’t go to town on decorations; minimalism isn’t really in the spirit of the occasion. I bulk buy beautiful baubles and hang them everywhere--not just off trees--and I also fill glass bowls and vases with them.
For me, the holidays have a particular scent, and you don’t need to buy expensive candles to give your home that festive fragrance: I leave cinnamon sticks on radiators; stud clementines, satsumas or mandarin oranges with cloves and leave them decoratively, aromatically about; likewise, small bowls or measuring cups of hot water with a few drops of almond extract sprinkled in them make the house smell warm and welcoming.
Table decoration can be as simple as some pine cones gathered from a walk (dust them with powdered sugar once they’re in place to give a snowy look), some bunches of cinnamon sticks tied together with a ribbon reserved from a gift received, a few red apples just dotted about, and small see-through tealight holders filled with jewel-shiny cranberries.
As for the issue of gifts: I have long ago found out that what people really relish is something made with love--a commodity much more significant than any price tag. For ease, accessibility, affordability and just utter gorgeousness--and please excuse if this sounds like bragging--I don’t believe you can do better than to give a jar of my spiced peaches (the recipe is in Nigella Express) to each and every one of your nearest and dearest. I’m off to make a lazy batch of them now!
Nigella Lawson’s Spiced Peaches
From Nigella Express: Good Food Fast
Ingredients:
2 14-ounce cans peach halves in syrup
1 tablespoon rice vinegar or white wine vinegar
2 short cinnamon sticks
1-1/2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and sliced thinly into rounds
1/2 teaspoon crushed dried chiles
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt or 1/4 teaspoon table salt
1/4 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
3 cloves
Directions:
1. Empty the cans of peaches into a saucepan with their syrup.
2. Add the vinegar, cinnamon, sliced ginger, chiles, salt, whole peppercorns, and cloves.
3. Bring the pan to a boil, and let it boil for a minute or so, then turn off the heat and leave in the pan to keep warm.
4.
Serve the peaches with a hot ham, letting people take a peach half each
and some of the spiced juice. Any leftovers can (and should) be stored
in a jar and then eaten cold with cold ham.
Serves approximately 8 people with a ham roast.
Excerpted from Nigella Express by Nigella Lawson. Photographs by Lis Parsons. Copyright (c) 2007 Nigella Lawson. Published in the United States by Hyperion. All Rights Reserved. Available wherever books are sold.
Carolyn T at tastingspoons.com on December 25, 2008 at 08:37 AM
I enjoyed these peaches very much. I made them, actually, to serve at a brunch, rather than with ham for dinner. Be a little cautious about the chile flakes, though - they add a real heat to the dish - may be too hot for some people. But I liked the flavor of the chiles. You know how chiles are sometimes - you never know exactly how hot they'll be. I posted Nigella's recipe on my own food blog at http://tastingspoons.com/archives/1030 in case you're interested.