So how good is Nigel Slater?

Yes I know - Nigel Slater again. This is because when I was 'doing' rocket I came across a recipe called Stove-top Dauphinoise with Pancetta and Rocket. I had found it in Real Food but there was no picture, just an arty black and white photo of some rocket. So I set off browsing the net attempting to find one. And I did indeed find three from various bloggers who have made this dish. What gave me pause for thought though was the following photograph:

Not very appetising looking at all, which isn't to say it couldn't taste good, although now I am wondering whether it is the dish assembled before cooking. I am also wondering whether there is no photo in Nigel Slater's book because it's not a photogenic dish. I suspect that this particular post on the blog called Frugal Food is not actually finished, so I have no way of telling whether this is the finished dish or an early stage - there's just one paragraph that sounds sort of introductory and is, moreover, repeated. Very messy - which makes me think my own blog is not so bad after all. However, on looking at the recipe itself again I have decided that it could well be the finished dish - so maybe this writer is just super honest. Well at no point is it put under a grill or in the oven to brown it off, and dishes cooked on top of the stove like this don't usually brown - it's not a steak that your turn over in hot fat after all. Though you do have to brown the potatoes and the pancetta off first before you add the cream.

But then I also found a rather more appetising photograph, so I decided, temporarily to ignore the one above:

However, this blogger - The Little Bean - stated that she had had to finish the dish off in the oven for an extra half an hour because it wasn't cooked:

"Another Dauphinoise, another hella lot of cream. This recipe didn’t turn out quite as it should of, I had to bake it for a good thirty minutes after I had cooked it on the stove for about fifteen minutes. This could’ve been down to the type of potatoes I used. The recipe asked for waxy potatoes, I used normal white potatoes that are supposed to be quite versatile, but now I think I probably should’ve used floury ones instead."

Which also gave me pause for thought. Could this be classed as a failure, or was it that she did not slice the potatoes thinly enough, or piled them too thickly in the frying pan which might not have been big enough. Was the fault hers - or was the fault in the recipe that didn't explain fully enough? Or was there an inherent flaw in the recipe itself?

And then I found this picture:

Not a real good photograph but it does make it look rather more appetising. This was from a blog called Pudding, Pie & Georgia. She makes no mention of finishing off in the oven but does say that the potatoes should be sliced very thinly - preferably on a mandoline, though I have to say they don't look that thin in the photograph. She said it was delicious though. Maybe her frying pan was bigger - because the last version I found (no photograph for which there is an apology) waxed lyrical about the whole dish but stated that he did not have a big enough pan for a kilogram of potatoes and so had halved the quantities - he or she was only cooking for two anyway.

"It really is a visual treat though and a nicely smelly one. Just cooking it was a pleasure instead of a chore, the bit where you stir in the rocket and the cream and milk, the golden potatoes against the dark green of the rocket and the white of the cream and milk, you just know it’s going to taste good." Lacer's Life

All of which left me wondering about the efficacy of recipes. I found one website that said you should throw out all recipes and cook books, just learn basic techniques and go for it. Well - that's really rather hard for a beginner or somebody you are trying to convince to cook isn't it? This guy had taken himself off to a posh cooking school in Paris - like Julia Child all those years ago, so I don't think that really is sensible option for the ordinary man. Where is he going to learn basic techniques? (Delia Smith's website actually.)

And just this small sample of people trying one recipe does show how almost everyone fiddles to a certain extent with recipes, which is something that Nigel Slater himself recommends.

Which sort of brings me back to Nigel Slater and why I constantly refer to him, even though I actually haven't made all that many of his recipes. I came to him late in life at a time when I tend to cook less from recipes and more from what is in the fridge. Which is why I have instituted David's special meal day. The photo at the top of the page is the Home page of Slater's website - and note the subtitle - A Cook Who Writes. Cook, not chef, and with an emphasis on writing. For really this is one of the main reasons I constantly refer to him. He just writes so well and often has something apt to say about the topic in hand. Kathleen Alcott in The New Yorker writes at length about why he is her 'go to' recipe master.

"Coming back to Slater clarified the attraction for me and helped me to understand what it is that makes his books singular. Yes, there’s his flawless risotto (with parmesan, mint, and zucchini flowers) and the careful juxtaposition of flavors in his almond cake (with lemon and thyme). There’s his masterful, stylistically complex writing: he can wield the second person as an effective narrative tool, then engage the royal “we” as a gentle didactic, all in the space of a page. (From “Eat”: “You watch the flesh change from pearl white to snow white and see the edges turn pale gold.… We need to learn to control the heat. But first we must know our pan.”) But the fundamental appeal of his books is, for me, reducible to the reason he began to cook at all.

Slater is the writer for those of us who have ended up in the kitchen because transforming chopped vegetables and seasoned meats into complex dishes makes us feel that we have acted capably for the sake of our own well-being, and for the well-being of those we love."

And I think that is what we want and need from our food writers is it not? Someone who actually makes us want to cook, something tasty, healthy and interesting. I tried to find people on the net who were having a go at Nigel Slater, but honestly I couldn't find any. I think I found just a couple of recipes that had failed somebody, but no real criticism of his writing. So sorry people you're going to have him inflicted on you from time to time - plus Delia, Robert Carrier, Elizabeth David, Jamie - all for their words of wisdom as much as for their recipes. Donna Hay for her pictures not her words, she doesn't say much that isn't advertising speak. But I should really look at Nigella (I don't have any of her books), or Bill Granger and the River Café ladies too.