My quarantine take on 'Julie & Julia'... 'Layla & Nigella'??

‘Julie & Julia’ the 2009 film, features the one and only Meryl Streep playing the role of Julia Child, an American author, chef and TV personality, who is famous for bringing exquisite French cuisine to America. Julie Powell, played by Amy Adams, is an aspiring blogger and Julia Child superfan. In order to find enjoyment outside of her day job, Julie decides to attempt to cook all 524 recipes out of Julia Child's book in just 365 days whilst recording the ups and downs of this in her own blog.

Re-watching this film last week, I couldn’t help but somewhat relate to Julie. This past few weeks at home, I have spent a lot of time both cooking and starting this blog. It got me thinking about famous cooks who I love and admire.

My personal favourite, hands down, has to be Nigella Lawson. I have always enjoyed watching her TV shows. I love how genuinely passionate about food she is, and she is not afraid to hide how much she loves it. Nothing comforts me more than seeing Nigella sneak downstairs to eat leftover food in the middle of the night, and I relate to her on another level.

In 2015, I dragged two of my friends to Waterstones in Manchester to a Nigella Lawson book signing. I was so excited to meet a true TV and food icon! To my great sadness, we were greeted by a huge queue of people all as excited as me. After queuing for a while, we unfortunately had to leave so that we didn’t miss our train home. Nevertheless, I left with my pre-signed copy of ‘Simply Nigella’ in hand and with the happiness of having got a glimpse of Nigella from afar.

With all of this being said, I decided it was only right to use both ‘Julie & Julia’ and Nigella Lawson as the inspiration for this next blog. Now, sadly I will not be taking the same leap as Julie and be committing to cooking Nigella’s recipes every day for 365 days. However, I have dedicated some of this extra time at home to Nigella.

This past week, every day I have followed a new Nigella recipe from none other than my signed copy of ‘Simply Nigella’, and here are the results:

Day 1- Oven-baked egg hash

For the first Nigella dish of the week, I picked this simple but tasty breakfast. Nigella describes this as a perfect 'weekend breakfast', and me and my mum can both definitely support this.

It is as easy as chopping potatoes, peppers and red onion and mixing with oil, spices and seasoning. Then into the oven for 40 minutes before adding the eggs for an extra 5 minutes in the oven.

Sadly, I didn't make the salsa Nigella recommended to have with it and I think that would make this even better.

Therefore I give this dish an 8/10.

Day 2- Breakfast banana bread with cardamom and cocoa nibs

Keeping it on trend, for day 2, I joined the nation in baking an isolation banana bread.

Nigella's addition of cardamom and dark chocolate chips take away from the sweetness of the cake and gives it extra flavour.

This banana bread smelt so good, hence why I couldn't resist from slicing it and eating it pretty much as soon as it came out of the oven.

And I can confirm that the taste lived up to the smell. This one gets a solid 9/10.

Day 3- Indian-spiced shepherd’s pie

Unfortunately, this shepherd's pie isn't the most photogenic dish and the photo doesn't do the taste any justice at all.

The process of learning a few new techniques, including, squeezing juice out of grated ginger and adding the starchy water from boiling the sweet potatoes to the sweet potato mash to thicken it, made this dish taste even better at the end.

This shepherd's pie was full of flavour, a massive hit with all of my family, and I will definitely be making this again.

This dish deserves nothing less than 10/10.

Day 4- Oat pancakes with raspberries and honey

After a morning of online classes, I love to

make myself brunch. I was drawn to this recipe because unlike your regular pancakes, these are made with porridge oats instead of flour and oat milk or any other milk of your choice, so I was intrigued to see how they would turn out.

Sadly, I got myself a little flustered at the thought of ruining these which led me to leaving the batter sitting for too long causing it to thicken. This made my pancakes slightly too dry and thick giving them an unpleasant texture.

Due to this, I would give my pancakes a 5/10, however can imagine them tasting great if executed right and will definitely try again.

Day 5- Chicken and wild rice

When I told my family this wild rice was next on the menu, my sister was disgusted by the thought of dried cranberries in rice (shockingly she's 23, not 12!).

Also with the current situation, I wasn't able to find wild rice so settled for a mix of basmati rice and wild rice.

Regardless of this small hurdle and the 3 michelin star food critic sat on my sofa, this dish turned out to be greatly successful and so full of flavour. This even got a 10/10 from my sister who enjoyed every last cranberry on her plate.

Leveling up with the Indian-spiced shepherd's pie, this Chicken and wild rice

also scores a full house, 10/10.

Day 6- Strapatsada and Go get ‘em smoothie

Day 6's breakfast, was essentially tomatoey scrambled eggs but much more appealing than it sounds. Now I'm not the biggest fan of tomatoes, but even I still enjoyed this.

Nigella serves the Strapatsada on 'good bread, such as sourdough', however I settled for a good classic loaf of hovis and it did the job perfectly.

Also instead of a salty cheese, I made use of what I had in the house, and topped the dish with goats cheese. Although the cheese melted it tasted good and gets a 8/10 from me.

I paired this with an old classic the 'Go get 'em smoothie' from the 'Nigella Express' book. This chocolatey, coffee and banana smoothie (arguably more a milkshake) is a definite 10/10.

Day 7- Spiced lamb stew with a goat’s cheese and thyme cobbler topping

My final dish this week, was perfect for an Easter Sunday dinner. The lamb stew was so easy to make, and leaving it in the oven for 2 hours meant that I could leave it to cook whilst getting on with my day.

The goats cheese and thyme cobbler toppings are essentially like little cheesy scones, and if that doesn't convince you then I don't know what else will!

This ends my week of Nigella with a warming, hearty dish that secures the final

10/10 from me.

So, 7 days later, a stomach full of delicious food and slightly drained from all this cooking, I am not only even more amazed that Julie managed this for a full 365 days, but I am also even more thankful to Nigella for creating these recipes and for inspiring my cooking.

Although I will not be committing to cooking Nigella recipes for the following 358 days, I will definitely continue to follow her recipes and highly recommend both Nigella's recipes and the film 'Julie & Julia' to everyone.

With this all being said, I hope you're all still staying safe, and as Julia Child would say, 'Bon Appetit' xoxo