Nadiya’s Everyday Baking episode 6: Nadiya shares her simple celebratory bakes for every day of the week, which make special occasions a whole lot easier. She gets the party started with a playful crowd pleaser inspired by her travels to New Orleans. Her take on a Louisiana seafood boil is bursting with succulent langoustines, scattered with mussels and clams and bathed in a zesty, buttery sauce.
Next up is a traditional Eastern European sweet bread known as babka. This simple-but-spectacular loaf has twisted layers of soft, sweet buttery bread and is bursting with joyful rainbow sprinkles – a clever alternative to cake designed to steal the show at any special occasion. Then, Nadiya gets our taste buds tingling with her slow-cooked lamb daleem, baked with golden oats and lentils for a rich and luxurious sauce, loaded with the warming spices of garam masala and topped with fresh, zingy ginger. Inspired by her first taste of daleem as a child in Bangladesh, Nadiya slashes the cooking time of this amazing curry with the help of the oven.
Nadiya’s grand finale is her beautiful meringue cake. Two layers of fluffy Victoria sponge are crowned with a peaked meringue top, sandwiched together with soft whipped cream and fresh fruit before being adorned in flecks of gold. Meanwhile, award-winning macaron maker Naeem Mohamed shares his astonishing macaron stack cake. Naeem fell in love with his wife over their joint passion for macarons, and his light-as-air creations would steal the show at any celebration.
Nadiya’s Everyday Baking episode 6
Nadiya Jamir Hussain is a British TV chef, author and television presenter. She rose to fame after winning the sixth series of BBC’s The Great British Bake Off in 2015. Since winning, she has signed contracts with the BBC to host the documentary The Chronicles of Nadiya and TV cookery series Nadiya’s British Food Adventure and Nadiya’s Family Favourites; co-presented The Big Family Cooking Showdown; and has become a regular contributor on The One Show.
Nadiya Hussain is a columnist for The Times Magazine and has signed publishing deals with Penguin Random House, Hodder Children’s Books and Harlequin. She has appeared as a guest panellist on ITV’s Loose Women. She was invited to bake a cake for the 90th birthday celebrations of Elizabeth II.
In 2017, Hussain was named by Debrett’s as one of the 500 most influential people in the UK and was on BBC News’ 100 Women list. She was also shortlisted for Children’s Book of the Year prize at the British Book Awards for Bake Me A Story and was nominated for Breakthrough Star at the Royal Television Society Awards for The Chronicles of Nadiya. Ted Cantle, the author of a government report on community cohesion, said Hussain had done “more for British-Muslim relations than 10 years of government policy”.
Slow-cooked lamb daleem
Daleem is a slow-cooked hearty stew. I remember eating it during monsoon season in Bangladesh. I was travelling with my uncle and we got caught in the rain; we sheltered in a lantern-lit stall that sold just one thing: daleem! Cooked in a massive vat, it was served with soft bread. Here’s my version, made with lamb, lentils and oats.
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 190C/180C Fan/Gas 5.
- Put a large frying pan over a high heat, add the oats and stir until they are golden-brown (keep an eye on them as they will burn quickly). Remove the pan from the heat and set aside.
- Put a large flameproof casserole (with a lid) over a medium heat. Add the oil and when it is hot, add the cinnamon, bay leaves and cumin seeds. As soon as the spices start to sizzle, add the onions and salt and mix until the onions are starting to brown.
- Add the garlic, ginger, garam masala, turmeric, chilli, ground coriander, lentils and lamb. Mix well and pour in 1.5 litres/2⅔ pints water. Add the toasted oats, put the lid on and transfer to the oven for 3 hours. Check after 1 hour and add more water, if needed. After another hour, give the curry a good stir and add a little more water if necessary. Return to the oven for the final hour.
- The lamb should be cooked until it’s falling apart. Stir the curry to break up the pieces of lamb. Serve in bowls, sprinkled with the ginger, chillies and a good squeeze of lemon.
Sprinkle babka loaf – Nadiya’s Everyday Baking episode 6
Nadiya’s take on a traditional Dutch treat: a slice of white bread, buttered and generously topped with chocolate sprinkles. This sprinkle babka loaf is an all-in-one version: a bread dough with butter and sprinkles swirled through, then plaited and baked.
Method:
- Grease a 900g/2lb loaf tin and line with baking paper.
- To make the dough, place the flour in the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a large bowl if you are making it by hand. Add the yeast and sugar to one side of the flour and the salt to the other. Give it a quick mix, then make a well in the centre. Add the beaten eggs and milk and mix until the dough starts to come together. If you’re using a stand mixer, attach a dough hook and use it to bring the dough together.
- Start adding the butter, a small piece at a time, until it has all been incorporated. Knead on a high speed for 6 minutes. If you are kneading by hand, use as little flour as possible and knead for about 10 minutes until the dough is smooth, shiny and stretchy. Lightly flour a work surface and roll out the dough to a 20x30cm/8x12in rectangle.
- Make the sprinkle butter by mixing the butter with the sugar and half the sprinkles.
- With one of the long edges of the dough rectangle closest to you, spread the sprinkle butter over the dough, leaving a 1cm/½in border all the way around. Scatter over the remaining sprinkles evenly, pushing them into the dough.
- Starting at the long edge, roll up the dough tightly, like a Swiss roll. Place the roll seam-side down. Using a sharp knife, cut it in half lengthwise.
- Turn the two long pieces of dough so you can see stripes of dough and sprinkle butter, then place one piece on top of the other to make a large cross. Crisscross the dough like a two-strand plait, then gently lift the plaited dough into the prepared tin, tucking the ends under. Cover with a clean tea towel and leave in a warm place until doubled in size.
- Preheat the oven to 190C/180C Fan/Gas 5. Bake the loaf for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 160C/150C Fan/Gas 3 and bake for a further 25 minutes. Leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make the glaze by mixing the golden syrup and water.
- Remove the loaf from the tin and brush all over with the glaze before finishing with the extra sprinkles. Leave on a wire rack to cool completely. Once the loaf has cooled, slice and serve. Nobody is stopping you from adding more butter and sprinkles, if you wish.