She may have been late to the kitchen, but it hasn’t taken Natalia Conroy long to cook up a storm among foodie circles. The young chef talks about learning from her husband and impressing food idol, Nigella Lawson
Natalia Conroy knows a good deal about having too many cooks in the kitchen.
Author of new cookery title The Kitchen Orchard, the 26-year-old is married to fellow chef Jonathan, who she met while working at London’s famed River Cafe restaurant, which boasts Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall as a former employee.
But far from squabbling over saucepans and meddling with each other’s menus, theirs is a harmonious kitchen, and the two often take it in turns to cook in the evenings, or team up for their private dining clients.
“It’s a real partnership,” says Conroy, who studied Russian and German literature and language at Oxford University, and only started to consider cooking as a real career choice after a stint waitressing at River Cafe in her summer holidays.
“My husband’s been cooking three times as long as I have, and in professional kitchens. The River Cafe was the only place I worked in a formal style, and although that was three years, that doesn’t compare to the years he’s racked up in other restaurants.
“So I take a lot of my form from him, and when we have a job, I tend to be a bit more anxious and he’s more confident.”
But Conroy, who was raised and lives in London, was a dealt a hefty boost of confidence from the acclaim she’s drawn from her first book.
She draws inspiration from seasonal produce and her well-stocked store cupboard, and it’s clear that winter is a fertile time for her.
“I guess I really enjoy being able to cook things slowly and to leave them to take their time,” she says.
“It’s a very hearty time of year, and I think everybody agrees, you feel more hungry in the winter. You need more energy to do things, and we’re all a bit more glad for a nice bowl of something you’ve made an effort with.”
Understandably for two chefs, the kitchen is the “hub” of the house and a great place to hunker down during the cold months.
“It’s the room we’re in most of the time,” she says. “There are a lot of cookery books in piles on the floor. We’ve got a sofa in there as well; there’s no way any other room is going to win over a room with a fridge and a sofa.”
Among that “mountain” of books, is a treasured copy of Nigella Lawson’s Feast.
“When I was younger, Nigella was a massive inspiration. Her books made me feel like I could just make do and mend anything, and cooking was fun,” she explains. “I remember going to a book signing when I was at Oxford, and Nigella was doing a signing of her book Feast. I went to meet her and it was the most exciting day ever.”
And in a lovely twist, Conroy’s own book attracted quotes of praise from Lawson, as well as from River Cafe co-founder Ruth Rogers and acclaimed food writer Claudia Roden.
“Nigella’s first food books were my favourites, and so it was absolutely amazing that she enjoyed my book. You can’t really get higher praise and encouragement than from her.
“When I got the book deal, it was a real honour, and I thought, ‘I’m not sure I know enough to write a book’,” Conroy continues. “I really felt that was something Claudia Roden did and Nigella did, so it’s wonderful to have praise from people who really know what they’re talking about.
“Hopefully, I put out some recipes and ideas and thoughts about cooking that make people want to make something to eat. But obviously, I haven’t spent my life researching food or cuisine. I’ve still got a long way to go, I guess.”
It certainly seems Conroy’s hitting the right taste notes so far, though – and here are three recipes from her book to try at home…
CARROT, YOGHURT CUMIN SOUP
SERVES 4
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 bunch flat-leaf parsley, leaves only, roughly chopped
Half tsp crushed dried chilli
3tbsp olive oil
20 carrots, finely diced or pulsed in a food processor
2.5tbsp honey
1tsp ground ginger
Half tsp ground nutmeg
1tbsp ground cumin
500ml milk
250ml double cream
250ml water
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Coriander leaves, to serve
Nigella (black onion) seeds, to serve
Greek-style yoghurt, to serve
In a large heavy-bottomed saucepan, fry the garlic, parsley and chilli in the oil over a medium heat, until the garlic starts to turn a light golden. Add the carrots, honey, ginger, nutmeg and cumin.
Cook the carrots over a medium heat, stirring the pan from time to time for about an hour, until they are very soft and sweet. Add the milk, cream and water and continue to cook for a further 10 minutes, then check the seasoning.
Pour half the contents of the saucepan into a food processor or blender and blend until smooth, then return this to the pan.
Serve the soup sprinkled generously with coriander leaves, nigella seeds and a dollop of yoghurt.
AUBERGINES, MINT, RAISINS
SERVES 4 AS A SIDE DISH
2tbsp pine nuts
At least 1 litre sunflower oil
1 aubergine (about 400g), cut into 2cm cubes
3tbsp red wine vinegar
2tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, finely diced
1.5tbsp honey
4 large plum tomatoes, blanched in boiling water, then peeled, seeded and roughly diced
200g celery, roughly chopped and boiled until soft
2tbsp fresh mint leaves, finely chopped
1tbsp capers
1tbsp raisins
Salt and pepper
Gently toast the pine nuts on a baking sheet in a low oven (about 150C/Gas 2) until golden.
Boil some water and pour it over the tomatoes – the skin will start to peel away. After about 30 seconds in the hot water, put the tomatoes into another bowl with ice and water.
Fill the largest pot you have with sunflower oil so that the level of oil reaches one third of the way up the sides.
Heat the oil until extremely hot – drop a cube of aubergine in: if it fizzes vigorously, the oil is hot enough.
Fry the aubergine in batches and when dark golden on all sides, drain on plenty of kitchen paper.
While the aubergines are still hot, sprinkle with one tablespoon of the vinegar and some salt.
In a saucepan, heat the olive oil over a medium heat and fry the onions and garlic with the honey.
Season with salt and pepper and when they are very soft – about 15 minutes – and then add the tomato and celery.
Finally, in a large mixing bowl, toss the aubergine with the tomato mixture, remaining vinegar, mint, capers, raisins and pine nuts.
Check the seasoning and serve.
PORK, BAY, WATERCRESS
SERVES 8-10
2kg pork cheeks
3 medium cooking chorizo sausages
4 country-style pork sausages
5 rashers streaky bacon, roughly diced
Half tbsp fennel seeds
Half tbsp caraway seeds
2 fennel bulbs, cut into quarters
500g tinned peeled plum tomatoes
5 garlic cloves, peeled
2 large red onions, finely chopped
Half a head of celery, roughly chopped
2 bay leaves
Half a rosemary branch
250ml apple juice
750ml chicken stock
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Cooked cannellini beans
TO SERVE
Aioli
Watercress
Preheat the oven to 225C/Gas 7.5.
In a pot large enough to encompass all the ingredients, put the pork cheeks, half of each type of sausage, the bacon, fennel seeds, caraway seeds, fennel, tomatoes, garlic, onion, celery, bay, rosemary, apple juice and chicken stock.
Season generously with pepper but cautiously with salt – there is salt already in the bacon and sausages.
Place a cartouche – a disc of parchment or greaseproof paper – over the top.
Place a lid on the pot and cook in the oven for two-and-a-half to three hours, or until the pork cheeks can be easily broken up with a fork.
In the meantime, fry the remaining sausages in a pan and chop roughly. When the braise in the pot is ready, remove the sausages which are cooked in the liquid and replace them with the freshly fried ones; this seems pernickety but it is very agreeable to have the nicely browned sausages in the final dish, as opposed to the discoloured and largely tasteless (most of the flavour has left the sausages during the cooking and gone wonderfully into the stewing liquid) boiled sausages.
Serve in a large bowl ladled over cannellini beans and topped with a large dollop of aioli and plenty of watercress.