SATURDAY Kitchen viewers were divided as top TV chef Nigella Lawson prepared a dish containing mashed up fish fingers.
The meal, a traditional Indian Bhurta, typically consists of a lightly fried mixture of mashed vegetables.
However, the version cooked by Nigella incorporates fish fingers into the dish.
During the process, Nigella said to the viewers: “This is fish fingers as you’ve never had them before, and I say that as someone who loves a fish finger sandwich.”
Explaining that she had only discovered the Bhurta recently, Nigella set up the cooking with an introduction.
The culinary expert shared: “A recipe is a curious entity because it has to be anchored in practicality.
“I mean, of course it does and yet that means nothing unless it takes fruit in the imagination.
One of the reasons why home cooking is so important to me – obviously, I like the food most – but really, it’s because home cooking always has so much more hinterland and emotional resonance.”
Nigella explained she “thought of this recently” having added a new dish to her repertoire after being inspired by a tweet by political journalist Ash Sarkar.
She added: “[It] mentioned a recipe that came from her home and she described it as nostalgia in a dish…
“What really captivated me was that every ingredient was familiar the method was familiar and yet what it created was entirely new to me and it spoke of real lives and real food and I really raced – as much as I can ever race – into the kitchen to cook it and I haven’t stopped.”
Despite Nigella’s enthusiasm, viewers of the BBC show had mixed opinions on mashing fish fingers.
One wrote: “Love you, Nigella, but this is your worst idea ever. One never mashes fish fingers. Ever. #SaturdayKitchen.”
Another added: “Fishfinger mash? And this is why we love Nigella #saturdaykitchen.”
One viewer commented on Nigella’s introduction: “Posh culinary Jackanory on #SaturdayKitchen today.”
