One of the things I like to do when I'm unwell (nothing serious, just a heavy cold) is catch up with all the food programmes I've missed on iPlayer. I didn't even realise Nigel Slater had a new series but I've just been watching him make some incredibly pretty chocolate discs topped with caramelised almonds, chopped pistachios, crushed crystallised rose petals and rubbed flakes of seasalt. Like all Nigel's recipes it's an inspired combination of ingredients and incredibly easy.
It would make a show stopping end to a dinner party, with perhaps a glass of off-dry pink sparkling wine (champagne is too dry) or - admittedly slightly kitsch - a glass of very cold pink port. You can find the recipe here.
Although I don't think Nigel is a TV natural like (unexpectedly) Simon Hopkinson he always makes food I want to eat and the idea of basing a series on complementary tastes and flavours is a great one. (The first episode was on sweet and sour, this one on surf and turf (though not quite sure how chocolate fits into that) and the next spicy and cool. There must be a book in this.
He said the most 'surf and turf' dessert he could think of was the combination of sea salt and the earthiness of the chocolate.
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