Words Vicki Ravlich
Nici Wickes is one of my favourite New Zealand food personalities. I like her realness, and this is never more evident than when she beams into my feed from her kitchen, cooking up something yummy, sharing a tip or just having a chat. During the 2020/21 lockdowns Nici’s resilience and down to earth personality shone through from her kitchen and from it came her very successful book, A Quiet Kitchen.
The underlying message of the book was that cooking for one doesn’t have to mean TV dinners or beans on toast. Two years on and Nici has dealt with shin-deep in water inside her studio after the devastating cyclones and floods of 2023. Then, after a bout of Covid, the unthinkable happened. Nici lost her appetite – not just for cooking but for searching for the joys of life in general.
This new collection of recipes in More From a Quiet Kitchen, again mostly serving one or two people, is a celebration of Nici coming home to herself. Her openness and raw honesty in exploring topics such as loneliness, how rest is essential, why aiming for ‘good enough’ is sometimes the best approach, getting smart with your finances, finding the joy in eating, and travelling alone is so refreshing. There’s a chapter called Retreats, Regrets and Ridiculousness which involves tonic, colonics and forest bathing and other hilarious tales of her attempts at self-improvement. Nici’s books are never just cookbooks, they’re more of a confessional of the messiness of life with maybe, just maybe, some ideas on how to do it well, especially if you’re living alone.
Tamarillo Clafoutis
This recipe comes from one of my sisters who then shared it with my darlin niece. What this means is that at family gatherings one of them will whip up a clafoutis on the spot which we all happily devour. I’ve scaled the original back to make this darling little serve, just right for one.
SERVES ONE WITH A LITTLE LEFT OVER FOR BREAKFAST
soft butter for dish + extra for dotting
2 tamarillos
1 medium egg
2 tablespoons sugar + extra for sprinkling
1 heaped tablespoon plain flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup milk
a drizzle of cream
Preheat the oven to 180°C and generously butter a small ovenproof dish. Halve and scoop out flesh of fruit and cut into thick slices. Place in buttered dish.
Whisk egg with the 2 tablespoons sugar, add flour and whisk until smooth. Whisk in vanilla and milk. Pour batter over fruit, dot some butter over the top and bake for 20 minutes or so until just set in the centre and golden.
Serve with a final sprinkle of sugar over the top and drizzle with cream.
Note: Use fresh pitted cherries, prunes, feijoas or any not-too-juicy fruit for this recipe.
More From a Quiet Kitchen by Nici Wickes, photography by Todd Eyre, published by Bateman Books, RRP $49.99, release date 8th July 2024
