This is a rediscovered family favourite.

Not sure why I’d forgotten about it, or why it came up in conversation with my mum recently, but  once remembered it’s reestablished itself on our midweek menu very quickly indeed. Probably because it’s so simple to make and tastes amazing – I’m sure there’s a degree of nostalgia involved too.

Firstly get some spuds on for mash. While they’re cooking, slowly sweat a diced onion in a little butter and oil – it doesn’t matter if they pick up a little bit of colour.

Mash the potatoes with a splash of milk and a knob of butter then add a handful of grated strong cheese. I used Lancashire most recently as I’d just come back from there and always bring some home, but I’d normally use a good extra mature Welsh cheddar.

Stir the cheese into the mash and add the fried onions. Put this mix into an ovenproof dish and use a fork to ridge the surface. Sprinkle another handful of grated cheese over the top.

Put this under the grill until the top is golden and crispy.

Perfect with sausages, baked ham or gammon. Thanks mum x.

It might be considered a bit boring, but I love anything from the cod family. Thick, flakey and meaty roasted cod crisp battered haddock with chips – thanks to a stint living in Yorkshire haddock’s still my preferred chippy choice.

Just typing those words is making me hungry – not helped by being in smelling distance of one of the country’s best chippies.

But we all need to get used to alternatives to cod and haddock and the supermarkets now seem to be making coley much more available. It’s in the same family as cod and has the same meaty texture – I think it’s got a richer flavour than cod too.

I’ve been using this quick gratin method for fish for a couple of months now and it’s become a regular favourite. It came about as an idea for coley, but I’ve recently used it with a few lemon sole fillets which was lovely too.

I seem to fighting a losing battle to maintain the old racing snake figure so it’s a healthy one too with low fat creme fraiche providing the creamy element in place of a traditional cheese sauce.

First get the oven on to preheat to 200 degC. In a medium pan reduce a good glug of white wine (I use vermouth) to about half its original volume over a high heat. Turn down the heat and add about half a pot of creme fraiche (about 200g I think). Stir this as it warms through. Once warm add a small handful of grated strong cheese, some parsley if you have it and black pepper. Taste before salting as the cheese may have down the job for you.

Put the fish into a roasting dish and pour the sauce over the top. Make some breadcrumbs (or buy them) by blitzing up a crust or two of bread with some Parmesan and a little lemon juice. This goes over the top of the fish dish and it needs about 12-15 mins in the oven until this sauce is bubbling, fish is just cooked through and topping is golden brown. If the fish is cook before the top is browned and crispy, whack it under a hot grill for a few mins.

Perfect with a few buttered new potatoes and some spring veg.

After another week of solid rain and daytime darkness, I’m falling back on comfort food.

Anything with mash in/on it is my ultimate comfort dish I think, but macaroni cheese is a serious contender. Its big advantage being how quick and easy it is to cook and that it’s all storecupboard stuff.

I still remember being cooked my first macaroni cheese by friends in uni and being (discreetly) horrified that I was being served vegetarian food for tea. I’ve got over that initial shock now, but if I’m making this for a main meal I do usually add something to make it a bit more interesting. Crispy-fried bacon lardons, pancetta or chorizo are all good, as are sweet cheery tomatoes which explode into the sauce in the oven or a few mixed mushrooms.

So, while a pan of macaroni is boiling away (needs about 8 mins so that it’s just slightly underdone – it’ll go on cooking in the sauce) make a quick cheese sauce and put the oven on to preheat at about 180 degC.

I’ll use the strongest cheese I can find for the sauce – more flavour means using less cheese so it’s a bit healthier.

Stir any of the additional ingredients into the drained cooked pasta and pop into an ovenproof dish. Pour over the cheese sauce and grate more cheese on top – parmesan or gruyere are good for this as they’ll form a nice crispy crust. Which I guess cancels out the ‘bit healthier’ idea.

It’ll need 15-20 mins in the oven until the sauce is bubbling away, the top is golden brown and the cheese is all stringy and gooey.

Best served with hunks of crusty bread to mop up the sauce. OK, it’s really not going to win any weight watchers points is it – but everything in moderation…

It’s going to be a long winter apparently – any thoughts on the ultimate comfort food?

Just finished watching the Great British Waste Menu.

It was a BBC challenge in which four top chefs had to produce a banquet for 60 from food that had been (or would have been) thrown away. The scale of waste is shocking – from farmers ploughing crops which don’t meet supermarket standards back into the ground, to bin-loads of edible food wasted simply because its sell-by date is near. Apparently, though the majority of food waste happens at home.

Personally, I’ll always trust my nose over a packaging date and see a fridge full of leftovers as a cooking challenge. I hate throwing anything edible away and I’m glad the Council will now take any peelings away to compost. Even food that looks a bit unappetising to eat fresh can often be cooked to eat or store – we’ve always got a tub of stewed apples in the freezer because we don’t eat them quickly enough and older tomatoes and peppers usually end up as soup.

Before I go over all ‘Dig for Victory’, here’s a roundup of regular leftover recipes.

• Too many tomatoes or leftover rice in the fridge – try roasted stuffed tomatoes
• Lots of odds and ends in the fridge like cheese, ham, peppers, boiled potatoes, tomatoes, tuna…add a few eggs for a tortilla style omelette
• No eggs? Use the fridge leftovers to spruce up a quick salad. Bread that’s past its best can make great croutons
• Leftover fish bits or some spare mash potatoes in the fridge or freezer? Fishcakes are a regular favourite. I even freeze crusts to make breadcrumbs.
• Risotto is pretty forgiving and lots of different things can go into the basic recipe. Great for using up cooked meats, a few leftover beans, peas and a bit of onion. It’s a good storecupboard staple too – we’ll often do chorizo and a few frozen veg or half a jar of chargrilled peppers.
• And one final one – because it’s such good value and can stretch a chicken out for an extra meal every time – a pot of stock. Not only does it get the best out of a roast chicken, it’s a chance to use up a few carrots, leeks or onions that might need using. The stock makes a fantastic risotto or soup (as above) or freezes well.

The programme’s on the iPlayer until 1 September. If you’re looking for other ideas, there’s more here too at the Love Food Hate Waste website*.

*Disclosure – WRAP is a client but I’m not involved in the promotion of this campaign

Stuffed roasted tomato

As the saying goes, life’s too short to go around stuffing mushrooms. So stuff a tomato instead – much quicker and easier.

The garden’s full of them at the moment so I’m looking for different things to do to use them up. It’s also a good way to use up leftover rice.

This is great with grilled chicken, kebabs or a pork chop. We ate it with a barbie – back before the monsoon season started in Wales.

Take the ‘lid” off a large tomato and set aside. Scoop out the insides with a teaspoon.

In a bowl, mix together enough rice to fill the tomato, some crumbled up goat’s cheese (or torn up mozzarella) and some chopped herbs (basil, oregano, thyme are all good). Taste and season.

Fill the tomatoes with this mixture, pour over a little olive oil and put the lid back on. Sit them loosely in foil so the juices don’t all escape and put them in the oven for 20-30 minutes at about 150 degC. They’re ready when the cheese has melted and the tomato has softened.

They’ll make the whole house smell amazing too.

Sun’s out at the moment for a change – is it too foolhardy to plan a BBQ on a Bank Holiday weekend?

Pesto pasta with prawns and bacon

I’d never made pesto before – always seemed like too much hassle when the stuff in jars is so convenient. But I bought a huge bunch of basil from the market recently, did nothing with it for a week and couldn’t think of anything else.

In a mini-chopper I blitzed up a half a handful of cashew nuts (I’ve subsequently done it again with the more traditional pine nuts), a clove of garlic went in next followed by a thumb-sized piece of parmesan, with a mix as each ingredient is added.

It needs a little olive oil now to loosen it, then the basil (about the amount that comes in a supermarket packet) can go in for a final mix. Add enough olive oil to loosen it to pesto consistency. Pop it in a jar and pour a layer of oil over the surface of the pesto to seal it – it’s kept quite happily for two weeks in my fridge. It’s a lot fresher than shop-bought and you get a better flavour from the individual ingredients.

It’s lovely to use as a kind of garlic bread substitute – slice a part-baked baguette and spread the pesto into the slices before baking. We’ve also used it simply stirred through a pan of warm pasta then cooled for a lunchtime salad.

Or it makes a great warm sauce for pasta. I had some large prawns and bacon in the freezer so while a pan of pasta was cooking I fried the diced bacon then the prawns in a small frying pan. Once done, four or five good teaspoons of pesto went in until warmed then i added a couple of spoons of creme fraiche. The drained pasta goes into the pan with the sauce for a quick stir before serving.

The result is a lovely creamy, light, basil infused sauce and all done in the time it takes to cook a pan of pasta.

Fish pie - crispy bits and all

There’s lots of quick fish pie recipes out there, but you’ve got to wait for a pan of spuds to boil and it’s easy enough to poach some fish and knock up a quick fish sauce in that time.

I think you’ve got to have a smoked fish – something that will flake well like undyed cod or haddock – along with an unsmoked fish like a salmon fillet and some prawns. I like a few hard-boiled eggs but my better half doesn’t so they stay out – belting in a curry too, a hard boiled egg or two. Don’t knock it til you’ve tried it.

So, while a pan of spuds (enough to make a mash topping for your chosen dish) is boiling away, put the fish into a wide bottomed pan with a bay leaf, half an onion and some peppercorns. Add enough milk to just cover the fish and bring up to not-quite-boiling and simmer very gently for about five minutes – just long enough for you to be able to flake the fish. Take the fish out and strain the milk into the jug as it’s going into the cheese sauce next.

Easy cheese sauce with no measuring or weighing next – I’ve been making this for lasagnes since student days and it’s never failed me yet. It does need a strong cheese like an extra mature Welsh cheddar or add parmesan if you’ve got a milder cheese. If you’re doing it from scratch, it helps to warm about half a pint of milk in the microwave (with a bay leaf in it) before you start.

Using a teaspoon as if it were an ice scream scoop, scrape out a rough ball of butter and pop it into a small pan to melt. Whisking the butter, add a tablespoon of plain flour and whisk together for about a minute over a medium heat. Now add the still warm milk very gradually at first, whisking as you go. About half a pint of milk is about right. Let this come up to boiling while stirring and then turn the heat down. Add the cheese and stir until it melts through and the sauce is smooth and creamy. Add a scrape of nutmeg, black pepper and some chopped parsley – or don’t if you haven’t got them to hand, it’s fine without it. The whole process takes about 10 minutes.

Spuds should be done by now so make up the mash. Flake the fish into the dish with prawns and mix it up without breaking up the fish too much. Pour over the cheese sauce, add eggs or peas if you want to and top with mash. Rough up the top with a fork to get good crispy bits.

Into an oven at about 180 degC for 20-30 minutes until the mash has browned and you’re away. For me, it always needs some good crusty bread on the side

Fish pie ready to go

A couple of baked eggs

I’m writing this on Saturday morning so naturally thinking about the weekend breakfast choices. I often make this for a treat on the weekend as it’s a nice change from the usual suspects. I’m justifying  including it here as it’s a lovely light dinner dish too – quick, very little work to do and great with a pile of crusty bread and a salad on the side.

Start by buttering a couple of ramekins put a little knob of butter in the bottom of each one too. And pop the oven on to about 180 degC to preheat. Now line each one with ham, parma ham or cooked bacon. If you like, you can pop a few fried mushrooms in at this stage.

Crack an egg carefully into each dish, season and dot with a couple of small knobs of butter. Grate parmesan over the top which will brown up and form a lovely crust.

Sit the ramekins in a larger baking dish and pour in boiling water so it goes about three quarters of the way up the sides. Bake them in an oven for just over ten minutes – usually about 12 but can be up to 15. You have to check and the minute the white has set, they’re done. Crispy ham and cheese, runny yolk and just-set white –  perfect with soldiers at this time of day.

The end result

Sausage pasta simmering

This is pretty much my all-purpose pasta sauce recipe (the tomato version, anyway – see below for the cheese version). Tonight I’m making it with sausages cos they were on offer in Marksies – got up too late for the market this Saturday. We eat it with turkey quite often too for a good low fat version.

Start by browning the sausages in a wide pan. Once they’ve got some good colour and you’re starting to get some colour in the pan, remove to a plate.

Now fry a diced onion, clove of garlic, chopped courgette and a couple of sliced mushrooms. I’ve used a couple of diced carrots too as they looked a bit sad on their own – I don’t really hold with adding carrots to pasta sauce as a rule though! Peppers would have been good – fresh or charred from a jar.

Once the veg has fried until the onion is translucent, pop a lid on for about five minutes or so to let them sweat – it releases flavour into the pan that should already be mingling with all the juices from the sausages. Pour in a glug of booze to help things along. I’m using a little port as there’s no red open. Any wine works OK.

Stir this about a bit to get all the bits off the bottom of the pan and add a tin of plum tomatoes and about a mugful of stock. Give it a few squirts of tomato puree, bring to a boil then turn down to a simmer. Add a good grind of black pepper and some mixed herbs/herbes de Province. Dried herbs are great in anything that’s going to simmer for a while but I think they’re better if you really grind them up in the palm of your hand before you add them. They sort of dissolve into the sauce for great background flavour then.

I’m not going to bang on about the quality of sausages cos I’ve already done that elsewhere, but tonight’s are M&S organic chipolatas – two packs for £4. Top quality and an absolute bargain.

Anyway, simmer the sauce for about 20-30 minutes until it’s thickened and the veggies are cooked through. Now put the meat back into the pan for a last 10-15  minutes until cooked through – check it’s piping hot throughout. A few fresh herbs like thyme and basil are a good last minute addition if you have them.

While the meat’s cooking you’ve got time to cook a pan of pasta – tagliatelle’s good with this.

If you’ve got a bit more time on your hands, stir through some cooked fusilli or penne, pour into an oven proof dish and spread a torn up ball of mozzarella over the top – bake in a medium oven until the cheese melts and starts to brown. Awesome.

Easy creamy cheese sauce for pasta

This is good with fish or chicken & chorizo. To the fried meat, add a slug of white wine and lemon juice and reduce for a few minutes. Stir in a few tablespoons of creme fraiche and a small handful of strong cheddar or parmesan and warm until the cheese melts. Very easy and tasty.

Just by beating a couple of eggs, you can transform the odds and ends lurking in the back of the fridge into something really rather good in a matter of minutes.

Any combination of the following (or anything else you have lying around) is good – a bit of onion, peppers, a couple of mushrooms, a slide of ham, salami or chorizo, tuna, chopped up boiled potatoes, diced courgettes, cherry tomatoes, the end of a bit of cheese. Whatever’s leftover or in the storecupboard. Chargrilled peppers in a jar are very good to keep for this sort of thing.

Use a little frying pan with a metal handle if possible as it’s going to be going under the grill. If you have a plastic-handled pan, you’ll just have to watch it to make sure it doesn’t burn.

Cooking is easy. Fry the veg bits together then add in any bits of meat or fish. Once you’re happy it’s all cooked, pour over two or three beaten eggs – enough to just cover the other ingredients. If you need more, just beat and add another egg. Now keep it cooking over a medium heat. You’re just looking to get the base to a golden colour – sneak a peak by pulling the omelette away from the side of the pan a bit.

With it still uncooked on top, add a handful of grated cheese and pop the pan under a medium grill. Grill until golden on top and cooked through. Works well cut into quarters with a simple salad and crusty bread. Or chips.