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.

In a short series of pie posts (two, to be honest), I thought I’d share my very easy approach to Shepherds/Cottage pie. And a real quick cheat’s version.

Again, start with a pan of spuds.

Gently fry a finely diced onion and carrot for about five minutes, then add mince (lamb or beef depending on your pie of choice) and fry until golden. This is all about building up layers of flavour at this stage. Drain off a little of the fat and stir through a dessertspoon of plain flour to thicken the gravy.

Add hot stock – beef, lamb or Swiss bouillon powder, plenty of black pepper and a small pinch of mixed herbs. A teaspoon of mustard is great with beef or the same of tomato puree with lamb. A squirt of Worcester sauce (or if you’re lucky enough to live far enough north to get Henderson’s Relish) is always a winner.

Simmer this for about 20 mins while the potatoes cook. With a slotted spoon, remove the meat and veg to an ovenproof dish, reserving the gravy for later. Top with mash and smoosh up the surface a bit so it crisps up. Crispy bits rule.

Cook in a hot oven, as above, for about 20 – 30 mins until golden and erupting like a little meaty volcano. Serve with the warmed gravy, peas and beans.

The picture’s of a recent experiment with a sliced potato topping – uses fewer spuds so is probably a bit healthier. I just topped with a couple of layers of finely sliced potatoes instead of mash and sprinkled a little cheese over the top. I’m not that good at doing healthy, really.

And here’s the cheat’s version – I’m going to call it Rustler’s Pie as we’re using someone else’s beef…

I’m with Delia on rating M&S tins quite highly – I was brought up eating stewed steak, mash and veg and still love it. The M&S chunky steak is lovely and warmed in a pan with half cup of stock, a handful of peas and a finely diced carrot makes a great instant base for a cottage pie. Top with mash, as above and whack it in a hot oven.

Purists may not like it – but what the hell’s wrong with knocking up a cottage pie  in half an hour when you’re hungry and in need of comfort food.

I can’t eat any of these without lots of bread and butter to mop up the gravy. And some ale.

So what do I call my version of this classic British dish that I make with diced pork? I’m going for Pigsty Pie – there’s a certain logic to it.

A pork fillet/tenderloin usually finds its way into my weekly shop – versatile, cheap and easy – and it’s always a good starting point for something very tasty.

So while a pan of spuds is boiling away for the mash topping, fry off diced pork. Shake over some spice to keep things interesting – paprika is good, as are ground fennel seeds, or go for Czech spice. Throw in a sliced onion and a red/yellow pepper too.

Once the meat has picked up a nice bit of colour and the spice has filled the kitchen with lovely aromatic aromas, add a mugful of stock and give it a good stir. Simmer for about ten minutes before adding a big spoonful of creme fraiche to thicken the sauce. Give it another five minutes or so to all come together and reduce then pop it all into an ovenproof dish and make the mash.

Spread the mash evenly over the top and work it over with a fork to ensure you get good crispy bits on top. Bake in a  hot oven – about 200 degC for about 30 mins or until golden brown.

Best served IMHO with green veg and piles of crusty bread.

I know a lot of people think it’s minging, but I’m a big fan of corned beef. In a sandwich with brown sauce on crusty white bread – heavenly.

So I also love a bit of corned beef hash. Which made me think about what else could be hashed.

There’s usually a pack of smoked mackerel in our freezer on standby for fishcake duties (and Hugh says we’re allowed) so I thought I’d try hashing it up.

Works a treat – I highly recommend this for simple, tasty and guaranteed-you’ve-never-had-it-before tea. And it’s cheap as chips. Cheaper, probably.

First up, parboil a pan of cubed spuds. Take them out and dry them off a bit.

In a big frying pan, fry up a sliced onion until translucent. Toss in the potatoes and fry for about 10 minutes until they start to crisp up and colour. Break up a couple of mackerel fillets into generous chunks, removing skin and bones and pop them into the pan – from now on, the less you move it all about the better as you won’t want things to break up too much.

Finally add some shredded spring cabbage – it’ll wilt in the heat of the pan and crisp up a bit round the edges too. Taste and season with salt and pepper. I wished I’d cooked a fried egg to go with it as that, I suspect, would top it all off perfectly.

All done – call it brunch and you could make a mint down your local gastropub.

Coq au vin

Time to share my favourite ever recipe. I’ve made this for family, a dozen friends at a time or just for tea midweek and it was the first meal I ever cooked for my better half.

It takes a little while in the cooking, but it’s so easy to prepare and the end result – rich, wine-infused chicken casserole – is the sort of dish that reminds you that the humble chicken really can be amazing. I’m also lucky that I get easy access to such good free range chicken at my local market in Roath which makes a big difference to the end result.

If you’re doing it midweek, you need to get home on time as it’s a two hour cooking time – it’s do-able but much easier for a weekend treat.

Either joint a chicken or buy a mix of thighs and legs – this is usually the best option as everyone gets the same then and you also get much better flavour from meat on the bone.

Put the chicken pieces into a bowl and cover with about half a bottle of red wine to marinate with a bay leaf, peppercorns and few cloves of garlic in the fridge. I try and remember to do this in the morning if I’m cooking it in the evening but the recipe works if you forget this stage and start with the cooking.

In a casserole over a medium heat, brown the chicken in batches of three or four pieces at a time and set aside. In the fat that’s left, fry some lardons (cubed pancetta, streaky bacon or I even used a slice of leftover gammon last week) until the fat has turned nice and crispy. Remove to a dish.

Now fry some peeled whole shallots in the bacon/chicken fat until brown. All of this is building up lovely layers of flavour for the finished dish. Once starting to brown, add some button mushrooms and a chopped clove of garlic and fry for a few more minutes.

The kitchen should now smell pretty awesome.

Add the chicken and bacon back to the pot and pour in the strained wine marinade. Once this has got up to the boil add about a pint of chicken stock.

If you have some herbs to hand, tie up some thyme, parsley and bay and add them to the liquid before popping the pot in the oven at about 170degC for at least an hour – probably and hour and a half.

Out of the oven and ready to serve

The sauce will reduce to a rich, winey gravy that takes on all the flavours of the sweet shallots, bacon and chicken.

Great with roast potatoes or mash, some green veg and the other half of the bottle of red. Any leftover chicken is amazing between two bits of crusty bread or good to add to a risotto.

For me fish pie is comfort food and a midweek treat all rolled into one. Creamy sauce, smoked fish and the crispy bits on the top of the mash…love it.

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

A very good friend of mine also does a mean Jamie Oliver Fantastic Fish Pie recipe which we spent a happy (and quite drunken) few hours making recently on a weekend in West Wales. Worth a look too as it uses a creme fraiche cheese sauce – not sure which book it’s in though, sorry!

This is currently the most visited post on easyteas – if you give it a try, please let me know what you think in the comments. If you’re looking for more quick and easy ideas, you can search recipes or subscribe to updates through the menus on the right. Thanks, Matt.

Smoked mackerel

This is a favourite weeknight standby of ours. It’s an easy process to put them together and uses easy-to-keep ingredients.

I use the vac-packed smoked mackerel fillets which are cheap as chips and give a lovely smoky flavour to the fishcakes. The only other ingredients are mash, spring onions and some breadcrumbs.The method is very straightforward. You use roughly the same weight of mash as fish- check the pack, usually about 200g. Boil a few chopped spuds for 20 mins and mash or use leftovers.

Put the mash in a bowl and flake in the fish taking care to remove the skin and any bones. Just run it through your fingers as it goes into the bowl and you’ll pick them out. Chop two spring onions and pop them in – get your hands in and smoosh the mix together.

Divide the mix in two then divide each half again to give you four equal amounts and form into patties. Get three dishes lined up – flour, beaten egg, breadcrumbs. You can make your own crumbs by blitzing old bread in a blender, or buy a pack. Much easier and if you can find panko Japanese breadcrumbs, they’re even better – really crisp and slightly sweet.

Each cake needs to go into the flour, then the egg, then the breadcrumbs – make sure they’re fully coated.

Now they just shallow fry in a little oil for about 10 minutes or until golden on both sides. All the ingredients are already cooked so we’re just warming them through and crisping the outside.

Serve two per person with a crisp green salad and sweet chilli sauce to dip the fishcakes.

I’ve made this with frozen cod fillets and tinned fish and both work well as an alternative.

So, chop the spuds up – smaller than for boiled so they cook quicker and are easier to mash. Boil in salted water until a knife goes into the middle easily. Drain well.

Mash or put through a potato ricer (only recently got one of these and I can’t believe the difference it makes – best tenner I’ve spent for the kitchen in a long time). Add a generous knob of butter and a splash of milk. I then grate in a little pile of parmesan which give the mash a really deep savoury flavour. Stir thouroughly with a fork to bring everything together. A little spoon of mustard or some chopped spring onions are good too.

I had this with some lovely thick gammon steaks from the market and a few veggies, avoiding the age-old egg vs pineapple debate. The answer’s egg, anyway.