MAC AND CHEESE

I love cooking mac and cheese in disposable tin trays. They look like something you'd pick up from the school canteen, (Mrs Wiggins don't do china), serving up no-frills nursery food in no-frills containers. It puts macaroni cheese in its rightful place as stodgy, cheesy, creamy comfort food. Nowt fancy, like. Just (unbelievably) tasty.

I've gone a little off track with this recipe - leeks, ham and tarragon (ooh er), and tortiglioni in place of macaroni - but a good 'old fashioned' you can't beat.

LEEK, HAM AND TARRAGON MAC AND CHEESE

serves a very greedy 2 - a polite 4 

ingredients

200g tortiglioni or penne (or any old tube)

100g unsalted butter

1 large leek

250g smoked ham

150g flour

500ml milk (whole or semi)

200g mature cheddar, grated, and extra for the crust

salt, pepper 

handful tarragon leaves, roughly chopped

two tin trays (roughly 20x10cm)

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and add the pasta. Cook til al dente and drain. Refresh under cold water and set aside.

Melt 25g of the butter in a small sauce and throw in the leeks. Cook over a low heat with a lid for 10 minutes so the leeks become soft and buttery. Add the ham and a pinch of salt and pour the mixture into a bowl. Set aside.

Melt the rest of the butter in the leek pan. Add the flour and set over a low heat. Fry the flour and butter for a minute or two so the gluten can develop. Add the milk a little at a time or each time the sauce thickens, and stir constantly. This should take around 5-7 minutes

When the sauce is glossy, and creamy, add the cheese, salt and pepper.

When the cheese has melted, stir in the leek mixture and the tarragon. Taste the sauce and add a little more salt if necessary.

Combine the pasta with the sauce and divide between the two tins. Ideally, you want a generous amount of sauce to pasta.

Grate the extra cheese over each dish and place in the oven for 15 minutes to crisp up.

Best served with a mustardy salad and a dollop of ketchup.

Peas are a good veggie replacement for the ham. Throw them in as you add the tarrgon.

Ding-a-ling. Back to class.

FRESH GARLIC VICHYSSOISE

Too hot for soup. But not for a chilled one. 

This cooled soup is smooth and light, and thanks to the surprisingly enormous amount of fresh garlic, it has a lovely, earthy sweetness.

I imagine this to be eaten from a thermos in the park, or from tiny bowls with tiny poached quails egg to garnish. Oh, and if the weather forces on our anoraks, have it hot.

FRESH GARLIC VICHYSSOISE

serves 2

25g butter

1 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 large leek, roughly chopped, white bit only

15 cloves fresh garlic, peeled and halved

1 potato, peeled and chopped

500ml chicken stock

150ml double cream

1/4 tsp ground mace or nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt, extra to serve

generous pinch coarsely ground black pepper

2 ice cubes

2 quails eggs (optional)

handful parsley leaves, finely chopped

Melt the butter in a medium pan and add the olive oil. Add the onion and slowly cook to soften but not colour. Then, add the leek and the halved garlic cloves and fry on a low heat for 5 minutes. Now add the potato and, after two minutes on a gentle heat, pour in the stock. Simmer the soup, unseasoned at this point, for 20 minutes. Do not bring to the boil as this may spoil the flavour of the garlic.  

Leave the soup to cool slightly before pouring it into a blender. Add the cream and seasoning and whizz. Pour, through a sieve, into a jug and taste - it may be tempting to add more at this stage but I'd leave it to cool completely before adding more salt. 

Making sure the soup has cooled down completely add the ice cubes to the jug, cover and leave in the fridge for an hour or until ready to serve.

Just before serving, bring a small pan of water to the boil. Take the pan off the heat. Drop in the shelled quails eggs, one by one, from a small cup that is almost touching the surface of the water. Leave to cook for 1 minute and remove with a slotted spoon.

Serve the soup into small bowls and carefully place the egg on top. Scatter with parsley and light drizzle of oil. 

PIG CHEEK STEW

This is a stew for evenings in, wrapped up in front of a film - though it'll work just as well in bowls by the bonfire too. The pig cheeks are a real treat in this dish - they are tender, succulent and full of rich flavour, meaning you don't need much on your plate. It's dead cheap too - the four cheeks cost me well under £2, so you can afford to jazz it up with the wildest of autumn mushrooms.

Make double and put it in the freezer for another wintery day.

PIG CHEEK, MUSHROOM AND ALE STEW

ingredients

Serves 2-4

4 large pork cheeks, trimmed of fat, rubbed with olive oil
4 rashers smoked bacon, roughly chopped
1 tsp carraway seeds
tsp salted butter
2 large leeks, chopped into rounds
200g mixture of chestnut and wild mushrooms
500ml ale
200ml chicken stock
1/2 bay leaves
salt and pepper
handful tarragon leaves, roughly chopped

Place a large frying pan onto a medium/high heat. When hot (keep a chopped bit of bacon to test the pan. It will sizzle if ready) add the cheeks and bacon. You want to brown the cheeks, so rotate them every so often. This should take 3-4 minutes. The bacon will be cooked and beginning to crisp. Set aside.

In another pan, meanwhile, soften the leeks in the butter. Add the mushrooms and the carraway seeds. Now add the cheeks and bacon and stir.

Pour in the ale and the chicken stock and bring to the boil, then returning it to a simmer. Add the bay leaves and leave to fut away for approx. 2 hours. After this time, test the tenderness of the cheeks by pulling at them with two forks. They should be easy to shred. If so, begin to pull each cheek into smaller pieces.

Test for seasoning.

When ready to serve, stir in the tarragon. Best eaten with a fluffy garlic mash potato.

OLD TART

A heatwave strikes - Burnt noses, bare (white) legs, and wide smiles. The first of this year's barbecues are lit, Mr Whippy vans are on sell-out, and salads are served instead of soup at Books For Cooks. I can't help but get excited about this unexpected burst of summer in the middle of spring.

But the best thing about this time of year is the incoming gems on the market - and there is no grumbling worry that they're going to disappear with the rain at the end of the week. It's time for asparagus, watercress, sorrel and spring greens. Green, light and full of flavour.

Just like the way we Britons get giddy at the sight of sun, the sight of new veg sends me potty. I buy as much as I can. It's reckless, perhaps, but fun, and trying to make use of it all, to love every leaf, makes for happy friends and a happy kitchen.

This tart is salty, buttery and moreish. The savoy cabbage and leeks bring a fresh brightness to the plate, and the crispy chorizo pushes forward a flavour of a hopeful hot summer ahead. Eat with a warm watercress, pea and mint salad, drizzled with tart lemon and olive oil.

LEEK, SAVOY CABBAGE & SAGE TART WITH CHORIZO


ingredients

shortcrust pastry for 9 in quiche tin (best to use a loose-base tin)

180g plain flour, sifted
pinch salt
90g cold butter, cubed
1 free-range egg yolk
2 tbsps water

tart filling

1 free range egg and 2 free-range egg yolks
170ml double cream (half creme fraiche works well too)
2 tbsps freshly grated Parmesan
salt and pepper
large knob of butter
1/2 leek, thinly sliced
1/2 savoy cabbage, shredded
3 sage leaves
3 tbsps cream cheese (optional)
knob of Catalan chorizo 5x3cm, thinly sliced into rounds
(if veggie or want a meat-free option, toast pine nuts and sprinkle on top of the tart)

Butter the tin and place in the fridge.

Rub together the sifted flour, salt and butter lightly with your fingers until you reach a breadcrumb-like consistency. Add the egg and water and bind into a soft ball of dough. Do not knead too much; the lighter the dough the better.

On a floured table, roll out the pastry to fit the tin to around 2cm thick. Cut the excess from the edge of the tin, being aware that the pastry will shrink.

Once placed in the tin, leave to cool in the fridge for at least an hour, or in the freezer for 15 minutes if short for time. Pastry works best when cold.

Preheat the oven to 190˚C/375˚F/ Gas 5.

When the pastry has been in the fridge for a while, fill the base with ceramic beans. If you have none, dried pasta or beans will do - you don't want the base of the pastry to start rising. Place the pastry in the oven for 10 minutes. After this time, remove the weights and put back in the oven to brown the pastry, and cook for another 10 minutes until golden.

Meanwhile, mix the eggs, cream and grated cheese in a jug and season with salt and pepper.

Melt the knob of butter in the pan and braise the leeks and cabbage together until soft. Throw in the sage and chorizo to crisp up. (This would be a good time to toast the pine nuts).

Take the pastry out of the oven and arrange the leeks and cabbage around the base, leaving the chorizo aside. Pour over the egg mixture. If using cream cheese dollop a few spoonfuls over the egg and put back in the oven for 30-40 minutes. Half way through cooking, scatter on the chorizo.

When cooked and golden, leave to cool slightly in the tin. Then lift it out on to a plate and serve with the pea salad.

EGGY FARLS WITH BUTTERY STILTON LEEKS

Eggy bread has me dreaming of late nights and late mornings, energy gone. It's exactly what you want from a meal when your head's in a fuzz and your limbs won't move.

Slip, slap, pan, flip, flop.

I love using potato farls instead of bread. A good, spongy sourdough soaks up and holds in the moisture of the egg which is delicious, but with this recipe the farls are coated and crisped, melting away underneath the leeks so you almost don't need to chew. The salty butter and egg lightly fry up the square edges leaving a bit of crunch. Slice into the soft farl and the minty melted leeks, and your knees go giddy. These will be the best ten minutes of your day.

EGGY FARLS WITH BUTTERY STILTON LEEKS


serves2

prep 5 minutes
cooking time 5 minutes

ingredients
3 medium free-range eggs
pinch of chilli flakes
4 Irish potato farls
large knob of salted butter
generous pinch of salt
generous pinch of butter

large knob of butter
1 large leek
1/2 white onion or 3-4 shallots
50g stilton

2 heaps Godmother's Christmas tomato relish.

Finely chop the leeks and onion and set aside in a bowl. Crack three eggs into another bowl, whisk, and season well with salt, pepper and the chilli flakes. Put the farls in with the egg and turn a few times so that each side has been coated.

Heat a large knob of butter in two large frying pans, both on a medium-low heat.

Place the farls, one by one, into one frying pan and pour over the remaining egg mixture that has not been soaked up. Once the egg starts to cook, turn the farls over and fold over the egg around them. After about 30 seconds flip the farls again.

Meanwhile put the leek and onion into the other saucepan with the melted butter, and slowly fry. Add more butter - you'll want them to turn almost creamy. Stir in the stilton. Even creamier.

When the leeks are soft and the farls are crispy, it's time to serve. Pour the leeks onto the farl and serve with a large spoonful of homemade tomato relish. Now, silence.

MUM'S SIGNATURE DISH

POACHED EGG ON LEEKY MASHED POTATO W/ HONEY ROAST SALMON.