Chorizo and Mustard Macaroni Cheese

I always use holiday season as a good excuse to 'turn over' your fridge and freezer, to strip the cupboards bare ready for the winter hoard. However, if you are busy in your job, then that makes life a little awkward when it comes to feeding your family.

Knowing what to do with some store cupboard essentials and one or two fresh ingredients is the key, so it is always good to have a few simple recipes up your sleeve ready for these times.

At a food show I was presenting at on my return were the usual array of quality local suppliers. One supplier I've been a fan of for some time is Piperfield Pork of Berwick-Upon-Tweed. Using their herd of middle white pigs, Piperfield are producing incredible quality pork produce, including their take on a chorizo sausage. Not too salty, plenty of soft fat and paprika tinged meat, these chorizo are up there with some of the best Spanish chorizo I have ever tasted. If you can't take my word for it, ask Heston Blumenthal who has been using Piperfield pork at The Fat Duck some years now.

Thanks to one of their delicious sausages, it made that old standard comfort food of youth, macaroni cheese, into a memorable store cupboard meal for the family. Digging into the soft creamy pasta stuffed sauce and finding a nugget of crisp chorizo; do I really need to paint the picture? It is essential to strip, so be inspired and turn those cupboards over.

Chorizo and Mustard Macaroni Cheese
Feeds 4

50g butter
50g plain flour
500ml milk
150g Cheddar cheese, grated
1 tbsp English or Dijon mustard
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
250g macaroni cheese
1 chorizo sausage, cut into think slices
1 tbsp olive oil
50g Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper

1 - Pre-heat the oven to 200C, GM6.
2 - Bring a pan of water up to the boil and add the macaroni. Boil for 5-6 minutes or 2-3 minutes less than the instructions state. Drain and reserve. Cool under cold running water if preparing in advance so that it does not overcook.
3 - To make the cheese and mustard sauce, melt the butter in a pan then add the flour. Cook and stir for 1 minute. Gradually add the milk, stirring all of the time until you have a smooth béchamel sauce. Stir in the cheese and mustards. Taste for seasoning.
4 - Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and add the chorizo. Cook until crisp in each side then drain on a piece of kitchen towel.
5 - Stir the pasta and sausage into the cheese sauce. Pour into a buttered casserole dish then cover with the Parmesan cheese. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes until golden and bubbling. Serve with a simple green salad.

Easy Cassoulet

The return from holiday is always an odd experience if you are British. If you have been to sunnier climates, you will know very well that sinking feeling as the aeroplane descends into your airport, especially if it is British summer time. From a week or two of freedom and hot sunny weather, you descend through the turbulence of dark clouds to a wet and familiar Britain to proceed with life as normal. The holiday is well and truly over.

Thankfully, France was delightful and the memories will linger long enough to banish any depressing thoughts. After an unsteady first few days of dark skies and the odd shower, the sun soon cracked the flags over the Pyrenees and gave us the weather that we craved. This paved the way for plenty of mountain biking, swimming in crystal clear lakes, laughing, chatting and singing and of course, eating and drinking. My favourite hobbies all in one.

The Eastern Pyrenees is home to many famous foods and wines, none more so than the cassoulet. Cassoulet is one of those recipes that have been written and debated about far too many times for little old me to cast any strong opinions on. I will leave the chemistry and history to the good people of this beautiful area of France to argue over as they have done so for many years. My description of it is posh sausage and beans. But this does not really give it the credit it deserves. Think of quality plump haricot beans with intense garlic pork sausage, rich and buttery confit duck and/or goose with a crust of crunchy breadcrumbs and you may get the picture. And I'm not even going to debate whether or not a cassoulet should have a crust on or not: it is as essential to my cassoulet as is beef with a Yorkshire pudding. But of course, that is my only culinary opinion on this fantastic, filling and sustaining peasant dish.

We ate our cassoulet with our friends, children and lovely hosts, Eileen and Alan who kindly put us up for the week. It was a famous holiday for many reasons, but Eileen and Alan were so accommodating, patient and kind. So I dedicate this famous French meal to them, as well as The Graingers for being amazing people and inviting us into their family home. And with my easy recipe which has been adapted to cut out a good few hours of preparation from some of the long and drawn out cassoulet recipes I have seen, they can impress their friends at any time of the year, summer or no summer, Britain or France. Holidays in the sun and happy days indeed, roll on the next one.

Easy Cassoulet
Feeds 6-8 people

500g dried haricot beans, soaked for at least 8 hours
8 slices of smoked streaky bacon, sliced
2 onions, roughly chopped
8 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced in half
1 handful of dried or fresh thyme leaves
3 bay leaves
3 cloves
400g tinned tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato puree
12 large quality pork sausages, preferably Toulouse
6 pieces of confit duck or goose, or a mixture of both, excess fat removed and kept aside
500ml hot chicken stock
Salt and pepper
A bowlful of dried breadcrumbs

1 - Pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees, GM3.
2 - Scrape off some of the duck or goose fat from the confit and melt in a large frying pan. Add the bacon and cook until golden. Remove with a slotted spoon and keep aside.
3 - Brown the sausages in the fat then remove and keep aside.
4 - Add the onions and garlic and cook until soft. Add the thyme, bay leaves, cloves, tomatoes and tomato puree and heat through. Season with a little salt and pepper.
5 - Drain the beans and reserve the liquid. Add half of the beans to a large casserole dish. Add the sausages, duck and/or goose, the bacon then the tomato, onion and herb mixture. Top with the remaining beans then pour in the stock until it just reaches the top of the beans. If there is not enough, add some of the water you used to soak the beans in.
6 - Cover and place into the oven and cook for 2 hours. Check every now and again to see if the mixture is boiling dry and top with reserved water when necessary.
7 - Melt some of the fat in a pan and add the breadcrumbs, thoroughly combining. Cover the casserole with the breadcrumbs and with the lid removed, place back into the oven and cook for a further 60-90 minutes until the topping is golden and crunchy.

Mussels, Samphire, Sage and Chilli Oil with Tagliatelle

The mussels from Northumberland at this time of the year are outstanding. Plump, juicy and lightly fragranced from the sea that they are grown in, they are one of my favourite cheap and fast eats.

When I buy mussels, all I want to do with them is cook them quickly in nothing more than a glass of cider or wine, perhaps a handful of fresh herbs throw in, then eat with bread and butter. This is my personal treat, one that I can indulge myself with for no reason at all. Their taste is unique, quite hard to describe but one to savour, a true taste of the sea. Their texture is light, fluffy and melting. Unless you cook them for too long of course.

Sage is not a herb I would associate with shellfish too much but with a large sage bush in the garden not being used too much, I guessed an intense sage oil, injected with a bit of chilli heat, might be a flavour that the mussels could benefit from. With some tomatoes from the weekly organic bag, simply roasted whole and squashed with a fork, it all came together with fresh local samphire and tagliatelle to make for a very clean tasting, fresh and memorable tea. Flex your mussels.

Mussels, Samphire, Sage and Chilli Oil with Tagliatelle
Feeds 2

6 tomatoes
4 handfuls of mussels, de-bearded and cleaned
1 small glass of cider, white wine or water
2 handfuls of samphire
25g butter
8 rounds of dried tagliatelle

For the oil
A handful of sage
1 dried or fresh birds eye chilli, seeds removed
2 tbsp olive oil
A squeeze of lemon
Salt and pepper

1 - Pre-heat the oven to 180C, GM4. Cut a cross into the base of the tomatoes. Place into a baking tray and drizzle on a little oil. Bake for 20-30 minutes until softened and starting to colour. Pinch off the skins then mash the flesh roughly in a bowl.
2 - Bring a large pan of water to the boil. Add the tagliatelle and cook for 7-8 minutes.
3 - Whilst the pasta is cooking, make the sage oil. In a pestle and mortar, grind together the sage and chilli with a pinch of salt and pepper to form a green paste. Add the olive oil and lemon juice. Taste for seasoning.
4 - Heat up another pan with a lid. Add the mussels then pour in your liquid of choice. Put on the lid and cook for 2-3 minutes or until the shells have opened. Discard any that remain shut. Throw in the samphire and butter and leave to sit with the lid on for 1 minute.
5 - When the pasta is cooked, drain and return to the pan. Tip in the roasted tomato flesh, mussels and samphire. Combine then serve into bowls.
6 - Drizzle with the sage oil and serve with some sage leaves crisped in a little olive oil.

Courgette Quesadillas

Courgette Quesadillas
Feeds 4 as a lunch

3 courgettes, grated
3 spring onions, thinly sliced
1 clove of garlic
1 pinch of dried chilli flakes
2 tbsp olive oil
A squeeze of lime juice
Freshly ground pepper
4 flour tortilla wraps
250g grated Cheddar cheese (I used a combo of Cheddar and mozzarella)

1 - Pre-heat the oven to 200C/Fan 180C/GM6.
2 - Heat up the oil in a non-stick frying pan. Add the courgettes, spring onions, garlic and chilli and cook until it becomes slightly dry but not too coloured. Squeeze in the lime juice, grate in some pepper, stir and set aside.
3 - Put two of the tortilla wraps onto a lightly oiled baking tray. Sprinkle with some cheese until they are covered.
4 - Spread out the courgette mixture onto both tortillas. Top with more cheese. Finally, press on the two remaining tortilla wraps, brush with oil then place into the middle shelf of the oven.
5 - Bake for 10-15 until golden and crispy. Cut into wedges and serve with a simple salad.

New Potatoes, Rocket Green Sauce and Field Mushrooms

I've been getting a bit of grief of late from some of my vegetarian readers. Not enough vegetarian recipes apparently. In my experience, vegetarians aren't ones to argue with; the lack of protein in their diet makes them a feisty lot.

Before anybody thinks I'm now turning into a vegetarian bating carnivorous fool, please relax. I've worked it out that approximately 60% of my weekly diet is made up of vegetarian meals and snacks. And looking at my recipes in the drop down column, there are loads of recipes there to appease my veggie friends. So I won't feel guilty.

My philosophy on food is that no matter what it comprises of, it should be tasty and simple to achieve. Vegetarian options on the high street can often be predictable and bland, almost an insult. So using one of the brilliant and innovative Helen Grave's recipes as inspiration, here is a winner of a meal for all my 'anything with a face won't be consumed' readers. Lip smacking green sauce smothered hot new potatoes and that meat of the vegetarian world, the field mushroom to give some variation to an incredibly simple but satisfying dish.

New Potatoes, Rocket Green Sauce and Field Mushrooms
Feeds 2

4 handfuls of new potatoes
4 large field mushrooms, sliced
2 tbsp olive or rapeseed oil

For the green sauce
4 handfuls of rocket
A handful of basil
Juice of 1 lemon
1 clove of garlic
1 tsp English mustard
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
2 tbsp capers, rinsed
Salt and pepper

1 - Boil the potatoes, drain and keep aside.
2 - Heat the olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan. Season the mushrooms then cook on each side until golden brown, approximately 5 minutes each side. Set aside on kitchen paper.
3 - Blitz the green sauce ingredients in a food processor or roughly chop the whole ingredients then stir in with the wet ingredients in a bowl. Taste - it should be balanced, not too much lemon or capers. As a classic green sauce has anchovies, ensure it is seasoned with a little salt.
4 - Coat the hot potatoes in the green sauce. To serve, pile some potatoes onto a late, tuck in a few mushrooms then scatter over some rocket. Serve with a wedge of lemon.

Kohlrabi Remoulade

Do you remember the first time? And by that oh poisoned minded readers, I mean the first time you ate a particular foodstuff. Yesterday, the alien-like kohlrabi appeared in our weekly veg box. And it brought back good memories.

My first experience with the kohlrabi was only a few years back. In a farmer's market in Leeds, there sat a full tray of the deliciously mild green tentacle covered kohlrabi. This vegetable could be the thing of nightmares to previously vegetable fearing people such as Freddie over at GBVC. It certainly looked odd, like nothing I had seen before. And I couldn't believe I had access to a vegetable I had never tasted before.

If you have never had kohlrabi, please seek them out. They taste incredibly earthy, like a mild turnip with a slight bitterness. It quickly became our weaning baby's favourite food as we steamed it and turned it into a puree. For the adults, I stirred in a few herbs, a little butter and perhaps some mustard for an alternative side vegetable for the Sunday roast. Hard to believe that historically it used to be cattle fodder.

I turned yesterday's welcome addition into a remoulade, which is basically the French word for a condiment. We ate it with left over roast chicken, cheese and salad leaves. And it remains ever so fondly as one of my favourite vegetables. Do you remember the first time?

Kohlrabi Remoulade

1 kohlrabi, peeled and sliced into lengths
Juice of one lemon
1 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tbsp English or Dijon mustard
1 tbsp onion seeds (optional)
A handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped
Fresh yoghurt
Salt and pepper

1 - Using a fine grater, grate the kohlrabi into a tea towel. It contains a lot of water, so roll up the tea towel and squeeze out as much water as possible. Tip into a mixing bowl.
2 - Stir in half of the lemon juice, vinegar, mustard, onion seeds and parsley. Stir thoroughly then gradually stir in the yoghurt until you have a thick but not swamped kohlrabi condiment.
3 - Taste for seasoning and squeeze in more lemon juice depending on how sharp you like it.

Hot Chilli and Lemon Winkles

Winkles, or periwinkles (sounds much more glamorous) are a shellfish which may have just fallen foul of the times when it comes to using them as food. Clinging to our rocks by the millions at this time of the year, they are a free food that anybody with a pair of wellies and a few eager children can collect. And they are utterly delicious.

When I was a boy, my mam used to buy us bags of boiled winkles, or 'willicks' as we Geordies call them, to eat as a 'treat'. If you have never eaten one before, they can be a tricky thing to remove from their shells. The weapon of choice when I was young was a pin. Yes, a sharp pin. After 5 minutes of tackling a tiny shell with a pin, we usually gave up and moved onto the next winkle. I reckon out of a bag of 50, we were lucky to extract 10. But when we did, we savoured each mouthful. As massive fans of The Fonz, we knew exactly why he was called Henry Winkler.

Let’s get something straight; winkles don't look in the least good. If you have ever eaten a snail, think of a smaller glossier version with a long thin curly tail (if you are lucky enough to get them out that is). But the taste, in my opinion, is delicious. Some would say they are for an acquired taste, but I leave that statement to fusspots. If you like the taste of pure sea blessed shellfish such as mussels, crabs or the winkle's bigger cousin, the whelk, you will love the winkle.

I want to try to encourage people to perhaps try and grow to love our little shore hugging friend. To bring them up to date and give them a good old makeover, I recommend patiently shelling a load of cooked winkles and tossing them into a hot pan with chilli, shallots, lemon and coriander. Served on toasts as a canapé or even as a light lunch, I think you will quickly develop that 'acquired taste' and promote the humble and unfashionable winkle to a higher level. Just replace that tongue lancing pin with a cocktail stick please...

Hot Chilli and Lemon Winkles
Feeds 2 as a lunch

1 small bag of live winkles, or if you trust your fishmonger, cooked
1 shallot, peeled and sliced
1 clove of garlic, sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 dried chilli, crumbled
Juice of half a lemon
Salt and pepper
A handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped

1 - To prepare live winkles, simply tip into a pan and cover with water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 3 minutes. Drain and allow to cool. Remove the winkles gently from their shells and keep aside.
2 - Heat up the olive oil in a frying pan. Add the shallot, garlic and chilli and cook for 1 minute.
3 - Turn up the heat. Tip in the shelled winkles and squeeze in the lemon. Cook, stirring for a further minute.
4 - Taste for seasoning and serve on toasts with a sprinkling of fresh coriander.