Celeriac and apple soup with cheese croutons

Makes approx 3 servings

Peel and dice one celeriac and 2 medium sized potatoes. Fry in a little oil with one chopped onion and a couple of cloves of minced garlic. After 5 minutes or so add a peeled, cored and diced brampley apple and a couple of sprigs of thyme.

Add 1.2 litres of veg stock and season with salt and pepper.
Leave to simmer for 15-20 minutes until the potato and celeriac are soft.

Blend the soup (adding a little water or milk if it looks too thick). Warm the soup through again once blended.

Whilst the soup is warming, top mini ciabatta rolls with small chunks of cheddar and stilton. Put them under the grill to brown and then seve with the soup.

Goats cheese, leek and walnut tart

We're not big fans of goats cheese but we were given some for free so thought we'd better find a way to use it up. This was surprisingly nice and was very quick and easy to make. Don't forget the onion chutney on the side as it really complemented the other flavours.

Ingredients serves 2:

2 small goats cheese, each cut into three rounds

2 medium leeks, finely chopped

a handful of walnuts, roughly chopped

puff pastry

butter and olive oil

salt and pepper

onion chutney

• Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees
• Lay a piece of baking parchment on an oven proof tray
• Cut the puff pastry into whatever shape and size you want it (we had a small rectangle per person). Lay it on the baking parchment and score a line around the edges, without cutting right through the pastry. Place in the hot oven for around 10 minutes.
• Meanwhile, fry the diced leeks in a little butter and olive oil until softened (at least 10 minutes). Season the leeks with salt and pepper.
• Remove the pastry from the oven, and spread the leek mixture out on top. Scatter with the chopped walnuts and then place the goats cheese circles on top.
• Season again with black pepper before baking in the oven for a further 15-20 minutes, until the goats cheese is bubbling and golden.
• Serve with a green salad and caremelised onion chutney.

Cheese, ham and olive loaf

We've adapted this from a recipe we cut out of a magazine ages ago. We think it may have been Sainsburys.

Ingredients:

3 eggs

100ml good quality olive oil

250g self raising flour

125ml white wine

150g cooked cubed ham

150g grated cheese (gruyere, cheddar and parmesan are nice)

100g sliced pitted green olives

pinch of salt and pepper

• Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees and line a loaf tin with baking paper or grease it with butter
• Mix the white wine and eggs together until frothy
• Add the olive oil, flour and seasoning and stir well
• Finally add the dry ingredients and make sure everything is mixed thoroughly
• Pour the mixture into the loaf tin and bake in the hot oven for 1 hour until it has risen slightly and the top is slightly browned
• Allow to cool before slicing
• Serve with salad and chutney

Other nice additions to the loaf are spring onions and sun dried tomatoes.

Onion and cheese tarts with walnuts

Ingredients:

8 shallots

pinch of sugar

knob of butter

puff pastry

blue cheese (we used roquefort)

walnuts

salad

• Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees
• Peel and halve the shallots and cook in butter for around 10 minutes until soft, adding the sugar after about 5 minutes
• Line the individual dips of a muffin/yorkshire pudding tray with baking paper. Cut it into circles beforehand so that each circle is around twice the size of each circle of the tin
• Spoon the onion mixture onto each circle of baking paper, pressing down so that it fills the dip
• Cut the puff pastry into circles a little wider than the tray circles
• Carefully place the pastry over each mound of onion mixture, tucking the edges in so that none of the onion mixture is visible. Make sure that the pastry is tucked inside the baking paper layer
• Bake in the oven for approximately 20 minutes until the pastry is risen slightly and crisp
• Very carefully invert the tarts onto warm plates. Top with slivers of blue cheese and scatter with walnuts
• Serve with a green salad dressed with balsamic vinegar

Cheese, onion and potato pie

Basically a pimped up cheese and onion pasty.

Ingredients: serves 3-4 with accompaniments
1 large onion, diced
3 medium sized potatoes, peeled and chopped into small chunks
A couple of large handfuls of grated cheese (whatever you have available, we used cheddar and a little parmesan)
1 large tbl sp of soft cheese
Leaves from 3 thyme sprigs
1 bay leaf
½ glass of white wine
1 pack of puff pastry
1 egg
Olive oil
Knob of butter
Salt and pepper

• Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees.
• Take the puff pastry out of the fridge so that it comes to room temperature.
• Melt the butter in a large non-stick frying pan and add a little olive oil.
• Add the diced onion and allow to cook for 5 minutes until soft.
• Add the diced potato and continue to cook for 10 minutes, stirring often so the potatoes don’t stick.
• Add the wine, thyme and bay leaf and allow to simmer until the wine has almost completely evaporated.
• Check that the potato chunks are tender, if not, continue to cook for another few minutes.
• Remove the bay leaf and pour the potato/onion mixture into a large bowl. Add the grated cheese and soft cheese, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir everything well.
• Line an oven tray with greased baking parchment.
• Cut the puff pastry in half (or use circles if you prefer a circular pie) and place one half on the baking parchment.
• Tip the cheesy potato and onion mixture on top of the pastry and use a spoon to spread it out evenly. Leave a 1cm gap around the edge.
• Lay the other half of the pastry on top, and pinch the edges to seal the two layers. Score a couple of lines across the top of the pie to allow steam to escape and egg wash the top and edges if you like.
• Cook in the pre heated oven for approximately 30 minutes until golden brown.
• We had ours with a pile of pea shoots but it would be good with any salad or green veg to counter balance the carb overload.

Cheese and onion bread pudding

This is a savoury version of bread and butter pudding. We’ve seen it done in various ways but didn’t follow a recipe and just made up the quantities as we went along, according to what we thought it needed.

You could use whatever cheese you have to hand. It would also be very nice with some chopped ham or mushrooms added between the layers of bread.

Ingredients:
6-8 small slices of bread (we used tiger bread)
2 large eggs
Milk (approx 50ml)
1 tbl sp crème fraiche (optional)
Parmesan, gruyere and cheddar, grated (a handful of each)
5-6 spring onions, sliced
A handful of chopped spinach
Pepper
Butter

• Pre-heat the oven to 150 degrees.
• Butter the oven dish you are using to bake it in.
• Beat the eggs with the milk and the creme fraiche (if using). Season with black pepper and add about 1/3 of the cheese. Stir well.
• Layer half of the slices of bread on the bottom of the baking dish so that each slice slightly overlaps the next one.
• Scatter the chopped spring onions and spinach on top of the layer of bread, followed by about 1/3 of the grated cheese.
• Layer the remaining slices of bread on top, again ensuring that they overlap slightly.
• Pour over the beaten egg/milk/cheese mixture, making sure that you evenly distribute it across the slices of bread.
• Scatter the remaining cheese on top before baking it in the oven for approx 30 minutes.
• We served it with a plain green salad.

Smoked salmon, parsley and cream cheese omelette

This made a really nice Sunday brunch dish. A glass of champagne would finish it off nicely!

Ingredients: (makes 2 omelettes)

3 large eggs

a handful of parsley, chopped

a slice of smoked salmon, cut into small pieces

a tbl spoon of cream cheese

black pepper

butter

2 English muffins

• In a jug or bowl mix the omelette ingredients together: eggs, salmon, cream cheese and parsley. Season with black pepper and stir well.
• Heat a knob of butter in a non stick pan and pour in half of the egg mixture. Cook the omelette for a minute or two (according to how you like it) and fold in half towards the end of cooking.
• Meanwhile, toast an English muffin to serve alongside.

Hangover breakfast

Quite disgusting to look at but a perfect all in one breakfast if you're feling a little delicate.

Ingredients (serves 2):

3 eggs

1 small white onion, sliced

1 medium sized cooked potato, cut into slices (prick it with a fork and blast in the microwave for 5 minutes or so first if you don't have any cooked potato leftovers)

4 rashers of streaky bacon

a handful of grated cheddar (or sliced if you can't be bothered to grate)

black pepper

butter or olive oil

tomato ketchup (optional)

pot of tea (necessary)

• Butter or oil a non stick pan before placing it on the heat. Once hot, place the onion and potato slices in one layer to cover the bottom of the pan. Cook for approximately 3 minutes and then turn over for another 3 minutes
• Meanwhile, beat the eggs and season with black pepper
• Pour the eggs on top of the potato and onion mixture and swirl the pan slightly to ensure the egg mixture covers the bottom of the pan
• Pre heat the grill to a medium heat
• After a couple of minutes sprinkle the grated cheese on top and then place the bacon rashers on top of the cheese (you can pre grill the bacon rashers for a couple of minutes first if you like them crispy)
• Place the pan under the grill until the bacon is cooked and the egg mixture is set
• Slide it on to a plate and add a good dollop of ketchup on the side

In our house a pot of tea would be necessary to gulp alongside it.

Sticky sausage burgers with blue cheese

Ingredients (serves 2):

4 pork sausages

2 spring onions, sliced

tea spoon of apple sauce

tea spoon of whole grain mustard

25g of blue cheese (we used Danish blue)

2 burger buns

1. squeeze the sausage meat out of the skins and place the sausage in a glass bowl
   
2. add the spring onions, apple sauce, mustard and cheese and mix well


3. mould the mixture into 2 burger shapes


4. heat some oil in a non stick pan until hot


5. cook the burgers on each side for approx 6 minutes
   

We served them in a toasted sesame seed bun with an extra slice of blue cheese. On the side we had new potatoes and green beans in a garlic, herb and caper mayonnaise.