This Week

Not a hugely exciting week but it did have the pleasure of a heart of lasagne to ward offf the increasing chill in the air - even though it's still bloody August - we need more summer.

Saturday we went to Suffolk to visit the lovely boyfriend's parents who were also being visited by his sister and her two little kids. We had volunteered to make dinner and so we started with drinks in the garden in a moment of sunshine with nibbles of olives and cheese and very civilised it was too. Then we had LOTS of Ginger Pig sausages - chippolatas for the littlies - and roasted aubergine salad, potato salad, roasted red onion and beans, green salad and a big bowl of red and orange cherry tomatoes sitting jewel like in the middle. Philippa, the youngest of the party, had seen a picture of avocado and cress salad in a recipe book and proclaimed her desire to have some so her mother had been to Tesco to buy the necessary and, using this supermarket produce, I whipped it up as the final dish. It was very pretty to look at - and tasted of absolutely nothing. Bizarre. But then it's what you get if your produce is grown for appearance and not flavour.

Sunday we had lunch in the elegant surrounds of the conservatory at Ickworth House before the schlepp back to London and hot sausage sarnies for supper. Lovely.

Monday was cereals and coffee for breakfast - same all week. Lunch was cold sausages and salad and dinner was roast chicken with barley and herb stuffing and new potatoes and spinach. The chicken was the corn fed bird from Wyndham Poultry which I normally poach successfully. It was okay roasted but lacked the firm texture of a better reared chicken - cheaper but once again, you get what you pay for. It works better poached in much the same way that braising steak is not great fried but is lovely slow cooked in red wine and garlic.

Tuesday we had cold chicken and stuffing and salad for lunch, then a gloriously fabulous mushroom and asparagus lasagne for supper

Wednesday we had barley pots for lunch - I had made too much stuffing for the chicken so I cooked the overflow in little ramekins in a bain-marie. They went well with salad. Leftover lasagne - dinner in no time!

Thursday salads for lunch, then roasted duck legs (from the freezer) with potatoes roasted in the same pan to cook in the duck fat and a serving of spinach. This was a modified version of what I'd intended as a fairly ambitious supper of boulangere potatoes made with apple as well as onions and potatoes as a base underneath the roasting duck but I realised we wouldn't eat till about 9.30 by the time I conjured all that - so I abandoned that plan after going no further than tears over sliced onions. It was not as good as my original plan but we did eat long before falling asleep.

Friday my sweetheart had a cheese roll from the freezer with biscuits and fruit for his lunch and I had a boiled egg and salad - I'd forgotten how much I like boiled eggs - might become a regular lunch... Tonight it will be the last of the lasagne with a green salad and a glass of red to celebrate Bank Holiday weekend.

Cheese & Spinach Omelette

A really quick and easy dish for a midweek supper that is also elegant and quite luscious. Late in the week it's straightforward to buy a packet of baby leaf spinach from the supermarket - though it annoys me that it is packaged and I wonder what else is added to make it stay fresh for days on end - but I do buy it occasionally so, like most people my actions don't always match the heights of my pontifications.

The cheese needs to be soft but well flavoured - a chevre for example, but goat's cheese is on the list of things the lovely boyfriend doesn't eat so I use rochetta or pie d'angelou to very good effect. I haven't tried it but I imagine a ripe stilton would make for a pretty amazing winter dish. The cheese and eggs make this quite rich - with a little salad and bread it is a substantial supper. And ready in no time.

Cheese & Spinach Omelette

2 good handfuls of baby spinach leaves, about 50g
2 tbspns olive oil
4 large free range eggs
20g butter, diced
100g good soft cheese, with rind
2 tbspns freshly grated Parmesan cheese
salt and ground black pepper

Preheat the grill to medium. Put the spinach into a saucepan with 1 tablespoon olive oil and place over a low heat for about 30 seconds until lightly wilted, take off the heat and drain on kitchen paper. Tease the cooked leaves apart.

Beat the eggs in a bowl till evenly blended but don't season. Put a 21cm omelette pan over a high heat and, when hot add the remaining olive oil and swirl round the base then drop in the diced butter and allow to foam. Pour in the eggs. Using a fork - metal if it won't damage the pan - stir the egg mixture round the pan. When it is two-thirds set stop stirring with the fork. Pinch the soft cheese into pieces and scatter these and the spinach leaves onto the surface of the omelette. Season lightly and sprinkle with Parmesan.

Now place the omelette pan under the grill until the top is lightly set and the cheese is golden. Remove from the heat and loosen the edges with a palette knife. Cut into wedges and serve.

This recipe comes from Gordon Ramsay's Secrets - which proves that even those weighed down with Michelin stars don't necessarily create meals that cost an absolute fortune. But they always make memorable food.

Mushroom & Asparagus Lasagne

Pasta is king. Endlessly versatile, it seems to go with almost infinite numbers of ingredients, hot or cold, light or creamy, meat or veg, quick to cook or it can take much longer. Of the slow to make dishes my favourite is far and away lasagne.

When I was a teenager we lived in a small city with a big Italian migrant population. In the school holidays it was always a special treat to go to the Italian Centre for lunch with my Dad and have scallops followed by lasagne. Most of the other diners were Italians - eating there was always a convivial affair. It no doubt added depth to my love affair with lasagne. But eating it in many other places since, some great some horrible, has made me know more versions than the delicate meat and ricotta version of the Italian Centre all those years ago in Wollongong.

I now have two favourites that I make at home - one is strictly for winter made with a base of oxtail slow cooked in red wine and the other is for almost any time - mushroom and asparagus. I have been making it for many years and it has always been a hit with whoever I serve it to. I think it is the subtle combination of flavours and textures - it harks back to the delicacy of the ones I used to lunch on all those years ago.

Mushroom & Asparagus Lasagne

500g/1lb of large field mushrooms, sliced
350g/12oz jar of asparagus
80g/3oz butter
2 tins plum tomatoes
1 large onion, finely diced
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons olive oil
Sprig of rosemary
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon plain flour
450ml/1 pint whole milk
100g/4oz grated hard cheese - this time I used caerphilly that was leftover from last week
Freshly grated nutmeg
Salt and pepper
No cook sheets of egg lasagne

I find it best to make the tomato sauce the day before - it gives depth to the sauce and makes it quicker on the day. Gently fry the onion and 3 crushed garlic cloves in the olive oil till soft. Add the tomatoes, breaking them up if they are whole, and the rosemary and bay, and season. Bring to the boil, reduce heat to simmer and cook, covered, for 40 minutes.

Cut the mushrooms into slices about the size of your little finger. Melt half the butter in a heavy pan, add the mushrooms and stir to coat with melted butter. Grind some black pepper over, reduce the heat and cover. Cook until the mushrooms give up their juices, stirring occasionally. Simmer uncovered to reduce the liquid by about half. Check seasoning.

To make the cheese sauce, melt the remaining butter and add the last crushed garlic clove. Stir briefly then sprinkle on the flour. Stir and cook for a couple of minutes over a low heat till the flour is a warm biscuity colour. This is important because otherwise the flour will taste raw and the sauce will be a big disappointment. When the roux is cooked slowly add the milk a bit at a time, stirring to incorporate it into the flour. Keep adding and stirring until you have a smooth light sauce. Add all but a tablespoon of grated cheese and increase the heat. Stir till it's all melted and smooth. Grate about half a teaspoon of nutmeg into the sauce, mix then taste and adjust the seasoning.

Now build your dish. In a 23 x 35cm/9 x 13in pan line the base with the drained spears of asparagus and the cooked mushrooms, with their juice. Then cover with a layer of lasagne sheets. Next is the tomato sauce - after you've removed the rosemary and bay - then another layer of pasta. Finally top with the cheese sauce and sprinkle on the last of the grated cheese.

Bake in a moderate oven at gas 4/350F/175C for 40 - 50 minutes till the sauce is bubbling and the top is golden. Leave to settle for a minute then serve with crusty bread and salad. This will make 6 servings.

I Bought

A corn fed chicken from the Wyndham Poultry Company - £5
Lots of sausages - we were making dinner for 7 - and 6 eggs from Ginger Pig - £23
Duck saucisse and a wedge of blue cheese from the French cheese stall - £5
A piece of Comte from Borough Cheese - £6.50
A large tub of fat green olives with taragon and garlic from Borough Olives £4
500g pack of mince from Wild Beef £3
Red and orange cherry tomatoes from Isle of Wight - £6
Potatoes, beans, sugarsnaps, cucumber, aubergines, parsley, lettuce, field mushrooms from Booths - £12
8 red onions from Tony's - £2
500g dark roasted Colombian coffee beans from Monmouth Coffee £8.50
Milk and bread from Neal's Yard - £6.50
Chocolate brownie - £1.50

Couldn't get an unsmoked ham hock anywhere - had a plan to have hock and white beans for lunch but it was not to be

So £83 this week - olives and cheeses and sausages were all for dinner with the Lovely Boyfriend's family - so that added a little to the bill

This Week

Because my sweetheart was a sicky boy on the weekend Saturday night was just a large platter of nibbly things - mozzarella, parma ham, bread, salad - much like we'd had through the day

Sunday was toast and coffee, lunch was fish and chips at the Sea Cow (he was feeling a little better) and dinner was a bit of a disaster. I grilled the sausages, which as always, were lovely and I made lentils to go with them and there in lay the problem. I had found a packet of lentils du puy at the back of the cupboard and decided they would be okay so long as I cooked them a little longer than usual. So I added some red wine and bacon and fennel and simmered them and simmered them and simmered them. An hour later I abandoned hope - they were like well scented pebbledash. I also made a fabulous banana and walnut cake that lasted the week as a sweet treat in the lunch boxes

Monday - coffee and cereals all week for breakfast, cold sausage and salad for lunch, and Chinese for tea - tofu with chilli and soy, sea spice aubergines and rice

Tuesday - rice and aubergine for lunch, stir fry pork noodles for dinner - the trip to the Chinese supermarket created a mini theme to start the week

Wednesday - salad for lunch, dinner was an oddity. I had seen a recipe a few weeks ago for curing a piece of beef with salt and sugar and spices that intrigued me so I duly made up the mix and coated the piece of skirt and put it into the fridge for three days. The cure mix did its work and drew an extraordinary amount of moisture from the meat - by Wednesday it looked like road kill in city gutter slush after a week of snow. I washed it off, patted it dry and seared it briefly in hot olive oil. We had it thinly sliced with salad and crusty bread and it was okay - but odd. It would work well on an hors d'ouevres platter, or possibly with middle eastern things like baba ghanoush and olives (the spicing was coriander and cumin). I might use the rest shredded into a noodle salad with hot and sour dressing to balance the sweet and salty.

Thursday - I bought extra bread yesterday so we had cheese and mango chutney rolls for lunch and, using the spectacularly expensive courgettes as well as some aubergine, peppers, cherry tomatoes, onion, garlic and herbs we had roasted vegetable pasta for dinner

Friday - cold pasta for lunch and probably spinach omelette tonight

Stir Fry Pork & Noodles

One of the few omissions at Borough Market is a supplier of Asian ingredients, or indeed any non European basics. French, Italian, Spanish, Polish are all well represented and catered for but the wider world isn't really. You can of course buy chillies and ginger and coriander and any cut of meat you need but it's the other bits - fresh slithery egg noodles, shaoxing wine, delicate grains of basmati rice, treacly dark soy that are indispensable to the process of making Asian dishes.

I tend to shop for what I need either in Chinatown on the edge of Soho where the choice is huge to the point of overwhelming or else in the Chinese supermarket in Atlantic Road on the edge of Brixton market. I love roaming the aisles of Lee Ho Fook and New Moon because there are always so many things I have never tried and have maybe heard of and many more that I have never even heard of - so I'll have new things to look for in recipes, to make other connections. And then my cooking and food knowledge evolves. I was in Brixton Saturday afternoon so I spent a happy half hour browsing, then bought a few essentials, as well as tofu and noodles for some dishes I was planning for the week.

I love eating Asian food - it has a whole other range of perfumes and textures and flavours and is somehow delicate and robust simultaneously. I enjoy cooking Asian dishes - they are different to most European dishes with so much preparation being able to be done first then often really quick cooking times with flavour coming from marinades and aromatics rather than slow cooking making it an easy option mid week after work and a treat always.

Stir Fry Pork & Noodles

350g/12oz pork fillet, thinly sliced
1 tbspn shoaxing wine
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 red chilli, chopped finely
1 tbspn ginger, grated
2 tbspn groundnut oil
1 tbspn dark soy
2 tbspn fish sauce
1/2 cup water
500g packet of fresh egg noodles
500g pak choi
1 tbspn oyster sauce
3 spring onions, green part chopped
Handful fresh coriander, chopped

Soak the sliced pork in the rice wine while you chop the rest of the ingredients. Rinse the noodles in a colander to separate them. Separate the leaves of the bok choy and rinse. It is best to prepare everything before you start cooking. Heat the oil in a wok over a high heat till very hot, briefly stir fry the chilli, ginger and garlic then add the pork and stir fry till the meat changes colour. Add the noodles, soy and fish sauce, stir to coat everything, then add the water. When it simmers, reduce the heat, cover and cook for 4-5 minutes.

Uncover the noodles, return the heat to high and add the pak choi and the oyster sauce. Stir fry till the leaves wilt then toss through the spring onions and coriander and serve immediately.

Fabulous supper with less than 10 minutes cooking.

Banana & Walnut Cake

I'm not normally one for making cakes - or even desserts very often. Needs a special occasion to motivate me - usually guests. When I was a school girl I used to love making biscuits and slices and cakes largely because I could lick the bowl and snaffle great mouthfuls of icing when no one was looking. Unfettered greed indulged. On Sunday afternoons my sister and I would take it in turns to bake our party piece - mine was butterfly cup cakes while Jane usually made rock cakes, then the whole family would gather for afternoon tea and scoff the lot with a big pot of tea. After a blow out Sunday lunch not actually sure how we managed it! In my teenage years I used to bake biscuits and things for school lunches but once school was done so was the home-made baking.

Every now and again I get the urge to do it again. This week, maybe because the lovely boyfriend had been poorly, and because he eats lots of biscuits (that I buy in packets, mostly Duchy of Cornwall because Prince Charles makes them himself with his own fair hands) I decided to make a banana and walnut cake. It's more of a loaf really and I had some walnuts in the cupboard that I'd brought back from France and I bought a big bunch of bananas at Borough Market so it all came together. It makes a seriously good cake that is gorgeously moist.

The recipe comes from googling 'banana cake recipe' - was there life before google? It is from the Waitrose site but is in fact a recipe from Sue Dykes, head baker of the tea rooms at the Royal Horticultural Society gardens at Wisley. Quintessential place for inspirational cake.

Banana & Walnut Cake

"In the café, we serve this with a rich topping," says Sue. "Make your own by beating 75g softened butter and 125g full-fat soft cheese with 200g sifted icing sugar and a dash of vanilla extract."

Makes 1 x 900g loaf

Preparation time: 30 minutes Cooking time: 40-45 minutes

Ingredients
2 ripe bananas (about 400g)
150g softened butter
150g soft brown sugar
100g walnuts
300g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 medium eggs, lightly beaten
100ml vegetable oil

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4. Butter a 900g loaf tin and line the bottom and sides with non-stick baking parchment.

Peel and mash the bananas. Put the butter and sugar into a mixing bowl and cream together until light and fluffy. Stir in the bananas and walnuts. Sift together the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Add the flour mix and the beaten egg, each about a third at a time, to the banana mix, beating well between each addition. Finally, stir in the oil.

Pour into the loaf tin and bake for 40-45 minutes until well risen and golden brown and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Leave in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out on to a wire rack to cool completely.


Makes a great cake - and a great deal of washing up - so be prepared! Technically speaking this is not exactly their recipe - they use 80g sultanas where I use walnuts but I prefer the texture and flavour of the nuts.