The combination of thick flakes of smoky, salty fish with fluffy, buttery mashed potato and lashings of creamy tangy sauce is heavenly. Add a soft-poached egg and flourish of chives and it’s Proper Job, as they say in Cornwall.  Serves 4Prep: 20 minCook: 30 min 4 large potatoes, approx 800g80g butter 500ml milk4 thick fillets…

     I came across this unlikely dish when I was asked to write a week of recipes to complement teams in the World Cup. Its actual name is Tallarines Chalacos and owes its heritage to a time when Italy occupied Paraguay. My version adds chopped tomato, giving a fresh juiciness to the baked spaghetti sandwich…

This is my go-to loaf and below is the original recipe from healthy eating campaigner Doris Grant (1905-2003) who invented it by accident during the second world war. I’ve made it with various flours and flour combinations and my favourite is equal amounts of wholemeal and strong white flour. The mix of flour, yeast, sugar…

The best way I know to feed three hungry people with one fillet of smoked haddock. Serves 3, generously Prep: 20 min Cook: 40 min 400g naturally smoked haddock 2 bay leaves 4 black peppercorns 1 small onion 50g butter 175g risotto rice glass of white wine 2 tsp Dijon mustard 100g small leaf spinach…

The other day a friend mentioned in passing that the prawn and wild garlic pasta recipe I gave years ago when I wrote a daily after work recipe in The Standard is still a regular favourite and indeed, they were having it that night. To be honest I didn’t remember his description of the dish…

Here’s a dish to wake up your taste buds. Full of vim and vigour, crunch and slippery noodles, this salad is an unexpected mix of cucumber and fennel with a sharp, zingy dressing. A hint of sweetness comes from using Thai chilli sauce rather than raw chilli. It gives the pale green and white ingredients…

This is a quick, uncomplicated way of turning a few asparagus spears into little quiche-style tarts. I wish I could share the smell of them baking and you could hear the flaky crunch as my knife cuts through the pastry. Please make them. Serves 6Prep: 15 minCook: 20 min 320g puff pastry 100g/8 British asparagus…

Cheese or spinach, or both? That was the dilemma in the queue for breakfast pies at the favourite Greek bakery on Limnos a couple of summers ago. Filo coils – the favourite – are a devil to reproduce but these little round pies using ready rolled puff pastry are a doddle. Turn them into a…

     This lovely dish could be described as aubergine lasagne but is lighter and less complicated than the real McCoy. Recipes vary from cook to cook but it’s always precooked aubergine slices layered up with tomato, mozzarella and basil, the top lavishly covered with grated Parmesan that cooks to a moreish crisp. It’s a dish…

I’m on the point of reviving my miniscule but surprisingly productive front garden vegetable plot. Two ignored survivors from last year are spinach and chard, so a handful of front garden spinach went into these lamb meatballs. Bright and bouncy, the meatballs were poached in orange zest-flavoured chicken stock then added to orange juice-flavoured tomato…