Ingredients (serves 2-3):

• Puff pastry – around 400g, enough to make a 3mm thick piece big enough to cover your chosen pan
• A dozen or more shallots – peeled
• 120g of caster sugar
• 3 tablespoons of water
• 80g of unsalted butter – cubed
• Salt and pepper
• 4 rashers of back bacon – diced
• Brie or other similar cheese
• Fresh rocket salad

Start by heating the oven upto 170 degrees C.  While the oven is heating up you can prepare the meal.  Lightly flour a work surface and roll out the pastry so that you have a 3mm thick circle the same size as the pan you’ll be using (I used an 8″ one).  Cut the shallots in half and try to make sure that they’re all of a similar height.  This may mean not cutting some of them in half and maybe trimming a bit more from some others.  You’ll need enough to cover the base of the pan.

In the pan you’re going to use for the tarte you should add the sugar and water and cook until it turns to caramel, which should take around ten minutes on a medium to high heat.  Try not to stir the caramel.  Once it starts to turn an amber colour, reduce the heat to minimum and whisk in the butter in a cube at a time until dissolved.  Repeat until all the cubes have been used.  Finish it off with a grind of pepper.  Don’t be tempted to taste the caramel as it’ll be very hot!

Remove the pan from the heat and, before it goes hard, place the shallots evenly around the pan, packing them well together.  Prick the pastry all over with a fork before placing it over the shallots.  It’s important to tuck it down the edges and in-between the shallots.  Put the pan into the oven for 20-25 minutes or until the pastry is nice and golden.  Remove and allow the tatin to rest for a few minutes once done.

After the tatin has been in the oven for ten minutes you can start on the salad.  Add a little oil to a pan and fry the bacon until nice and crispy.  When you remove the tatin from the oven you should put some chunks of cheese under the grill until it just starts to melt.

To get the tatin out of the pan you’ll need to hold a plate faced down over the pan and turn the pan and plate over at the same time.  Hopefully the tatin will pop out onto the plate so that when you lift off the pan you’ll be left with a lovely looking tarte.

Serve up by cutting a slice of the tartin and dress the plate with some rocket salad, dressed with balsamic, and add the bacon and grilled cheese.  A very nice meal!

Ingredients (serves 2-3):

• 4 pork loin steaks – sliced into strips
• 6 spring onions – tip removed and cut into 5cm lengths
• 2cm cube of ginger – sliced
• 1 large carrot – sliced into thin strips
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, finely sliced

Marinade

• 2 teaspoons of soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons of fish/oyster sauce
• 2 teaspoons of sesame oil

Start by putting the sliced pork into a bowl and adding in the marinade ingredients, then leave for at least 10 minutes.  Once the pork is marinated, heat up a wok and add in some oil.  Add in the ginger and fry for a minute or so being careful not to burn it.  Next, add the garlic, spring onions and carrots and stir fry for a few more minutes.  Add the pork in and stir fry until cooked, stirring constantly.

Serve up straight away once the pork is cooked.  You can do it with some steamed white rice or just on its own.

Ingredients (serves 4):

• 2 heaped teaspoons of fennel seeds
• 2 teaspoons of chilli flakes
• Olive oil
• 600g Cumberland sausages
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1 glass of white wine
• Zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 500g of fusilli
• Salt and pepper
• Some grated parmesan
• 1 tablespoon of dried parsley

Start by crushing the chilli flakes and fennel seeds in a pestle and mortar; place to one side once done.  Squeeze the sausage meat from the sausages and discard of the skins.  Heat up a griddle pan (or normal pan) and add some olive oil followed by the sausage meat.  Spread the sausage meat out and pat it down.  Cook for a minute or so before bashing the meat to turn it into mince.  Once the meat starts to brown off add in the crushed chilli flakes and fennel seeds.  Keep stirring the meat and cook until it’s just going crispy.  Pour in the oregano and white wine, stir and allow to simmer until the wine has reduced by half.  Grate the zest of a lemon and then cut it in half and squeeze the juice in being careful not to let any seeds drop into the sausage meat.  Reduce the heat to a gentle simmer while you cook your pasta.

Cook the pasta in lightly salted water until al dente.  Drain the pasta off and return it to it’s pan.  Pour the sausage meat mix in along with the parsley and stir around so that that sauce covers all the pasta.  Serve up straight away with a sprinkle of parmesan.  Enjoy!

Ingredients (serves 4):

Crumble

• 300g plain flour
• 1 pinch of salt
• 175g unrefined brown sugar
• 200g unsalted butter – at room temperature and cubed

Filling

• 450g cooking apples – peeled, cored and cut into 1cm pieces
• 50g unrefined brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon of plain flour
• 1 pinch of ground cinnamon

Heat the oven upto around 180 degrees C.  Pour the flour, sugar and a pinch of salt into a large bowl and mix well.  Then you’ll need to rub in the butter a few cubes at a time.  This involves putting the cubes of butter into the flour and then getting your hands into the mixture, lifting some up in your hands and rubbing the butter and flour through your fingers.  Keep repeating this until all the butter is in the bowl and the mixture resembles bread crumbs.

In another bowl, mix the apples, sugar, flour and cinnamon together lightly.  Pour the apple mixture evenly into a greased oven dish.  Next, pour the crumble mix over the top, making sure that you create an even crust.  Pat the mixture down lightly.

Place the dish into the oven for 40-45 minutes or until the crumble is nice and golden and the fruit is starting to bubble up through the crust.  Serve with custard, cream or icecream!

I picked up some nice looking black pudding on the market today so decided to do this dish.

Ingredients (serves 2):

• 2 cloves of garlic – crushed and finely sliced
• 1 teaspoon of thyme
• Olive oil
• 3 pork loins
• 4-6 circles of black pudding
• 2-3 cooking apples – peeled, cored and sliced roughly into cubes
• 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons of sugar

Put the oven on to 200 degrees C.  Put the apples, cinnamon and sugar along with a dash of water into a pan and heat until you can squash the apple mixture into a sauce.  Whilst the apple sauce is coming together you first need to prepare the pork.  Cover both sides of each loin with some olive oil, garlic and thyme.  Allow to sit for a minute or so before frying off on both sides for 2 minutes until they are browned off on the outside.  Place them on a baking tray and put them into the oven while you cook the black pudding.  Put some more oil in the pan you did the pork in and fry the black pudding on both sides until crispy (or to your preference).  Once the pork has started to crisp around the edges, remove it from the oven.

To serve up, spoon out the apple sauce equally, cut the pork loins in half and place in an alternating pattern with the black pudding.  Eat straight away, lovely!

Ingredients (serves 3-4):

Casserole:

• 500g diced venison
• 30g plain flour
• Salt and ground pepper
• 4 tablespoons of sunflower oil
• 1 onion – sliced
• 2 carrots – peeled and diced
• 2 sticks of celery – sliced
• 2 garlic cloves – crushed
• 100ml red wine
• 500ml chicken or beef stock
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon of dried rosemary

Dumplings:

• 100g of self raising flour
• 50g of vegetable or beef suet
• 25g of grated mature cheddar cheese
• 1 heaped teaspoon of dried chives
• 75ml cold water
• Salt and pepper

Heat up the oven to around 170 degrees C.  Place the plain flour in a bowl and season with salt and pepper.  Put the venison in the flour and coat evenly.  Heat a pan up over a medium heat and put half the oil in then add in the venison.  Once the venison is browned off remove it from the pan and place it into a casserole dish.  Add the rest of the oil to the pan and return it to the heat.  Throw in the carrots, celery and onion and cook for five minutes until the veg is slightly brown around the edges.  Add the venison back into the pan and add in the garlic and red wine.  Simmer until the wine reduces a little.  Pour everything back into the casserole dish and add in the rosemary, bay leaf and stock.  Put the casserole dish into the middle of the oven for around 20 minutes.

After the venison has been in the oven for 15 minutes you’ll need to make the dumplings.  Combine all of the ingredients and mix together briefly.  You don’t want to knead the mixture but mix it enough so that it’s consistent.  Wet your hands before grabbing a golf ball sized amount of the mix and pat into a ball shape.  Repeat this until you’ve used all the mixture.  Now that the venison has been in for 20 minutes it’s time to add in the dumplings.  Remove the venison from the oven, give it a quick mix and then place the dumplings over the top of the mixture, making sure that they’re not touching.

Return the venison and dumplings to the oven for a further 10-20 minutes or until the dumplings start to go a lovely golden colour.

Serve up straight away with some veg and crusty bread.  Enjoy!

Ingredients (serves 4):

• 400g of a good cut of steak
• 1 onion – sliced
• 1 red pepper – sliced
• 3 large mushrooms – sliced
• Mature cheddar cheese
• 1 French baton
• 1 clove of garlic

Heat up the oven to around 180 degrees.  Heat a pan up and add a little oil and fry off the onions and garlic for a couple of minutes.  Add in the sliced beef steak and cook until just browned off.  Add in the pepper and mushrooms and stir for 3 minutes.  Season as necessary with salt and pepper.  Pour the mixture into an oven dish and top generously with sliced cheese.  Put the lid on and place it into the oven for around 5 minutes or until the cheese is nicely melted.

To serve, simply slice the batons in half and fill with the steak and cheese mix.  Serve with chunky chips for a filling indulgent meal!

Ingredients (serves 3):

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion – finely chopped
• 200g smoked salmon – shredded
• 100 ml drywhite wine
• 300 ml double cream
• 2 tsp paprika
• 2 tbsp dried dill
• 450g tagliatelle
• Salt and pepper to taste

Bring one pan of water to the boil.  Heat another pan over a medium heat, add in the olive oil and fry the onions for 3-5 minutes until nice and soft.  Add the smoked salmon and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly.  Pour in the white wine and allow to simmer for a minute until the alcohol has evaporated off.  Next, sprinkle over the paprika and dill and pour the cream evenly around and stir until it’s well mixed in.  Add the tagliatelle into the boiling water and cook until done to your preference; preferably not fully soft.  Drain off and return it to it’s pan.  Pour the creamy salmon mixture over the tagliatelle and stir throughout the pasta.  Serve up straight away with a final sprinkling of dill.

Ingredients (serves 2):

• 1 ripe banana – sliced
• 120g plain flour
• 1 1/2 tea spoons of baking soda
• 1/2 tea spoon of salt
• 1 tea spoon of sugar
• 1 egg
• 250ml milk
• 50g of cream cheese
• 1/2 tablespoon butter (slightly melted)
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1/2 punnet of blueberries
• Golden syrup
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Extra sugar to sprinkle over the pancakes

Start by mixing together the flour, baking soda, salt and sugar and then creating a well in the middle.  In another bowl add the egg, milk, cream cheese, melted butter and vanilla extract and whisk well for a minute or so.  Add about half of the milk mix into the well of flour and stir around a little.  Once it’s fairly consistent add in the rest of the milk mix and stir until it’s fully smooth.

Warm a good non-stick frying pan, melt a knob of butter then add in a little of the mix into the centre of the pan.  After 5-10 seconds sprinkle in some blueberries.  Cook until golden brown underneath (you should see tiny craters appearing on the top when it’s close to being cooked underneath) and turn over for approximately half the time it took to cook on the first side.  Once cooked, put to one side on a plate covered with tin foil and start on the next one.  Repeat until all the mixture has gone.

To serve, stack the pancakes with alternating layers of bananas, lemon and sugar and cover with golden syrup!

PS: Check out the super slow motion pancake flipping video below!

Ingredients (serves 3):

• 5-6 chicken thighs
• A dozen new potatoes – halved
• 1 carrot – sliced
• 1 medium onion – sliced
• Olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of rosemary
• 1 teaspoon of thyme
• 1 teaspoon of parsley
• 3 cloves of garlic – finely sliced
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Half a punnet of cherry tomatoes
• 1/2 glass of white wine

Pre-heat the oven to around 180 degrees C.  Get an oven bowl and put in the halfed new potatoes, cherry tomatoes, sliced carrot and onion.  Place the chicken on top of the veg. Cover with the rosemary, thyme, parsley, garlic then squeeze over the lemon juice and pour a good glug of olive oil over it all and finally the wine.  Stick it in the oven for 30-50 minutes covered with tin foil, stirring half way through, until the chicken is done to your liking.  Enjoy!