Cheese and potato scones

Or what to do with leftover mashed potato that will amuse a grumpy three-year-old.

Makes around 10-12 medium-sized scones, or lots of small ones that can be scoffed with some parma ham or smoked salmon. You'll need:

6oz mashed potato
8oz self-raising flour
1 1/2 oz butter
pinch of salt
2oz grated cheese
a little freshly grated nutmeg (paprika would be good instead of this, if you're making it for grownups rather than small people)
3-4 tablespoons milk

Stick the oven on at about 200 degrees C, and fish out a baking tray (you'll need to grease it or cover it with a silicon sheet).

Measure out the flour into a bowl, and rub in the butter. Stir in the salt, nutmeg and grated cheese. Mix in the mashed potato, and then add the milk a little at a time, until you have a soft, pliable dough.

Roll out the dough to about 1cm thick, and cut out rounds. Place these on your baking tray, and bung in the oven for 20 minutes or so, until they have risen and are golden brown on top.

Eat while warm. I'm not sure they keep particularly well, but to be honest that really wasn't a problem.

Apple and blackberry slice

It feels like autumn today - windy, grey and cold. So to celebrate I made apple and blackberry slice to use (a) some of the blackberry mountain from the allotment and (b) the leftover filo pastry from the courgette/chickpea pie experiment.

It went down rather well, with a scoop of blackberry ripple ice cream.

You'll need:

4 or 5 eating apples - peeled, cored and chopped into chunks
a small punnet of blackberries
125 filo pastry
a jolly good squirt of runny honey
a sprinkle of cinammon
15g butter, melted

First of all, stick the oven on at about 200 degrees C.

Sling the apple chunks into a small saucepan with a little water (maybe half a mug). Bring to the boil, then simmer until the apple has turned to a beautiful mush.

Take a small foil tray or whatever cake or loaf tin comes to hand. Brush all over with melted butter, and line with 4 or 5 sheets of filo pastry (each brushed with melted butter), leaving a little overlap hanging over the edge.

Place the blackberries on the pastry, and top with the apple mush. Drizzle over a good squirt of runny honey, and sprinkle with cinnamon. Fold over the overhanging edges of pastry, and then place a couple more sheets of filo on top (brushing with more melted butter).

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown and crispy.

Courgette, chickpea and filo pastry pie

I made this on a whim, mainly to use up a box of filo pastry I had in the freezer and the mountain of courgettes from the allotment. It was really good - and would be perfect if you've got vegetarian friends coming round for a meal.

I can't claim credit for thinking it up though - it's the blessed Nigella's recipe, slightly tweaked. Feeds 4 if you add a nice green salad, and maybe some crispy French baguette.

You'll need:

1 smallish onion, finely chopped
2 medium-sized courgettes, diced
1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
60g rice (I used basmati)
1 can of chickpeas, drained
a good blob of butter (about 25g), melted
100g filo pastry

Stick the oven on at about 200 degrees C. Dig out a springform tin (one of those where you unhitch the sides, leaving the base free) - it needs to be a good 5cm deep.

Fry the onion and cumin seeds in a good slosh of olive oil, until the onion goes translucent. Add the coriander and turmeric, and mix well. Sling in the courgettes, and fry on a high-ish heat, until they too are soft and bright yellow. Add the rice, and stir it round well, so it takes on the oil and spices.

Gently add around 250-300ml water in stages - you want the water to be gradually absorbed by the rice. Stir well every couple of minutes - it should be cooked after 10-12 minutes. Drain the chickpeas, and chuck into the mixture.

Then comes the fun bit (you really liked this part). Take your springform tin, and thoroughly brush it all over with melted butter. Then layer the sheets of filo pastry (keep a couple for the lid), putting them at an angle to each other so no filling will escape, and leaving a little overlap at the sides. As you slide each pastry sheet into the tin, brush each one carefully with more melted butter.

Tip in the filling, and fold over the overlaps. Take your last couple of sheets of filo, scrunch them, and arrange on the top. Brush with more melted butter to seal.

Stick in the oven for 20 minutes or so, until the pastry is golden brown and crispy. Once you've retrieved it from the oven, decant from the springform tin, and stand back and admire for all of...ooh 20 seconds before you dig in.

Courgette and goat's cheese pancakes

One of the easiest pancake fillings in the world (after bacon and maple syrup).

Makes enough for 3-4 pancakes. You'll need:

a couple of courgettes, diced
a small onion, finely chopped
some herbs (I used rosemary because I'd just cut back the bush in the garden)
a very good slug of olive oil
some goat's cheese (I used the really spreadable stuff that we had leftover from making something else)

Sling the onions in a frying pan with the olive oil, and cook gently until they're soft. Add the courgettes and chopped herbs, and fry for another 6-7 minutes until they too are softened and coated in the olive oil.

Make your pancake.

Spread a line of goat's cheese down the centre of the pancake, followed by a tablespoon or two of the courgette/onion mixture. Season with black pepper, and roll up. Eat while it's still hot.

Rosti

The Swiss would probably take umbrage at this version, but it's rather good. We ate it with some chard from the allotment, and it all disappeared rather rapidly.

Makes enough for two greedy adults and one greedy three-year-old. You'll need:

700g potatoes
1 large onion, finely chopped
5 slices of streaky bacon, sliced into small pieces (lardons would be even better)
salt and black pepper
butter

Scrub the potatoes, and then sling them in a pan of boiling water for 10 minutes, until they're parboiled. Peel (you should be able to easily do this with a knife), and then grate using a coarse grater.

While the potatoes are boiling, fry the onion and bacon together for 6-7 minutes, until the onion softens. Tip into the grated potato and mix gently - if you find the potato starts to stick, you'll need to add a knob of melted butter - and season with salt and lots of black pepper.

Melt another large knob of butter in your frying pan. Divide the mixture in two, and press half into the pan. Fry for 7-8 minutes on a medium heat (if it starts to burn, add some more butter). Turn the rosti over (it's probably easiest to slide a plate on top, and flip the pan upside down), and fry for another 7-8 minutes until it's crispy on the bottom.

Eat as quickly as possible. Do try not to have a heart attack.

Chocodoodles

It's been rather a strange, grumpy day, so we made chocodoodles (little chocolate biscuits/cakes) to cheer ourselves up. It's a Nigella recipe, slightly tweaked - we ate them with slices of juicy nectarine, and will finish the rest off with the blackberry mountain currently sitting at the bottom of the fridge.

Makes about 16. You'll need:

65g butter
50g sugar
25g cocoa powder
100g plain flour
a pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
a small egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon caster sugar
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C, and fish out a baking tray (you'll need to line it with greaseproof paper or a silicon sheet).

Cream the butter and sugar (50g, not the tablespoon) together, until they're fluffy. A bit of elbow grease works wonders, but you could cheat and do this in the food processor. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract, and then carefully add the cocoa powder, and mix gently. Add the flour, baking powder and salt, and mix until everything is smooth.

Mix the remaining caster sugar/cinnamon, and place on a plate. Take a teaspoon of mixture, roll it in your fingers to make a ball, and then roll each ball on the cinnamony/sugary plate until it's thoroughly covered. (You loved this bit.)

Sling each ball on the baking tray (they don't spread too much while baking, so you don't have to space them widely), and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes until no longer soft. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Ratatouille

We returned home to be greeted by the largest courgette ever on the allotment. (Seriously, it was about a foot long). This is probably not the world's most authentic recipe for ratatouille, but it did have the benefit of using up about a third of the monster...

Makes lots and lots. We ate this with meatballs and rice, and I'll probably also puree some of the leftovers to make a pizza topping.

You'll need:

1 medium aubergine, cubed
1 large onion, finely sliced
a couple of cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 monster courgette, cubed
1 red or yellow pepper, sliced
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tin of tomato puree
lots of black pepper and Mediterranean herbs
2 bay leaves

Sling the onion and garlic into a frying pan, and add a large slosh of olive oil. Fry until they've turned translucent. Add the aubergine, and fry until it's softened. It absorbs a lot of olive oil, so you may need to add another large dollop.

Throw in the courgette and pepper, and fry for a couple of minutes until they too have softened. Tip in a tin of chopped tomatoes, another tin full of water, and the tomato puree. Season with a good sprinkling of dried Mediterranean herbs (think oregano, thyme etc), and a couple of bay leaves. Bring the sauce to the boil, then leave to simmer for a good 30-40 minutes - the longer the better.

Spaghetti with tuna, spinach and lemon

Actually, this may not have been spinach - it might have been chard. It's grown some rather enormous leaves on the allotment, anyway, which the snails have started to take a liking to. So we thought we should get in first.

You'll need:

enough spaghetti for three (a small handful per person - spaghetti always miraculously expands when cooked)
1 large onion, finely sliced
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
unidentified green leaves - preferably spinach/chard or that sort of thing, sliced into strips
1 tin of tuna
lemon zest (about half a lemon will do)
lots of black pepper

Stick the spaghetti into a large pan of boiling water - it'll need 7-8 minutes until it's al dente.

In the meantime, fry the onion and garlic in a good slug of olive oil, until they've softened. Add the greens, and fry for a couple of minutes until they've wilted. Stir in the tuna, and leave to warm through.

Drain the spaghetti, and tip into the greens/tuna pan. Stir everything thoroughly, so the spaghetti becomes covered with the tuna and onions. Season well with lots of black pepper, and some grated lemon zest.

Divide up into bowls, and top with a little extra drizzle of olive oil, and maybe some parmesan cheese.

Chocolate puddings

To celebrate our return from sunny France to rainy Gateshead we made chocolate puddings for tea.

Makes four small puddings - they were brilliant with blackberries from the allotment, and a scoop of ice cream.

You'll need:

50g butter
50g sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
50g self-raising flour

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C. You'll need four little ramekin dishes, or something similar that's oven proof. The puddings stuck slightly to my glass dishes, so make sure to butter them well.

Cream the butter and sugar together, then beat in the egg (you could do all this in the food processor, to speed things up). Add the cocoa powder, and gently mix (if you're overenthusiastic it tends to erupt in powdery clouds all over the kitchen flour). Ditto with the flour.

Divide the mixture into the four dishes, and place on a baking tray (this makes it easier to get them in and out of the oven). Bake for 15-20 minutes, until they've risen, and are firm to the touch.

Eat rapidly - they're better warm than cold.