Beef stew with cheese cobbler topping

We ate this on the balcony in the sunshine, after an afternoon spent digging at the allotment. It felt rather more like May than March.

This is adapted from a Hugh Fearnley-Whirligig recipe in the Guardian, and a fish cobbler recipe from Yorkshire. It's not a bad hybrid.

You'll need:

400g stewing beef, chopped into largish chunks
a little flour, seasoned with salt and pepper
a couple of medium-sized onions, cut into large chunks
3 carrots, cut into largeish chunks
4 large mushrooms, chopped into large chunks
a glug of olive oil
fresh parsley
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 bay leaves
150ml bitter/stout
400ml vegetable stock or beef stock

First of all, put the oven on at about 140 degrees C. Dip the chunks of beef in the seasoned flour, and then fry in batches in a frying pan until they're browned. Tip into your casserole dish.

Fry the onions in the meat juices (you may have to add a little extra olive oil) for a couple of minutes, and then tip them into the casserole too. Add the carrots, bitter, stock and the herbs (3 or 4 large stalks of parsley, a couple of bay leaves and the dried thyme. Shove a lid on the casserole dish, bung in the oven, and cook for 1 hour 45 minutes.

In the meantime, fry the mushrooms in a good glug of olive oil, until they soften and colour. You can also make the cobbler (essentially a cheesy scone topping).

You'll need:

8oz self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon mustard powder
2oz butter
3oz cheese (preferably something strong like cheddar, although Wensleydale would also be good)
1 egg, beaten
1/4 pint of milk
a pinch of salt

To make the cobbler, pour the flour, salt, baking powder and mustard powder into a mixing bowl. Rub in the butter, until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs, then add the cheese. Mix in the egg, and however much of the milk you need to form a soft dough (I used all of it, but it does vary depending on your flour).

Once the stew has cooked (you could happily leave it in for a couple of hours or so), bring it out, and crank up the oven temperature to 180 degrees C.

Chuck the mushrooms (and any juices left in the pan) into the casserole dish. Then top with the cheese scone cobbler. You could roll the dough out, and cut out proper scone shapes. I just divided mine up into small-ish balls, squashed them until they were about 2cm thick, and then placed them on top of the stew.

Bake in the oven for about 35 minutes - or until the scone topping is golden and crunchy.

We ate ours with some steamed cabbage and broccoli. It disappeared very quickly.

Tagliatelli with smoked salmon, leek and thyme

We spent most of the afternoon pottering about in the garden centre, after the exciting news that we have a share in an allotment. You've decided you want to grow 'carrots and flowers'.

Tea was courtesy of the leeks in our back yard. We only managed to grow 6 last year...

You'll need:

tagliatelli - enough for three
a pack of smoked salmon trimmings
a couple of large leeks (or several small, if they've been grown in your back yard), sliced
five or six spring onions, sliced into chunks
dried thyme (in summer, this would be lovely with some dill, I suspect)
a squeeze or two of lemon

Stick the tagliatelli in a large pan of boiling water, and cook until tender. In the meantime, chuck the leeks and spring onions in a frying pan with a good slug of olive oil, sprinkle with a teaspoon or so of dried thyme, and fry until they've softened.

Once the pasta has cooked, drain it (reserving a couple of tablespoons of water). Toss through the smoked salmon, leeks and spring onions, and then add a squeeze of lemon juice. If it's still a little dry, use a tablespoon of the reserved cooking water.

Grate over lots of parmesan cheese, and eat before it goes cold.

Pork with date and apple stuffing

Yet another use for cooking apples (Grandma gave us a bag a couple of weekends ago).

You'll need:

pork tenderloin (enough for three)
a good handful of breadcrumbs
1 egg, beaten
a handful of dates, roughly chopped
a cooking apple, peeled, cored and grated (or finely chopped)

Turn the oven on to about 190 degrees C.

Take your pork tenderloin, place some clingfilm over the top, and hit repeatedly with something heavy - I use my Grandma's old wooden rolling pin. The pork will gradually flatten in a pleasing fashion.

In a bowl, mix together the breadcrumbs, grated apple and chopped dates. Add the egg, and a couple of tablespoons of water, and mix everything together into a horrific mess.

Tear off a sheet of foil, and place the flattened pork on top. Dump the stuffing into the middle in a long sausage, then roll up the foil lengthways (which also rolls up the pork). Twist the ends, so that you have a giant meaty shiny Christmas cracker. Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes - then open up the foil, and see how well cooked the pork is. If you like a little bit of crispiness to the stuffing and/or pork, roast for another 10-15 minutes in the oven with the foil left open.

We ate this with some steamed green cabbage drizzled in soy sauce, and a mix of carrot and sweet potato.

Marmalade flapjacks

We made these this afternoon, in between telling fairy tales and playing with the play-doh. Your fairy tales were definitely better than mine.

This is adapted from another Dan Lepard recipe in the Guardian...

You'll need:

100g raisins
100g butter
60g dark brown sugar
75g orange and rhubarb marmalade (you could use any type, but this is what was lurking in the cupboard, courtesy of Leverington WI)
zest of an orange
1 tablespoon black treacle
200g rolled oats

Stick the raisins in a bowl, and cover with boiling water. Leave to stew for 10-15 minutes while you get on with the rest.

Turn the oven on to about 170 degrees C. Chuck the butter in a saucepan, together with the marmalade, sugar, black treacle and orange zest. Melt over a low heat.

Drain the raisins, and add to the saucepan. Ditto the oats. It'll look a right mess, but will smell lovely. Decant the mess into a square baking tin - which you've lined with greaseproof paper (otherwise it'll stick like anything).

Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes, until it's coloured slightly. Leave to cool on a wire rack (but cut into squares while it's still a little bit warm, or it'll set rock hard).

Breakfast in bed

Today was Mother's Day, so you brought me breakfast in bed.

You chose:

cornflakes
toast and marmalade
a croissant
orange juice
lots of coffee

It was a pretty good combination.

The heart in the sand came later on at Low Newton, where we watched Eldred retrieving his lobster pot on a surfboard. There were two inside, and you chanted "lobster lobster lobster" all the way home.

Roast leeks with thyme

This is a really simple side-dish, that livened up the roast chicken that we had for tea. Makes enough for two adults, and a hungry three-year-old.

You'll need:

three large leeks
a good slug of olive oil
a teaspoon of dried thyme

Stick the oven on at about 200 degrees C (or whatever temperature you're cooking your roast chicken or main dish at!). Wash out all the soil, and slice the leeks into rings.

Tear off a large square of foil, and place it on a baking tray. Tip the leeks onto the foil, slosh some olive oil over the top, and sprinkle liberally with thyme. Fold up the foil into a parcel (a biddable three-year-old comes in handy at this point).

Bung the parcel in the oven (it's easiest if you stand it on the baking tray) for about 30-40 minutes until the leeks have turned beautifully moist and squidgy, with a little bit of brown at the edges.

Apple cake

This is adapted from a Dan Lepard recipe, and never fails - it's always beautifully squidgy in the middle thanks to the ground almonds.

You'll need:

1 apple (about 150g), peeled, cored and chopped into small chunks
a large teaspoon of ground cinnamon
50g ground almonds
150g rye flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
75g butter
50g golden syrup
100g dark brown or muscovado sugar
75ml milk
an egg

Stick the oven on at about 170 degrees C, and find a suitable tin - I use a silicon loaf tin, which is probably a 2lb one.

Toss the chopped apple in the cinnamon, so it's coated all over. Mix together the flour, ground almonds and baking powder in a large bowl.

Pour the golden syrup into a small saucepan, and add the sugar and butter. Melt slowly over a very low heat until everything's dissolved. Take off the heat, and then add the milk, and a beaten egg. It'll look pretty disgusting, but bear with me.

Pour this fairly revolting mixture into the flour/ground almonds mix, and stir really well. Chuck the apple in, and fold in gently. Scrape the lot into your tin, and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. You could sprinkle the cake with some flaked almonds or demerara sugar before you bake it, if you're feeling fancy.

Leave to cool before eating, if you can - it'll slice much better.

Update: pic of cake (with slice missing - wasn't me, honest). It tastes far better than it looks.