Gumbo

Ah, gumbo. The taste of Louisiana, so I'm told. This is a rich stew, perfect for cold evenings and a glass (or two) of full-bodied red wine. I like to use chicken, sweet chipolatas from the local butcher, and a very few fresh, raw tiger prawns from the fishmonger. But you could vary this depending on what you have to hand: pork fillet, turkey, even steak would be perfectly acceptable instead of chicken, and some fine smoked fish or scallops would be delicious instead of prawns.

I usually serve this with plain brown rice, but crusty bread or roasted sweet potatoes would also work. This is a good meal to cook for friends as it is fine reheated- just don't add the tiger prawns until you're about to serve. I tend to make it on a Sunday for just the two of us, then keep another two portions for later in the week.

Ingredients:

• 4 (or more if your budget stretches) raw, shell-on, tiger prawns
• 2 large or 4 small chicken thighs
• 6 long, high-quality chipolatas
• 1 red onion
• 1 white onion
• 1-2 green peppers
• 4 fat cloves of garlic
• 1 sweet red chilli (or 2-3 if you like it HOT)
• 3 stems celery
• 4 tbsp plain flour
• half a small glass of red wine
• 2 tins good-quality chopped tomatoes
• 250g okra
• 2 tsp cumin seeds, lightly pounded in a mortar and pestle
• 2 tbsp paprika
• 2 bay leaves

Shell the tiger prawns, and make a quick stock out of their heads and shells, the onion heads and tails, one of the stems of celery and 100ml of water. You can leave this bubbling while cooking the rest of the ingredients.

Add a tbsp of vegetable oil to the bottom of a deep cast-iron pot (Le Creuset is perfect here!), set it over a low heat and finely chop the red and white onions. Gently fry these for ten minutes until translucent. Meanwhile, chop the green pepper and celery into small pieces, and very finely chop the red chilli. Add these and crush the garlic into the onions. Stir and cook for three minutes, until the chilli and garlic have softened. Remove the vegetables from the pan.

Cut the chipolatas into thirds. If there is no oil left in the pan, add a mere drop, and then add in the chicken thighs and the chipolata pieces. Sear them on each side for a few minutes, until the skins are sealed and golden. Add the flour to the oil that will have accumulated from the sausage fat - if there is not at least 1 tbsp in the pan, add a little more. Cook the flour until it has changed to the colour of peanut butter: this is the roux, and it will thicken the stew and add a smoky flavour. Meanwhile, slice the okra diagonally, to make pretty parallelogram pieces.

Splash in the red wine to deglaze (one for you, one for the pan), then return the vegetables and add the two tins of tomatoes, okra, cumin, paprika and bay leaves. Strain your prawn shell stock into the pan. Combine gently, then cook covered for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally so that the mixture does not stick to the bottom. Taste and season, then add the raw tiger prawns to the surface, pushing them just under the liquid. Cover and cook for four more minutes: the prawns should curl up and go pink. Serve with brown rice, or sweet potatoes, or just a dollop of creme fraiche. Top with fresh chives or coriander if desired. Must be eaten with the rest of the red wine, or an ice-cold (lager) beer.

Sausages with Apple Rings

This is my auto-pilot way of cooking sausages. I often leave them til later in the week, and I like to make sure they're cooked completely through if they've been in the fridge for a few days. Braising ensures they're piping hot throughout, and gives a delicious gravy, which is perfect with fluffy mashed potato & parsnip, and some greens like brocolli, cabbage or peas. With accompaniments, this serves two people who love apple rings!

Ingredients:

• 4-6 high-quality sausages
• 2 small onions
• 2 small eating apples
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 250ml nice cider
• 1 tbsp or capful of cider vinegar

Fry the sausages over a medium heat in a deep frying pan. Don't worry if they explode a bit, or stick to the pan: those nubbly sticky bits will be delicious later. Brown the sausages on all sides, making sure the skin goes from stretchy pink to golden brown. Meanwhile, peel and slice the onions into fine rings (about 1-2mm across). Remove the sausages from the pan, and add the onions, and a little oil if needed. Scrape the nice sticky bits off the bottom as you go. Fry the onions until well-cooked, about 10 minutes, turning occasionally so they don't stick to the pan. Meanwhile, core the apples and slice into thick rings (about six rings per apple, then they tesselate nicely in the pan!). Remove the onions and replace with the apples, frying for two minutes on each side until golden brown. Remove when done.

Now return the onions and sausages to then pan, and add the flour on top, stirring it in to coat the onions. Then pour in the cider and cider vinegar, deglazing any last caramelisation from the bottom of the pan. Cover and cook on a low heat for 15 minutes. (Now is a good time to set your potatoes and greens going.) Then add the apples back to the pan, cover and cook for another five minutes. Season with black pepper and enjoy!

Carrot & Courgette Fritters

These make the ultimate TV snack dinner, and are surprisingly quick and fun to make. You can vary the contents depending on what you have to hand, but I find a base of carrots and courgettes is a good flavour and texture combination to start with, and hold together well while cooking. Sweet chilli sauce and some good TV or a movie are a must! We're currently watching the third season of Breaking Bad, and it's utterly brilliant.

I've served these with a variety of accompaniments: ideally you want something fairly plain that you can eat with your hands. I've usually ended up serving with plain short-grain brown rice, which wins on the former but not the latter. If you wanted something a little more healthy then a sharply-dressed salad would contrast nicely against the crispy fried fritters. The recipe here is enough for two and can be prepared in half an hour; since the cooking is a little human-intensive, you'll need to scale the cooking time if you're preparing these for more people.

Ingredients:

• 2 fat courgettes
• 3 large carrots
• 2-3 spring onions
• a small handful of fresh mint or fresh coriander
• a big piece of ginger
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 3 tbsp plain flour
• 1 egg, lightly beaten

Finely chop the spring onions and herbs, and scrub or peel the carrots. Peel back about an inch of the skin from the large piece of ginger. Grate it coarsely up to the limit of the skin (you can then cut off and discard the stringy bits). Grate the carrots and courgettes in the same grater: they'll push through the nice gingery juice you might lose if you left the ginger til last. Put all the gratings in a very large bowl and sprinkle over the coriander, flour and egg. Using a spoon or your hands, combine all the ingredients into a squishy mess.

Set 1-2 frying pans over a moderate heat with a few tbsp of vegetable oil in each: more pans = a faster turnover, but more chaos! Taking a few tbsp of battered vegetables at a time, place them into the hot oil and pat flat with a spatula. Fry for two minutes on each side, or until golden brown on each side. They don't keep long, so serve immediately with sweet chilli sauce!

Savoury Pumpkin Pie

Another crafty use of pumpkin! Still munching our way through the Crown Prince: this recipe used about half of the 4kg monster. Once again, delicious sweet flesh with body and flavour: it really works well here as it's meltingly soft against the crisp buttery pastry. The only sad thing about this pumpkin is that the seeds are so enormous, they don't roast well in the oven to give a good snack.

Anyway, this recipe works well for six people as the carbohydrate portion of a main meal, or as lunch on its own. It would be brilliant to make a few as part of a large buffet. In my opinion it should always be served warm. It keeps well, but the pastry may become soggy if reheated in the microwave, so be prepared to use the oven if you want to recover the freshly-cooked crispness. Also bear in mind this takes 1.5-2 hours from start to finish, as there is a lot of cooking time.

Ingredients:

• 1.3-1.5kg of peeled and deseeded pumpkin (budget 1.8-2kg of raw pumpkin)
• vegetable oil
• cinnamon
• 375g puff pastry
• 1 egg, lightly beaten, for brushing

Preheat the oven to 200 C. Cut the pumpkin into small cubes and steam for 15 minutes, until tender. Tip the pieces into a roasting tin, add a generous pinch of cinnamon and a few tbsp of vegetable oil, season well and toss to coat. Roast for 45 minutes without turning: the edges will crisp and go lightly golden. When cooked, crush the pumpkin into a coarse mash.

Cut the pastry in half, and roll each piece out to fit a baking sheet. Place a sheet of greaseproof paper on the tray, then a layer of pastry, and spread out the filling over the top. Brush the edges of the pastry with the beaten egg, lay the other layer over the top and crimp the edges together. Using a sharp knife, make two or three slits on the top, so that the steam can escape as the pie cooks. Brush the pastry over with the remainder of the egg and bake for 25 minutes. Nigel Slater's original recipe calls for you to wait for 5-10 minutes for the pie to settle before cutting, but you will find that very difficult :)

Gnocchi with Tomato & Mozzarella Sauce

This is a quick one for when you're in a hurry. We needed to put something together before picking up some friends and driving out to a board games evening - Snatch, Hacienda, Through the Desert, and Web of Power, if you were wondering! I had some tomato juice left over from the laksah, a couple bunches of spinach and a ball of mozzarella I hadn't been able to resist buying at the weekend. So! Instant Italian-style supper for two.

Ingredients:

• 3 large shallots or a medium white onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled
• 4-5 large fresh tomatoes or a 400ml tin, diced
• two bunches or a bag of spinach
• a large ball of mozzarella
• half a bunch of basil
• fresh gnocchi, or pasta of your choice

In a deep frying pan (not necessarily non-stick), gently fry the onion or shallots in a little olive oil, until golden. Crush the garlic into the pan and cook for a further minute. Add your tomatoes and stir together, then bring to a simmer - you can cover the pan to bring it to temperature faster. Simmer uncovered until the tomatoes lose their shape and the sauce just transitions from liquid to paste-like. This is why I use a frying pan: the water evaporates faster from the larger surface area.

Meanwhile, rinse the spinach, and place it in a deep saucepan. Cover and place over a moderate heat, stirring after two minutes so the spinach doesn't stick. Allow it to steam in its own water and remove as soon as it has collapsed. You can reuse the pan to cook your pasta according to its instructions (gnocchi are done when they float to the top like cheerful clouds). Leave the spinach to drain, then squeeze out the liquid when it has cooled, and roughly chop, adding half a teaspoon of salt as you do. Tear or slice the mozzarella into bite-size pieces.

When it is cooked to your liking, drain the pasta. Remove the tomato sauce from the heat and tip in the mozzarella and spinach. Stir gently through, season with black pepper, and leave off the heat, covered, for two minutes. Serve your pasta in shallow bowls and tip the sauce over: the mozzarella will have softened and become a tiny bit molten, and the flavours will have mellowed together.

Smoked Mackerel Chowder

Mmmmmmmm, I love chowder! It took a long time for me to pluck up the courage to try making it, as I'd had so many good versions in restaurants and it always looked like it would be complicated, with a strong potential for ruining lots of nice seafood. The best way to start making chowder is to use a strongly-flavoured and robust fish, without messing around with different shellfish and getting all the cooking times correct.

On Saturdays there is a fishmonger in Cambridge market, and he sells an excellent range of fresh and smoked fish. We love the whole smoked mackerel, which work perfectly in this recipe - or just flaked on toast, or a baked potato. If you can't locate good smoked mackerel, you can try the vacuum-sealed fillets available from supermarkets, but they'll lack the creamy tenderness of properly smoked fish.

Ingredients:

• 1 whole smoked mackerel or a packet of vacuum-sealed mackerel fillets
• 1 peeled onion or well-washed leek
• 1 large or 2 small potatoes
• 2 carrots
• 3 sticks of celery
• large handful of parsley
• a few bay leaves
• 500ml vegetable or fish stock
• 1 small tin of sweetcorn
• 100ml cream

Strip the skin and bones from the whole mackerel, and flake the flesh into large pieces, discarding bones as you go. You can make a very strongly-flavoured stock from the skin and bones, if you have time: just boil them in a saucepan for 10 minutes. Finely chop the onion or leek and fry in a deep pan at a low heat, until it begins to go translucent. Cube the potatoes and carrots, and dice the celery and parsley. Add the vegetables and a few bay leaves to the pan, and fry with the onions for a few minutes, scooping from the bottom so they don't stick.

Add the stock and season with pepper. Don't be tempted to add salt just yet, as smoked fish is often salty itself. Cook until the vegetables are just tender - about 10 minutes. Gently combine in the flaked mackerel, drained tin of sweetcorn and the cream. You can use double cream if you're feeling luxurious, single for a tasty midweek supper, or even reduced-fat creme fraiche if you're watching the calories. Cover for a minute or two, allowing the chowder to reheat, and remove from the heat just as it comes to a simmer. Taste for seasoning; it may need a little salt at this point. Serve with crusty bread to mop up the juices.

Pumpkin Scone

I've been eating this for lunch for a couple of days, and every time my colleagues see it they ask what it is, and how I make it! It's a great replacement for bread if you're bored of sandwiches, and serves well alongside a few slices of sharp cheddar or soft goat's cheese. You could also slice it into small pieces, top with goats cheese and a few snippets of chive, and use as a vegetarian starter.

Again it's an adaptation of a Nigel Slater recipe; this time I've changed the cooking method as I don't own a shallow oven-proof pan. We're still working our way through the Crown Prince and it's the perfect ingredient here. However I think you could comfortably substitute sweet potato; perhaps use a little less milk to adjust for its higher water content.

Ingredients:

• 300g peeled and de-seeded pumpkin
• 140g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 70g butter
• 1 egg
• 90 ml warm milk
• 2 tsp thyme leaves

Cut the pumpkin into ~3cm chunks and steam for 20 minutes, or until tender enough to mash. Whiz the flour, baking soda, salt and butter together in a food processor. Drain the pumpkin and mash with a fork or potato masher, and beat in the egg, milk and thyme leaves. Season with black pepper. Combine the pumpkin and flour mixtures gently, stirring until no more flour is visible, but no further.

Warm a non-stick frying pan with a little vegetable oil to a low to medium heat. When the oil is warm, tip the dough in, scraping out the bowl and flattening the top. It takes patience at this point, as the cool dough will reduce the temperature of the pan, but don't be tempted to turn the heat up. Instead, cook for about ten minutes, and in the meantime preheat the grill to medium. You'll see the edges of the scone start to vent steam; at this point lift the edge of the scone gently and check the underside; it should be golden-brown.

Put the whole pan a few inches underneath the grill to finish off; the top should have a thin, golden-brown crust. If you know your grill well, you can grill it on medium for five minutes, then switch it off and leave it took cook in the residual heat. Serve warm, especially with cheese. It keeps for a few days, covered, in a cool place rather than the fridge.