Another exception to this rule are the cheeky Hairy Bikers as we like their cheeky northern cheekiness and honest, hearty grub …and grub doesn’t get more honest and hearty than this excellent supper dish.

Now put down that book and get out of our house or we’ll release the hounds!

An artist’s impression of what Dave Myers’ Mam
might most probably definitely looks like.

Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: roughly 30 minutes – more if you need to make the mash from scratch
Skill level: easy
Serves: 2

Ingredients

For the fishcakes:

• cod fillet – 250g
• milk – 125ml
• mashed potato – 250g
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 free range eggs
• parsley – finely chopped – 1tbsp
• plain flour – some
• packet bread crumbs – the bright orange ones
• black and white pepper
• sea salt
• olive oil

For the cheese sauce:

• reserved milk from poaching the fish
• full fat milk
• butter – 50g
• plain flour – 2½tbsp
• mature cheddar – grated – 175g
• salt & pepper

If you don’t have any left-over mashed potato, now’s the time to make some.

Season the cod with salt and black pepper and place in a deep frying pan along with the milk and bay leaf. Cover with a lid.

Bring the milk to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes (depending on the thickness of your fillet) until the fish is beginning to flake.

Set aside to cool.

Once cool, strain (and keep) the cooking liquid and flake the fish.

Drop the flaked fish into a large bowl along with the mashed potato, one beaten egg and the chopped parsley. Gently mix everything together and season with salt and white pepper (the white pepper is essential for that authentic Mam flavour).

Divide the mixture in two and form both of your behemoth fishcakes.

Grab three dinner plates and lay them out in a row.

Put flour on the first, beaten egg on the second and breadcrumbs on the third.

Carefully roll the fishcakes in the flour, then the egg, then the breadcrumbs.

Heat some olive oil in a frying pan and cook the fishcakes on both sides until a dark golden brown.

Place in a medium oven to keep warm.

Next for the cheese sauce.

Add some milk to the reserved fish stock until it makes up 500ml.

Add the butter to a saucepan and heat until melted. Add the flour to form a paste. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring all the time.

Gradually add the milk mixture and whisk over a gentle heat until thickened.

Add the cheese and stir until melted and the sauce is silky smooth.

Season to taste.

Pour over your fishcakes and serve, possibly with something green and spherical such as peas.

Enjoy.

Verdict: There can’t be a better Saturday-evening-in-front-of-the-TV dinner than this. The fishcake is smooth and fishy on the inside and crisp and crunchy on the outside. The cheese sauce is smooth, unctuous and cheesier than cheese itself. There is a reason the Hairy Bikers are carrying a few extra pounds.

Drink: A few Duffs and a bottle of half price red from Morrisons.

Entertainment: A ‘Shoestring’ on DVD.

A birthday present from Blogger-D to Blogger-R.

This was less of a search for the perfect pasta sauce, and more because we had an empty fridge and needed to knock up something tasty from what is commonly known as ‘store cupboard standbys’. What do you mean you don’t always have porcini mushrooms in the house? Hand in your John Lewis Store Card at once and never darken this blog again!

Preparation time: 10 minutes plus 30 minutes soaking
Cooking time: 50 – 60 minutes
Skill level: easy
Serves: 2

Ingredients

• dried porcini mushrooms – 14g
• onion – finely chopped – 1tbsp
• tinned tomatoes – 200g (about half a tin)
• butter – knob
• olive oil – slug
• s & p
• pasta (such as penne) – 220g
• grated parmesan

Start by reconstituting the mushrooms. Place them in a bowl and pour over 375 ml of barely warm water. Leave to soak for at least 30 minutes.

Lift out the mushrooms by hand and squeeze as much of the water as you can back into the bowl. The water the mushrooms were soaked in will be rich with porcini flavour and is an important part of this recipe.

Thoroughly rinse under the tap to remove any soil or grit. Pat dry with kitchen paper and set aside.

Filter the mushroom water through a sieve lined with kitchen paper and set aside.

When you are ready to make your sauce, put the chopped onion into a saucepan along with the oil and butter and place over a medium heat. Cook until the onions are a pale golden.

Add the tomatoes, porcini (roughly chopped), filtered soaking water and season with salt and pepper.

Cook uncovered at a gentle simmer for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the cooked pasta and thoroughly mix with the sauce.

Serve immediately with a generous grating of parmesan.

Verdict: Looks like we’ve stumbled across another excellent pasta sauce – this time stuffed full of rich woody mushroom flavours. A perfect midweek dish which can easily be made with a few ingredients knocking around the kitchen.

Drink: A bottle each of Fallwood XXX and True Tyke from a recent excursion to Haworth.

Entertainment: ‘Neds’ on DVD.

Fallwood XXX

True Tyke

Haworth

Neds

Well this is as close to perfection as you are likely to get in this increasingly imperfect world. As with all the other sauces in this occasional series, I turned to the ever reliable Marcella Hazan for inspiration and guidance, and once again she delivered the goods with this simple (slightly faffy) delicious recipe.

Preparation time: 10 minutes plus 25 minutes to salt the aubergine
Cooking time: 40 – 50 minutes
Skill level: easy with an element of faff
Serves: 2

Ingredients

• 1 medium sized aubergine
• 2 cloves of garlic – finely chopped
• parsley – finely chopped – 2 generous tbsp
• 1 tin of (quality) tomatoes – about 400g
• 1 chilli – finely chopped
• pasta (ideally spaghetti) – 200g
• olive oil
• s and p

First the faffy bit.

Cut the aubergine in half lengthways and then cut (lengthways again) into 1cm slices.

Stand the layers upright against the inside of a colander and generously sprinkle with salt (double up the layers if necessary).

Place on a plate (to catch the liquid) and set aside for at least half an hour to allow the salt to draw some of the water out of the aubergine.

After half an hour, rinse under the tap and pat dry with some kitchen towel.

Pour oil into a large heavy frying pan (enough to just cover the base), and place over a high heat. When the oil is beginning to smoke, lay in your aubergine slices (you’ll have to do this in batches) and cook until brown and softened on the underside. Flip over and repeat.

When cooked, place on kitchen towel to soak up some of the oil.

Repeat until all the aubergine is cooked.

OK, that was the faffy bit, although all of the above can be done in advance (up to 2 days).

To make the sauce, pour some olive oil in a large heavy frying pan (Readers tip: Why not use the same frying pan you used to cook the aubergine?) and fry the garlic over a medium heat until it becomes lightly coloured.

Add the tomatoes, parsley, chilli and some salt and stir thoroughly.

Adjust the heat to a slow steady simmer and cook for about 25 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Meanwhile cook your pasta in the usual way.

Cut the aubergine into slithers (about 1cm wide) and add to the sauce.

Heat through for 2-3 minutes (add a little pasta water if looking too thick).

Twist in some black pepper, taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.*

Add the cooked pasta, mix together, drizzle with some good olive oil and serve.

*Sauce could be made in advance and refrigerated for up to 3 days

Verdict: As said at the beginning, this is a pretty much perfect dish which if you cooked the aubergine in advance would be an excellent mid-week treat. If I were to try and improve on perfection, I’d probably include 2 tbsp of capers at the adding tomatoes stage.

Drink: A bottle of the One Stop Shop’s finest.

Entertainment: ‘Celebrity MasterChef’ on the iPlayer. What is it doing being broadcast in the afternoon? Our hopes go with Kirsty

When looking for tasty ways to eat our way through a sack of onions it was only natural we turn to The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking‘ by Marcella Hazan, a book which up to now has never failed to deliver excellent pasta sauces. And this is no exception … sweet, unusual and utterly delicious.

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
Skill level: easy
Serves: 4 (although we halved the quantity of pasta and ate the lot between the 2 of us)

Ingredients

• onion – very thinly sliced – 675g
• butter – 25g
• olive oil – 2 tbsp
• dry white wine – 100ml
• chopped parsley – 2 tbsp
• parmigiano-reggiano – finely grated – 6 tbsp
• pasta (preferably spaghetti) – 450g
• s & p

Put the butter, olive oil, onions and some salt in a large heavy based sauté pan, and put over a very low heat.

Cover and cook for at least 45 minutes.

Uncover the pan, turn up the heat and cook until the onion turns a rich golden colour. Make sure any liquid completely boils away.

Add LIBERAL grindings of pepper, taste and add more salt if necessary. The onions become very sweet when cooked for this length of time and so need plenty of seasoning to counteract this.

Add the wine, turn up the heat and cook until all the liquid has bubbled away – stirring frequently.

Add the parsley, stir thoroughly and take off the heat.

Add the cooked, drained pasta and parmesan.

Toss everything together thoroughly and serve.

Verdict: Oh my gosh Roberta, as I said at the beginning, as well as being delicious this is also an unusual sweet tasting pasta sauce. Make sure you are generous with the pepper as this should be an integral part of the flavour.

Drink: Finished off the white.

Entertainment: Several episodes from the third series of ‘The Inbetweeners’ – the latest favourite thing here at Yumblog Towers.

The third in this occasional series and the third taken from ‘The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking‘ by Marcella Hazan. The marketing department here at Yumblog (Yumedia Communications) believe this to be the most comprehensive, authentic and definitive cookbook on the subject, so if you like Italian food (and who doesn’t) you should really consider investing a mere £16 and adding this weighty volume to your library.

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 46 minutes
Skill level: easy
Serves: 2
Recipe: ‘The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking’ by Marcella Hazan

Ingredients

• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• onion – finely chopped – 3 tbsp
• carrot – finely chopped – 3 tbsp
• celery – finely chopped – 3 tbsp
• butter – 85g
• double cream – 100ml
• sea salt

Put all the ingredients except for the double cream into a frying pan and cook uncovered at the merest simmer for 45 minutes. Remember to stir from time to time.

Turn up the heat slightly to increase the simmer, stir in the double cream and adjust seasoning.

Cook for a minute, stirring continuously.

Serve with pasta and parmigiano-reggiano.

Verdict: As always with these pasta sauces, the slow cooking of the tomatoes produces a rich and sweet sauce with a great depth of flavour. Despite the long cooking time, the vegetables retained a pleasing crunchiness. A tomatoey creamy delight.

Drink: A fruity French red.

Entertainment: A dip into various Graham Linehan-written comedy box sets.

Bullingdon Bertie: Warning, DO NOT click on this link and read the fawning comments about our Great Leader.

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 20ish minutes
Skill level: very easy
Serves: 4

Ingredients

• garlic cloves – peeled and cut in half – 130g (about 3 bulbs’ worth)
• semi-skimmed milk – 800ml
• breadcrumbs – 15g
• anchovy fillets in extra virgin olive oil – 50g (small tin)
• extra virgin olive oil – 75ml
• water – 2 tbsp
• lemon juice – 4 tsp

Peel and halve the garlic cloves (a little tedious, but not too bad)

Put the garlic in a small pan and cover with 100ml milk.

Bring slowly to a simmer, then pour into a sieve and rinse the garlic under cold running water. Discard the milk.

Return the garlic to the pan and repeat this process three more times (this is the faff I was referring to in the introduction).

Return the garlic to the (cleaned) pan and add the remaining 400ml of milk.

Bring to a simmer and cook until the garlic is very soft and the milk has reduced slightly (about 10–12 minutes), taking care not to let it boil over.

Remove from the heat and pour into a jug.

Blitz until smooth, with a hand blender or food processor, then add the breadcrumbs, water and anchovy fillets and blitz again until smooth.

While blitzing, slowly add the olive oil and lemon juice, then pass the mixture through a fine sieve.

Refrigerate until required.

Serve with a good toasted bread, olives and/or crudités

The yumbloggers set out to vote. Despite appearances, only one of us is pregnant.

Verdict: Smooth, garlicy (obviously) and delicious. A lot of taste for very little effort.

Drink: A Sunday afternoon of lager

Entertainment: Started our recently purchased ‘Royle Family’ box set.

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: none
Skill level: easy
Serves: 2

Ingredients

• parsley – 5 tbsp
• garlic – finely chopped – 1 clove
• 6 anchovies
• capers – 2 ½ tbsp
• olive oil – 8 tbsp
• lemon juice* – 1 tbsp
• strong mustard – ½ tsp

Put all of the ingredients into a food processor and blend – it should be fairly rustic so don’t over blend. Taste and season if necessary.

*If serving with meat, substitute the lemon juice with ½ tsp of red wine vinegar.

Yumblog attend an Umbrella charity shindig at The House of Lords

Verdict: An oily, piquant, salty treat which went perfect with our simple pan-fried salmon fillets.

Drink: A bottle of dependable Chat-en-Oeuf.

Entertainment: At the time of eating it was the final week of ‘Celebrity Masterchef’ and among other things our celebs had to cater for the crew of ‘Ashes to Ashes’ – they should have done ‘oops. Iwan (Did I mention I was in the Olympics?) Thomas was as ever a source of much annoyance.

There is a pasta dish called ‘La pasta col tocca d’arrosto’ or literally ‘with a touch of the roast’ which is essentially made with the rich meaty/garlicy/herby juices left over from a Sunday roast. This is a clever approximation of that sauce which takes minutes to make and is very, very tasty.

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Skill level: easy
Serves: 2

Ingredients

• butter – cut into small pieces – 50g
• rosemary – 2 sprigs
• garlic – 2 cloves – crushed
• 1/2 bouillon cube – crushed (or 2 tsp of bouillon powder)
• pasta (spaghetti) – 200g
• Parmesan – grated – 2tbsp plus more to serve
• s & p

Cook your spaghetti in the usual manner.

Meanwhile place the butter, garlic and rosemary in a small pan and cook over a low heat for five minutes, stirring occasionally. You want the garlic and rosemary to infuse with the melted butter, rather than fry in it.

Add the crushed bouillon cube and stir until dissolved.

Pour through a sieve over the drained cooked pasta and toss thoroughly.

Add the Parmesan and toss again.

Serve with a twist of black pepper and more Parmesan.

Yumblog meet up at Blur in Hyde Park

Verdict: You won’t be surprised to find out that this has a strong buttery rosemary flavour with a little salty kick from the bouillon cube. These flavour combinations* are fairly unusual for a pasta sauce, however they work together very well making this an utterly delicious (and quick) midweek treat. Give it a go.

Drink: Narp. Still recovering from the weekend – an exhausting Friday night/Saturday night doubler.

Entertainment: The first episode of ‘The Corner’. The everyday story of desperate Baltimore crack heads bought to you by the creators of ‘The Wire’. Not many laughs here. Or subtlety. In fact a bit depressing. Didn’t watch episode 2.