an onion and fry it over a low heat in a little butter. Finely dice a carrot, a medium-sized swede and a waxy, yellow-fleshed potato and add to the onion. Fry for 5–10 minutes, till lightly browned. Stir in a teaspoon of mustard seeds and a teaspoon of turmeric and cook for 5 minutes.
Remove the haddock from the milk, reserving the milk. Scatter 2 tablespoons of plain flour over the vegetables and cook for a couple of minutes. Pour the infused milk into the pan and cook, stirring continuously, until you have a thick sauce. Place the haddock briefly in the pan to warm through, then add a small handful of chopped parsley before serving.
For 2. Satisfying. A cold-weather dish.
A leek and clam chowder (an hour of your time but worth it)
Thinly slice 3 leeks, fry in butter till softened, then add 150g smoked bacon, chopped, making sure the leeks do not colour. Cook 1kg small clams with a glass of white vermouth or wine in a large pot with a tight-fitting lid for a few minutes, till the clams open. Pull the clams out of their shells; it doesn’t take long when you get into the swing of it. Add 400ml of the clam cooking liquor to the leeks and bacon with 200ml double cream, some black pepper and a little chopped parsley. Remove half of the mixture and blitz in a blender or food processor, then stir it back into the soup. Add the clams and serve with roughly torn crusty bread. For 4.
Sweetcorn and haddock. A cheat’s chowder
Fry 2 chopped spring onions in a little butter in a deep pan. Tip in a large can of sweetcorn, 250ml double cream and a handful of chopped parsley. Slide in a couple of pieces of skinned and boned smoked haddock (about 400g total weight). Simmer for about 8 minutes or until the fish will flake easily. For 2.
Miso Soup with Beef and Kale
white miso, rump steak, cavolo nero or kale, spring onions, bouillon powder
Pull the leaves from the stalks of 100g cavolo nero or kale. Shred them, then chop the stalks finely. Pour a little oil into a shallow pan, add the chopped stems and cook briefly, then add a 240g piece of rump steak. Fry briefly and when it browns, turn over and add 3 chopped spring onions. Brown the steak on the other side, then remove from the pan and cover it, then pour 800ml boiling water into the pan and stir. Add a tablespoon of bouillon powder and 2 tablespoons of white (shiro) miso paste, then the cavolo nero leaves. Simmer until the greens wilt. Ladle into bowls, slice the steak into thin strips and drop into the broth.
For 2. Light and sustaining.
A few thoughts
• Allowing the miso to boil will make it cloudy and alter its flavour but a brief simmer will do no harm.
• Cook the pieces of meat for seconds rather than minutes, to keep them supple and rare.
• Shredded savoy cabbage, purple-sprouting broccoli and any of the Chinese greens, such as bok choi, would be perfect here instead of the kale.
• Add wide or thin ribbon noodles as you wish, or even cooked rice, to make a more substantial bowl of soup.
Roasted Beetroot and Tomato Spelt
beetroot, tomatoes, pearled spelt, garlic, coriander or parsley
Drizzle 4 small beetroot with a little oil, wrap them in foil and place in a roasting tin. Bake at 200°C/Gas 6 for 20 minutes. Open the foil, add 5 garlic cloves, left whole, and 4 largeish tomatoes and cook for another 30 minutes, until the beetroot and garlic are tender. Peel the garlic, then peel and halve the beetroot.
Boil 200g pearled spelt in 400ml salted water for 20 minutes, then drain. Melt a large knob of butter in a frying pan, add the cooked spelt and leave to toast lightly for a minute or two. Add the roast beetroot, garlic, tomatoes and some black pepper, stirring them in gently till the tomatoes burst. Stir in a handful of torn coriander or parsley.
For 2. Frugal, sweet and sharp, with the comfort of warm spelt.
Pea and Watercress Soup, Prawn Soldiers
peas, watercress, prawns, baguette, vegetable stock, shallots, soft butter, mace
Peel 2 medium shallots and chop them quite finely, then let them cook in a little oil over a moderate heat, till they are soft and translucent. Tip in 500g (podded weight) fresh peas then 1 litre vegetable stock. Stir and leave to simmer for 5 minutes.
Put most of the peas and the liquid into a food processor or blender and blitz till smooth. Add a bunch of watercress and continue processing till smooth, then return to the rest of the soup. Making it this way will give you a lightly-textured soup, more interesting than a totally smooth one. Check the seasoning.
For the prawn soldiers, roughly chop 150g shelled prawns. Cube 50g butter and mash the chopped prawns into it. Season with black pepper and a pinch of ground mace.
Thinly slice a small baguette. Spread the prawn butter on to the bread and bake for 10 minutes at 200ºC/Gas 6, or cook under an overhead grill if you prefer. Serve with the hot soup.
For 4. Sweet pea soup, crisp prawn toasts.
You melt a slice of butter in a wide, shallow pan. When bubbles appear around the edge, you slip in a fillet of fish and slowly let it cook, spooning the warm butter over and over. You watch the flesh change from pearl white to snow white and see the edges turn pale gold. You toss a salad or steam some green beans. You open a bottle of wine. You lift the fish on to a warm plate, add a little lemon juice and some chopped parsley to the butter in the pan and let it foam before pouring it over the fish. Dinner is served.
A frying pan was the first piece of kitchen kit I owned. A basic, shallow pan that saw many a meal, from a simple bacon sandwich to a full English. It helped me master everything from fish fingers to fried sea bass. I made risotto and fishcakes in it. Pork chops and hamburgers. Fried chicken and potatoes. I made curry in it, for heaven’s sake. If we have only one pan, then it should probably be a frying pan.
Cooking in a shallow, long-handled pan is spirited, high-temperature cooking. A quick fix. We need to learn to control the heat. But first we must know our pan. A thin, cheap pan isn’t ideal – the food burns too easily – but sometimes that is what we have. So we should get to know how the pan works, its hot spots and burning points, where food sticks on it and how long it takes to heat up. This isn’t just ‘chuck it in and hope for the best’ cooking. This is quick-fire food, but it needs the right pan, the right heat and the right ingredients.
I have two frying pans now, one cast iron and so heavy I need both hands to lift it, the other non-stick and light as a feather. The cast iron one is so well used it has developed its own non-stick patina, and is what I use to fry potatoes, pieces of chicken, meatballs, burgers and rashers of bacon. It is great for homemade burgers that need slow cooking. The lighter pan