Irish rarebit

Ingredients Bread, 200g Irish cheddar, 100ml Guinness, spring onions, butter, 1 tsp mustard, pepper, 50g breadcrumbs, 2 egg yolks.

Preparation: 10 minutes

Once upon a time, I believed that the best rarebit sauce was created with Newcastle Brown Ale and Lancashire cheese. Despite the booze and cheese being English, it was still a Welsh Rarebit in my book and bloody lovely it was too. And then, then I learned of Irish rarebit. Oh glorious Irish rarebit with your cheesey bread sauce and your tangy, stouty flavour. Bread on bread! GENIUS. This recipe is so 100% Irish* that I am considering my nationality - soda bread, Irish cheddar, Irish stout and even Irish butter. LUSCIOUS.

*erm... except for the spring onions and the mustard... shut up.

1) Slice the spring onions and add to the pan along with the stout and mustard. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat.

2) Grate in the cheese and whisk until amalgamated with the stout, then whisk in the two egg yolks and breadcrumbs and season with pepper and if necessary, another teaspoon of mustard.

3) The sauce should be thick, but pourable. Toast the bread on one side, then butter, allowing it to rest for a moment until the butter has melted before adding the cheese sauce. Grill until the top begins to colour and serve hot.

Celeriac gratin

Ingredients Celeriac, double cream, cheddar, salad onions

Serves: 4 Preparation: 1 hour

Despite being a life-long loather of celery, I straight up adore celeriac. The acerbic taste and texture of celery is not present in cooked celeriac for me, it just brings woody notes to a dish and has a wonderful soft texture. This gratin is a fabulous alternative to potato and makes a fantastically comforting side dish.

1) Peel the celeriac with a sharp knife by cutting about a centimeter off both ends and sides, leaving a squareish core. Slice this into 1/3 centimetre thick slices and set aside.

2) Finely slice the salad onions and grate the cheddar. Assemble the gratin by pouring a little cream into the bottom of the dish and setting the first layer of celeriac into it. Spoon over a little more cream, grated cheddar and onion and then add another layer of celeriac, pressing each layer down firmly.

3) Top with a final layer of grated cheddar, cover with foil and bake in the top of the oven for 45 - 50 minutes at 200 degrees, removing the foil for the final 10 minutes.

Greek stuffed peppers

Ingredients 2 bell peppers, 1 can cannellini beans, 75g feta, 2 salad onions, 1 tbsp chopped mint, 125ml passata tomatoes.

Serves: 2 Preparation: 30 minutes

As you can probably tell, I'm still obsessed with Greek food. It is entirely possible that I shall be naming my son Stavros at this rate, because I seem to have craved nothing but Greek food since the day I became pregnant! A stuffed pepper is a thing of beauty - the healthy alternative to a pie in my opinion. You can fill them with just about anything successfully, and without pastry most fillings are healthy, delicious and super low maintenance to prepare. A pepper is a marvellous thing. I like to pre-roast them before stuffing them and roasting them again until the skin is almost completely blackened and has infused the centre with luscious tangy juices. There is a special place in my heart for this wonderful tangy mint and bean combination. So simple, so satisfying, so low-carb! 

1) Slice the top from the pepper (do not discard the lid) and scoop out the core and seeds. Roast in the oven for 15 minutes at a high heat.

2) Drain and rinse the cannellini beans and add to a milk pan along with the passata, mint and finely sliced salad onions. Heat for 5 minutes, stirring regularly until the beans are cooked. Season to taste.

3) Dice the feta and set aside.

4) Layer the beans and feta in the pepper, packing it down tightly until it is full to bursting. Replace the lid and return to the oven to roast for a further 10 minutes at 200 degrees, then serve!

Avocado fishcakes

Ingredients 1 avocado, 1 Maris Piper potato, smoked salmon, prawns, spring onion, old bread, coriander, lime

Serves: 4 Preparation: 30 minutes

When I posted my recipe for avocado mash last week, I knew (despite my hatred of fish) that it would make the perfect base for a fishcake. Some smoked salmon, juicy prawns, the delicate creamy avocado mash with a tangy hit of lime smothered in coriander breadcrumbs... if you like fish then you'll love this!

1) Peel and cut the potatoes, then boil in hot salted water for 20 minutes and strain away the water. Set aside to cool.

2) Pulse the bread in the blender to form crumbs and stir through some finely chopped coriander.

3) Halve the avocados and scoop the fruit from the shell, discarding the stone. Pulse in the blender until smooth and creamy, then add the potato, a squeeze of lime and pulse again to combine.

4) Chop 2 spring onions and stir through the mash, along with the salmon and prawns and season well. Form into patties and roll in the breadcrumbs.

5) You could fry these, but I baked in the oven for 15 minutes. Perfect with mayonnaise, yoghurt or even cocktail sauce