Baked potato: tuna, peach & gherkin

Ingredients Tuna, mayonnaise, gherkin, peach, potato, 4 eggs, lemon juice/white wine vinegar, salt, pepper, 1 pint vegetable oil, mustard.

Serves: 1 Preparation: 45 minutes - 1 hour

Once you have made your perfect baked potato, you need to fill it! I have a pathalogical loathing of fish but The Boy absolutely loves it and he swears on peach and tuna as a taste-senstion combination!

1) To make your own mayonnaise - separate 4 egg yolks from the whites (discard the whites) and put in a large clean bowl to whisk (or use the whisk attachment on your blender if you have one). Add the lemon juice/vinegar, salt and pepper and a touch of mustard and whisk thoroughly, adding the oil ONE DROP at a time until the mayonnaise is thick and glossy. You don't have to use all the oil - I like it quite thick but if it's too thick you can always add a little warm water to thin it back down again.

2) Peel the peach and slice in half, around the stone. Pull apart and cut into slivers and then small cubes. Cut the gherkin into equal sized cubes and stir into a can of drained tuna.

3) Stir in a tablespoon of mayonnaise and rough up the mixture with a fork, adding black pepper to taste.

4) Spoon onto the potato and serve!

Tartare style parsley sauce

Ingredients  20g Flour, 40g butter, 400ml cream, 2 pickled gherkins, 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar, 15g parsley, 5g dill.

Serves: 6 Preparation: 10 minutes


I am renowned for being the world's most rubbish vegetarian. No seriously - I am allergic to mushrooms and intolerant to soya which is in EVERYTHING these days: Soy sauce, soy nuts and edamame are a no, as are most breads because of the soya flour, I can't eat most chocolate because full of cheap emulsifier called soya lecithin (or pork fat!)... I also loathe fish and I mean seriously loathe it. No matter how fresh the fish or how subtle the smell it makes me retch. The Boy, my soon-to-be husband loves it however and I'm not the sort of vegetarian who likes to inflict my personal choices on others so I cook fish for him from time to time. I created this mixture between tartare sauce and parsley sauce especially for him.


1) Melt the butter in a milk pan and whisk in the flour to make a roux


2) Finely chop the parsley and dill, dice the gherkins and add to the pan along with the double cream. Whisk briskly until the sauce increases in volume and the texture stiffens enough to coat the whisk.


3) Add the tablespoon of white wine vinegar, season with a pinch of salt and pepper and continue to whisk, off the heat until it has been incorporated.


4) I served this dolloped over rainbow trout with beer battered onion rings and steamed garden peas. The sauce will keep in the fridge for about a week and can be served warm or cold.