Blackberry and apple cobbler

This was a delicious alternative to a crumble. The scone topping was light and fluffy. We picked the blackberries that morning and paired them with some apples from my aunt's tree. Serve with custard.

About 8oz 225g blackberries 

About 5 medium apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped.

A tablespoon or two of sugar, depending on the tartness of the fruit and your taste

225g self raising flour

75g sugar 

75g cold butter, cubed

1 egg, beaten 

About 6 tbsp buttermilk (normal milk would probably work ok)

Put the fruit and the 1 or 2 tablespoons sugar in a microwave proof lidded dish. Cook for 5 mins or so until the fruit is slightly softened, but not completely cooked. 

Transfer the fruit to a 20 to 25 cm square baking dish.

Make the scone topping:

Using a stand mixer or food processor or fingers, rub the butter into the flour. 

Stir in the sugar.

Mix in the egg and buttermilk; you want quite a wet dough.

dollop lumps of the mixture roughly on top of the fruit.

Bake at 200c for about 30 minutes until topping is golden.

Dollops of dough!

Grandy's Stew

400g stewing beef, cut into small cubes
400g carrot
150g - 200g parnsnip
400g swede
500g potato
2 onions
100g yellow split peas
100g red lentils
300g tin of baked beans
a good squirt of HP sauce
a good squirt of Heinz tomato ketchup
salt and pepper to taste (or you can use a beef stock cube instead of the salt)

A bay leaf 

Cut up all the veg into chunks, or slice it using a food processor.
Put everything into a pressure cooker with enough water to come about half way up the veg - you don't want it to burn and stick to the bottom, but you also don't want it too soupy.
Put on the lid and bring the pressure cooker up to pressure. Cook for about 15 mins, but be careful it doesn't burn - I sometimes bring it down from pressure after about 10 minutes and give it a stir, checking it's not sticking and adding a bit more boiling water if necessary. You want it to cook long enough for the veg to be tender and the lentils and split peas to be soft - they are not pleasant if they are crunchy!

You can eat it as is, with some nice fresh bread, but we like it with dumplings, which is a bit of a pain, because you need to heat up the oven, tip the stew into an ovenproof casserole dish and cook it for half an hour or so in the oven. We think it's worth it though.

For the dumplings:

• 8oz self raising flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp mixed herbs
• 4oz suet
• 1 - 2 tbsp water to mix

Preheat the oven to 190 C. Tip the stew into a casserole dish and put the dumplings on top. Bake with a lid on for about 15 mins, then remove the lid and bake for another 15 mins until the dumplings are risen and golden on top.

Salmon microwave parcels

Really quick, really easy and very little clearing up. Just put salmon fillets and a selection of finely chopped vegetables in a parchment or microwave bag, throw in some seasonings and zap in the microwave for five minutes. Leave to stand while your new potatoes finish cooking, then open up and eat. I had some parchment bags that I brought back from Canada. You can also buy microwave steam bags. Or you could fold up a sheet of parchment, but it might split open.

Ingredients for one person.

About 175 - 200g salmon fillets, cut into 2 pieces.

About half a courgette, finely chopped 

1 large portobello mushroom or a couple of smaller mushrooms 

1 large spring onion finely chopped 

1 small clove garlic crushed 

About a quarter of a large yellow pepper, finely chopped 

A dash of white wine vinegar 

A dash of sesame oil

1 tsp powdered teriyaki seasoning (you could try different seasonings according to what you like) 

Salt and pepper 

Season the salmon with salt and pepper, then throw all the ingredients in the bag, fold it over to seal and give it a little shake to distribute everything around.

Put on a microwave safe plate with the fold underneath to stop it opening up and cook on full power for 5 minutes, giving it another little shake half way through.

Remove from the microwave and leave to stand for about 5 minutes, while you finish off cooking your spuds. Toss the spuds in some butter, tip the contents of the bag onto the plate with the spuds. There will be a nice little sauce in the bag.

The fish and veg will make a delicious sauce whilst it cooks - make sure you tip it all out on the plate!

Finish boiling the potatoes whilst the fish rests in its parcel