Cooking, Recipes, Wine............ and Ethical Foie Gras - At Last!

They've got oats so they must be good for you.  Not just for the kiddies these - everyone loves them.

Ingredients:

115g unsalted butter at room temperature

85g light brown muscavado sugar

1 large egg, beaten

60g self raising flour (or almond powder or a mix of the two)

1/2 tsp baking powder

a pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

115g porridge oats

175g dark chocolate, roughly chopped into chunks

Another old favourite and very easy. Cook this dish a day or two before serving.

Comfort food par excellence - and very easy to prepare.  You just need to know when you're going to eat it so you can de-salt the fish in advance but the great thing is that you can make a large quantity and freeze it in its semi cooked state and then it's really light and crisp with only a short trip to the oven before it's ready.

Ingredients:

Salt cod

Potatoes

Parsley

Garlic

Salt, pepper

Olive oil

Another very easy soup. This one is great with toast or with croutons and grated cheese.

4 Medium Leeks, sliced.

1 Onion, chopped.

700g Potato, diced.

1.5 litres water

vegetable stock

5 tbsp olive oil

40g butter

1 tsp flour

1 bouquet garni (bay leaves, thyme, rosemary)

creme fraiche to serve

Chop the onion and cut the leeks into long slices, keeping most of the green leaves. Saute the onion and the dense, white parts of the leek in a deep saucepan, keeping the dark leaves aside.

When you prepare a soup, often you really need to leave it until the next day.  Not this one - quick preparation time and delicious straight away.  It's so fresh once you throw in a few leaves of corriander at the end - almost like a thai dish.