Easy food

Here's some shots I did with a talented young photographer, Mr John Latham, using only daylight in a garage out on some country road somewhere between Manchester and Liverpool.

I kept the recipes simple; baked egg and steak, garlicky mushrooms on puff pastry with watercress, the last of the summer nectarines and plums grilled with sugar and vanilla. Easy food with a British bent.

 Infact, the recipes are so simple I am going to talk you through them:

For the steak and egg

Remove your steak/s from the fridge for about 15 minutes before cooking to get the meat closer to room temperature, season well and rub with olive oil. Crack egg/s into lightly greased small oven proof dishes, like mini flan tins, season and bake until just set for about 10 mins on 200C. (You can fancy it up and season them before cooking with fresh thyme or rosemary salt or chilli flakes with celery salt or smoked paprika and a splash of olive oil etc etc) Get a fry pan nice and hot before putting the steak in and cook for about 4 minutes on one side before turning, adding a knob of butter to the steak and cooking on the second side for a further 4-5 minutes. Remove from the pan and rest for a few minutes before serving with condiments of your liking.

For the mushroom tart

Chop a whole lot of different mushrooms up - like a punnet of chestnut, 1/2 punnet of button and 1 punnet of shitake, and fry in a large hot frypan with olive oil and a knob or 2 of butter. If the pan dries out before the mushrooms are golden and browned add a little more butter or oil to the pan. As the mushrooms release their juices, toss them around and season with plenty of sea salt (mushrooms adore salt) and a few grinds of pepper. Then, when you are about half-way through cooking the mushies add 2-3 cloves of garlic that have been finely chopped and the leaves off 4-5 thyme sprigs. The mushrooms are ready when they have caught some colour - a golden hue with some properly brown bits too. Place a sheet of puff pastry onto a baking tray and pile the mushrooms on, leaving a frame of pastry around the edge. Bake on 200C for about 15-20 mins or until the pastry is golden. Serve with some watercress dressed with lemon and extra virgin olive oil.

For the nectarines

Stone and half nectarines and plums (you can use peaches, add raspberries...) and sprinkle generously with castor sugar and the seeds of 1 or 2 (if your feeling flush) vanilla pods. Put the emptied vanilla pod skins on the tray too - it looks good when serving and shows off your culinary generosity. Place under a hot grill and watch for the sugar to start extracting the fruit's juices, bubbling and caramelising - about 10 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream.