Squidgy Chocolate Pudding

100g  dark chocolate

5 tbsp unsalted butter

2 extra large eggs

1 extra large egg yolk

3 tbsp caster sugar

3 tbsp plain flour

2 tsp cocoa powder

Serves: 4

Preparation Time: 25 minutes plus 1 hour in the fridge.

Melt the butter and the chocolate in a bain-marie.  Meanwhile, cream the eggs, egg yolk, and caster sugar in a bowl.  Add the melted chocolate and butter and mix until smooth.  Sift in the cocoa powder and flour and fold into the mixture.

Grease the insides of 4 ramekins with butter and spoon in the mixture.  Leave them in the fridge for at least an hour until they have cooled.  Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees.  Place the ramekins in a baking dish and add enough water to come about half way up the side of the ramekin.  Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

Turn each pudding on to a place dust with icing sugar and cut open so the chocolate centre oozes out.  Serve with a blob of vanilla ice cream.

Spinach Soup

500 g Spinach

1 Large potato

2 Bacon rashers

1 Lt vegetable stock

Preparation Time: 20 mins

Serves 4

Dice the potato and cut the bacon into squares.  In a large pan, fry the bacon and potato until golden.  Add the spinach a few hand fulls at a time until it wilts down and then add the stock.  Simmer for 20 minutes until the potato is soft.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly before blending in a food processor until smooth.  Serve immediately with a drizzle of olive oil.

Spanish Rice

Chorizo Sausage cut into 1cm cubes

2oz Rice

2 Spring onions, roughly chopped

1/2 in Ginger, chopped 

1 handful of frozen peas

Corriander to garnish

Perperation Time: 20 mins

Serves: 1

Cook the rice as per the packet instructions.  Meanwhile, stir fry the chorizo until it is warmed through and has started to release its oil.  Add the spring onions, chopped ginger, and the peas and sir until the peas have warmed through.  Drain the rice and add it to the chorizo mixture and serve immediately.  Garnish with a few corriander leaves.

Vegetarian Lasagna

1 kg Frozen Spinach

200ml vegetable stock

250g Chestnut mushrooms

2 or 3 few dried porcini mushrooms

1/2 teaspoon of mustard

A dash of Worcestershire sauce

25g butter or margarine

25g plain flour

2 blocks of feta cheese

1 Packet green or yellow lasagna sheets (a mixture makes a nice effect)

Preparation Time: 20 mins, plus 30 mins cooking time

Serves 4

Defrost the spinach in a large pan over a low heat.  While the spinach is defrosting bring the stock to the boil in a small saucepan.  Add the mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and porcini mushrooms.  Slice the mushrooms and add them to the stock.  Simmer for 10 minutes while you make the sauce.

Melt the butter in a medium pan and add the flour.  Mix into a paste and add a little bit of the milk.  Mix until it has formed a paste again and add a little more milk and mix again.  Repeat this process gradually adding the milk, combining it into the sauce as you go.

Finely chop one of feta cheese blocks into tiny lumps and add it to the sauce.  It won't melt completely but don't worry - it will when it's in the oven.

Assemble the dish by pouring about 1/4 of the mushrooms and stock into the bottom of the disk and add a layer of lasagna.  This stops the lasagna from sticking to the dish.  Pour on the rest of the mushrooms and add another layer of lasagna.  Spread half the spinach on top and then chop the remaining block feta into 1 cm cubes and sprinkle on the spinach.  Add another layer of lasagna, the rest of the spinach, a final layer of lasagna and then pour the sauce on top.

Bake in the oven at 180 for 30 minutes.

Serve with a crisp salad and white wine.