Celeriac, potato and anchovy gratin

I love the idea of cooking everything in one dish (quick, easy, no washing up!) so Sue Quinn's book Roasting Tray Magic is right up my street.

I picked out this recipe which is like a cross between a gratin dauphinoise and the Swedish dish Jansson's Temptation with celeriac replacing half the potato. It's not vegetarian given the anchovies but you could obviously leave those out.

There is also you will notice a fair amount of cream! I think I'd be inclined to reduce the double cream to 300ml - the size of a mid-sized carton - which should be enough for the amount of celeriac and potato involved. (In fact I used slightly more of both I made it last night and it was fine) Sue is also right in saying a mandolin makes the task of cutting them a LOT easier!

Oh and the cheesy, crispy topping is absolutely irresistible!

Celeriac, potato and anchovy gratin

Serves: 4 | Takes: about 1 hour, plus 5 minutes cooling

Knobbly old celeriac is a sadly undervalued root vegetable. It might not be photogenic, but it’s absolutely delicious, with a sweet, nutty flavour reminiscent of the celery family of which it is a member. The anchovies add a gorgeous depth of flavour – no fishiness at all.

400ml milk, plus extra if needed

400ml double cream (see note above)

2 garlic cloves, crushed

3 anchovy fillets, very finely chopped

2–3 thyme sprigs

freshly ground black pepper

300g celeriac

300g waxy potatoes

100g grated Comté cheese

green salad, to serve (optional)

For the topping:

100g sourdough or country-style bread, torn into small pieces

2 tbsp olive oil

30g grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F. Combine the milk, cream, garlic, anchovies and thyme in a 30 x 20 x 5-cm roasting tray and season with pepper.

Peel and very finely slice the celeriac and potatoes, ideally on a mandolin, adding the vegetables to the creamy tray liquid as you go to prevent them browning. Bake for 20 minutes, shaking the tray halfway through. Add a little more milk if necessary so the vegetables are just submerged. Meanwhile, mix all the topping ingredients together in a bowl. Set aside.

When the vegetables have had their 20 minutes, sprinkle over the Comté, then the topping mix. Bake for a further 30 minutes – the vegetables should be beautifully tender when the time is up. Leave to cool in the tray for 5 minutes before serving – a green salad is the perfect accompaniment.

What to drink: We drank a bottle of Chablis which is what we happened to have open but other white burgundy and, in particular, Jura chardonnay would work well too.

From Roasting Tray Magic by Sue Quinn (Quadrille, £14.99) Photography © Faith Mason

Claire Thomson’s One Pan Chicken Braciole

Claire is a cookery writer I hugely admire for her simple but incredibly delicious recipes which you can see her making on her daily reels on Instagram where she posts as 5oclockapron. This recipe is from her latest - and immensely useful - book One Pan Chicken.

Claire writes: "Braciole is Italian-American in origin, and if you have watched and enjoyed the runaway success that was The Bear on TV (a programme about a young chef running a restaurant in Chicago), you might want to have a go at making it. It’s usually made with beef or veal, but I’m using chicken breast, which suits the dish very well."

Serves 4

4 large boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced in half horizontally

8 slices of prosciutto

200g (7oz) cherry tomatoes, halved

salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the filing

50g (1¾oz) fresh breadcrumbs

2 tbsp toasted pine nuts, plus more to scatter

2 tbsp raisins, soaked in warm water for 5 minutes then drained

50g (1¾oz) parmesan, finely grated

50g (1¾oz) pecorino, finely grated (or provolone – the traditional choice)

1 egg, beaten

¼ small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, leaves finely chopped

¼ small bunch of basil, leaves finely chopped

1 tbsp chopped rosemary or thyme leaves

zest of 1 unwaxed lemon, then that same lemon quartered, to serve

1 garlic clove, very finely chopped or crushed

You will also need cocktail sticks, small skewers or kitchen string

1. Using a rolling pin, gently flatten the chicken pieces between two sheets of baking paper until each is approximately 1.5–2cm (5/8–¾in) thick. Season well all over with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

2. Preheat the oven to 230°C/210°C fan/450°F/Gas 8.

3. Mix all the filling ingredients together and divide the mixture into 8 equal portions.

4. Lay out a slice of prosciutto, top with a piece of chicken, then spoon one portion of the filling on top of the chicken. Roll it up tight, securing it with 2 cocktail sticks or small skewers or string. Repeat with the rest of the chicken.

5. Arrange the tomatoes and chicken on a baking tray and roast for around 35–40 minutes, until the chicken is crisp and golden brown and is cooked through. Roughly 3 minutes before the end of the cooking time, scatter the extra pine nuts in the tray to toast.

6. Allow to rest for 5 minutes then serve whole or sliced, spooning some of the tomatoes and their juices on to each plate, with a lemon wedge on the side for squeezing over.

What to drink: Claire and I made a reel about what wine to drink with this dish. Given its origin we both felt Italian wine would be most appropriate but that you could either go for red or white. We tried a Manzani Bianco and a Montepulciano d’Abruzzo with it of which went well though we marginally preferred the red .

See also Which wine goes best with chicken - red or white?

Extracted from One Pan Chicken by Claire Thomson (Quadrille, £20) Photography: Sam Folan

Brown rice and potato pilaf

Brown food is a bit of a running joke on instagram but the fact is that monotone brown or beige dishes are often the most delicious. That's certainly the case with Sam and Sam Clark's brown rice and potato pilaf from their most recent book Moro Easy.

"The double carbs are the key to the magic of this pilaf. The two basic ingredients combine to create an opulent and luxurious texture. Perfect with labneh, mushrooms, sweet herbs and chilli butter (page 67), spinach, pine nuts and sultanas (page 133), lamb chops (page 240), duck breasts with walnut and pomegranate sauce (page 226) and roast chicken with fenugreek and coriander marinade (page 222). (You now see why you need the book!)

Serves 4

75g butter

1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 ½ teaspoons ground allspice or baharat

2 leeks (white parts only) thinly sliced

500g potatoes, peeled, cut into 1.5cm cubes and tossed with 1 teaspoon salt

250g brown rice

700ml hot vegetable stock (2 tablespoons Marigold vegetable powder mixed with boiling water)

4 tablespoons crispy fried onions

150g Greek yoghurt, mixed with 1 garlic clove, crushed with a little salt

In a medium heavy-based saucepan, heat the butter over a medium heat. When it foams, add the cinnamon and allspice, fry for 30 seconds, then add the leeks and a pinch of salt and black pepper. Fry for 12–15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the leeks are soft and sweet.

Add the potatoes and rice, stir well, then pour over the hot stock. Cover with a circle of baking paper and a lid and simmer gently for 30–40 minutes, or until the potatoes and rice are cooked. Remove from the heat, check for seasoning and let it rest for 5 minutes, then serve with the crispy onions on top and the yoghurt on the side.

What to drink: It's not a question of matching the pilaf as the dish it accompanies though I think we're probably talking about a red. I'd be inclined to go for a rioja reserva if it was lamb chops and a new world pinot noir with the labneh and mushrooms.

Extracted from Moro Easy by Sam & Sam Clark, published by Ebury Press at £30. Photograph © Susan Bell

Footnote: Roopa Gulati has a brilliant recipe for crispy onions in her book India in the World Vegetarian series. Basically you slice a couple of large onions, sprinkle them with salt, leave them for at least an hour, drain them and pat them dry then deep fry them in batches. But you should get the book which is brilliant. FB

Pasta with mushrooms, kosho and toasted parmesan rind

This recipe is from a new book called Wasted by chef Conor Spacey which is published by the Irish publisher Blasta Books as part of a charmingly illustrated series of single subject books

I made a couple of changes to the ingredients and method when I road tested it but absolutely loved the recipe. (Maximumrespect to Conor for coming up with the best ever way to use parmesan rinds which is basically catnip for humans

Conor writes: It’s definitely not traditional, but I love to use kosho, a Japanese condiment (see recipe below) with pasta. Mushrooms and the crispy parmesan rind give it an extra umami boost.

CONOR SPACEY’S PASTA WITH MUSHROOMS, KOSHO & TOASTED PARMESAN RINDSERVES

20g parmesan rind

240g shop-bought fresh pasta - spaghetti is perfect for this. (I used 150g dried bucatini which was what I happened to have in the cupboard)

40g butter

a splash of rapeseed oil

160g mixed fresh mushrooms, thickly sliced

3 tsp kosho (see below)

fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

½ handful of fresh coriander, chopped

Preheat your grill. Put the parmesan rinds on a baking tray, skin side up, and put the tray under your grill. Keep a close eye on them and wait until they start to bubble and colour, then remove them straightaway. Put them on a chopping board. Using a sharp knife, chop the rinds into small cubes.

Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions but reduce the cooking time by 2 minutes to keep it al dente. When the pasta is cooked, keep a mugful of the cooking water from the pot before straining the pasta.

Put the pot that you used to cook the pasta back on the hob on a medium heat. Add the butter and a splash of rapeseed oil. When the butter has melted, add the mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes, until they begin to soften. Stir in the kosho and the mugful of pasta water (I didn’t use that much - about 4 tbsp I’d guess) then add the drained pasta, stirring to make sure the pasta is all coated in the sauce.

Check the seasoning – the kosho is quite salty and spicy so I don’t add any salt throughout the cooking process, but you may like to season it to taste with salt and pepper.

To serve, divide the pasta between two wide, shallow bowls. Top with the toasted Parmesan rinds and chopped fresh coriander (I added the coriander to the mushrooms when I added the pasta)

KOSHO (see also my note below)

Kosho is a Japanese seasoning with a umami explosion. The word ‘kosho’ means ‘pepper’ in Japanese, referring to the chilli pepper it’s made with. Traditionally it’s made using yuzu, a citrus fruit found in East Asia that’s hard to get here, so I swap it out for lemons, limes or grapefruit. Once you make this and have it in your fridge, you’ll become addicted to it. Kosho is a great way to cut through the richness of many dishes, from meat to noodles and everything in between

To make kosho, halve 6 red chillies lengthways and remove the seeds. Cut them into chunks, put them in a blender or food processer and pulse until they are finely chopped. Zest the citrus fruit you need to use up (either 4 lemons, 3 oranges or 1 grapefruit) and add it to the blender or food processor. Pulse until it’s well mixed with the chillies, then add 16g flaky sea salt and pulse again until it forms a paste.

This is ready to use straightaway, but I like to put it into an airtight jar and leave it at room temperature for one week to slightly ferment and take on more flavour. Store the kosho in a sealed jar in your fridge, where it will keep for up to three months.

It’s not entirely clear from the illustration whether you should pare or grate the zest. Most recipes suggest equal quantities of chillies and citrus zest. I made about half the quantity suggested - 40g of each - and used a grapefruit, 3 limes and 5 limes so maybe paring it would be more economical though it would be harder to break down the citrus peel. Experiment anyway - it’s delicious. Oh, and my chillies were large ones not birds eye chillies which I think would be too hot!)

From WASTED by Conor Spacey (Blasta Books, £13) Illustrations: Nicky Hooper

What to drink: the pasta sauce is quite punchy and citrussy so am not sure it needs more citrus. A dry white wine like a Picpoul de Pinet or a pinot grigio would work best if you wanted a glass of wine though I drank a kombucha with it which was excellent.