White onion and bay leaf soup with Ogleshield and hazelnuts

I ordered this amazing soup at one of my favourite local Bristol restaurants Wallfish (now Wallfish & Wellbourne) and begged the recipe from the chef, Seldon Curry. It's tastes like the sweetest of oniony fondues and is soooo delicious.

Serves 6-8 (it's rich so you only need a small bowl)

125g butter

1250g white onions, peeled and finely sliced

5g salt

2 bay leaves

25g plain flour

600ml full cream milk plus extra if you need it

175g grated Ogleshield or Raclette cheese

For the garnish

3-4 tbsp rapeseed oil

75g roughly chopped roasted hazelnuts

2-3 tbsp finely chopped parsley

Melt the butter in a large pan and tip in the onions. Stir thoroughly to coat with butter then add the salt and bay leaves. Put a lid on the pan and cook over a low heat for about 45 minutes until deliciously soft and sweet.

Sprinkle over the flour, stir and cook for 5 minutes then gradually add the milk, stirring until smooth and continue to cook over a low heat for about 15 minutes. Remove the bayleaves, add the Ogleshield then take off the heat and pass in batches through a blender until smooth. (You can sieve it for extra smoothness if you want). Return to the pan, check the seasoning, adding a touch more milk if you need to thin it down.

To serve ladle the soup into warm bowls, drizzle over the rapeseed oil and sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts and parsley.

What to drink: You could either drink a crisp white wine like a chablis or an albarino or a dry cider.

Fridge- or freezer-foraged cheese, onion and parsley pie

This is the kind of recipe (or rather idea) that I used to put on my old blog The Frugal Cook. But as I’ve given up on it (I know - I shouldn’t have done) I’m posting it here.

It stemmed from having bought a massive bunch of parsley in our local French supermarket for 85p about which I subsequently had a lively discussion on Twitter as to whether you could buy the same amount in a UK supermarket for the price. (I still maintain you can’t!)

Anyway having bragged about how much I’d bought I felt obliged to use up as much as possible and decided to create a makeshift supper combining it with some ingredients that had been lurking in the freezer since our last trip to France at Christmas.

Although this is inspired by the Greek pie spanakopitta - not least because I mistakenly thought I had some feta lurking in the freezer - it can basically be made with whatever you have to hand but you basically need some kind of herbs or greens, some kind of onion and some kind of cheese. And pastry of course!

Serves 4

2 tbsp olive oil

20g butter

1 bunch of new season’s onions (about 300-350g) or a bunch of spring onions or a large sweet onion

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

a big bunch of flat leaf parsley (about 200g, I’m guessing) or a similar quantity of spinach or other greens, washed and roughly chopped. Include some stalks if they’re not too tough.

About 175g feta or other sheep cheese (I used Manchego and a bit of Cantal). Basically whatever you have in the fridge.

1 egg, beaten

A sheet of ready-rolled or a block of puff pastry, thawed (about 250g although the pack I used was a circular tart base that weighed 230g)

Preheat the over to 220°C. Heat the oil in a frying pan, then add the butter. Once it starts foaming, tip in the chopped onions and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the crushed garlic, stir and take off the heat. Leave to cool for 5 minutes then tip in the chopped parsley or greens and the grated cheese and half the beaten egg. Season with pepper and a little salt, depending how salty the cheese is.

Unroll the pastry onto a floured table or board, rolling it out a little more if you can. Work out how you’re going to make your pastry parcel, spoon the filling onto the middle of the pastry sheet or circle and fold over the sides, brushing the exposed edges with the remaining beaten egg to help it stick together.

Brush the surface of the pie with egg then cut three slits in the top. Bake for about 10-12 minutes then turn the heat down to 190°C and cook for another 10-15 minutes or so until nicely browned. Remove the pie from the oven and rest for 10 minutes then serve with warm steamed asparagus (as I did) or a salad.

What to drink: I think this is more a white wine dish than a red. We drank Picpoul but any other crisp dry white would work. Assyrtiko if you want to keep the Greek theme going.

Bayonne ham tart with garlic (Tarte au Jambon et à l’Ail)

A great recipe to make for any Bastille Day celebrations you might be having from Pierre Koffmann's fabulous Memories of Gascony, one of my all-time favourite cookbooks.

Tarte au Jambon et à l’Ail

serves 4-6

3 heads of garlic

50 g/2 oz duck fat

75 g/3 oz bayonne ham, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

200 ml/7 fl oz milk

2 egg yolks

2 slices of white bread, crumbled

freshly ground pepper

250 g/9 oz pâte à tarte (or shortcrust pastry)

Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas 6. Cut three 10 cm/4 in squares of foil.

Place a head of garlic and one-quarter of the fat in the middle of each square and wrap tightly in the foil. Place in a roasting pan and bake in the preheated oven for 20–25 minutes, until soft.

Heat the rest of the fat in a frying pan and quickly fry the ham for about 10 seconds on each side, adding the parsley at the last moment.

To make the custard mixture, mix together the milk, egg yolks and breadcrumbs and season with a little pepper. Place in the fridge until needed.

Roll out the pastry into a circle to fit a 20 cm/8 in flan dish and line the dish with the pastry. Bake blind in the preheated oven for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, unwrap and peel the garlic. Place it in the part-baked flan case together with the ham. Pour in the custard mixture and bake in the hot oven for 25 minutes.

Pierre suggests serving this hot but I think it would be pretty good at room temperature if you wanted to make it ahead.

What to drink: It would be rude not to drink a Gascogne wine with this wouldn't it? A fruity white Côtes de Gascogne I suggest, or a Gascogne rosé. Or , if you fancy a red, you could go for a Gaillac

From Memories of Gascony by Pierre Koffmann, published by Mitchell Beazley, £30 (www.octopusbooks.co.uk)

Warm lamb salad with a pea, mint & feta cheese dressing

A fabulously summery recipe from the very appealing Great British Farmhouse Cookbook - perfect for this time of year.

Unusually it's sponsored by a company - the enterprising Yeo Valley dairy in Somerset - but you don't find their branding all over the recipes which have been put together by Sarah Mayor, the Cordon-Bleu trained daughter of the company's founders Roger and Mary Mead and a farmer's wife herself.

Sarah writes: "We’re not normally huge fans of frozen veg, but with peas we make an exception. They’re normally frozen within minutes of being picked, so they’re actually far tastier than fresh peas that have been hanging around in the fridge for a while."

SERVES 6

1 x 2.5kg leg of lamb, butterflied

2 little gem lettuces, broken into leaves, washed and dried

1/4 cucumber, halved and thinly sliced

salt and freshly ground black pepper

FOR THE MARINADE:

6 tbsp olive oil

the leaves from 2 rosemary sprigs, finely chopped

the leaves from 2 large thyme sprigs, roughly chopped

3 garlic cloves, crushed

finely grated zest and juice of 1 small lemon

FOR THE PEA, MINT AND FETA CHEESE DRESSING:

3 small shallots, very thinly sliced

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

1/4 tsp caster sugar

250g frozen peas

8 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

the leaves from a 20g bunch fresh mint, chopped, plus extra

whole leaves for garnish

200g feta cheese, crumbled

FOR THE GARLIC AND MINT YOGURT:

250g wholemilk natural yogurt

1 garlic clove, crushed

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

2 tbsp finely chopped fresh mint

1. Mix the marinade ingredients together in a large shallow dish with 1 teaspoon each of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add the lamb and turn it over in the mixture a few times until it is well covered. Cover and leave to marinate for at least 4–6 hours, ideally overnight.

2. To make the dressing, put the sliced shallots into a mixing bowl and stir in the vinegar and sugar. Set aside for at least 30 minutes so that the shallots can soften. Cover the peas with warm water and leave them to thaw, then drain well and set to one side. Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas 6.

3. Pop a ridged cast iron griddle over a high heat until smoking hot, then lower the heat to medium-low. Lift the lamb out of the marinade, shaking off the excess, then place it on the griddle and cook for 5-7 minutes on each side until well coloured*. Transfer to a roasting tin, spoon over any remaining marinade and roast for 20-25 minutes. Transfer the meat to a carving board, cover with foil and leave to rest for 5-10 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, tear the lettuce leaves into smaller pieces and scatter them over the base of a large serving platter along with the sliced cucumber. Mix the yogurt ingredients together and season to taste.

5. Add the oil to the shallots and swirl together. Stir in the peas and mint and season to taste.

6. Carve the lamb across into thin slices and pop it on top of the lettuce. Spoon over the pea and mint dressing, scatter over the feta and sprinkle with a few more small mint leaves. Eat straight away with the garlic and mint yogurt.

* the recipe doesn't state this but you could cook the lamb on a barbecue if you had a kettle-style barbecue

Suggested wine match: You could go several ways with this - a light red, a crisp white or a strong dry rosé. Red-wise that could be a Saumur Champigny or another Loire Cabernet Franc, a pinot noir or a juicy red like Mencia from the Bierzo region of northern Spain. Because of the yoghurt and spring vegetables a crisp white such as Sauvignon Blanc would work for those who prefer a white or a crisp dry rosé like Bandol from the South of France would also be delicious.

Extracted from Yeo Valley: The Great British Farmhouse Cookbook by Sarah Mayor (Quadrille £20). Photograph: Andrew Montgomery.