Potato Cheese

Here's one of my family favourites, it's relatively quick, reasonably cheap and ridiculously simple.

You'll need: 

• Spuds
•  Cabbage
•  Cheese
•  Salt + Pepper

First of all boil the spuds, the trick here is not to boil them too much because we don't want them too soft, I suppose the experts would say “par boil them” but to be honest I've never had much of an idea what exactly is meant by 'par boil', so the best advice I can give is to say that when you prod them there needs to be a good bit of resistance as the knife goes in.

As the Spuds begin to soften put the pan of Cabbage on. All we are aiming to do with this is to take the stiffness out of it. I think boiling the Cabbage is fairly optional, but this is the way I like to do it.

When the Spuds are ready take them from the pan and drain them well, I usually dab them with kitchen paper at this point, but maybe I'm just fussy. Next, chop them with a knife, basically we need to almost mash them, that's why they are only lightly boiled. Using a Potato masher is likely to over-do it, we are aiming to have big soft lumps of Potato in the finished product, so take care with this part.

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Then drain the Cabbage, again make sure the job is done thoroughly leaving no excess water. Add the Cabbage to the Potato and mix it all up with a wooden spoon.

Next we need the Cheese, I will usually grate it but I also like to have a dozen lumps of Cheese about 1cm sq just to throw in to the mix.

Season the whole thing with Salt and Pepper and press it down into a casserole dish. Score the top with a fork, making lines that will go slightly crispy in the oven, and give a light sprinkling of grated cheese on top.

Pop it in the oven for half an hour or so, and serve piping hot.

The great thing about this meal is it's versatility, vary the ingredients to see what you like best, one of my favourite alternatives is Corned Beef and Beans replacing the Cheese and Cabbage. Try Ham and Leek or Cheese and Tomato, whatever takes your fancy.

The only limitation is imagination.