The inspiration for this recipe comes from a Mark Hix recipe for Pan Haggerty in an Independent supplement from August 2004. That recipe is based on layers of thinly sliced potatoes, onions and cheddar cheese. I tried it out but since I never cook with dripping substituted olive oil for the dripping. It turned out well although at the first attempt a little too oily. We ate it with a venison stew.

It occured to me that it might be worth trying something similar, but slightly sweet by using parsnips instead of potatoes and shallots instead of onions. I prefer to use the larger, elongated echalion shallots rather than the tiny round ones as they are less work to peel and chop. The following is the recipe.

Serves 4 (or 8 if used as a side dish)

Ingredients

500 g parsnips
250 g shallots
125+ g Cheddar cheese
50 g butter
a little olive oil
salt and pepper

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190 °C
2. Peel and thinly slice the shallots
3. Melt about 40 g butter in a frying pan and gently fry the shallots for 10 minutes. Set the fried shallots aside
4. Peel and thinly slice the parsnips
5. Grate the cheese
6. Take either an oven proof frying pan or dish and grease with remaining butter
7. Cover the bottom with a layer of sliced parsnip, season with salt and pepper, then a layer of shallots, then a layer of grated cheese
8. Repeat the layers until the ingredients are used - I try to end with parsnips at the top

The picture shows the almost complete last but one layer
9. Brush olive oil over the top layer of parsnips
10. Bake for about 25 minutes
11. Increase the oven temperature to 220 °C for the last 10 minutes
12. Serve from the pan, or loosen and invert onto a warm serving plate.

I am new to blogging and it has taken me a few weeks to understand how some things like "Friends" lists work. A number of people have invited themselves to be friends but their postings are commercial. Sorry - and this is nothing personal - I did not start a blog to get yet more products and services thrust at me. So I will NOT accept invitations from people trying to do commercials.

Yesterday we did char-grilled courgettes to go with our stir-fryed lamb. This was a new recipe and we duly heated our grill pan until the oil just reached smoking point then proceeded to lay out the wafer thin courgette slices on the pan. Within a minute, and despite a decent-sized extractor hood working hard the kitchen was filling up with smoke. We were expecting the alarm to go off any minute, so the grill pan was duly taken outside by my wife.

As I child I did not particularly like eating lamb due to its greasy aftertaste. It was generally cooked without much in the way of herbs or spices and the only relief was mint sauce or jelly which was usually served with it. The latter, of course, is an object of ridicule in France! Later I found that I loved lamb curry or lamb made with garlic and rosemary. The spices and herbs not only enhanced the flavour but neutralised any hint of greasiness.

Yesterday I wanted to do a stir-fried lamb that was not a curry. For the lamb took some chump chops, removed the fat and diced the remaining meat. We tried a recipe for char grilled courgettes that came in a colour supplement with Saturday's Independent as a side dish.

Serves 4

Ingredients

400-500 g diced lamb
1.5 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp cinnamon
1 lemon
2 tsp soya sauce
2 medium onions
2 large garlic cloves
250 ml passata
3 tbsp olive oil (roughly)

280 g couscous
2 tsp tumeric
3 spring onions or Welsh onion tubes
280 ml boiling water

Method

1. Mix the juice of one lemon, a tablespoon of olive oil, the soya sauce, chopped garlic and spices in bowl.
2. Add the diced lamb to the bowl and marinade for 2-4 hours.
3. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a wok. Chop the onions and fry them until soft.
4. Drain the lamb and stir fry at a high temperature. Once the lamb is browned, add the remaining marinade and passata reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 min.

5. Meanwhile (about 10 minutes before serving) put the couscous in a saucepan and mix the tumeric and chopped spring (or Welsh) onions through.
6. Add the boiling water to the pan and mix through the couscous.
7. Cover with a lid and leave for 5 minutes before serving.

In my area there are quite a few walnut trees, we have a small one in our garden. I suppose southern England is close to the northerly limit of walnuts. We have had walnuts dropping for the last 10 days.

I was surprised to see the result of Spanish research on the healthy properties of walnuts this Tuesday (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6036409.stm). Are walnuts rather than olive oil the key to the health of the Mediterranean diet?

There has been a lot in the press this week about the UK's obesity problem and poor nutrition. Despite growth in the economy we seem to be far less healthy than other (in many cases poorer) European nations. Some friends recently told me that after a holiday in the Alps they knew they were nearing Britannia when they saw the number of super-sized people at the Calais Eurotunnel terminal. Only the US of A seems to out-supersize us! Ugh!!!

Arrrggghhh!!!!

Last night there was an interesting broadcast of BBC's Money Programme http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5407472.stm about convenience foods. While I quite understand how busy people use convenience foods on the few occasions I have tried them I have not been impressed by the taste. Worse still is what goes into them.

In case you do not know how much to buy there is a nice little guide at http://www.ukma.org.uk/Practical/cookery/howmuch.htm

Most people are familiar with classic Ligurian basil pesto. On holiday in Italy I noticed that there were pestos based on rocket (ruccola) and spinach on the supermarket shelves. Obviously it is not necessary to restrict yourselves to basil leaves or even pinenuts to do a pesto.

A TIP: sometimes I find that when I mix homemade pesto with pasta, it sticks in small lumps to the pasta. This is fixed if you retain a little pasta water and mix through; the pesto smoothens.