We are pretty much slap bang in the middle of Vacherin season, which runs from late September to early April. This creamy, smooth, slightly nutty and super runny cows milk cheese is an Alpine speciality traditionally sold in round wooden boxes, cinched with a piece of spruce bark.

Vacherin is great eaten at room temperature with some bread, but a killer way of serving it is baked. Particularly when it’s been snowing. It’s like a fondue without the hassle and the Abigail’s Party baggage, and is great lunch for two.

Pre-heat your over to 180 – 200c, then remove all the plastic wrapping from the cheese, but leave it in it’s box. Slice a fat clove of garlic, and then using a sharp knife, pierce the Vacherin’s rind and slide in the slices. Pour over around 50ml of white wine, and then put the cheese into the oven to bake until it’s golden brown and bubbling (15minutes or so).

Serve it with whatever you like, but I like a good mix of raw veg like raddishes and carrots, some hunks of good sourdough, a few boiled potatoes (pink fir are particularly good), a pear and a bit of salad.

Then just dunk in your vehicle of choice, and get cheesy.

Portuguese Custard Tarts, or pastel de nata, have got to be as good a reason as any to get on a plane and head over to Portugal. They seem to vary from place to place, but I think the best one I’ve ever had was after destroying a hog roast sandwich from these fellas at an event down the road from me. I can still taste it now. Insane.

In my (limited) experience, you can tell a good one by the spiral shape of the pastry on the base, and a slightly caramelised skin on top. As you’ll see from the ingredients list, they are pretty rich, but as they’re only small lets not worry too much about that. This recipe makes 12.

Ingredients

3 free-range eggs, yolk only

1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped out

125g golden caster sugar

30g cornflour

225ml double cream

175ml full-fat milk

Pinch of salt, small

1/2 cinnamon stick

2 strips of lemon peel

300g ready made puff pastry

Method

You’re going to prepare the filling as it needs to cool a bit before you add it to the tarts, so first up separate the yolks from the rest of the egg and then pop them in a pan. Now add the sugar and cornflour and whisk them together over a low to medium heat. Be careful not to get the pan too hot, or the eggs will scramble, just keep whisking until you’ve got a slightly thickened, smooth mixture.

Take the pan off the heat for the moment whilst you split your vanilla pod down the middle and scrape out all the precious seeds. Add to the eggy mixture, and then pour the milk and cream into a jug. Now put the pan back on the heat, and add the lemon zest, half cinnamon stick, and the cream and milk gradually in one continuous stream whisking all the time until you have a smooth consistency.

Continue to mix the custard until it comes to the boil. As you do this, it will begin to thicken into a silky, quite stiff custard. Immediately take it off the heat, and place a disc of greaseproof paper or cling film on the surface of the mixture to prevent a skin forming, and then set aside to cool.

Now set your oven on to 200c and prepare the pastry cases. Take the pastry out of the fridge and unroll on to a surface dusted with a mixture of plain flour and icing sugar. Cut the sheet in half and place one half on top of the other and lightly press down. Tightly roll the pastry back up to form a stubby cigar shape, and then cut into twelve ‘coins’.

Lay each of the slices flat on a dusted work surface (if they aren’t round as in my picture, shape them so they are), then flatten with the palm of your hand, and then roll out into discs with a roughly 10 centimeter diameter.

Press each pastry disk into the wells of a muffin tin (greased with butter if it’s not non-stick), and then divide the cooled custard mixture between the 12 cases. They should be just over 3/4 full, not more as the mixture will expand when it bakes.

Now pop the muffin tray in the oven and bake for around 15-20 minutes. The mixture will souffle while it’s cooking, but don’t worry it will ‘relax’ when the tarts cool. When the pastry is a dark golden brown and the filling is slightly caremalised, take out of the oven, and cool in the tray.

Serve with a cup of good, strong coffee. Obrigado!

We all know that porridge is healthy, but as is often the case with healthy stuff, it can get a bit boring. Luckily porridge is also a good base for other flavours, so try out this slightly tropicaaaaal version. I’ve used ‘mugs’ as a measurement as I can’t really be bothered to be precise in the morning. And use coconut chips as opposed to dessicated if you can. This quantity will serve 2.

Ingredients

1 mug of jumbo organic oats

1 mug of semi skimmed milk

3/4 mug water

Handful of coconut chips

Small handful of dried cranberries

Small handful of dried blueberries

1 apple, cubed – preferably something with a bit of tang like a granny smith / cox or braeburn

Maple syrup

Method

Put the oats, water and 3/4 of the milk into a saucepan and bring gently up to simmering point. Let the mixture simmer gently for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, before adding the coconut chips. Simmer for a further 5 minutes, again stirring occasionally. Chop up the apple whilst this is going on.

After this time, the mixture will be pretty thick and sticky. Let it down by adding the remaining milk and some maple syrup to taste (maple is very sweet, so you don’t need that much), and remove from the heat.

Mix in the dried fruit, and the divide into two bowls. Scatter the apple cubes on top, and then eat.