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I have been cooking since my childhood, experimenting with different ingredients and different manners in which to combine and prepare them. I use only the very freshest ingredients available to me and therefore am required to shop seven days a week. This may seem like a horrific concept to some, whose weekly trip to the supermarket is a dreaded chore but I believe the benefits in what I create far outweigh the inconvenience of the trips.

Eat well and be healthy!

By glancing at the accompanying photograph for this recipe, you may believe that it is quite complicated and accordingly be put off from trying it. I can assure you that, although it may not be the simplest on this site, it is far from being overly difficult.

Per person, you will require:

1 skinned chicken breast fillet

1 small avocado (stoned and peeled - see end of recipe for simple instructions)

1 clove of garlic (crushed)

1 small red chilli pepper (deseeded and very finely chopped)

Handful of fresh spinach

4 or 5 walnuts (roughly chopped or crushed)

Salt/freshly ground black pepper

Olive oil

Put the oven on to preheat to 200 degrees centigrade or equivalent. Mash the avocado in a bowl with a fork and add the garlic and chilli pepper. Season and mix well. Lay the chicken fillet smooth side down on a chopping board and either with a meat tenderising mallet or a rolling pin, gently bash it to a thickness of about 1/4 inch (1/2cm.) Care is required here or the tender flesh will come apart - remember it is not a beef steak! Spread the avocado mix evenly over the flattened chicken and carefully roll it in to a tube. Lightly sprinkle some olive oil over the base of a casserole dish and place the chicken inside. Cook for 25 minutes.

Toss the spinach leaves with the crushed walnuts and lay on a serving plate. Remove the chicken from the oven, transfer it to a chopping board and after allowing it to rest for a few minutes, slice and arrange over the salad.

Avocados

Removing the stone and peel from an avocado is a very straightforward process if we know how to go about it in the correct way. sThe first step is to rest the bottom of the avocado on a flat, hard surface and - if you are right-handed - hold it steady with your left hand. Taking a sharp knife, slice gently downwards through the centre of the avocado until you feel the resistance of the stone. At this stage, carefully rotate the fruit slowly away from you, holding the knife steady so that it effectively traces a pattern around the entire circumference. The two halves may then be twisted gently in opposite directions and should come apart quite easily, the entire stone still embedded in one of them. Tap the sharp blade of the knife once, gently but firmly, on the stone. The knife should bite deep enough in to the stone that a gentle twist may remove it. It is then a simple process of peeling off the skin.

This is an incredibly simple recipe which unfortunately has a lengthy cooking time because of the beef. Why not therefore cook the beef the night before you intend having the dish and simply refrigerate it? Note also that this recipe assumes that approximately one third of the cooked beef will be reserved in order to make Scotch Broth, my recipe for which appears further down this page.

For two people, you will require:

2 lbs (900g) piece of rolled brisket of beef

2 shallots (peeled and roughly chopped)

4 cloves of garlic (peeled and roughly chopped)

2 carrots (scraped and roughly chopped)

2 bay leaves

1 tsp of fresh or dried thyme leaves

10 small baby new potatoes (washed, whole and unpeeled)

2 handfuls of fresh rocket leaves

4 closed cup mushrooms (quartered downwards through the stalk)

2 tsp of horseradish sauce

Salt/freshly ground black pepper

Into a large soup pan, place the beef, shallots, garlic, carrots and herbs and add enough boiling water to fully cover the beef and come to within one inch (2.5 cm) of the rim of the pan. Bring back to the boil and reduce to the lowest possible simmer. The general rule when cooking brisket this way is to cook for about 40 mins per pound and another 40 thereafter. On this occasion, that would be a cooking time of about two hours but I am deliberately cooking it for an extra half hour to an hour as remember it has to be "shredded," not sliced.

Remove the beef from the pan and set the pan aside overnight to cool as this is the stock for our soup. Allow the beef to cool then shred it with two forks in to bite sized strips, remembering to reserve approximately one third of it. Boil the potatoes for about 25 minutes in lightly salted water then drain well and combine in a large bowl with the beef, rocket, mushrooms and horseradish sauce. Stir all the ingredients together, season to taste and serve.

Sardines - like tuna - are most often eaten from a tin but like almost anything else you can name, the fresh version simply cannot be beaten.

Per person, you will require:

2 fresh sardines (gutted, heads and tails on)

1 220g tin of chopped tomatoes in tomato juice

2 cloves of garlic (crushed or finely chopped)

2 tbsps plain flour

3 or 4 basil leaves (roughly torn)

Olive oil

Salt/freshly ground black pepper

In a small saucepan, sweat off the garlic for a minute in a little olive oil. Add the tomatoes and basil and leave to simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Season the flour on a plate and pat the sardines in it to coat them on both sides. Fry for about 5 minutes each side in a little olive oil on a medium heat.

Plate the sauce first then carefully lay the sardines on top.

I actually counted tuna for many years as the one type of seafood which I had tasted yet did not like. I could never understand how anyone could enjoy eating something which I genuinely compared to wood shavings. If you have not guessed already from the content of the previous two sentences, this was for the simple reason that I had only ever tasted it from a tin can! The first time I ever tasted fresh tuna loin, cooked in a fashion similar to how I outline below, I could not believe what I was eating. I therefore feel qualified to suggest that if you have not tasted FRESH tuna, you have not tasted tuna...

If you have a griddle pan, please use it instead of a frying pan. Bring it up to a very high heat and cook the fish for no more than thirty to forty seconds each side but remember to oil the tuna and not the pan.

Per person, you will require:

1 fresh tuna fillet

3oz (75g) basmati rice

Handful of frozen peas

Generous handful of coriander, cilantro in US (roughly chopped)

1 large tomato (deseeded and finely chopped)

1 garlic clove (crushed or very finely chopped)

1 spring onion, scallion in US (finely chopped)

2 inches (5cm) of cucumber (peeled, deseeded and finely chopped)

1 red Birds' Eye chilli pepper (finely chopped, seeds in or out according to taste)

Extra virgin olive oil

Few drops of white wine vinegar

Salt/freshly ground black pepper

Vegetable or sunflower oil for frying

Note: be extremely careful when handling the chilli. Do not put your hands anywhere near your face after touching it until they have been washed THOROUGHLY in hot, soapy water.

Mix the tomato, garlic, spring onion, cucumber, chilli pepper and half of the coriander with a good splash of extra virgin olive oil and the white wine vinegar. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cover with clingfilm and place in the fridge for at least an hour for the flavours to infuse, or even better, prepare this the night before.

Boil the rice as per the instructions on the packet and when ready, mix through the remaining chopped coriander and season with salt. Prepare the peas also as instructed on the packet.

Put a little vegetable or sunflower oil in to a non-stick frying pan and bring it up to a very high heat. Cook the tuna fillets for one minute on each side. The fillets should be cooked on the outside only and remain deliciously moist and pink in the centre. Place them on the bed of rice and spoon some salsa over the top.

A slightly different take on traditional cauliflower cheese and a healthy way to make chips

This recipe will make enough for two people. You will require:

2 large potatoes (peeled and cut in to chips)

1 small head of cauliflower (split in to florets)

1 small head of broccoli (split in to florets)

2oz (50g) of unsalted butter

2oz (50g) plain flour

1/2 pint (280ml) of semi-skimmed milk

2oz (50g) of grated cheddar cheese

8 to 10 back and forward gratings of fresh nutmeg kernel

Olive oil

Salt

Put your oven on to preheat to 200 degrees centigrade or equivalent. Parboil the chips for five minutes in some lightly salted water. Drain them well and place them in to a large bowl with enough olive oil to ensure thay are all well coated following a careful stir. Put them on to a baking tray and in to the oven for 30 minutes.

Ten minutes before the chips are due to be ready, put the broccoli and cauliflower on to boil in some lightly salted water and begin your sauce. Heat the milk in a small saucepan then pour it in to a jug. Melt the butter slowly in the same pan and add the sieved flour to form a "roux." Cook off the flour for a few minutes then add the milk in stages to form a thick, glossy sauce, stirring all the time with a wooden spoon. Add the nutmeg and the cheese.

Drain the vegetables and put them on a plate with the chips, pouring the sauce on top as required.

Referring to the Shredded Beef Salad recipe further up this page, the following day, a film of fat and impurities should have formed over the top of your cooled stock. Taking a large spoon, gently and carefully skim this off and discard. Take a few minutes to do this properly, being careful not to stir the stock in the process. Sieve your stock then in to a large bowl to remove all the vegetable parts from the day before which should also be thrown away. Wash out your pot and return the liquid stock to it.

The subsequent ingredients for Day Two are as follows:

2 carrots (one grated and one diced)

1 parsnip (scraped and diced)

Reserved brisket remnants from previous day

1 cup of barley (can also be a mixture of barley, lentils and split peas)

Large handful of fresh parsley (roughly chopped)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Bring your stock to the boil and add the beef, carrots, parsnip and barley and simmer for at least an hour and a half, adding the parsley five minutes before the end of the cooking time. Season to taste and enjoy.

Note that this soup is generally better the second day when the flavours have had more chance to infuse and also that it freezes very well in portion sized, plastic containers.