Squid and beans on toast

Bake your own haricot beans in a rich, savoury, tomatoey sauce for a couple of hours, and you may never fancy the tinned version again. Add some squid, which will cook to delicate tenderness, and you have a dish that's both earthy and exciting.

Ingredients (Serves four to six)

200g dried haricot beans
2 medium squid, cleaned
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely sliced
2 sticks celery, finely chopped
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp fennel seeds
2 tsp hot smoked paprika
A pinch of cayenne pepper
400g tin chopped tomatoes
The finely pared zest of ½ lemon
2-3 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
Up to 750ml fish stock (or water)
½ glass sherry
Salt and freshly ground pepper
4-6 slices sourdough or ciabatta
Green salad, to serve
Extra-virgin olive oil, to serve

Cover the beans in plenty of cold water and soak overnight. The cleaned squid should come to you in three parts: the tubular bodies, the tentacles and the wings - all can go into the stew. Cut the body into 5-10mm thick rings, the wings into similar-sized strips and the tentacles into three or four pieces.

Heat a heavy-based saucepan, add the oil and, when hot, throw in all the squid. Fry for three to four minutes until just starting to brown, then add the onion, celery, garlic, fennel seeds, paprika and cayenne, and fry for five minutes, until the onion starts to soften.

Drain the beans and add to the pot along with the tomatoes, lemon zest, thyme, bay leaves, 500ml stock and the sherry. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook, uncovered, for one to two hours, or until the squid and the beans are both really tender. Add more stock or water as required. Just before serving, season to taste.

Toast the bread and spoon the stew on top. Add a few salad leaves, trickle over some good olive oil, scatter with a little salt and take to the table.

The Perfect Burger

Ingredients (Serves 6)

1 tbsp oil or butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
1kg roughly minced chuck steak (or any non-lean mince)
100ml stout
2 tbsp brown breadcrumbs
2 tsp chopped herbs (parsley or thyme work well)
1 tsp salt
Black pepper
Garnishes, sauces and rolls, as desired

Heat the oil in a frying pan over a low heat, and cook the onion until soft and slightly browned. Leave to cool.

Spread the beef out and sprinkle over the onion. Add the stout, breadcrumbs, herbs and seasoning and mix together with a fork, being careful not to overwork it.

Divide the meat into 12 flattish burgers, putting a dimple in the centre of each. Cover and refrigerate for an hour.

Cook the burgers on a medium to hot barbecue or griddle pan: leave them undisturbed for the first 3 minutes so they build up a good seal on the bottom, then carefully turn them over, adding a slice of cheese on top if desired. Cook for a further 4 minutes for rare, and 7 for well done, and allow to rest for a few minutes before serving. (You can toast buns, cut-side down, on the barbecue at this point.)

What goes into your perfect hamburger – and what goes on top? Is beef still best for burgers, and where serves the finest in the world?

Toad In The Hole

The sausage is a relative newcomer to the position of toad, the space having been previously reserved for any small pieces of meat that could be eked out with a bit of batter. Scraps of the Sunday roast, bits of cooked ham or pretty much anything you like have been used in place of the sausages, and never more so than after the war. Nowadays it's bangers or nothing. The recipe stands or falls by the quality of the sausage you use.

The Recipe

Set the oven at 220C/gas mark 7. Whisk together 2 eggs and 300ml of full-fat milk. Add a good pinch of salt, then beat in 125g plain flour. Heat 3 tbsp of lard or dripping in a small roasting tin or baking dish until it starts to smoke. Add 6 fat pork sausages and let them colour on all sides then, while the oil and sausages are smoking hot, pour in the batter. Bake for 25-30 minutes until puffed and golden.

The Trick

Like making Yorkshire pudding, get the fat in the roasting tin (literally) smoking hot before adding the batter. I put the lightly cooked sausages in the pan first then pour in the batter when you can see a blue haze rising. I am a great believer in letting the batter rest before using, though others disagree.

The Twist

Nigella's adorable new book Kitchen (Chatto and Windus, £26) turns the toad on its head by using sausage patties, the meat pressed from its casing and shaped into tiny burgers. Delightful, especially if you season them with thyme. I often wrap my sausages, minus their skins, in very thin bacon or pancetta. Onion gravy is the usual accompaniment, but new thinking involves hot, rough-textured tomato sauce or even a creamy mustard one, such as you might serve with rabbit.