My go to dishes for this kind of icy weather are pies, sausage and mash

If I have to venture outside, even to the bin, I’m trussed up like Ernest Shackleton and spend the next hour trying to warm myself up with hot drinks, heat pads and thoughts of comforting food for dinner. My go to dishes for this kind of weather are pies, sausage and mash or a big baked potato filled with beans and topped with melting cheese. The first recipe here combines all of the above in one fell swoop in a sausage, mash and bean pie. Sausages are cooked in an onion gravy with a tin of cannellini beans added at the end. Rather than bake in pastry the whole thing is whizzed into more of a cottage pie vibe with a topping of golden, bubbling cheesy mash.

Soup is vital when the weather takes a turn for the worse and one of the most comforting is a French onion soup. This was one of the first things I ever made when I was younger. I recall vividly the endless chopping of onions. When they were cooked the massive pile seemed to melt into very little. My young self hadn’t been exposed to the virtue of slowly simmered stocks back then and I substituted a couple of stock cubes. Beef stock should take hours to prepare. When I worked in restaurants a beef or veal stock pot would sit, barely simmering, for up to two days. That smell of roasted bone elixir is still one I adore. Instead of using up your energy bill to simmer stock for two days you can get a very decent beef hit from cooking shin. The bone will give you that gelatinous texture. Rather than strain it off, which would be a sinful waste, I add the shredded slowly cooked fork tender meat back into the soup. Spoon into heat proof bowls and top with toasted slices of baguettes generously piled with cheese. Place under the grill until golden and bubbling. Recently I had bad experience of French onion soup in a restaurant – the onions had been added at high speed and instead of grilling the cheese they obviously blow torched it. Thin, insipid soup with burnt cold cheese atop a hard bit of bread was not an inspiring experience…..

Get the grill on, and cook the cheese like you would for cheese on toast and enjoy the rich beefy soup with that delicious crouton on top. Enough to warm the cockles of the coldest heart.