Cheese on toast topped with slow cooked chilli and baked beans

Comfort food here we come!  This idea was given to us by friends on New Year’s Eve as we tucked into bowls of rice and slow cooked chilli con carne – they suggested that the best way to eat leftover chilli was on top of cheese on toast.  It just had to be tried.

It didn’t disappoint.  We used a crusty white loaf from Barbakan, topped with melted Cheddar for the cheese on toast.  We reheated the slow cooked chilli (made with chunks of organic beef from Bryn Cocyn rather than mince) and added half a tin of baked beans to make it go further.

It was utterly delicious – from now on I’m going to make sure we always have leftover chilli after making it, just so we can have this the next day.

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Welsh Rarebit

It seems that Friday night for us is often comfort food night.  We crave all things comforting – curry, pizza, cheese – to name a few.  Healthy eating rarely comes into it.

Last Friday we made an old favourite, one of those recipes that takes you back to your childhood, to meals your granny made as a special treat.  This Friday we made Welsh Rarebit loosely following Jamie Oliver’s instructions from his Jamie at Home book.

The below ingredients are what we used, not an exact replica of Jamie’s recipe as we were lacking in some ingredients and had to improvise – but it still tasted delish!

Welsh Rarebit

Enough for 4 large slices

4 thick slices of bread
2 egg yolks
a couple of big handfuls of grated Cheddar cheese
a large teaspoon or two of Dijon mustard
a couple of dashes of Tabasco
about a cup of plain yoghurt and single cream combined (should have been créme fraîche but we didn’t have any)
Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper

First you need to preheat your grill to the highest setting so it gets nice and hot – essential for golden bubbling rarebit.

Next, in a bowl mix together the egg yolks, yoghurt, cream, and mustard.  Make sure its well mixed together.

Add some salt and pepper to season, a few big handfuls of grated Cheddar cheese, and a couple of dashes of Tabasco sauce for added bite.  Mix well until it’s all combined – it makes a kind of thick cheesey gloop – not too runny.

Lightly toast your thick slices of bread on each side, before spooning over the rarebit mixture.  Make sure it’s nice and thick and right up to the edges of the bread so that it oozes over the sides.

Bung them under the grill and watch them as the cheesey mixture bubbles and starts to turn golden.

As it cooks, the top forms a sort of film.  So once the rarebit’s were starting to go golden brown, we gently used a knife to criss-cross the top, then splashed over some Worcestershire sauce and bunged them under the grill for a little longer.

Finally, once they are sufficiently golden brown and with cheese oozing down the sides, remove from the grill.  Repeat the criss-cross pattern with a knife and splash over some more Worcestershire sauce – you need that fruity heat to cut through the overpowering cheesiness.

They were scrummy, and would have probably made a lovely meal accompanied by a crisp green garden salad…but this was Friday night and we were craving comfort food, so we ate them just as they were in front of the telly.