COOKING FOR ONE

Zingy smoked salmon and avocado tartare

This recipe is loosely inspired by the flavours of Mexico, but I can’t claim it’s authentic (whatever that means) in any way so hence the name: a zingy tartare.

INGREDIENTS

1 small avocado or ½ large one, stoned and flesh diced Grated zest and juice of 1 unwaxed lime

1 spring onion, thinly sliced 1 green chilli, finely chopped (deseed if you wish) Handful of coriander, leaves roughly chopped

Green or red Tabasco, to taste Few slices of smoked salmon, roughly chopped into small chunks

Sea salt (optional)

As many tortilla chips or pita breads as you like, to serve

METHOD

Mix the avocado with the lime zest and juice, spring onion, chilli and coriander leaves in a bowl and season to taste with Tabasco.

If the smoked salmon is quite mild, add a little sea salt to the avocado mixture but if the salmon is salty, err on the side of caution.

Gently fold the smoked salmon into the avocado mixture and eat within an hour or so (the lime juice will eventually “cook” the smoked salmon, which alters its silky texture), scooping it up with the tortilla chips or pita.

Recipe from Solo by Signe Johansen (Bluebird, £16.99)

casserole dishes are an iconic investment purchase (and a staple of wedding gift lists). “I remember reading somewhere that when you buy a Le Creuset, you buy it for life – so I saved up for it when I was 18,” Gidda recalls. She still has it and describes it as her “everything pot”. “Tagine, biryani, every kind of curry, all the beautiful Italian ragu dishes I made when I was working at Bernadi’s, pot roasts, beef bourguignon. You name it and I’ve cooked it in there,” she laughs.

Friends with the Roux family since being a finalist for their eponymous scholarship in 2014 and 2015, Gidda and Albert Roux swap a Le Creusetfor-Le Creuset every time they dine together. Yet the other thing that comes with an investment purchase is better customer service. “They are quick at replacing parts,” says Hercules, who has two Le Creusets and loves them. “I bake bread in it, too, so I use it pretty much every day.”

As for the copper bottoms winking out from every food-lover’s Instagram feed? “Pointless,” says Handling bluntly. “I mean they look beautiful,” says Hercules, “but I remember having to clean them at Leith’s [cookery school]. We had to make a special solution. It was quite a lengthy process.”

Far better to put your money in cast iron or – if you want less heavy and more British – the spun iron of Netherton Foundry, whose pans are the favourite of Smith, and Telegraph food columnist Diana Henry. “Diana describes them as ‘solid, stark and beautiful’, which we think sums them up perfectly,” says Sue Currie, Netherton’s business development manager. Proof of the pudding lies on the front of her latest book, From the Oven to the Table, which features a chicken dish cooked in its 12in Prospector pan. One of those will set you back £58 – but when you think about the number of non-stick pans you can get through in a year, it makes sense: “I can chew through those like nobody’s business,” laughs Gidda.

Looking after spun-iron pans well will make them last longer – “don’t use a scourer, don’t put it in a dishwasher, just run it under a tap and wipe it with kitchen towel. Any germs will be killed off when you heat it anyway,” says Handling – but if you use your Netherton Foundry/equivalent pan frequently enough (and season it), it will act as a non-stick anyway. “A cast-iron skillet/frying pan that can be re-seasoned is an essential for home cooking,” says Chris Leach, chef and co-founder of Manteca in London. “Mine is a Vogue, which is reasonably priced and will last a lifetime if looked after carefully.”

Besides, there are – believe it or not – items you can scrimp on. Hercules bought a handwhisk from Tesco “and it lasted me 10 years.” Smith believes a Rex Peeler – about £3 depending on where you buy it – trumps anything more hi-tech, while Leach claims the most used items in his kitchen are “a set of six mixing bowls that all stack inside each other of varying sizes. They take up the space of one large bowl and are cheap to pick up online.”

Sometimes cheaper is better. Everyone I speak to agrees marble pestle and mortars are the white elephant of the kitchen: a granite or stone pestle and mortar is not just less expensive than a marble one, it is more effective. “The pestle and mortar I bought from a Thai shop in Camden is one of the oldest things I have, and it is so good. I also use it as a weight when fermenting, and for bashing nails into the floorboards!” says Hercules. Handling agrees: “Granite and stone have rough edges, so you are sanding the contents. Marble has no grit at all, so it will take you twice as long.”

And sometimes sentimentality trumps all. I will, one day, treat myself to a Netherton skillet and a Crane pan, but for now – well, I’m sticking with my parents’ old ones, and with Gidda, who says: “There is joy in opening your cupboard to find it full of memories. We can fall in love with our kit, and that enhances the experience of cooking.”

As for the copper bottoms winking out from every Instagram feed? ‘Pointless’