Search recipes: Main meal

This recipe for hamburgers is very simple. There is no need to add egg to bind the mix, or herbs and spices.

The only additional ingredient, apart from seasoning, is a small amount of finely chopped onion. This helps the flavour and texture, and keeps the meat moist.

You can form the burgers by hand, but I find a burger press very useful. They can be purchased very cheaply, and consist of two round plastic moulds which you push together by hand to squeeze the meat into shape. They make burgers which have a more even thickness and tend to be less likely to fall apart during cooking.

Oyster sauce is a wonderful savoury sauce which goes especially well with beef.

Cottage pie is a complete meal in a single dish, and is great winter comfort food. Not really a pie at all, of course, it is a layering of mince, vegatables and mashed potato, baked in the oven to give a crispy top.

This pie is a family favorite. For a family of four a full pie can make two meals, hot on the first day, cold on the next. It is great both ways.

The secret of this pie is the wonderful stock created by boiling the chicken and ham, then reduced to give an intense flavour.

The recipe calls for 450g of shortcrust pastry (ie 300g flour, 150g butter). This will give quite a thin crust for a 30cm pie dish, you could use more pastry if you wanted a thicker crust. You could also use prepared puff pastry, but nothing beats home made shortcrust pastry.

Chilli is the classic Mexican dish (or more accurately TexMex, since an authentic Mexican recipe would use cubed pork rather than minced beef).

You can use ready made chilli powder, to replace the chillies, cumin, cinnamon and oregano. Fresh chillies taste better, and give you more control over the heat of the dish.

This simple, delicious beef stew requires long, slow cooking so that the meat melts in the mouth.

It is essential to use stewing or braising steak for this. Frying steak would dry out during cooking.

Despite the long cooking time, the actual preparation is quick and easy. The long slow cooking ensures the meat is very tender, and creates a rich gravy.

Pearl barley is a nice addition which helps to thicken the gravy and make the stew more filling. It doesn't matter exactly how much you add, but remember it swells during cooking. A small handful is usually about right.