Nan food classic recipes | pea and ham soup | tuna mornay recipe | savoury mince recipe (2024)

There's a kind of food that can easily be classed as 'Nan food'. It's warm, often a bit retro, packed full of flavour and feels like Nan is right there making dinner for you, even if she's not.

For me, those recipes include lamb chops with mint jelly, or freshly baked scones with clotted cream. While everyone's Nan-style recipes might be a little bit different — and hopefully deeply personal — below are four recipes widely agreed to be classic Nan-style food.

Check out the clip above to see them in action and get them back on the menu for a dish that's almost as good as a nice, warm Nan cuddle. Almost.

Classic pea and ham soup:

This has got to be the motherlode of Nan recipes. It's very old-fashioned and made from those dried split peas most of us have lurking in the pantry.

In our house this was the smell of winter and a pot of this would always turn up bubbling on the stove on a cold day. It's easy, delicious and freezes well for emergency dinners.

Ingredients:

  • a large knob of butter
  • 1 red onion, diced
  • 2 celery sticks, diced
  • 2 carrots, diced
  • 1 teaspoon minced garlic
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2 cups dried split green peas
  • 1½ litres chicken stock or water
  • 1 x ham hock with meat still on the bone

Method:

In a large soup saucepan, melt the butter until bubbling, then add the diced onion, celery and carrot. Give it all a good mix and as it begins to soften and sweat, add the garlic. Cook until the onion begins to soften up, then tip in the split peas and stir them through. Nestle in the ham hock and bay leaf and pour over the stock or water. Bring it all to the boil and then lower to a gentle simmer with the lid on for 2½ hours, or until the ham hock is letting go of it's meat.

Take out and discard the bay leaf. Pull all the meat from the ham hock and break it into small pieces and reserve. Then, using a stick blender, blitz up the soup until it is silky and smooth. Add the ham pieces back in and serve with crusty bread, a drizzle of oil and herbs to garnish.

Apricot chicken

This is literally the dish I used to ask my mum and my gran to make for my birthday when I was a kid. The sweetness of the apricot nectar and the cheat of using the salty French onion soup packet mix are flavours from the safety of my childhood, and it's still a hit today.

You can find the full recipe here and a step-by-step video below to make it with chicken drumsticks and serve it with cous cous.

You can swap it out for thigh pieces and rice or even serve it on pasta, as long as there's something there to soak up that sauce.

Creamy tuna mornay pots

Creamy seafood is a decadent cheat we usually reserve for fancy dinners. But classic tuna mornay is the opposite of fancy. In fact, it's mostly made with frozen or tinned items, can be whipped up easily and is a great budget dinner but still feels snuggly and cheeky.

Ingredients:

  • 50g butter
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 stalk of celery, diced
  • 1 tablespoon plain flour
  • ½ cup milk
  • ½ cup cream
  • ¼ cup grated tasty cheese + ¼ cup extra for the topping
  • 1 cup corn kernels (tinned or frozen)
  • 400g tinned tuna, drained
  • 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
  • olive oil or spray

Method:

Mix together your cream and milk and set aside. Melt the butter in a saucepan until it bubbles, then add diced onion and celery and cook for a few minutes to soften. Stir in the flour and cook off for one minute, then pour in the milk and cream mix, stirring continuously.

Increase the heat and continue stirring until the mixture thickens. Turn off the heat and stir through ¼ cup of cheese and the corn and tuna, breaking up any lumps.

Divide the mix into greased ramekins or small ovenproof dishes. Mix together the panko crumbs and cheese and top each pot with the mix. Spray the top with a little oil to help it crisp and then put the dishes into a 180°C oven for 10 minutes to crisp and brown the top.

Savoury mince

This was a dish my nan used to make for my grandad. I have vivid memories of my grandpa sitting down to a plate of savoury mince served on hot buttered white toast. He would relish every mouthful and declare it was a dish you could add just about anything to, as long as it was all liberally seasoned with Worcestershire sauce. He was right, of course.

Ingredients:

  • olive oil
  • 1 onion, 1 carrot, 2 celery stalks, 4 potatoes, all diced
  • 200g button mushrooms, quartered
  • 1 cup frozen peas and corn mix
  • 1 teaspoon crushed garlic
  • 500g beef mince
  • 2 tablespoons Gravox powder
  • 1 cup tomato puree
  • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (or more)
  • parsley, to finish

Method:

Heat olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan and add onion, carrot and celery and cook for five minutes to soften. Stir the garlic through and then add mince to the pan and cook to brown off and cook through. Break up all the lumps as you go, and make sure you get some good crispy brown bits. Toss in diced potato and give it a mix.

Mix together Gravox powder, tomato puree, 1 cup water and the Worcestershire sauce, then tip it into the mince and give it a good mix. Bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer for about ten minutes or until the sauce thickens to a gravy.

Stir in peas and mushrooms and just heat them through. Don't overcook, you want the peas bright green. Serve on hot buttered white toast with parsley garnish.

Note: it also makes an excellent pie filling, or you can freeze it for emergencies too.

Nan food classic recipes | pea and ham soup | tuna mornay recipe | savoury mince recipe (2024)

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