Bacon in Cheese Sauce

This is such a simple recipe but incredibly good and filling. It’s as inexpensive as you want it to be and involves nothing more complicated than making a cheese sauce.

Lightly grease a pie dish that either has a lid or can be tightly sealed with foil. I grease with a tiny drop of olive oil wiped round the dish. This isn’t obligatory but can help the food from sticking to the dish if it’s left in the oven a little too long.

Put the 500 grams of grilled bacon (I use the off cut bags that you can in supermarkets and some butchers) in the bottom of the dish. Add a layer of onions or leek and top off with layers of potatoes. Repeat the layers with added amounts of the ingredients if it’s a deep dish and you’re cooking for a lot of people.

Pour a cheese sauce over the whole dish so that it covers the potatoes. Cheese sauce is easy to make up by stirring a little flour into some melted butter over a gentle heat so it produces a thick goo. Add semi skimmed milk a little at a time and so that the sauce is slightly thinner than you would normally have it. Add some really mature cheddar cheeseas you will use less and so it will be lower fat. Add some mustard – English, French, Dijon – whatever your preference. I add a single, tiny drop of Psycho Juice with the mustard as I like the extra bite. If you’re a novice cook and don’t feel up to making a sauce then use a packet of sauce – it’s your food, do as you please.

Bake in an oven (not forgetting to seal the dish tightly) for at least an hour on 200 C. I take the lid or foil off after an hour and leave it another 15 minutes in the oven so that it looks less anaemic. I have green vegetables with this, broccoli or peas being a favourite with me.

Happy eating!