It has been a Friday night so I thought I could indulge the kids who would be eating with me so I asked them, ‘What do you fancy? What can I cook for you?’

There was one who answered simply, ‘Noodles’, but that was what I had cooked the last few times she had been given any choice. We’d had enough of noodles.

‘Something I like,’ was the other helpful answer.

Given those two answers I had the who culinary world at my disposal. They would almost eat anything but on the drive home through Birkenhead my mind settled of steak and chips.  I may have said it before but put me in a good restaurant where they are on the menu I an quite happy to ignore all the other good things on the menu and settle for a good piece of steak and some crispy potato.

The quality of the steak was constrained by the supermarket but they were okay.

The chips were made by slicing up into the appropriate shape the potatoes we had in the cupboard, dousing them in oil and putting them in a very hot oven for an hour.

I ground up black peppercorns and pressed them into the steaks with my fingers. As part of some childhood hangup I cut myself a small slice of the raw meat to make sure it was okay.

As the potatoes were starting to crisp up a pan went onto the stove to heat up. The steaks were rubbed with oil and thrown onto the hot metal. They sizzled and siezed for a minute before I turned them over. There was no cognac in the basement so brought up the remains of bottle of Grappa. As the steaks were cooking I cooked up two large field mushrooms in butter. Once the steaks were done I threw in a good glassful of the grappa and the children gathered round to watch the flames and have a go setting the kitchen alight.

There wasn’t much left when we finished eating.