Top Sarnies

Chorizo & Rocket

This is so simple but if you ever had Brindisa's chorizo rolls at Borough Market in Southwark cooked on a barbecue then you'll know how moreish these are.

The picante chorizo are raw sausages rather than the firmer salami style chorizo so need cooking. They are very fatty so slicing them in half length wise releases some of the oil and makes cooking it quicker, all the better for getting it in your gob quicker!

Maybe put a couple of knife scores crossways on the skin side as it makes them curl up less when the skins shrink while cooking. Grill or barbie on both sides and put in a crusty roll that's been lightly toasted and dribbled with some olive oil. Squeeze in a good handful of peppery rocket and enjoy the spicy hit cooled by the rocket.

Steak in the style of The Guinea in Mayfair

The Guinea bangs out plenty of these to the suited punters that stand out on Bruton Place just off Berkeley Square. Trying to eat this, hold your plate and balance your pint of Youngs is a skill in itself due to the lack of tables.

Theirs is a wooden skewered triple decker called 'The Mirabeau' with some good relatively thin steak in ciabatta but the secret ingredient is mayonnaise with anchovy to give a salty, fishy whack that makes it sublime.

I chop up some anchovies, either the sort in oil or salted, and mix it in to some mayonnaise. The amount of anchovy is personal preference but I like a lot. I've also recently mixed in some Geo. Watkins Anchovy Sauce which is delicious but turns the mayonnaise a grey colour like Elephants Breath Farrow & Ball paint, apparently. Fish breath, cats breath?

Simply cook your steak, I like rump or ribeye, to your desired bloodiness, and slap it in a lightly toasted ciabatta with a healthy dollop of the mayonnaise and bit of rocket or lettuce. Pitta bread is good but hasn't got the crunch that scratches flesh off the roof of your mouth.

Bacon, cheese, marmite and lettuce

This is the antithesis of the low salt trend and would throw doctors or the nanny state in to convulsions but the combo of molten cheese, umami hit and crispy cold lettuce is a great weekend hangover treat.

Basically cheese on toast, smear of marmite, pop in some cooked bacon (good quality is good but those short streaky rashers that perfectly fit 4 abreast on to a a piece of sliced white seem perfect) and put in some little gem leaves and a buttered bit of toast on top. Any other sauces is overkill. Wash down with 2 pints of water to rehydrate. Go for a run or sit in a sauna for an hour to sweat out the salt and rehydrate again with 4 pints of water.

Toasted Cornflake & Golden Syrup!!

This is proper trashy. Drag the old Breville toasted sandwich maker out of the back of the cupboard and chip off the fossilised remains of baked beans and cheese from the last time it was used.

Lightly butter 2 slices of white sliced. You'll remember from your O-level toasted sandwich making that this is the OUTSIDE of the sandwich so put butter side down on the sandwich maker and put a good handful of cornflakes on the bread given a light crush as you do it. Pour over an unhealthy drizzle of Tate & Lyle's finest, pop on the other slice, butter side up of course, and close the contraption. Leave to cook until the outside is golden brown and lava hot syrup is being ejected from the side. Wait for a few minutes to cool as trying to eat too quick will result in hospitalisation.

I think this was a recipe that came with the machine in c.1978 and was a big favourite of my sister and I.

The in-laws Breville has been dragged out of retirement at 2 in the morning in the not too distant past after a farmers ball and baked beans and cheddar nuked as a pre-bedtime snack to soak up the Thatchers Gold.