Cheese and spinach potato bake

Made this up today to feed a vegetarian friend. It also went down well with meat-eaters among the guests, and the 8-month-old baby present. Essentially, it's potatoes boulangere turned into a complete meal.

2lb of potatoes - or more or less to feed more/fewer people
1 or more onions
fresh or frozen spinach - if fresh, more than you think you need because it goes down to nothing
cheese - I used a mixture of mozzarella, goat's cheese and parmesan
milk and/or cream

Wash the spinach, then pan on a low heat with no additional water if you can help it. Cook it in batches if your pan is too small. When it has collapsed, squeeze out as much of the water as possible using a sieve, chop and reserve. Slice the potatoes thinly and store in a bowl of water to keep them from oxidising. Slice the onion thinly. Grate the cheese.

Heat the milk and/or cream and soft cheese/goat's cheese/other cheese in a pan until the cheese has melted. You could add an egg.

Butter a large shallow oven dish - or a smaller deeper one. Layer the potatoes, onion and spinach in the dish. You could put some grated cheese in one of the layers. Pour over the milk mixture. Sprinkle any remaining cheese on top.

Bake in the oven at 180C/gas mark 4 for 1 1/2 hours, approximately. It will look after itself.

Mini-Spanikopita (Flaky spinach and fennel pastries)

This is my cross between Rose Elliot's Flaky Spinach and Fennel pastries and Spanikopita.

Ingredients:
8 sheets filo pastry
3oz butter, melted

Filling:
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped (spring onions can also be used)
1 tbsp olive oil
1lb fresh spinach, cooked, well-drained and chopped, or 8oz frozen spinach thawed and squeezed as dry as possible
2 tbsp chopped parsley
2-4oz feta cheese, crumbled small
1tsp fennel seed (optional)

1. Make the filling by frying the onion in olive oil in a large saucepan until soft but not browned, then remove from heat and add the cooked spinach, chopped parsley and fennel seed.
2. Preheat oven to 190C/Gas mark 5.
3. Unroll the filo pastry and spread out in a pile with a damp cloth over.
4. Take one sheet of filo pastry, place on a large board and brush all over with melted butter. Lay another sheet on top and brush that too. Cut into five equal-width strips.
5. Place a teaspoon of filing 2.5 cm from the end of one strip. Fold the top corner over, making a triangular shape. Then fold the whole triangle over itself again and again until you get to the end of the strip. Brush with melted butter and place on greased baking sheet.
6. Continue with the rest of the filo and filling in the same way until it is all used up and you have lots of little triangles on baking trays.
7. Bake for 15 min until the pastry is golden-brown and crisp.

NB can be frozen after step 6, then cooked from frozen.