George Egg: 'My recipes include unusual combinations and unexpected ingredients - but it works'

Serves 4 as a side dish or 2 as a main. Ingredients: 2 x 400g tins of baked beans; 3 slices fresh ginger (about the thickness of a pound coin); 1tsp turmeric powder; 2 hot green finger chillies; 50g ghee or butter (or a vegan equivalent); 8 cloves garlic, sliced into matchsticks; 2tsp cumin seeds; 1tsp cayenne pepper or hot chilli powder; 1tsp garam masala; ½tsp brown sugar; Small bunch coriander, roughly chopped

Semi-rinse the beans. You need to lose a little bit of their sauce but not all of it as it’s nice to retain some of the familiar flavour, so pour the beans into a sieve and run the cold tap over them for just a second as you give them a quick swirl, then dump the beans and whatever water and sauce has clung to them straight into a deep saucepan.

Add the ginger, turmeric and one of the chillis whole (they look great as well as creating potential jeopardy later on), but no salt as the beans will be pretty well seasoned.

Set the pan over a medium heat and as the contents start to warm, semi-mash the beans with a potato masher. You want them busted but not pureéd. Set the heat to low, put a lid on and let them heat through for 10 minutes, giving them a stir every now and then to stop them sticking. They’ll start to dry a bit as the moisture evaporates, so don’t be afraid to add a generous splash of water (about 100ml) if they do. Have a taste and if it’s not salty enough, add some.

While the beans are cooking, put the ghee, butter or vegan equivalent in a cold shallow pan, add the garlic and the cumin seeds and set over a low heat so the fat melts and the garlic starts to sizzle. Keep an eye on it as while golden garlic is delicious, burnt garlic will ruin everything.

As soon as the garlic is pale gold and smelling good, take the pan off the heat, add the cayenne or chilli powder, give the pan one stir and pour the contents into the beans.

Sprinkle over the garam masala and the brown sugar. Turn the heat off and give the whole pan a very rudimentary mix. You want those oily, buttery pools in places rather than an amalgamated mass. It’s much more appetising.

Finally, scatter over the coriander and the other chilli, roughly chopped.

George Egg’s big mack(erel)

Makes 2 burgers. Ingredients: 1tbsp red wine vinegar; 1tsp sugar (white or brown); 1 red onion, sliced into half moons; 1 Little Gem lettuce, shredded; Small bunch of dill, ripped up into small fronds; 5 sachets (or 5tsp) mayonnaise; 2 sachets (or 2tsp) English mustard; 2 sachets (or 2tsp) tomato ketchup; 2tsp lumpfish caviar; 2 unsliced brioche burger buns; 2 fresh mackerel, filleted (or 4 fresh mackerel fillets); Neutral oil, for shallow-frying; Several pinches of black lime powder; 1 bag of pork scratchings, crushed

In a small bowl, mix the red wine vinegar with the sugar, 2 tablespoons of water and a pinch of salt, and drop in the red onion slices. Give everything a scrunch with your hand and press the onions down into the pickling liquid with a mug or another bowl so they’re squashed and submerged.

In a separate bowl, mix the lettuce with the dill fronds.

Stir the mayonnaise into the mustard, ketchup and caviar. It’ll look really pretty, like a pale pink burger sauce strewn with tiny black beads.

Slice the brioche into three (Big Mac-style). Lightly oil the cut sides, and over a medium-to-low heat toast all the cut sides of the bread in a dry frying pan. Set them aside.

With a sharp knife, score a series of very shallow cuts across the skin of the mackerel (this will stop it curling up too much in the pan). Lightly oil the fillets and with the heat at medium, lay them skin-side down in the pan and press down lightly on the flesh to keep the skins in contact with the metal. After half a minute, remove your hand and season the flesh sides. When you can see the mackerel is cooked (opaque) just over halfway, flip the fillets over and turn off the heat to let the residual heat finish the cooking. While that’s happening, start assembling.

In the middle of your wrapping paper place the bottom bun, then a mackerel fillet (you may need to break the fillets in half if they’re from a big fish), spoon over some of the sauce, a clump of the pickled onions and a pinch of black lime powder, then the middle bun, a little more sauce, the other fillet, sauce, lettuce and dill mixed together and finally a big pinch of the crushed pork scratchings and more lime powder before crowning with the top section of the bun. Wrap it, leave it a minute, serve it.

George Egg’s Twiglet brownies

Makes 6 modest-sized squares. Ingredients: 54g butter; 100g bar of cheap supermarket own-brand dark chocolate (you won’t need it all); 1 egg; 72g soft brown sugar; 1tsp vanilla essence; 34g Twiglets (to make Twiglet flour) plus another 20–30 Twiglets; 1tbsp cocoa nibs; Handful of pecans, slightly crushed in your fist (oh now he’s all vague with quantities!); Pinch of flaky salt (Maldon or Cornish sea salt)

Preheat the oven to 195°C/175°C Fan/Gas 5/6. Melt the butter and 54g of chocolate together either in a microwave or in a bowl suspended over a pan of gently simmering water.

When the butter is melted enough to start the chocolate melting, take it out of the microwave or off the heat of the stove and let the combined heats do the rest so as not to risk splitting the chocolate.

While the butter and chocolate cool, in another bowl beat or whisk the egg, sugar and vanilla together. Then combine with the chocolate and butter mixture. Everything will cool and thicken a bit.

Grind the 34g of Twiglets into a flour with the blender, smoothiemaker or coffee grinder. Add the Twiglet flour, cocoa nibs, pecans, another 20g of the chocolate chopped into small pieces (you can now eat any chocolate that’s left) and a pinch of flaky salt to the batter and fold together until combined.

Pour the mixture into your loaf tin and smooth the top. Arrange the rest of the Twiglets across the top like a raft and bake in the middle of the oven for exactly 19 minutes.

Take it out and let it cool in the tin. Then put it in the fridge to go completely cold before cutting into squares (I cut once down the length in the middle and twice across the width to make a three by two grid).