Golden buck, or grilled cheese on toast

Ingredients

• 75g mature Cheddar or double Gloucester
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp English mustard powder
• 25g soft butter
• 12 cherry tomatoes
• 2 thick slices country-style crusty bread
• Worcestershire sauce
• Chives
• Tabasco and brown ale

Method

Grilled cheese on toast - Welsh rarebit - is endlessly variable but virtually foolproof. Everyone has a tip for making theirs the best; it might be spreading the toast with grain mustard instead of the traditional English, or piling onion marmalade or chutney under the cheese. My mother topped hers with sliced tomato and I add salad to pretend it’s a healthy dish.

There are many ways of ringing the changes with cheese on toast. Apart from the flavour and melting qualities of different cheeses, add-ons can transform the dish.

My all-time favourite is probably golden buck: Cheddar is traditional but any mature hard British cheese flavoured with Worcestershire sauce and English mustard. Try this with grilled bacon or sweet cherry tomatoes with a shake of Tabasco.

• Grate the cheese. Place the egg yolk in a bowl and stir in the mustard. Add the cheese and butter and use a fork to mix thoroughly into a stiff paste.
• Quarter the tomatoes. Pre-heat the grill and toast the bread on one side. Dribble the un-toasted side with Worcestershire sauce and spread thickly with the cheese paste.
• Arrange on a foil-lined grill pan and cook for 2-3 minutes until puffy, golden and dribbling over the edge but soft and soufflé-like under the surface. Transfer to plates and make a tomato stripe across the length of the slice. Scatter with chives and, if you like, a dribble of Tabasco.