Angie Freeman was one of my favourite Corrie characters back in the 1990s and I’d love to see her return for a visit. Back in the 1990s she was a student and a young designer trying to make her name. She was also one of the founders of Underworld with Mike Baldwin. This recipe is from her student days when you had to make do on a tight budget and is good for a vegetarian diet if you substitute the chicken broth.

"I learned to make the most of these recipes when I was a student, because like all students, I never had any money. Usually it was a choice of buying food or materials for my degree course. But I did manage to survive and even though I've to a job now and enough money to eat what I want, I still make the same dishes because they taste pretty good. None of them have meat in them because I could never afford meat, but some of them are improved by using chicken stock rather than water although it isn't always essential".

You've been invited to a buffet, or pot luck or you're having the whole family over. What do you cook? It has to be in larger quantities. Gail, Alma and Betty (and now Roy as well) are used to that sort of thing, having catered for Coronation Street residents in the Rovers, the caff and many a large party over the years

"It's as well to farm out the jobs to different people if you can," advises Betty. "If you can't, then try and do as much as possible in advance and get a bit of help on the day. …You can do most cold dishes well in advance, so with a bit of luck you might get a chance to have a drink yourself before the festivities begin. The one point to remember is that once the party starts, there's nothing you can do about anything, so just enjoy it. Worrying whether everything's going to be all right won't change a thing." Potato salad is always a favourite on the buffet table, and it’s easy to make!

Click through for the recipe.

This week we bring you something a bit spicier from Curly Watts. Curly used to work for Bettabuys supermarket with Reg Holdsworth and later for Freschos. I always thought Curly would be a dab hand in the kitchen and it seems I was right.

Curly reckons: "Even though it means working for Reg, I must admit that there are advantages to being employed by Bettabuys. All the world is there. Whatever I need in the way of ingredients is always readily available. Unless, of course, we've sold out and I've forgotten to reorder. But I've always been a bit adventurous in my cooking."

Here’s a nice meal to make for a Sunday dinner that comes from Our Rita who advises “I've chosen a roast dinner, because I've always said if you can get through cooking and serving one without having a nervous breakdown, you can cope with anything. Usually everybody gets in a mess trying to time the meal so it's ready at once. But if you do the vegetables like I do, you can't go wrong. Prepare everything in advance to avoid a panic.” I particularly like her last step in the cooking methods!

Click through to see the recipe.

An aside to our new Cooking with Coronation Street series, there is a new charity cookbook coming out soon. It's being produced by Greggs bakery and will be sold in their shops as "Greggs Charity Cook Book" benefiting North of England Children's Cancer Research fund (NECCR). Quite a few celebrities from sport, politics and screen will be making a contribution of their favourite recipes. Ex-Coronation Street actors, Denise Welch (Natalie Horrocks Barnes) and Jill Halfpenny (Rebecca Hopkins), both Geordie actresses from the same part of England that brought you Greggs' in the first place.

Back in the day, before Roy owned the caff, Gail and Alma provide many delights for the inhabitants of Coronation Street. From breakfast to a full meal or just somewhere to sit and gossip over a cup of tea, you could find it all at Jim's Cafe. If you were unlucky, you might have found yourself at the same table as Percy Sugden, or you might have been served by Phyllis Pierce, but at least the food will be good. Here is one of customers’ favourite dishes, comfort food for dessert at its best!

Click through to see the recipe.

I bet you thought we would offer Betty’s Hotpot, didn’t you? I thought something a little different might be in order, something that vegetarians can enjoy as well since the last two recipes were most definitely for carnivores. We will feature the Hotpot recipe sometime in the future, though.

Here’s Betty Turpin Williams’ take on cooking (remember, these recipes are from the early 1990s when Bet and Alec ran the Rovers) "You might find baking hard work, but think yourself lucky that you haven't got Alec Gilroy breathing down your neck. Look at me. After all these years I don't suppose I should let him get to me, but I still do. He's all mouth and trousers, bit it's difficult to ignore him when he starts jumping up and down. It's a lot easier dealing with Bet, but then it would be, wouldn't it?”

This week’s recipe comes from the kitchen of the Rovers Return (from when Alec and Bet Gilroy were the hosts with the most).

Alec Gilroy has this to say : "Cooking has never really been one of my strong points but I do like to encourage others into taking an interest in it, especially when they use the booze they're kind enough to buy from The Rovers. But I have dabbled in the kitchen arts from time to time and, if I say so myself, it's not as hard as some people make it out to be. Particularly that Betty Turpin. If you'd made as many hot pots as she has, you'd be able to make them in your sleep” Alec loves recipes that include alcohol so this is one of his favourites!

Click through for the recipe.

Welcome to our first cookery day here at Corrieblog. As we told you last week, we’ll be featuring a Coronation Street recipe every week for awhile. These recipes were first published in the early 1990s. First up is Mike Baldwin’s Bubble and Squeak, good old fashioned comfort food.

Mike says: "With living in Lancashire for so long, I've got used to the local food. But there are times when I want a little taste of London, so I get in the kitchen and make the dishes I've loved all my life. Alma's not keen on my eels and mash, but she likes my bubble and squeak and spotted dick. Maybe I'll persuade her to start selling them in the cafe."

Click through for the recipe.

One of our regular readers, Katie, told me about a Sunday Magazine newspaper supplement that she’d kept from the early 1990s. It featured Coronation Street characters and their recipes, with some descriptions of the characters and some quotes as written by the characters. I thought “What a great ideal for a series in Corrieblog!”. Katie had typed it all up and saved it. She kindly went looking for it and sent me a copy of it all. I intend on posting some of the recipes, on a regular basis. I’ll title them all “Cooking with Coronation Street” along with the character and recipe name. Thanks ever so much, Katie! Stay tuned, everyone, Wednesdays will be cookery day here at Corrieblog Towers!

Surely not! But according to recent survey mentioned in an MEN food blog, one out of five children think hotpot does not have origins local to the northwest of England. Mind you, the full name, "Lancashire hotpot" kind of gives it away, you'd think! At least over a third realize that Eccles cakes are from, well, Eccles.

What would Betty say? "Well, I never!" would be my guess!