Cooking with his son Archie has been a life-changing experience for Oxhey resident Nick Coffer. He’s gone from video blogging to fronting a radio show in just two years and now the latest fruit of his labour, the My Daddy Cooks book, is out in the shops.

Featuring 100 tried and tested recipes, the book is clearly laid out with a good balance of photographs and simple instructions. The book isn’t reinventing the wheel, there are lots of family classics in there such as shepherd’s pie, burger and chips and pizza, but the recipes demonstrate Nick’s quick and easy style. His no fry Singapore noodles are ready in 30 minutes and there are several no cook sauce recipes in the book such as lemon, cream and smoked salmon or parma ham carbonara.

Given that it all looks so effortless, I ask Nick what the hardest challenge was when writing the book?

“With a cook book, unlike with a novel, you don’t have that feeling of momentum as the work progresses. After finishing 33 recipes – making, testing and redoing them and then writing it all up, I then had to start from scratch making up more recipes. It took a lot of strength of will.”

Thankfully putting together one of Nick’s dinners or sweet treats doesn’t require much will power, they look tempting and with an average maximum cooking time of 40-minutes, you can have fun with your children in the kitchen without them getting tired, and help them gain confidence around food too.

Purists might balk at the fact Nick uses tinned chick peas and pulses and ready-made pastry and pasta rather than making everything from scratch, but does this bother him?

“I don’t know anyone who would give me stick for not making my own pasta, but all of the sauces in the book are fresh, and this is a book about Tuesday and Wednesday night food for busy people. Also I didn’t want to write a chef’s book but a home cook’s book of ideas that are not prescriptive.

“When I first made my tuna pasta bake on the blog I was worried people might think it was really simple or dull, but people loved it because it reminded them of stuff they have made before.”

At three and a half, Archie is justly proud of “his” cookery book and is apparently getting more confident in the kitchen.

“What I’ve noticed recently is he’s moved from helping me in the kitchen where I say can you chuck the onions in, to working parallel to me. Every time he’s in the kitchen he’s adding stuff to what I’m cooking.”

So which recipes have gone down best in the Coffer household?

“The one I’m making a lot at the moment is the homemade Italian sausage bake, the fennel with the pork gives a really nice flavour. Other popular choices are the risotto, tiffin cake and frittata.”

I mention that I’m intrigued by the Mexican lasagna (see recipe below).

“That’s rapidly turning into the dish of the book, on Twitter it’s known as The Mex. Of course, we all know how to do a lasagna, it’s been around for a very long time but it can be hard work with the separate bechamel and tomato sauce. This dish goes down well because everyone loves chilli con carne and the tortillas go beautifully soft and absorb the liquids more. I really wanted to get a balance between what kids will eat and what parents want to eat.”

If my lunch of chorizo and chick pea soup is anything to go by, Nick has hit on a winning formula.

Mexican lasagne

Take an easy chilli con carne, layer it into a ‘lasagne’ using plain flour tortillas, top it with cheese and crème fraîche and the result is possibly my favourite dish in the whole book. The big surprise is how moist the tortillas go, absorbing the delicious juices from the chilli. Archie loves layering the dish (or ‘building the house’, as he calls it) and with the added advantage of being a fully make-ahead recipe, this twist on two classic dishes is a big winner every time.Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.

Serves 4

Preparation time 10 minutes. Cooking time 45–50 minutes. You will need an 8-inch(20cm) square baking tin

olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped or grated

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 cinnamon stick

Cayenne pepper (optional – we tend to sprinkle on cayenne pepper after the lasagne is served, meaning we can have ours spicy as Archie is not a lover of hot chilli!)

A good pinch of cocoa powder

500g beef mince

400g tin chopped tomatoes

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

9 plain flour tortillas

6–8 spring onions, cut diagonally into 2cm long pieces

300g pot of crème fraîche (half-fat is fine)

2 large handfuls of grated Cheddar cheese

1 Pour a glug of olive oil into a frying pan on a medium heat and fry the onion for 4 to 5 minutes.

2 Add the garlic, fry for a further minute and then add all the herbs and spices and the cocoa.

3 Stir in the beef and cook for a few minutes. Keep mixing it so the mince breaks up.

4 Pour in the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper, bring to the boil then turn down the heat and leave to simmer for 10 minutes. If it looks like it is getting too dry, add a little water.

5 Layer two tortillas in the base of the tin, tear a third tortilla to fill in the gaps, pour over a third of the sauce. Layer more tortillas, another third of the sauce, repeat, top with one last tortilla, spring onions, a layer of creme fraiche and cheese. Bake for 20 minutes.

Plum clafoutis

Preparation time 10 minutes. Cooking time 30–40 minutes. You will need an 8 inch (20cm) round pie dish or baking dish

Serves 4–6

3 large eggs

60g caster sugar

60g plain flour

300ml milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 or 6 ripe plums, pitted and cut in half

Icing sugar, for dusting

The number of plums you require depends on how big your dish is and how big the plums are. Don’t by any means overpack the dish though as the plums let out a lot of juice and the clafoutis can become soggy

This is my kind of dessert. Elaborate sounding name, unbelievably easy to make, absolutely delicious. Clafoutis originate from Normandy and are basically fruits baked in a pancake-type batter. The most traditional version uses cherries, but I find it very fiddly to eat while picking the stones out. This clafoutis uses plums, but you can use any similar stone fruits. Some people prefer to use more sugar, but I quite like letting a little bit of tartness come through from the plums. You can always sprinkle with a little extra sugar later if it is not sweet enough for your tastes.

Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.

1 Grease the pie or baking dish with butter.

2 In a mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar, then add the flour and whisk again.

3 Whisk in the milk and vanilla extract until you get a really smooth batter.

4 Lay the plums out in the dish and pour over the batter so that it is just reaching the tops of the plums.

5 Bake for 30 to 40 minutes. The clafoutis is cooked when it has risen, looks golden on the top and has set in the middle. Do not take it out of the oven while it is cooking or else it will collapse.

6 When it comes out of the oven, it looks slightly unappealing. Leave it to cool a little and sink back down.

7 Put some icing sugar in a sieve and dust the clafoutis.

8 Serve it from the dish, either warm or at a good room temperature.

My Daddy Cooks by Nick Coffer is published by Hodder and Stoughton, price £16.99. Details: www.mydaddycooks.com