Teresa’s fresh cottage pie There are a million recipes for cottage pie, but of all I’ve tried, this is the best – a recipe from Teresa Wallace, who has given me huge help, reading and commenting on every recipe in this book.
chicken and leek pie The pastry for this is wonderfully flaky and light, almost like a digestive biscuit. You can put it over the top of anything, but it’s particularly good with chicken, tarragon and leeks. In cold
andrew’s fish pie with rosti topping An old friend Andrew Wallace’s gentle fish pie, with a light breadcrumb topping. Serve with buttered broccoli. serves 6 800ml milk 3 bay leaves 600g fresh haddock fillets 300g u
large hollow easter egg recipe I used a metal mould (about 10 × 6cm) to make this egg. It's best made when you have a few hours to spare, as you build up the thickness of the chocolate gradually, but this Easter recipe is dea
smoked haddock and nasturtium fishcakes recipe This looks and tastes marvellous, with the peppery nasturtiums replacing black pepper in the fish/potato mix. Serve them with a really rich tomato sauce (tinned or fresh tomatoes and a slurp of olive
primrose lemon curd cupcakes recipe My friend Sarah Wilkin, who is a cupcake queen, gave me this recipe. It makes fabulous cupcakes, with a gooey middle of sharp lemon curd. In fact, the recipe makes plenty of lemon curd, so if you have
hot cross buns recipe These buns are best eaten fresh out of the oven with butter; if not, they are better toasted. The mixture of flours (half wholemeal, half strong plain flour) gives good flavour and texture. The singl
ham in hay with parsley sauce recipe A traditional Luxembourg dish, this is an excellent thing to cook for a party when you're feeding lots of people. The hay keeps the meat really succulent and gives it a distinctive sweet, grassy
five-hour leg of lamb recipe This is my favourite thing to cook for an Easter lunch. You can put it in the oven at breakfast and it will be perfect by lunch.serves 8 Large leg of lamb or hogget (about 2.2-2.5kg)for the marina
Easter biscuits recipe You can cut these biscuits into any shape you want, and the recipe can be adapted for Christmas if you add some ginger along with other spices. If you want to hang the biscuits on the tree, make a
sesame salmon with pea pesto Here is a brilliantly easy, almost instant dish our daughter Molly had in a restaurant while on holiday in France and came back asking me to make. It is crucial to get really good salmon. Most f
Smoked haddock with Lord Dalrymple's top For an easy, push-the-boat out Saturday lunch, this is one of my family's favourites. It's an Edwardian recipe from my aunt Fortune Stanley's cookbook; English Country House CookingServes 6 as a start
Rhubarb upside down cake This treacly and delicious cake looks and tastes fantasticServes 6-8 480g rhubarb60g soft brown sugar60g butterGrated zest of 1 orange125g unsalted butter175g caster sugar3 eggs175g flour1 tsp baking
easter tabletop garden With spring so late this year, everything is coming with a whoosh and April should be magnificent. It looks as though hyacinths, narcissi, anemones and tulips are all set to be in flower at the same t
