This is a simple but delicious dish. The flavours are mild, but with the correct amount of seasoning and by using good-quality ingredients, it’s definitely a favourite of ours. The cauliflower is prepared to look like couscous and it requires just very light cooking.

This recipe is a great way to use up trimmings of cod, or you could use other white fish instead, such as hake, lemon sole or sea bass. Remember to remove the skin and all the bones.

I cook these skewers over the barbecue, but if you prefer to use the oven instead, please see the Cook’s Note at the end of the recipe.

At the beginning of the apple season, I prefer to use Discovery apples, as I like their tangy sweetness and their blush red colour, but later on we then change to Cox’s, which are also perfect. Both these varieties keep their shape when placed in a warm pickling liquid and the acid-sweet balance is perfect for the mackerel.

For the mackerel, I use a combination of fresh and smoked mackerel. Some of the fresh mackerel is mixed with the smoked mackerel to make rillettes, and then the rest of the fresh mackerel is pan-fried and served warm. The pickled cucumber and celery, along with the apple, bring acidity, sweetness and texture to the dish. The candied sunflower seeds are great fun and complete the dish perfectly. I really enjoy the contrasts in flavours and textures of this dish, so I hope you do too.

This dish is a great starter or you can serve double size portions for a light lunch for 2.

I like quinoa but do not cook with it as often as I think I should. It has a great taste, it’s packed with protein and slow-releasing energy and is pretty healthy too. There are two main types of quinoa – red and creamy white/pale yellow. I use red for this recipe as the nutty taste is more intense and I quite like the colour too

This recipe is fairly complex, but perfect for impressing friends. The aubergine fondue can be made up to 3 days in advance (keep it refrigerated – see Chef’s Note) and it reheats very well. You could even make a larger quantity and freeze it. I love it and it’s great as a dip too.

We could call this cheat’s consommé, if you prefer.

I adore smoked haddock, but then again I quite enjoy smoked foods in general. It’s the depth of flavour, the intriguing method of how the flavour is achieved and simply the fact that with wood and good-quality ingredients, the character and flavour of the food can be manipulated to achieve something rather remarkable.

I could smoke the haddock myself, but we do have a good supplier which means I can concentrate on cold-smoking my venison, lamb and other meat joints. In all fairness, I do not have that much experience in cold smoking fish.

I tend to hot-smoke fish and meat using a method that I concocted called the ‘quick smoking method’. I refer to this in my cookbook The British Larder A Cookbook for All Seasons. I hope you are intrigued enough to go and have a look!

The standard recommendation is to cook flat fish, such as plaice, on the bone to prevent it from overcooking and becoming dry, but to be honest, I and a lot of others, do not enjoy all the kerfuffle with the bones. Ask your fishmonger to do all the hard work for you and get them to take the fillets off the bone as two whole fillets per fish (one larger fillet from each side of the fish, rather than two smaller fillets from each side of the fish). The bones make a delicious stock too, so ask your fishmonger to reserve them for you.

Remember, the smaller the fish, the less cooking is required (and once the fish is cooked it will continue cooking a little more). As I use large plaice fillets for this recipe, I cook each fillet for 1½–2 minutes on each side.

I find a simple fish supper is incredibly satisfying and it does not necessarily have to involve battered fish served with chips (I am writing this whilst wagging and pointing my finger at Mr P; he will do anything for traditional battered fish and chips!). The brown shrimp and lemon butter sauce is very easy to make and is really tasty (the taste is so good, you would think it’s taken hours to prepare). Serve this dish with plain boiled new potatoes and wilted spinach, as the fish is so tasty you do not need accompaniments with big personalities. The simplicity of this dish tastes wonderful.

For this recipe, I use a mixture of smoked and natural (unsmoked) haddock, as I personally quite like the flavour of smoked haddock but find it a little too overpowering on its own in a recipe like this. However, you don’t have to use smoked fish if you are not so keen on it. Other alternatives and combinations that would work just as well are fresh salmon mixed with smoked salmon, fresh mackerel mixed with smoked mackerel, or simply cod or even sea trout.

To make these fishcakes, firstly a small amount of fish purée is made and this forms the ‘glue’ that holds the fishcakes together. The rest of the fish is then diced and mixed with the fish purée. No breadcrumbs are used, just fish and a few other choice ingredients. It is best to make these at least 2 hours before you intend to cook them as the resting time will help the fishcake mixture stick together, firm up and holds its shape. I also like to prepare the fishcakes a day in advance (keep them in the fridge overnight), as it really helps to get ahead and allows me more time to spend with my friends and enjoy their company.

The parsley sauce is also not quite as traditional as you might expect. For this recipe, I make a parsley purée rather than a traditional white sauce with parsley running through it. The purée is strong and more condensed in flavour and therefore you do not quite need as much. It is also served chilled or at room temperature rather than hot. If you prefer watercress instead, then simply replace the parsley with watercress, and add a few mint leaves to accentuate the flavour of watercress.
Serve these fishcakes as I do with wilted spinach and charred spring onions, to create a delicious supper perfect for summer dining, ideal with a glass or two of chilled Gavi di Gavi.

We buy kilos of smoked prawns each week that are served as part of a large sharing platter. We peel the prawns and then turn the smoked prawns into a delicious prawn cocktail, so we are usually left with a heap of shells. The shells are then used to make this delicious bisque that could either be served as a soup for a starter or light lunch, or reduced and served as a sauce to go with a delicious piece of pan-fried hake.

Either way it’s proven to hit the spot with the British Larder customers and is hugely popular. The smoky taste is not overpowering and it’s quite subtle, but the smokiness gives the bisque a rounded and more in-depth flavour, with a rather mysterious deliciousness to it.

As asparagus is plentiful and in season, I simply garnish this bisque with tempura asparagus and whole prawns, which are easy to prepare and give the dish an interesting texture.

This quick smoked method is one I used in my cookbook in a few recipes; it’s very effective and delicious, and it does not break the bank as you don’t need any specialist equipment. I would recommend though that you vent the kitchen well when using this quick smoke technique, as it can get quite smoky.

Fresh sea trout is almost like salmon and if you cannot find any, simply replace it with fresh salmon. The crispy air-dried ham brings a salty taste and crispy texture to the dish that works beautifully with the slightly sharp leeks in vinaigrette and the mild but aromatic horseradish cream.

It’s almost a whole meal in itself and is ideal for a light main course or lunch.

This dish is simple and delicious. The spices are complex and sophisticated but not too punchy to put you off your cuppa. I serve the curried mussels on sourdough toast – perfect for soaking up the sauce and maximising the enjoyment.

I use rope-grown mussels from the River Deben here in Suffolk. They are farmed all year round, but my preference is still to enjoy them in their natural season, which is during the months with ‘r’ in the name, when the water is colder and the taste of the mussels is naturally sweeter (then leave them alone during the summer when the water is warmer).

Always make sure you clean fresh mussels thoroughly, removing the beards and giving them a good scrub, as there is nothing more disappointing than gritty mussels.