I really like family-style dining – placing bowls of food on the table for everyone to help themselves. I like to serve a selection of different foods and sometimes not everything goes together, but that is perhaps the attraction and joy of this kind of dining. It also means that there is something delicious to suit everyone.

I like the robust taste of turnips, and when mixed with ham hock the two work wonderfully together. As a side dish this works well with roast chicken or turkey, braised pheasant, roast partridge, or even roast or pan-fried duck.

It’s easy, I suppose, to make a vegetable purée (like I do in the recipes below) and then simply stir it into Greek yogurt, but the flavour is never quite the same as when you make your own savoury yogurts. The basics of making yogurt are explained below and once you understand these (it’s very easy, by the way), then you can make any flavour that you fancy.

For the tomato-flavoured yogurt, I applied my chef’s knowledge, because I know that raw tomatoes contain enzymes that may destroy the delicate live cultures in yogurt, so it’s important to cook the tomatoes before use to prevent this happening (cooking kills off these enzymes).

I used equipment that I already had to make these yogurts, including a water bath and metal beakers from a pacojet (a specialist chef’s kitchen appliance), but please don’t be put off by this because you can buy an inexpensive yogurt-maker from online stores, including Lakeland Limited (or perhaps you already have one), and this will work just as well as the equipment I use.

When making yogurt, remember the following:

• Follow the temperature guidelines closely and accurately, otherwise the recipe will not work.
• Once you have got the yogurt set up, do not leave it in a drafty place and don’t stir or disturb it for the entire incubation period. If you stir it before the process is complete, the yogurt will ‘collapse’ and it will not thicken.
• The longer you leave the yogurt at the incubation stage, the thicker and more tasty/sour it will become.
• Draining the yogurt is not essential; it depends on how thick you want the yogurt to be. I drain/hang mine, as I like it to be quite thick, but remember that the longer you drain the yogurt, the less (total volume) you will end up with and the thicker it will become.

Tomato, Lemongrass & Ginger Smoky Barbecued Beetroot & RosemaryOven-roasted Carrot, Maple & Fenugreek

There was one salad I remember that regularly featured in those publications and it was a chopped salad of some description. At the time I could not quite understand the attraction; it looked a bit of a mess in a bowl to me and seemed to lack culinary flair and excitement.

However, the older I get, the more salad I enjoy eating, and funnily enough, I find myself chopping all the salad ingredients, then mixing in some vinaigrette, and it’s just simply delicious! Well, I’ve realised that the attraction of this type of salad is, in fact, the deliciousness of all the ingredients chopped fairly small and simply mixed together. So, here is my tasty take on one of those classic American-style chopped dressed salads, which I hope you’ll enjoy as much as I did.

The beauty about this salad or slaw is that you can make it a few hours in advance before serving (but it’s best eaten on the day of making). Simply store the chopped slaw (without the dressing) in a covered bowl or airtight container in the fridge, then when you are ready to serve, simply mix the slaw with the dressing, tip it into a serving bowl and, hey presto, it’s done! Once dressed, the salad should be served immediately. No fancy garnishes are required either as it’s very attractive just as it is.

I have done away with mixed leaf salads at barbecues as they just get wasted, so this tasty fresh green number has fast become my favourite leaf salad replacement. It’s ideal for al fresco dining and is great served at a barbecue or with grilled meats or fish such as burgers, salmon or chicken or Slow-barbecued Lamb Shoulder.

I think raw button mushrooms must have fallen out of fashion for a while; I had forgotten how delicious they are in this fresh, raw salad. It is pretty quick and easy to prepare too, which is a definite bonus on hot summer days.

Please note though that the shaved mushrooms don’t keep well, as they discolour slightly and become soft after about an hour. Therefore, I recommend that you get all the ingredients together, make the dressing and prepare the salad (except the mushrooms), then when you are ready to serve, slice the mushrooms and put the salad together at the last minute; it’s really easy and quick. I have used a mandoline to slice the mushrooms, but a sharp knife will also work just as well.

This salad is delicious served as a side dish at a barbecue with barbecued salmon, Sticky Pork Ribs or Slow-barbecued Lamb Shoulder, or it can be served as a starter with crusty bread. 

I found these baby cucumbers at our local farm shop. They’re a great find as their skin is very thin and they have less seeds than standard cucumbers, plus I think they are even tastier. However, a standard English cucumber will give just as good results if you can’t find baby ones.

I served this salad with Barbecued Venison Kofta Skewers, so to improve the presentation, I thinly sliced one of the cucumbers and arranged it on top with a sprinkling of sumac and extra chopped mint. This extra touch to the presentation is well worth doing if you have friends coming round to join you for a barbecue.

Mr P and I both love vegetables and cooking them whole on the barbecue is a fantastic way to enjoy them. This barbecued curried whole cauliflower is simply delicious, and once it’s cooked, the cauliflower has a soft and creamy texture but is still just holding its shape. We slice it into wedges like a cake and serve it alongside Slow-barbecued Lamb Shoulder or barbecued spatchcocked chicken.

It’s an easy recipe too and doesn’t require much preparation, allowing you more time to chat and mingle with your guests.

I have chosen a particular cheese for this recipe as I liked the look of it and I have a special affection for stronger-tasting cheeses, especially blue cheeses, which get my vote in any shape or form. This cheese also appealed to me because of its lovely bright yellow colour; it looks summery to me.

The cheese dressing for this recipe, well, this is a new chapter in my life! Gosh, it’s so delicious, even if I say so myself! It’s quite thick and looks almost like a mayonnaise but it doesn’t contain any egg yolks. The dressing makes a little more than you’ll need, but this isn’t such a bad thing as the leftover dressing is delicious served over a simple garden salad.

The courgettes are sliced very thinly using a mandoline to create long ribbons, which look beautiful. The raw courgette ribbons and blue cheese dressing go together perfectly – I love this combination!

My grandparents had two very large avocado trees in their garden and these fellas were very tall. Each year my grandfather would harvest the avocados, and each family (six families) used to get their ‘share’. The avocados were treated with utmost respect and in our household my father used to be in charge of looking after them. To ripen the avocados, dad used to wrap them each in newspaper and then place each one into a clean sock. They were then carefully placed amongst his pants and socks at the back of his wardrobe (where it was cool and dark) and left to ripen slowly. Dad would check them regularly and they would finally make their appearance once they were ripe and ready to eat.

Harvesting the avocados was a serious event for us. There were only three of us in our family, but we made sure that we each got our own fair share! It makes me chuckle now, but believe me, it was a serious event back then. The respect that mum and dad showed to avocados has made me treat them with the same respect to this very day. Dad was a fussy eater so his food had to be plain, and the only way he enjoyed avocado was by seasoning it with plenty of salt and pepper. Mum and I liked a bit of lemon juice, but that was the extent of the extravagance back then. A real sense of occasion! I loved the importance of fresh avocados to my family and I still love their specialness today.

For me, bacon and avocado is a natural match. When you have two ingredients that each have a strong flavour, it really doesn’t need much else to make a great dish. I have added the barbecued Little Gem lettuces to this recipe because I love the taste of them. The dressing is fantastic because you can taste both the avocado and the bacon. It’s simply wow and delicious and I hope you’ll love it too!

I used feta cheese for the salad as that is what I had in the fridge, but you could use fresh homemade curd cheese or crumbly goat’s cheese instead, if you prefer.

Any leftover dressing keeps well in a covered jar or squeezy bottle in the fridge for up to a week and can be drizzled over other salads.

Kimchi is a fermented spicy Korean vegetable side dish. Fermented foods are trending at the moment and you can find something of the fermented nature on many trendy restaurant menus, from tea to vegetables of all sorts. If you think about it, to make yogurt, a fermentation process is used, and we consume vast amounts of yogurt each day.

It’s claimed that fermented foods, including yogurt and fermented vegetables, help to treat anxiety and are good for your digestive system as the live bacteria help to restore the correct balance of bacteria in your gut.

I like this kimchi. The piquant nature of the Korean red pepper flakes gives it a fiery kick, plus the beauty of this recipe is that you can manage the strength to your liking. I have followed a very traditional style by using Chinese cabbage (also known as Chinese leaves), carrots and spring onions, but you can use vegetable combinations of your choice to make the recipe your own. I serve it as an accompaniment at barbecues. It’s also great used in cooking. I mix a few tablespoons of kimchi with flaked roasted duck, wrap it in puff or filo pastry to make individual parcels, then bake these delicious little morsels to serve at drinks parties.

I have also previously made sauerkraut, which is fermented white cabbage made using a very similar method, without the fish sauce and spicy red pepper flakes, but the principle methods of fermentation are all the same. I’m now a keen enthusiast, making my own yogurt, both sweet and savoury versions. It’s all about controlling the live cultures and the environment, plus, most importantly, providing a bit of heat and no drafts. Summer is the best time for attempting recipes that require the fermentation process, as during the winter it proves to be a bit more difficult due to the cooler temperatures.