I love to slow-cook this on a Sunday, ready for the week ahead. My babushka Liana often pairs meat with prunes, a common combination influenced by the Yiddish community that lived in Ukraine. Use any sort of beef or bone stock; I have made this plenty of times with just water. You could also use sweet paprika instead of mustard in this recipe. Serve with potatoes…

This potato salad with crunchy green beans, nutty toasted buckwheat, soft eggs, and bursts of fresh dill is hearty but fresh, earthy but bright – a salad that’s happy to play wingman to glazed ham, sizzling steaks, roast pork, or even a whole baked snapper. Toasted buckwheat brings the crunch, while a mustard dressing makes every bite addictive…

Can we talk about chicken skin? (That’s a rhetorical question; we’re bloody talking about chicken skin). Peruse supermarket fridges where assorted poultry parts lurk, witness the pallid, pink, skin-free horror and you’ll be asking the same question as we regularly do... where the heck does it all go?…

Platter up! Grab the nicest of what’s in season, cook it simply, hurl it on a big plate, then do the ‘come help yourselves’ holler’ like a fishwife. We love a salad Nicoise and, while salmon might not be a traditional inclusion, it’s perfect with everything else. The recipe here is all about the emulsified vinaigrette…