Thick slices of carp are generously coated in breadcrumbs and fried, before being pickled gently in a vinegar-salt-sugar pickinsolution. After four or five days, the sweet and sour juice has not only imparted its sweet and sour flavour into the fish, but it has also dissolved away the smaller fibrous bones of the fish.

For me, roast potatoes are the making of a successful roast. Get them crispy on the outside, and fluffy on the inside, and any other disasters will be forgiven. Stuff up the roasties, or (perhaps the ultimate crime) don’t make enough, and the roast is a failure, no…

Pigs in Blankets taste fantastic and are a must for Christmas dinner. And they have a fun name, at least more amusing than ‘sausages wrapped in bacon’, although there is no escaping that is just what they are. I always wrap the little pigs in their bacon blankets…

Everyone should make homemade cranberry sauce for their Christmas table. It tastes far better than anything from a jar and takes just a few minutes to make. An as you can prepare it a few days in advance, it doesn’t add to the stress of cooking on Christmas…

No British Christmas dinner is complete without Brussel sprouts and yet few people admit to liking them. But they are sold everywhere in vast quantities every December. So despite their rather windy consequences, people must secretly like them. Personally I love them, and I serve them every Christmas…

Cauliflower cheese is proof of one of the fundamental principles in cooking: there are very few foods that can’t be improved by adding a good helping of cheese. It legitimises eating cheese as a main course which is never a bad thing, and it’s the best way to…