I have used the Thermomix for this recipe. Janie Turner from UK Thermomix demonstrated the new TM5 model to me. She made a chopped sweet potato salad and I was amazed with the results (potentially, I never need to use my grater again, so no more grated fingernails!).

I have a glut of pumpkins at the moment and I fancied a bit of cake, so the idea for this recipe came to mind. I thought, aha!, it’s a great time to test my new TM5 chopping techniques. I used the Thermomix to chop the pumpkin, apples and ginger, then I added the rest of the ingredients for the cake batter, whizzed it all together and in a jiffy the job was done – it’s pretty fast and impressive.

If you do not have a Thermomix, you can still make the cake, but you’ll need to use a grater instead (or a food processor with a grater attachment), then mix all the ingredients together in a bowl using a wooden spoon or an electric mixer.

The most important route to success with this recipe is time and patience. You must not ‘force’ or try to hurry the curing process along as this will result in a disaster.

We used a meat curing cabinet for this process, as it’s the safest method (we made our own with a fridge, but a temperature-controlled wine fridge works well with a dehumidifier and humidity meter). Humidity also plays a huge part in the process, so I suggest that you buy an inexpensive humidity meter from a DIY store to help you out.

Once the meat was cured and ready to use we were pleasantly surprised at how many servings we got from it. It kept well for a couple of weeks or so (in the fridge) and was used in many delicious dishes.

I buy the Prague powder (cure) No. 2 from https://www.sausagemaking.org/acatalog/cure_2.html

I do make these quite a lot with different fillings such as forced pink rhubarb, cherry, raspberry, apricot and plum. When I make the raspberry and rhubarb ones I do not cook the fruits, all I do is add a teaspoon of raspberry jam in the centre of each piece of pastry, then arrange the prepared fruit and cream cheese on top. The baking time is enough to cook the fruits to perfection and the jam adds a dash of sweetness. Delicious!

These turnovers are perfect for picnics, afternoon teas, packed lunches and even breakfast, or try them served warm as a pudding with plenty of custard or pouring cream.

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

Anyway, I thought I would give it a go, so I adapted her measurements and got baking and I was super pleased with the results, as they’re delicious. This recipe is very easy to make and quick too. The crumb of the muffins is fine and very moist and they taste just as good the following day (if they last that long!).

I serve these for breakfast on their own, with just a pot of hot, fresh coffee to accompany, and that’s all you need – they are just the perfect start to the day.

For these cakes, I have used ripe ready-to-eat peaches, but fresh ripe apricots, greengages, damsons, Victoria plums, mangoes, blackberries, blueberries and raspberries would all be fantastic fruit pairings with the poppy seed and yogurt combination.

I made these for afternoon tea, but the following morning Mr P could not keep his hands off them and he devoured one with his morning coffee for breakfast; I suppose it’s never too early for cake though, is it?!

The yogurt and poppy seeds are best combined the day before you want to make these cakes, but it’s not a problem if you don’t have time to do this (see method below for more details on this).

I saw some delicious-looking apricots at a local market recently, so I bought some (along with a few peaches and cherries) and then made my way home. En route, my thoughts started turning to the job in hand and what I could do with my fantastic finds (admittedly though, I chomped my way through most of the cherries in the car on the way home, so those were already taken care of!).

I used the peaches to create some delicious Peach, Poppy Seed and Yogurt Cakes and then put my thinking cap on for the apricots. Now Mr P loves an iced Belgian bun, so I came up with the idea of making a sweet yeast-style dough which incorporated some of the fresh apricots.

Well, here it is! Ta-da! I made the dough in the evening before I went to bed, then left it to rise slowly in the fridge overnight. The following morning (Sunday) I got up, turned the oven on, finished making the apricot buns using my perfect slow-risen dough, and soon we had freshly-baked apricot, honey and olive oil buns for breakfast in bed with a pot of coffee and the Sunday papers. I can recommend that it’s a lovely way to spend a lazy Sunday morning in bed!

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!

This pitta bread dough recipe is fantastic. I like the feel of the dough and it works perfectly every time (I use it a lot). For this particular recipe, I thought it would be great to stuff the raw dough pockets with a filling before cooking them.

As I usually cook my pitta breads using a griddle pan, the barbecue idea is not alien at all. The trick with this is to make sure that the barbecue is not too hot. Our barbecue has a lid, meaning I can close all the vents and the lid, which, in effect, turns the barbecue into an outdoor oven. The pitta breads take about 8–10 minutes to cook and if the temperature is controlled and you turn the pitta breads a couple of times during the cooking process, they cook perfectly all the way through with just the right amount of caramelisation on the outside.

This recipe makes a delicious starter or something tasty to nibble on while you are slow cooking a joint of meat on the barbecue.

For the filling, I have kept it simple today by using caramelised onions, feta cheese and oregano, but if you have some lovely curried/seasoned cooked minced lamb (drained of fat and as dry as possible), this would also be fantastic to add as a filling, along with the caramelised onions.

This hummus can be served as a dip with pitta breads or breadsticks, or it can form the basis for a salad. Served as a dip, it makes a great recipe to serve at a barbecue or drinks party.

We love corn on the cob and when it’s in season, Mr P and I enjoy it prepared in many different ways. We are having a great summer so far this year and our barbecue is ready and on standby at all times, so we have been enjoying all sorts of different things cooked on the barbecue, especially vegetables, including carrots, beetroot, potatoes and corn on the cob. It’s an ongoing experiment and we’re loving every minute of it!

For this recipe, the corn cobs are seasoned with oil and aromatics, then wrapped in foil to almost create a mini oven for the corn to cook in. The foil parcel creates steam, which prevents the kernels from drying out and helps to cook the corn evenly, while still allowing enough heat through to create that authentic barbecued flavour.