Simple courgette fritters are perfect for a quick lunch or light supper, and they are very seasonal. I know the courgettes are available all year round in the grocery shops, but they now have a lot of flavour, and this is the time for many beautiful dishes with this humble vegetable. Although the word fritters conjures up deep frying and greasy dishes, the patties are light, and the cooking uses little oil. The courgette fritters can be eaten straight out of the pan or warm with a dollop of crème fresh. Find the recipe here…

The Summer Galettes are equally delicious hot or cold. They make a delightful picnic appetizer and can be served with meat, fish or vegetables, with cold toppings like tzatziki. The Galettes are great for a quick lunch accompanied by green leaves salad with a dash of vinaigrette. They can be made in advance and kept in the fridge until served. You even can reheat them on the barbecue. Find the recipe here...

Wonderfully crisp, extraordinarily delicious and super healthy. Danish crispbread - Knækbrød - makes a beautiful snack served with dips, spreads, and pâté; it can also be eaten for breakfast with butter and sweet toppings. Flat and very dry bread contains rye and spelt flour, rolled oats, sunflower, sesame and flax seeds with a small amount of water. It can be shaped round or broken into irregular pieces.  I find Knækbrød a fantastic and elegant starter served with pickled herring or a thin slice of smoked salmon. Find the recipe here….

Three primary ingredients - black chickpea, black garlic, and black tahini- create this dip's distinctive earthy flavour and odd colour. Kala Chana, a black cousin of yellow chickpea, make a nutty and firm-textured base. Black tahini from unhulled sesame seeds, adds a slight bitterness and toasty flavour, black garlic- a bit of sweetness. The  Black Chickpea Hummus calls for raw garlic and lemon juice like traditional hummus, but unlike it needs a splash of olive oil and a pinch of cumin to develop the flavour. Spooky Black Hummus can be served with flat bread, but it's excellent with raw vegetables or crispbread.  Find the recipe here…

This is a typical picnic food but can make a great lunch dish or appetizer, served with vinaigrette lettuce. Mini Scotch Eggs are quail eggs wrapped in minced meat with fresh parsley and spring onion, well seasoned with salt and cayenne pepper, coated in bread crumbs, and deep-fried. They are delicious and filling; the meat is moist inside and crunchy outside. Mini Scotch Eggs can be eaten barely warm; therefore, if you plan a picnic in the coming Easter bank holiday, the eggs' homemade version will be your first choice. Find the recipe here…

Aren't they beautiful? These white balls are made from minced meat and covered with short-grain glutinous rice which becomes translucent after steaming. They look like pearls, hence their name. Pearl Meatballs are a classic Chinese appetizer, originated from Hubei, China. They're a prevalent dish served at banquettes, parties and the Chinese New Year's family dinner. Soft, fragrant meaty balls, with a hint of ginger and tiny bites of water chestnuts, are a real crowd pleaser and a next great appetizer for a New Year Celebration. Find the recipe here…

The trick to this salad is to julienne vegetables thinly – the thinner stalks, the better taste - and homemade whole-egg mayonnaise sauce, free from unhealthy ingredients. Winter Root Vegetable Slaw is crunchy, flavourful and its sweetness comes from rich in minerals carrot, parsnip, celeriac and beetroot, so there is no need to add extra sugar. It’s delicious to serve with meat, burgers and sandwiches. For a vegan version of the salad, use vegan mayonnaise. Who says you can only make a coleslaw with a cabbage? Find the recipe here…

Gougères are cheese puffs made from choux pastry mixed with a generous amount of cheese. Gruyère is the classic choice but I also use Grana Padano, Cheddar, Emmental or Comté of good quality as the better quality the cheese, the better the Gougères. The cheese puffs can be served with soups or salads but they taste great filled with a savoury sauce, vegetable or meat and make wonderful finger food or canapé when you make them bite-sized. Find the recipe here…

Choux buns are usually used for profiteroles, French choux pastry balls filled with sweet and moist filling such as whipped cream, pastry cream or ice cream. But they also wonderfully hold savoury fillings and make amazing finger food or canape. My choux buns with a polish accent and a Middle Eastern twist have been filled with kielbasa, courgette with harissa paste and topped up with bean hummus. Seasonal and exotic party food. Find the recipe here…

This small dish brings together fresh flavours of seasonal vegetables: new potatoes and garden green peas. It can be served as a side dish, starter or partner food that tastes great with potatoes. Excellent cold but can be eaten warm. The recipe uses new potatoes which have a waxy structure and holds their shape when cooked, however, Jersey Royals or Charlotte Potatoes are good as well. Fresh garden peas still can be spotted in supermarkets or farmers markets but you will easily replace it with frozen petite poir. Find the recipe here…

Buchujeon is a staple of Korean cuisine and real homemade everyday food. It’s eaten as a snack, an appetizer or a small side dish. The pancake is widely enjoyed by Korean families as is delicious, full of healthy ingredients, easy and quick to make. Kings of the pancake are garlic chives with their subtle garlicky flavour and flat green leaves but they often are accompanied by carrot, green onions, red peppers, chilli peppers, seafood or meat. I had a great pleasure for the first time in my life to eat Buchujeon prepared and served by Eun-Young CHOI at Laurence Pidgeon Design. Find the recipe here….

Pepper semi-confit is exceptionally versatile in the kitchen. It can be used as a topping for toast and as crostini spread, in sandwiches, omelettes, pasta sauces, tarts and quiche. It’s great over grilled fish and with roasted meat or potatoes. Pepper semi-confit is sweet and very aromatic because the olive oil used for this condiment is infused with thyme and garlic. Confit should be refrigerated before serving and can be kept in the frige for 2 weeks. Find the recipe here….

Marinated feta cheese is a king of toppings. It’s served on salads and open toasts, with grilled meat and fried vegetables but also makes amazing finger food to serve for entertaining. Marinated cubes have a beautiful texture and fresh aromatic flavour which comes from spices, herbs and lemon. They taste as delightful as they look so I use them - along with pickled cucumber and black olives to make colourful easy-to-grab cocktail skewers. Find the recipe here…

Sausage Rolls are a staple of British food. They are a very popular snack available from bakeries, take-aways and supermarkets. One of the popular british bakery chains sell 2.5 million sausage rolls per week! An early version of the roll with pork filling was popular in London during the Napoleonic Wars and then recognized as an English dish. The sausage rolls are the best party food. They can be served with drinks, either straight from the oven or cold, with vegetable dips or relish. Great and easy snack for a coming Christmas party or Christmas. The sausage rolls can be prepared and cooked in advance, kept in the fridge and warmth through in the oven. Find the recipe here…

Great for a lunch served with a crunchy green salad, as a starter or a savoury bite for any occasion. The Mushroom Tartlets which are extremely delicious and flavoursome, combine flaky shortcrust cases and creamy filling. I used Chestnut Mushrooms which have great flavour and texture but if you have wild mushrooms at hand, use them - they would be even better. The Mushroom Tartlets are quite easy to make and assemble. The filling can be prepared ahead and shortcrust pastry would be more crusty and flaky if it’s kept in the fridge overnight. The homemade shortcrust pastry can be replaced with good quality store-bought one. Find the recipe here…

I like these simple flat and crunchy crackers because they are versatile and fancy. They are perfect pair for cheese and wine or a cheese and charcuterie board, great with dips made from pulses like hummus and peammus or fantastic as a classic snack with the seed topping. Homemade Crackers are simple to bake, the only challenge I can find is rolling the dough as thin and even as possible which ensures that they are crispy. I cut the crackers in advance but they also can be snapped into shards after baking – their irregular shapes look amazing in bread baskets. Find the recipe for Seed-Topped Crackers here

These are peas of many names: Black, Maple, Grey, Black, Grey Badgers, Pidgeon Peas, Parched Peas. They are a traditional northern food eating during Lent, the Sunday before Palm Sunday. Parched peas are served in Manchester, cooked peas, served hot or cold with a little salt and vinegar in Lancashire but both are eaten around or on Bonfire Night, during fire displays and in Christmas time. Carlin peas are amazing with their distinctive texture and nuttiness. They pair perfectly with a traditional dish like shepherd’s pie, stew or salads. I love black peas and use it to make delicious peammus which is served with grossini. Find the recipe here…

As a snack – perfect. For dipping – even better. Crispy Italian Breadsticks widely called Grissini, are served in restaurants as an appetizer accompanied by antipasti such as olives, cheese and cured meat. They are made of flour, yeast, water and olive oil, shaped by hand and baked in high temperature ideally in a wood-burning oven. Breadsticks are essentially all delicious golden-brown crust and that beautiful crust makes them so addictive. Make grissini at home as a party nibble.  Bake them as you like - plain or flavoured, sprinkled with sesame seeds, poppy seeds or sea salt before baking. Serve with favourite hummus or cocktails. Find the recipe here…

Perfect hummus is not a five-minute job. You have to put a little work in to get a marvellous result. Dried chickpeas, soaked in cold water overnight and then cooked, are essential and can never be replaced by canned ones. There are no substitutes for fresh garlic and freshly squeezed lemon juice, giving the hummus a citrusy flavour. Nutty and lightly bitter Tahini should be as fresh as possible, and its flavour in the mixture is only perceptible. Fresh hummus with paprika sprinkles and olive oil drizzle is the best. Serve with flatbread, crusty toasts or as a dip for fresh vegs. Find the recipe here…

Everybody loves crackers! Everybody loves cheddar cheese crackers! The mass produced snacks are usually full of bad ingredients such as flavour enhances, preservatives, leavening, contain a lot of salt but not real cheddar cheese. If you think that making home-baked cheddar cheese crackers from scratch involves tons of hard work and time, you don’t know how wrong you are. That will take you no more than 2 hours. You may use any kind of cheddar cheese – mild or mature, any spices you like - grounded paprika, thyme, cayenne pepper. Up to your taste. Cheddar cheese crackers are high-calories snacks but who eats them every day? Find the recipe here...