They are absolutely scrumptious, soft, sweet and moist, packed with fruits with aromatic lemon icing and bilberries on top. These amazing Bilberry Muffins with Lemon Icing are perfect for breakfast or teatime, delicious when warm, and taste even better the next day. Bilberries are in season now, and although they’re not as popular as blueberries, stores with European (Polish deli) or Scandinavian food make them available sometimes. Frozen bilberries also are great for this recipe; you can find them easily online. Recipe for Bilberry Muffins with Lemon Icing here…

I could live on this beverage this summer. Watermelon Lemonade is delicious, naturally sweet, refreshing and has a beautiful vibrant pink colour. It’s better than anything you will find in the store! The lemonade is easy and quick to blend up. You need fresh and ripe watermelon, lemons, sugar or agave syrup for extra sweetness and sparkling water. Use sparkling wine instead of water, and you will get a fantastic watermelon cocktail.  Find the recipe here…

I am a breakfast person who likes to start the day with a delicious meal. The better breakfast, the better day. Salmon Rillettes with a slice of a freshly baked sourdough can make a perfect breakfast if you feel like eating fish in the morning. The rillettes is extremely delicious, pleasantly filling and elegant. It can be served as an appetizer or afternoon snack as well. It requires some work and a few unusual ingredients such as white wine or green peppercorns, but it is absolutely worth this effort. Salmon Rillettes can be made a day ahead. Find the recipe here….

This is a pleasantly filling winter soup, very fragrant, rich and comforting. Perfect for grand occasions and as the main course for a Sunday supper. This recipe calls for Chestnut Mushrooms; however, Button, Portobello or Closed up mushrooms will also do the trick. Although the soup is called “cream of mushroom”, it’s neither heavy nor thick but has deep buttery and mushroomy flavour. Unlike most of the French soups I made, it doesn’t contain cream. Serve with croutons and sprinkle with chopped parsley, if you like. Find the recipe here…

It’s great to serve as the starter to share with friends or a healthy snack, but we eat it for breakfast as a spread with our homemade sourdough wholemeal or rye bread slices. Smoked mackerel pâté requires a few ingredients finely diced and chopped but is easy to whizz up and cost very little. The smokiness of mackerel, sharp flavour of lemon juice and tangy capers make the perfect balance enriched by aromatic springs of dill. The Pâté must be kept in the fridge and lasts chilled for a few days in an airtight container. It’s best a day after it's made. Find the recipe here…

We can’t imagine the Christmas Eve table without herring. It's usually served pickled in vinegar or oil with onions or with soured cream and finely diced apple. Herring tartare is a great option for having herring this Christmas differently. The tartare consist of Matjes fillet pickled in salted brine and soaked in water, gherkins, shallots, pickled mushrooms, spring onions, all combined with mustard and citrus sauce. The sour capers and red hot peppers give this small dish a kick. The herring tartare tastes great served on dark rye bread. Find the recipe here…

Mincemeat needs at least two weeks to macerate before using in mince pies. Dried fruits, almonds, spices and orange zest have enough time to soak beautifully in sherry, and their flavours become rich and complex. Although I’m not entirely against store-bought mincemeat as you can buy a very good one, but when is homemade its taste is completely different. Homemade mince meat is easy and quick. Cooking takes only 10 minutes, dried fruits, almonds are available at grocery stores, and you can control the amount of sugar which may be important. The homemade mincemeat can be made up to six months in advance. Find the recipe here….

Mackerel is great – extremely tasty, nutritious and packed with minerals and good fish oil. It’s usually eaten smoked, sometimes baked but less often battered and fried. Battered fresh mackerel fillets are delicious, no worse than cod or haddock fillets. They should be sold at the local fish and chips shops with fries, tartare sauce and peas because they make a wonderful British classic. This mackerel fried coated with fresh batter is an excellent rendition of a popular meal. I serve it with Mexican pickled onions, homemade tartar sauce and pulses salad. Find the recipe here...

There is an authentic jelly made with oranges and mandarins, sugar and gelatine. No artificial colouring and flavourings, no high fructose corn syrup. It’s entirely natural, bursting with the orange flavour and packed with fresh sweet chunks of mandarins. The home-made orange jelly is super easy and can be made a day-ahead - which may be useful if you want to serve it as a dessert at the party all year round. It's a great, tasty and quite healthy sweet treat for adults and children.  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…

I wouldn’t name it mayonnaise but a mayonnaise sauce because it requires a whole egg instead of the egg yolks and its consistency is a bit runny. But this sauce can be a good start of the adventure with emulsions and making the real mayonnaise from scratch. The recipe is fail-proof and super easy, calls for the whole egg, mustard, vegetable oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper – all ingredients at room temperature. You will also need a blender and a jug or a narrow jar that fits the head of the blender. The Whole-Egg Mayonnaise is perfect for salads and can be served as a dip. Find the recipe here…

Homemade Mayonnaise can’t be compared to any jarred stuff. Store-bought condiment usually lists many ingredients such as colouring, sugar or glucose-fructose syrup while real mayonnaise calls only for egg yolks, oil, vinegar or lemon juice, mustard and seasoning. That’s it! The whole process may look a bit fussy and overly complicated but requires, in fact, a bit of patience, a cook’s strong arm and the ingredients at room temperature. Real homemade mayonnaise is delicious!  It contains natural flavours of its ingredients and can be served as a fancy dip with shrimps or vegetables and even with fries. Once you make it yourself, you will never come back to shop-bought mayonnaise. Find the recipe here…