Every year I get hundreds of emails from people asking for these (now famous) Christmas recipes. The cake and pud are particularly spectacular (possibly due to the large amounts of alcohol involved).

Funny how a taste or smell can take you back to a particular time.

Every Christmas our next door neighbours in New Plymouth would ask us over for drinks. Unlike most of our parents’ social occasions, this was no torture. Vicki was a home cookery teacher, so her food was delicious.

One sip of this punch recipe and I’m 10 years old again.

I’m delighted it retains its appeal through the generations. Whenever Lydia has a party, she asks me for Vicki’s Punch. From now on she can look it up on the website. And look – no alcohol!

• 12 lemons
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 pint water
• 2 large bottles ginger ale
• 2 large bottles sparkling grape juice
• sprigs mint
• tray ice cubes

Make syrup with sugar and water before adding other ingredients. Serve immediately.

Errin, aged 13, is a close friend of our daughter Katharine and a regular visitor to our house. She’s a fan of my stir fry and has asked for it to be added to the website. I’m not scientific at the best of times, and tend to make up stir fries up as I go along, so please forgive the loose phraseology. You can add or subtract ingredients to your taste.

Stir fries are quick to make, pretty healthy and don’t seem to knotch up the bathroom scales

• 2 tblsp cooking oil
• 1 tblsp hot sweet chili sauce
• 1 tblsp Hoisin sauce
• 1 tblesp oyster sauce
• Dash soy Sauce
• Meat (chicken, lamb, pork or veal) cut in stir fry strips
• ½ head of broccoli (chopped into bite sized pieces)
• 1 corn (shredded off cob with knife)
• half cup cauliflower (chopped)
• 1 carrot (peeled and sliced)
• Handful cashew nuts
• Snow peas
• Noodles

Heat cooking oil in wok (or electric fry pan) Add meat and cook through, stirring constantly.

Add sauces, then vegetables, stirring for five minutes or so.

In the meantime, soak the noodles in boiling water for a couple of minutes before adding to the meat and vegetables. Cook another few minutes, and serve.

2 cups of plain flour
180 g butter

Rub together lightly into crumbs Sprinkle 3 tablespoons of cold water over the crumbs until it forms a ball. You may need a bit more water - Just enough to hold it together. Don't handle the dough too much Roll out thinly and put in small moulds and cook for 10 minutes or so in a preheated 400 F oven.

Little shells can be frozen and then filled with fruit mince and cooked until hot. They are much improved with a dob of lemon icing (real lemon juice and icing sugar) put on them while hot. Also good with cream, fresh raspberries and a sprinkle of icing sugar.

For a savory option the pastry shells (when cold) can be filled with smoked salmon and lemon with yoghurt/mayonaise on top and chives, or mashed hard boiled eggs with mayonaise topped with caviar or roe etc.

Grease and line 22cm round tin with baking paper

1 and a half cups sultanas
1 and a half cups currants
1 and a half cups raisins
1/3 cup chopped cherries or apricots
1/3 cup mixed peel
1/3 cup chopped dates or prunes
1/3 cup slivered almonds
2 cups flour
half cup self raising flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
quarter tsp nutmeg
250 g butter
1 cup brown sugar
4-5 eggs
quarter cup fruit juice

Marinate fruit and nuts in brandy (approx half a bottle or enough to cover fruit) overnight. Sift dry ingredients three times. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, fruit, fruit juice and nuts. Stir gently and place in cake pan. Drop tin a couple of times (to remove air bubbles) before placing in oven. Bake 140 degrees for four hours on bottom shelf.

Once cool poke toothpick holes in top of cake and add more brandy. Repeat a couple of times before icing.

(serves 10-12)

1 cup flour
pinch salt
half tsp baking soda
1 and a half tsp mixed spice
half tsp ground cardamon
250g butter
1 and a half cups dark brown sugar
4 eggs
½ tsp almond essence
1kg mixed dried fruit
quarter cup cherries & peel
quarter cup brandy
70g slivered almonds
1 cup fresh bread crumbs

Soak dried fruit in fortified wine or spirits of your choice for 1-14 days (turning fruit regularly & topping up as necessary)

Grease 7-8 cup basin, dust with flour

Sift flour, salt, baking soda & mixed spice

Mix fruit with brandy, almond essence & almonds

Beat the butter & sugar until cream. Beat eggs in one at a time. If mixture curdles, add a little flour

Fold in fruit, flour & breadcrumbs

Turn mixture into prepared basin (leaving small gap at top for mixture to expand slightly)

Cover basin with 2 layers greaseproof paper and cover with lid if basin has one. If not, cover with a layer of foil and tie all 3 layers securely with string

Place the pudding on a trivet or upturned saucer in large saucepan with boiling water. The water should come half way up the sides of the basin.

Cover saucepan with a lid and cook for three hours, adding more boiling water as needed

Remove from heat and allow tocool completely. Keep refrigerated until Christmas Day.

On Christmas Day take the pudding from fridge early in the morning. Steam in large pot of boiling water (on trivet or saucer as before) for one hour.

Brandy Sauce

2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
1 and a half cups milk
2 tbsp sugar
quarter cup brandy

Heat butter in saucepan. Add flour & cook 2-3 minutes til bubbly

Remove from heat & stir in milk. Return to stove & cook over moderate heat. Stir till thickened. Stir in brandy.

To Flambe

Have pudding warm & on heat resistant plate

Warm quarter cup brandy

Have matches ready

Carefully pour brandy over pudding. Light match & hold it close to pudding

Since I’ve been touring “A Slice of Banana Cake” I’ve had many requests for my recipe. In the show, I give the ingredients, but not the quantities, which seems to frustrate some people. To keep the perfectionists happy, here’s the banana cake I’ve been making for years - basic and simple enough to remember without having to look it up in a book. That’s part of its charm. And remember – think about life while you’re putting the ingredients together.

125g (4oz) butter
175g (6oz) sugar
2 eggs
2 mashed bananas
1 teasp bicarb soda
2 tablespoons boiling milk
1 teaspoon baking powder
225g flour

Cream butter and sugar, add eggs mashed bananas, then bicarb soda dissolved in boiling milk.

Lastly add flour and baking powder. Pour into eight in greased tin with greaseproof paper lining the base.

Bake 180 degrees (350F) for about 40 mins

Serve with lemon butter icing.

(based on Edmonds Cook Book recipe)

Katharine’s violin teacher Margaret is a sublime cook in the traditional European style. I was lucky to score her recipe for Beef Bourguignon, which has since become another favourite with readers. It’s music to the taste buds.

This is comfort food supreme and a very forgiving recipe, so don’t stress about quantities or ingredients. The cheaper the meat the better the flavour and the more tender it becomes. When peeling the onions leave the root end intact to enhance flavour. Personally, I don’t think you can overdo the alcohol.. Some recipes recommend a whole bottle of red wine! Warm brandy flames easily by the way. Pour over the meat and shake the pan until the flames die down. The flavour improves when the dish is heated up a second time. You could throw in a few carrots and still be authentic. The French serve it simply with rice or steamed potatoes but I like to put some green (beans or zucchini) on the table as well. The secret’s in the long, slow cooking. Perfect for a cold winter’s night.

1.5kg (3lb) gravy beef
2 tblsps olive oil
60g (2oz) butter
4oz diced pork or bacon
18 baby onions (peeled)
three quarters cup brandy
1 tblsp flour
1 cup red wine
1 cup beef stock
bouquet garni and 4 garlic cloves
250 g button mushrooms
salt and freshly ground pepper

Cut the beef into 2 inch cubes and roll them in the flour. Heat the butter and oil in a heavy pan (or even an electric fry pan) and brown the diced pork. Remove pork, then brown the onions. Place on one side with pork.

Brown the beef. Warm the brandy, set alight and pour over the beef.

Add the red wine. Allow to cook for a minute then add stock, mushrooms, onions, diced pork and bouquet garni.

Add salt and pepper and place mixture in casserole dish to

cook at low temperature (around 160 degrees) in the oven for three to three and a half hours.

Serves 6-8

AND REMEMBER TO REMOVE THE BOUQUET GARNI!