My maternal grandmother made fantastic ox tongue with velvety roasted potatoes. She cooked sweet red cabbage and lovely cauliflower with butter and bread crumbs.

Sweet potatoes are ideal for lazy days: just bake, then mash and mix with yogurt, butter or olive oil.

Black glutinous rice works in both savoury and sweet dishes. It's a popular pudding rice in south-east Asia, where you'll often come across it cooked with water, coconut milk and a pandan leaf.

There's nothing more marvelously wintery than orange root veg mash; some butter is all it needs.

Good-quality nuts, toasted in a little butter and salt, make a magical addition to many salads.

In certain European cuisines, vegetables are cooked a long time. I take the term 'al dente' and use it for vegetables.