Claudia Roden's new cookery book, Arabesque (Penguin, £25), is the culmination of her research and travels in Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon. Delicious recipes, easily-sourced ingredients, great pictures ... Oh and you'll have to stock up on preserved lemons.

The Big Book of Best-Kept Secrets of the Women's Institute (Simon & Schuster, £20) has 500 recipes arranged seasonally, flagged up with healthy heart, vegetarian, quick and low-calorie options. An excellent all-round collection.

Amazing Meals for Less Than £2.50 a Person is an eye-opener for what you can produce cheaply. Published by Readers Digest (£24.99), its recipes are always thoroughly tested, easy and reliable. And there are some good ideas too, from a tasty red-pepper, feta and olive cake to seafood enchiladas.

I love Slimming World's Curry Feast (Ebury, £15.99) for its huge range of delicious curries that are easy to make and all carefully measured out in the daily allowance of 'syns' - the optimum combination of food for health and weight loss.

Another great Indian cook book is the paperback version of Monisha Bharadwaj's The Indian Kitchen (Kyle Cathie, £14.99) - a lovely collection of recipes categorised by their principal spice flavour.

Darina Allen's Ballymaloe cookery school is world-famous, and there's not much this gourmet grande dame doesn't know. Easy Entertaining (Kyle Cathie, £25) is arranged in meal categories: big brunch, finger food, portable food, foraging (see the brown-trout recipe pictured here), things you can prepare ahead. It's a wonderful book.

Le Pain Quotidien opened their first bread shop in Brussels in 1990 and have since spread worldwide. As a celebration they've brought out a combined history and handsome collection of recipes from sourdough to soup in Cook + Book (Françoise Blouard, £29.95).

If you're a chilli fan, The Hot Book of Chillies by David Floyd (New Holland, £12.99) is just the book for you. History, identification, advice, storage; and recipes including chilli sorbet and chilli sherry.

Brown trout with marsh samphire

From Easy Entertaining by Darina Allen

Serves 4

4 fresh trout

seasoned flour for coating

butter

salt and ground pepper

225g marsh samphire

chopped parsley

for the parsley butter:

50g butter

2-4 tsp chopped parsley

few drops lemon juice

To make the parsley butter, cream the butter and stir in the parsley and lemon juice. Form into a roll and wrap in greaseproof paper. Refrigerate to harden.

Fillet the trout carefully, then wash and dry well. Coat the fillets with seasoned flour, then spread a little butter on flesh side. Season.

Wash the samphire. Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil, add the samphire and return to the boil for 3-4 minutes. Drain and toss in butter. Keep warm.

Heat a grill pan over a medium heat. When hot but not smoking, lay the fish fillets, buttered side down - the fish should sizzle as soon as they touch the pan.

Reduce the heat and cook for 3-4 minutes, then turn them over and cook until they are crisp and golden, which should take about 2-3 minutes. Serve immediately with the samphire, wedges of lemon and the sliced parsley butter.

Seared duck breast with sweet potato mash, baby corn and green beans

Serves 6

6 duck breasts
2 thumbs of ginger, finely julienned
7 star anise
100ml light soy sauce
50ml sesame oil
2 tsp demerara sugar
1.1kg sweet potatoes
100ml double cream
100g unsalted butter
salt and pepper
480g baby corn
480g green beans
4 tbs olive oil
2 tbs soy sauce
12 blanched chives
duck jus
600ml duck stock (or chicken stock)
zest and juice of 1 orange
half tbs caster sugar
130ml dry white wine
1 clove garlic
splash of balsamic vinegar
1 tsp finely chopped ginger

Place the duck breast with the first five ingredients and marinade overnight. Peel the potatoes and quarter them. Put them in a saucepan covered with cold water and bring to the boil. Simmer to cook. Once cooked, strain, put the butter and cream in a saucepan, bring to the boil and turn off.

Mash the potatoes and then put them in a clean towel and squeeze all the liquid out. Add the cream mixture to the potatoes and season. To make the jus place the stock, orange juice and zest, star anise, white wine, ginger and garlic in a pan and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and reduce by half. Add the vinegar and sugar. Strain.

Blanch the green beans and baby corns and then make six little bunches of each, tying them up with the blanched chive. Drain the duck breast and sear, making sure the skin is crispy.

Finish in an oven preheated to 190°C (about 10 mins), rest and then slice diagonally in three. Heat up the mash, jus and stir-fry the bundles with some olive oil and soy. To serve, arrange mash in the middle of the plate, place the duck breast on top with a bundle of sweetcorn and the bundle of green beans, forming a cross. Drizzle some jus on the side.

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