Smoked Trout Paté.   Serves 4 (Good Food Magazine recipe)
Ingredients: 8oz smoked trout, 2tbs. melted butter, 2oz light cream cheese, a squeeze of lemon juice, 1 tbs creamed horseradish, ground black pepper.
Put all the ingredients into a food processor and blend till smooth.  Put into a serving dish and chill.  (Linda's comment.  This starter can be made several hours in advance.  To serve, spoon onto small plates, garnish with salad leaves and cherry tomatoes and serve with crisp melba toast. )

Prawn and Mango Cocktail.   Serves 4 (Mary Cadogan)
Ingredients:  Lettuce leaves,  2" cucumber, 1 small mango - must be ripe.   8-10oz peeled cooked prawns.  4 tablespoons mayonnaise, 1 lime, pinch of chilli powder, 1 tablespoon chopped fresh coriander, salt, pepper.
The cucumber may be sliced or diced.  To make it decorative, first peel some thin strips of skin from it lengthways, then cut in half lengthways and slice into half circles.  Cut off the "cheeks" of the mango, peel, and either slice thinly or dice the flesh.  Shred the lettuce.  Arrange the lettuce in 4 glass serving dishes as a base, add the cucumber and mango and arrange the prawns on top.  Cut the lime in half and squeeze the juice from one half.  Cut the other into 4 wedges.   To make the dressing, mix the juice, mayonnaise, chilli powder, coriander, salt and pepper.  To serve, simply spoon the dressing over the prawns, sprinkle with a little chilli powder to decorate and add a wedge of lime. (Linda's comment. A simple light and refreshing starter - ideal as a little appetizer before Xmas dinner!  The whole thing can be pre-prepared an hour in advance up to the point just before you spoon the dressing onto the prawns, and refrigerated under clingfilm,  then finished just before serving)

Prawns with ginger. Serves 6.  (Recipe by Robert Gill)
Ingredients:  2 tbs oil, 1lb cooked peeled prawns, 2" root ginger, peeled and chopped, 1 tbs chopped fresh coriander leaves, 6 spring onions, trimmed and chopped, 1 papaya peeled seeded and chopped, 3 tbs lime juice, 1 tsp grated lime rind.  Mixed salad leaves to serve.

Fry the prawns, ginger and spring onions in the oil for 3 minutes.   Add the papaya, lime rind and juice, stir and cook 2 more minutes.  Serve on a bed of mixed salad leaves sprinkled with coriander. (Linda's comments: Do all the chopping in advance ready for the final cooking.)

Butternut Squash and Butterbean Soup. Serves 6. (Judy Bastyra in Good Food Magazine)
Ingredients: 1 tbs oil, 2 chopped onions, 1lb butternut squash (if you can't get this you could substitute pumpkin), peeled, seeded and diced, 400g can of butterbeans, drained, 1cm fresh root ginger, peeled and chopped finely, 1 pint light stock (the recipe suggests chicken but you could use vegetable to make a completely vegan recipe) 400ml can coconut milk, salt and pepper.
Fry onions gently in the oil for 5 minutes, add the squash, beans and ginger, and cook gently, stirring, for another 5 minutes. Add stock and coconut milk, salt, pepper, then bring to boil. Reduce heat and let it simmer 30 minutes.  Let it cool for a few minutes than liquidise in a food processor.  Reheat to serve.  (Linda's comments. The original recipe suggested making up the coconut milk to 1pt with water, but I liked the soup just as it was.  The ginger gives it a wonderful subtle tang. Ideal for entertaining as it can be made well in advance and reheated when you need it. )

Lentil and Bacon Soup (own recipe) Serves 2
2oz red split lentils, 2 sticks celery, sliced, 3 carrots, trimmed, 1 small onion or large shallot, peeled, sliced, 1 clove garlic, peeled, sliced, 3 slices smoked bacon, chopped, some good olive oil
Method: Saute the vegetables and bacon gently in the oil without colouring, this should take about 10 minutes. Add the lentils and top up with boiling water. How much you add depends on how thick you like your soup. Simmer 20 minutes when the lentils will be soft. Now whizz everything in the liquidiser till as smooth or as chunky as you like it. Check to see if it needs any seasoning. I used a well-flavoured bacon and found I needed none at all. (Linda's comments. Use the best ingredients you can get and the result will be a flavoursome comforting soup which only needs a big hunk of homemade bread to make a perfect meal. Obviously you can adapt the idea to whatever you have handy, and add any herbs or seasonings you like.)