religious
Easter
The roast lamb at the centre of the table. Hot cross buns at breakfast, simnel cake at tea. Spring on the plate after the slow grey end of winter.
Easter is the slow Sunday lunch at the spring end of the calendar. The lamb is the headline - a leg, studded with garlic and rosemary, roasted to pink at the bone, carved at the table. Or a shoulder slow-cooked for hours until it pulls apart on the spoon. The sides are spring-coded: new potatoes, asparagus, peas, buttered carrots, mint sauce in a small glass jug.
Breakfast on Good Friday was the hot cross bun: spiced enriched dough, currants, a piped flour cross, glazed sticky from the oven. Eaten warm with cold butter and tea, all the way through to Easter Monday. Tea on Easter Sunday afternoon brings the simnel cake - a light fruit cake with two marzipan layers and eleven apostle balls on top, the top scorched amber under the grill.
The eggs are everywhere: hard-boiled and painted for the children, deviled for the buffet table, baked into the cake. The whole feast has a quality of relief, of having got through the long stretch from Christmas, the spring properly under way.
Recipes in this collection
Roast Leg of Lamb
The Sunday lamb of the British table, the centrepiece of an Easter lunch and the dish a mother-in-law judges you on. You bring a 2-2.5 kg bone-in leg to room temperature first (essential - cold meat into a hot oven cooks unevenly), score the fat, then stud the leg with slivers of garlic and tuck rosemary tips into the cuts. Smear with oil, salt and a paste of crushed garlic. The lamb starts hot to colour the skin, then drops to a low roast and pulls when a probe in the thickest part reads 55°C for pink or 60°C for medium. A full twenty-minute rest is non-negotiable; this is when the juices settle back into the meat and the slices stay pink rather than weeping grey. While it rests you build a simple jus from the pan drippings, deglazed with wine and reduced down. Roast potatoes, mint sauce, peas; a glass of claret in your hand and the family gathered.
Roast Lamb with Rosemary and Garlic
Australia's Sunday lamb, the centre of the long-lunch table and the smell that fills the kitchen all afternoon. You stud a 2.2 kg bone-in leg with slivers of garlic and rosemary pushed deep against the meat, rub the whole thing with oil, salt and pepper, and start it in a very hot oven for twenty-five minutes to lock in a crust. The temperature drops to 180°C from there and the lamb roasts on until a probe in the thickest part reads 60°C internal for blushing pink. Then comes the part most home cooks skip and shouldn't: a twenty-five-minute rest while you build the gravy in the deglazed pan with stock, a spoon of redcurrant or quince jelly for sweetness, and a splash of red wine. The lamb carves into juicy, rose-coloured slices that fall away in long pieces from the bone. Roast potatoes, mint sauce, a green vegetable on the side, the wine you opened earlier already in the glass.
Lamb Stew (Navarin d'Agneau)
Navarin d'agneau is a classic French spring stew, combining three different cuts of lamb, shoulder, neck, and breast, for complex flavor and varied texture. The meat braises in a light tomato and stock base, enriched with aromatic vegetables and finished with glazed pearl onions and tender potatoes. The balance of tender vegetables and well-cooked lamb creates a rustic yet refined dish that exemplifies peasant cooking elevated to art.
Breast of Lamb with Mustard and Herb Crust
This composed dish showcases lamb breast's rich potential: the trimmed meat is braised until tender in an herb-infused stock, then sliced and topped with a crispy herb and mustard breadcrumb crust. The braising liquid becomes an elegant sauce thickened with cream and sharpened with mustard, providing a sophisticated accompaniment that complements both the meat and crust.
Hot Cross Buns
A yeasted dough enriched with milk, butter, an egg and a little sugar, spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and mixed spice, scented with orange and lemon zest. Currants and chopped mixed peel folded in. Two rises (one in the bowl, one on the tray as 12 close-packed buns), a cross piped on with a flour-and-water paste, baked to deep gold, brushed with warm sugar glaze straight from the oven. Eaten warm or split and toasted.
Simnel Cake
A relatively light fruit cake (less dense than Christmas cake) flavoured with mixed peel, currants, sultanas, glace cherries and a generous spoon of mixed spice. Half the batter goes into the lined tin, then a disc of rolled marzipan, then the rest of the batter. Baked low and slow so the marzipan layer melts slightly and the cake bakes through evenly. Once cool, the top is brushed with warm apricot jam, a second marzipan disc is laid on, and eleven small balls of marzipan are arranged around the rim. The top is flashed under a hot grill to colour the marzipan amber.
Mint Sauce
Fresh mint leaves are chopped very fine (or pulsed in a small processor). Sugar dissolves in just-boiled water; cooled briefly; vinegar stirs in. Chopped mint is added to the cool vinegar-sugar mixture; stirred; rested for 15 minutes for the flavours to infuse. Served alongside roast lamb in a small jug or ramekin.
Perfect Roast Potatoes
Maris Piper potatoes peel and chunk, parboil in well-salted water until just past the point of holding together, drain, shake aggressively in the colander to fluff up the surface. They go into smoking hot fat in a roasting tin, get turned a few times, and emerge with a crust that holds against gravy.
Chanternay Carrots and Parsnips with Maple Syrup and a Mustard Glaze
Chanternay carrots and parsnips with maple syrup and mustard glaze is a sweet, sticky, and deeply flavoursome roasted vegetable side dish. The glaze of maple syrup, wholegrain mustard, and orange caramelises in the oven to coat the vegetables in a rich, glossy finish that elevates any roast dinner.
Cauliflower Cheese
Cauliflower florets blanch briefly so they're not raw but not cooked through. A béchamel takes mature cheddar, parmesan and mustard. The cauliflower nestles into the dish, the sauce drowns it, breadcrumbs and more cheese top, the oven does the rest.
Yorkshire Puddings
A batter of equal volumes of plain flour, eggs and whole milk (and a pinch of salt) is whisked to a smooth thin consistency, like single cream. Rested for 30 minutes (overnight is even better). A muffin tin or pudding tin is given a teaspoon of beef dripping (or vegetable oil) in each well; the tin goes into a screaming-hot 230°C oven for 8 minutes until the fat is smoking. The batter is poured into the smoking-hot fat, it should hiss and bubble immediately. Back in the oven for 22 minutes, undisturbed (never OPEN THE DOOR). The Yorkshires rise dramatically into puffed golden cups. Served immediately, they collapse as they cool.
Deviled Eggs
Deviled eggs are one of America's most enduring party foods, a fixture of Easter brunches, Thanksgiving tables, summer barbecues, and Sunday potlucks from coast to coast. The dish itself is much older than its American identity. Stuffed eggs flavoured with mustard, vinegar, and spices appear in Roman writings and remained popular across medieval Europe, but the term "deviled", meaning seasoned hot and spicy, took hold in eighteenth-century England and crossed the Atlantic with Anglo settlers. By the twentieth century, the American version had crystallised into the formula we recognise today: hard-boiled eggs split lengthwise, yolks scooped out and whipped smooth with mayonnaise, mustard, and a splash of vinegar, then piped or spooned back into the whites and finished with a dusting of paprika. The taste is luxurious in its simplicity. Creamy and rich, with a gentle tang and just enough mustard heat to justify the name, set against the cool, slightly springy bite of the white. Difficulty is genuinely low, but two details lift them from good to memorable: cooking the eggs just enough so the yolks are fully set but never grey-ringed, and seasoning the filling assertively, since cold dulls flavour. They are best made the day they will be eaten, although the eggs themselves can be boiled and peeled a day ahead.
British Apple Pie
Buttery shortcrust rests then rolls; one disc lines a pie dish, fills with sliced spiced apples, the second disc tops it. Egg-washed, sugared, vented, baked golden. The juices thicken with cornflour as they cook so the bottom doesn't go soggy.
Lemon Cake
Moist and fragrant lemon cakes with a tender crumb, brushed with rum syrup and topped with a shimmering lemon icing glaze. These elegant loaves showcase brightness and simplicity, making them perfect for elegant entertaining or afternoon tea service, best sliced thin and served with fresh tea.
Sweet Custard Tart with Poached Prunes
This sweet custard tart combines a crisp flan pastry case with a smooth vanilla custard filling, served here with poached prunes and candied citrus peel. It is best chilled slightly so the custard sets while still offering a tender, creamy bite.
Eton Mess
Strawberries are hulled and quartered (or sliced thick). Half are macerated in a wide bowl with sugar and a splash of balsamic vinegar (or lemon juice) for 30 minutes, they release a glossy pink syrup. The other half stay whole-ish and crisp. Cream is whipped with vanilla and icing sugar to soft peaks (not stiff peaks, too firm and the mess loses its silkiness). Ready-made meringue nests (or homemade) are crushed into rough pieces. At the moment of serving: cream goes into a wide bowl or glasses, the macerated strawberries and their syrup are folded through with broken strokes (leaving streaks, not blended); the unmacerated berries are scattered over; the meringue is crushed in last; everything assembles in messy layers. Eaten within 10 minutes, meringue softens fast.