Starter – Scotch Broth by Maw Broon

This is my laddie's favourite. The broth can be made wi' beef instead o' mutton. Wi' beef, the vegetables should be: kail instead o' white cabbage, twa sticks o' celery instead o' the parsley, and a bit mair leek. The meat should be removed when ready, and returned tae the pot later tae heat through.

1 ½ lb neck of mutton
2 oz barley
2 oz dried peas
1 oz lentils
1 onion, chopped
1 leek, sliced
½ heart of cabbage
1 cup diced neep
2 medium carrots, diced
1 carrot, grated
Salt and pepper
4 pints water

Wash the peas and lentils and soak overnight. Sauté the onion in some butter. Wash and trim the meat, and place in a pot. Add water, peas, lentils, barley, and salt. Bring tae the boil and skim. Add the leek, neep and diced carrot. Simmer slowly for three tae fower hours. Add the cabbage, shredded, and grated carrot, and simmer another hour. Just afore serving, add some chopped parsley and pepper and salt if needed.

Mains – Pot-Roasted Chicken with Root Vegetables by Claire Macdonald

This is a true winter dish, making the most of the lovely root vegetables, which are in season during the winter months. This is also one of those convenient one-pot dishes where the vegetables are cooked with the meat. All that is needed to accompany the pot roast is a dish of baked potatoes. Any vegetables left over from the pot roast can be liquidized into a delicious soup made with stock from the chicken carcass. If this is to serve six, it is really better to use two small chickens – use any leftovers for soup.

Serves 4-6

4 tbsp oil (I like to use olive or sunflower)
1 large or 2 small chickens, cleaned, wiped and with giblets removed
4 onions, skinned and thinly sliced
1 lb/450 g carrots, pealed and either sliced in rounds or cut into 2-inch/5 cm chunks and quartered
1 lb/450 g parsnips, peeled and cut to match the carrots
1 lb/450 g leeks, washed, trimmed and cut into 2-inch/5 cm lengths
8 oz/225 g turnips, peeled and cut into smallish chunks
1 lb/450 g celeriac, peeled and cut into smallish chunks
2 garlic cloves, skinned and chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a large casserole, and brown the chicken all over. Remove the chicken and keep it warm in a low oven while you brown the vegetables.

First add the onions to the casserole and cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then add all the remaining vegetables – it looks a lot, but they reduce in quantity while they cook, and they do double duty in flavouring the chicken deliciously and as its accompaniment. Cook the vegetables for 10 minutes or so, stirring from time to time, then add the garlic and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Replace the chicken, making a nest for it in the vegetables. Cover the casserole first with foil and then with a tight fitting lid. Cook in a moderate oven – 350°F/180°C/Gas mark 4 – for 1½ hours. Test to see whether the chicken is cooked by piercing a thigh with a sharp knife – if the juices run clear, the chicken is cooked. Put the casserole back to cook for a bit longer if the juices are at all tinged with pink.

This dish keeps hot very satisfactorily for an hour or so. The vegetables make a surprising amount of liquid, and I like to serve baked potatoes to soak up the juices.

Dessert – Clootie Dumpling by Maw Broon

Now this is something ye must be guid at. There's a lot o' ingredients here but this is the daddy o' dumplings. Be prepared for a lot o' work and a mess on the scullery flair.

4 oz suet, chopped
8 oz self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 oz breid crumbs
3 oz broon sugar
1 grated apple
8 oz currants and sultanas
1 teaspoon each of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg
1 tablespoon golden syrup
2 eggs
a little milk

Half fill a large pot and bring tae the boil. Scald a large piece of linen or cheesecloth with boiling water then dust it wi' flour. Beat the eggs, mix in the syrup and a little milk, and gradually mix into the dry ingredients and fruit. Place the mixture in the middle of the cloth. Tie it ticht but allow for swelling. Place an inverted plate on the bottom of the pan and put the pudding on it. Boil for 3 tae 4 hours. Never let the water drap ablow half the depth o' the pudding. Dip in cold water, remove the cloth and dry the pudding aff in a medium-tae-hot oven. Sprinkle the top wi' sugar and serve with cream or custard.