One More Beef: Stewed, for 6

• Beef stew with anchovies and thyme
• Fresh horseradish sauce with chives
• Baked or mashed potatoes and cornichons
• Treacle tart with vanilla ice-cream

Sometimes a stew is just what you want for Sunday lunch. This one is a particularly special one: elegant yet bolstering; and turn to Cooking in Advance, for the recipe. As suggested there, I like this with baked potatoes and some cornichons, their vinegariness contrasting beautifully with the salty mellowness of the stew.

It may seem odd to suggest giving horseradish sauce with stew, but think of this as a raita, rather. Again, this is about contrasts: the rasp of the horseradish, the cold, sour creaminess of the sauce, provide both foil and balm. And it’s heavenly dolloped into the potatoes, too. The recipe for this comes from Arabella Boxer’s Herb Book: though I have to say when I couldn’t get any fromage frais once, I made this with crème fraîche and 0-per-cent-fat Greek yoghurt (well, that’s what I had in the fridge), half and half, and it was wonderful, too. If you haven’t got oven space for the potatoes, though the treacle tart should leave room, consider mashed instead.