Daikon is a variety of radish and tastes similar to the red varieties. Also called mooli, white or winter radish, in size and appearance it is more like a parsnip. Peel and grate or shave it into very thin slices to eat raw in salads. Pickled daikon is popular with Japanese food. Serve daikon as a hot vegetable by cutting it into slices, sprinkling with salt and draining for 30 minutes to remove some of the harshness. Then steam or simmer it until tender and serve hot, tossed with butter or olive oil.

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Radishes are at their best during their natural season, summer. They can be red and round, or elongated and white-tipped. The latter are widely preferred for their peppery crunchiness. Solid red radishes can be good if they are not too bloated. Choose bunched radishes with their leaves attached, as the leaves are a good indicator of freshness. Radishes can be sliced thinly for a green salad. They also go well with cold cooked or processed meats.

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The flesh of quail is pale and delicate, and is certainly worth trying. The birds, which are tender and juicy, weigh 125-185g each. They look small but, like pigeon, have a lot of meat on the breast. Some people find eating whole quail very fiddly, and some butchers and supermarkets are selling part-boned quail, ready for stuffing or already stuffed, which makes them a bigger mouthful. These part-boned quails have the breast bone and rib cage removed but have the legs intact so that when stuffed they will retain the original shape of the bird.

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Potting is a technique in which cooked meat, fish and shellfish are preserved in fat in small earthernware pots for a wintertime treat. The meat of fish is spiced and then pureed or finely chopped before potting. It is then encased in clarified butter or fat to exclude air and moisture, which would encourage the growth of bacteria. Unopened jars can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a fortnight depending on the meat or fish used. Once the fatty seal has been broken, the contents should be consumed within one or two days.

Although most potted meat or fish is pureed, baby shrimps are often left whole. If you cannot get tiny shrimps, use the larger ones and chop them roughly.

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This large family of vegetables has both summer and winter varieties. Summer squashes such as zucchinis, marrows and the small patty pan squashes generally have thin green or yellow skins and moist, subtly flavored white flesh. They need only light steaming, grilling or stir-frying and a sprinkling of salt, pepper and fresh herbs.

Winter varieties, which include both small and large pumpkins, have dense yellow or orange flesh within their hard skins. They respond well to vigorous flavors. Add to a casserole, or use in well-spiced thick winter soups.

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It depends on the recipe. If visual impact is important, the large sea-water shrimps, usually called jumbo shrimps or king prawns, look spectacular and are impressive grilled. However, smaller river, bay and estuary shrimps or prawns have a finer flavor. Use them in fish stews and curries where size is less of an issue, such as Thai Shrimp Curry. Here the shrimp shells are also used to contribute to the flavor of the stock.

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Sweet potatoes are less firm than ordinary white potatoes and lose much of their flavor into the cooking water when boiled. They also have a tendency to absorb a lot of water when cooked this way, making them heavy and soggy. They are much better when they are baked like ordinary baked potatoes, although sweet potatoes will cook more quickly. Split them and serve oozing with butter, salt and plenty of black pepper or paprika. Baked sweet potatoes also tend to benefit from the addition of a little cinnamon and brown sugar. Try baking then mashing them to make a topping for pies.

Sweet potatoes make very good chips, either deep-fried or oven-baked, and can be sliced thickly, brushed with butter and grilled, a treatment which is very good with venison steaks or duck breasts.

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Sweet potatoes and yams are members of two different botanical families. Sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatus) come from the tropical areas of the Americas and have a distinctive sweetness, particularly the pink-skinned, orange-fleshed variety, also known as kumara. There are also some sweeter white or yellow-fleshed varieties grown in the tropics.

Though sweet potatoes are native to tropical America, they also found their way to New Zealand and Asia, and hot baked sweet potatoes are sold in winter on the streets of many Chinese and Japanese cities. The Yam (Dioscorea),is a large, brown-skinned starchy root that can weigh over 5 kg. Its bland yellow or white flesh is a perfect partner for spicy stews in the parts of Africa, Asia and the Caribbean where yams are a staple ingredient.

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Is there is secret of a perfect mash without the lumpy bits? No, unfortunately all electric tools seem to produce mashed potatoes with the gluey texture of wallpaper paste. The easiest way to a lump-free mash is some hard work with a potato masher, or to put the potatoes through a food mill. Additions such as olive oil, cream, butter and milk should be added while the potatoes are warm, along with seasonings of salt, pepper and nutmeg. Vigorous beating is what lightens the mash and at the final stage you could possibly use an electric beater set on a slow speed.

As an alternative to mashing, try riced potatoes, positively lump-free. A potato ricer, available from catering shops and good kitchenware departments, looks rather like a giant garlic press and crushes whole, cooked potatoes, extruding them in a light snow. Rice the potatoes directly into the serving bowl, adding butter and seasonings to the layers as you go. Riced potatoes can be reheated in their bowl, but stirring will sacrifice their lightness.

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It is always best to boil potatoes in their skins, even if they are to be mashed. Not only does this help to prevent the flesh from absorbing too much cooking water, it also conserves vitamins which are concentrated in or just below the skin. Serve the potatoes whole in their skins or, for mashing, peel them as soon as the cooked potatoes are cool enough to handle.

An alternative, particularly at the end of the season when they tend to absorb more moisture, is to oven-bake the potatoes in their skins and then mash them. This is a common practice commercially. It is always worth making extra mashed potatoes as the leftovers are very good for thickening soups, making potato scones, fish cakes, bubble and squeak or hashes, or for topping fish pies. Alternatively, blend leftover mashed potato into small, hot, and savory cheese puffs.

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It is not possible to truly bake a potato in a microwave oven. When a potato is properly baked, the heat of the oven reaches the skin first, drying it and sealing in the potato's natural moisture so that the flesh steams as the skin crisps. This delicious contrast of textures cannot be achieved in a microwave oven, which merely cooks the potato.

You can bake small-sized baking potatoes relatively quickly, in about 30 minutes, in a hot oven; they will cook even quicker if you push a metal skewer through them. Alternatively, if you own a convection microwave, compromise and use the combination facility. For best results and to achieve a delicious contrast between crisp skin and soft interior, rub the potato skins with sea salt while they are still damp from washing. Baked potatoes are done when you can press them and feel that the flesh inside is soft and yielding.

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Sadly, no. It is fat that sinks into the flesh, softening it and giving flavor. Low-fat yogurt or cottage cheese are just not as effective or as delicious as butter. However, there are some good fillings that turn a jacket potato into a meal.

1) A poached or soft-boiled egg slipped inside a split baked potato makes a satisfying supper, as the yolk spills nicely into the flesh. For a more elaborate treatment, spoon out the cooked potato flesh, then season and mash it. Separate a raw egg, beat the yolk into the mashed potato (with some cheese, too, if you like), then whisk the egg white firmly and fold in. Spoon back into the potato shells and return to a hot oven to rise souffle-style.

2) For vegetarians, baked potatoes can be topped with cucumber and celery in sour cream or yogurt and sprinkled with chopped nuts.

3) Smoked cod in white sauce is good in baked potatoes, as is tara-masalata with diced cucumber.

4) Scoop out the flesh from split baked potatoes, then mash diced grilled bacon into it plus chopped red onion. Spoon back into the shells, top with grated cheese and return to the oven to heat through and melt the cheese. Serve with hot beetroot or green vegetables.

5) Baked jacket potatoes to accompany a stew can be split and served with a spoonful of the meat juices or gravy to moisten and flavor them.

6) Olive oil and mashed anchovy makes a pungent filling, or try sour cream with some chopped onion in it and a topping of caviar.

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Alas, there is not way we can tell by looking at a potato whether it will be waxy or floury. But retailers are increasingly offering advice as to the suitability of potatoes for various cooking methods. The new baby chats or first early Coliban or Sebago varieties available is spring and summer are waxy and good for boiling to eat hot or in salads. Winter maincrop potatoes tend to be floury and good for mashing, but the red-skinned Desiree and Pontiac varieties and Tasmanian Pink-Eye with its red skin and yellow flesh, are firmer and are better for boiling. Good waxy potatoes to look for in winter are Bintje and Kipfler, both which have a fine flavor. New potatoes are reliably waxy and are good for salads. Waxy and floury varieties of potato all cook very successfully in the microwave oven.

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Pot-roasting is not really roasting at all, but an old, economical way of baking food in a pot, either over a low heat or in the oven. Roasting proper is a faster, dry method, used for cooking choice, tender cuts of meat, poultry and sometimes game. Pot-roasting is used for cheaper cuts that are cooked in their own juices and it could be considered a simpler version of braising. The meat is first browned in oil or butter to give a 'roasted' appearance and then cooked with little or no extra liquid in a casserole with a tight-fitting lid. Moisture from the meat provides the liquid during cooking, though with poultry a few spoons of liquid are usually added after browning.

A traditional technique in pot-roasting is to cook the browned meat on a piece of pork rind. This adds flavor and richness, and prevents the meat scorching on the bottom of the pot. Coarsely cut root vegetables are sometimes put under the meat for the same purpose. They can be raw, or browned in the same fat as the meat, though the meat should be removed while you are browning the vegetables. When cooked, the vegetables are served alongside the meat.

For more tender and subtly flavored meats, try this variation on pot-roasting that could be called 'gentle roasting'. Small cuts, such as best ends of lamb or even whole small birds, are seasoned, rubbed with butter and set on a bed of root vegetables in a deep pot with a lid. The lid is removed in the later stages of cooking to brown the meat lightly, and a sauce is made by pouring off the fat and adding a good stock and some wine or spirit to the meat juices. The sauce is then simmered and thickened with arrowroot if necessary.

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Make sure the skin is completely dry and, if necessary, remove any remaining hairs by singeing the rind with a flame or shaving it with a disposable razor. Just before roasting the joint, score the rind. Carefully scoring the skin and fat of the pork joint at regular intervals before roasting it will help to give delicious, crispy pieces of golden crackling.

Rub the rind generously with salt. Cook the meat on a rack in a shallow baking dish and refrain from basting it during cooking. For crackling that is particularly crisp, remove the whole rind about 30-45 minutes before the end of roasting and continue cooking it beside the joint.

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