There’s nothing really to connect this week’s recipes, apart from the fact that they’re all cooked in the oven. It’s the sort of grub I turn to when I want warm comfort – something I seem to have been doing rather more often than is healthy of late. But it’s that point in the year when the dark, Mordor days of winter seem to have gone on a little too long – and it’s part of our national DNA to turn to our ovens when we want a hug.

So that’s what you’ve got here: a pot-roast bird with braised chicory, a rich, smoked-haddock gratin and a pud that comes bubbling to the table. I make no apology for the fact that two of these dishes involve liberal use of cream, and that the other cries out to be doused in it. You don’t have to eat them all together or every day, and cream is a good thing. The crusted brown bits you get around the side of a gratin dish are also one of life’s sweetest pleasures.

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