This dish is only as good as the vegetables you buy, so use that as your starting point and you'll be on to an absolute winner! The best way to serve this is to put the dip into a bowl and have a big board next to it with your veggies on. It's a good sociable way to start a meal.

Lots of people have woks, but so many people get it wrong because they don't really understand the principle of stir-frying - i.e. you get a pan really hot and you don't overcrowd it with veg so that it starts boiling and not stir-frying. You could make this with breast of chicken instead, if that takes your fancy, or slices of pork.

When I worked in France I would visit a lovely little bakery once a week to buy a tart filled with a really amazing walnut cream, with poached glazed pears on top. It was such a joy to eat that I wanted to give you a recipe based on these flavours - the combination is fantastic.

This is the famous drink from Harry's bar in Venice, where they have a monopoly on the best peaches in the world. Over there they use the local Italian sparkling wine called Prosecco. The drink tatstes far better when you use this fizz, so try to get hold of some. The junior version is a Virgin Bellini, where you replace the Prosecco with soda. Often a dash of sugar helps also.