Rory's gratin of potato and mushroom

A comforting side dish that goes brilliantly with lamb chops or steak.

Rory's traditional Irish salad recipe

This simple old-fashioned salad is the sort of thing you would have had for tea on a visit to your Granny on a Sunday evening – perhaps with a slice of meat left over from the Sunday joint. It is one of my absolute favourites. It can be quite delicious made with a crisp lettuce, good home-grown tomatoes and cucumbers, free-range eggs and home-preserved beetroot. If, on the other hand, you make it with pale battery eggs, watery tomatoes, tired lettuce and cucumber and (worst of all) vinegary beetroot from a jar, you'll wonder why you bothered. We serve this …

Rory's compote of pears with chocolate sauce

Tender pears are made into a rich dessert with the addition of chocolate sauce.

Rory's roast rack of lamb with marjoram

Summer marjoram is my desert island herb. If I was allowed only one herb to cook with, summer marjoram would be the one. It is great with lamb, chicken and turkey. I use it in dressings, relishes and salsas. Fish and vegetables also benefit from its smoky sweet flavour. If possible have some roast chicken stock to hand for the gravy in this recipe. It will make for an intense, rich and full flavour. The butter adds richness, shine and silkiness to the gravy. The butter is optional but I strongly urge you to try it. Most butchered racks of …

Rory's onion sauce (sauce soubise)

Served with roast lamb or pan-grilled lamb chops, onion sauce is a sort of 'forgotten flavour' which makes a delicious change from the more usual mint jelly. If 'onion sauce' sounds a bit dull, use its French name, sauce soubise. I urge you not to gloss over this sauce, it really is worth making.

Rory O'Connell's hot buttered oysters on toast

How to Cook Well with Rory O'Connell airs on Wednesdays on RTÉ One at 8:00pm.

Rory O'Connell's Italian beef stew

A good gutsy stew which can be made in large quantities – it reheats and freezes brilliantly.

Rory O'Connell's scallion champ

Rory O'Connell's chocolate mousse with macaroons

Rory's mother & son salad with potato crisp cake

Warm salad of Gubbeen cheese and bacon - "Mother and Son Salad" – with spiced cranberries.