Bestselling TV cook Rachel Allen shares her down-to-earth style and easy-to-follow recipes for entertaining friends and family in your own home.

Friends, family, good food, good times – this is what entertaining is all about. It can be as relaxed as flopping down on the sofa with a few friends to share nibbles and drinks or a great big curry, or as formal as getting out your best china and ironing your tablecloth for a three-course meal. How you choose to share your time and your cooking creations with your loved ones is entirely up to you. What each kind of gathering has in common, however, is a happy, welcoming atmosphere, and the main ingredient for that is you.