The only minor quibble I have with making flans, tarts, quiches, etc... in the warm weather is the pastry. My sister always maintains that she can’t make pastry because she has “hot hands”, so she buys it ready-made, which is a good enough excuse in summer, I suppose, especially as there are plenty of reliable brands on the market – Jusrol, Stuffer, Orogel, plus supermarket brands and locally-made varieties.

I don’t make puff pastry, neither in summer nor winter – why do all that rolling and folding and chilling when you can simply buy a pack of Jusrol at the supermarket? However, making shortcrust pastry is not that much of a problem as long as you make sure the fat you use is really cold, it’s mixed to a dough with ice cold water, and you always let it sit for at least half an hour in the fridge before cooking. So, for the following recipes, make or buy as the fancy takes you.

I made the pastry for my beef and vegetable lattice tart because I like to add herbs and seasoning to it. It’s a versatile, meaty man-sized tart and you can change the vegetables you put in, or swap the beef for minced pork or lamb. We like it hot with onion gravy, but it’s just as good cold.

I stole the tomato and goat’s cheese recipe from the internet ages ago but, apart from the tomatoes and goat’s cheese, it now bears very little resemblance to the original. As one big flan, it makes a very good vegetarian meal with a salad, or you can make individual ones to serve as tasty starters.

A few weeks ago, I made coronation chicken and had some left over, so to use it up, I put it into a couple of small pastry cases. It went down so well that I tried it as one large tart and I’ve made it several times since. The chicken and coconut tart is an adaptation. Use hot or mild curry powder, adding more or less according to taste.

And then there’s my beautiful salmon and asparagus tart. Fresh asparagus is a bit expensive and it sometimes gets left on the supermarket shelf until it looks sad and wrinkled, but I was fortunate enough to have the choice of bundles of fresh asparagus spears and packs of baby asparagus that had just arrived. I couldn’t make up my mind which to have, so I bought both. I cooked the baby ones in the tart and we had the regular spears as a starter – with butter dripping down our chins! Served just warm with tiny potatoes and a green salad, this tart is a good choice for a dinner party.