Tessa Kiros' 'The Recipe Collection' pulls together over 150 dishes from all corners of the globe. Inspired by her own Finnish and Greek Cypriot heritage, this eclectic combination of recipes are collected with family in mind. To offer a taste of what's inside, here are three of our favourite recipes from the collection… 



Fisherman's Soup
This is the type of chunky soup that a Greek fisherman would make on his boat. Often the fish are left whole, but here I have first made a broth, strained it, and then cooked fillets of fish in it to avoid bones swimming around. It is so simple. Potatoes, onions, garlic, chunks of tomato and fish.

Ingredients (serves 4):
1kg (2 lb 4 oz) assorted whole soup
fish (small fish suitable for making stock), cleaned and gutted
a large bunch of flat-leaf parsley
1/3 celery stalk, plus 4 heaped tablespoons chopped, including some leaves
3 garlic cloves, peeled, 1 left whole and 2 chopped
1 large red onion
100ml (3 1/2 fl oz) olive oil
60ml (2 fl oz/ 1/4 cup) white wine
450g (1 lb) very ripe tomatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
400g (14 oz) potatoes, cut into chunks of about 1.5cm (5/8 inch)
400g (14 oz) perch or snapper fillet, cut into 4 pieces, or 4x 100g (3 1/2 oz) fillets, all bones and skin removed
juice of 1 lemon

Method:
Make a broth. Put the soup fish into a stockpot and cover with 1 litre (35 fl oz/ 4 cups) of cold water. Add most of the bunch of parsley (save some to coarsely chop for serving later, you'll need about 2 heaped tablespoons), the piece of celery, whole garlic clove, salt and a couple of grinds of pepper. Peel the onion and cut off a piece from one side. Add this piece to the stockpot. Chop what's left of the onion and put to one side for the moment. Bring the pot to the boil. Lower te heat and simmer for about 20 minutes. Strain, discarding the bones and skin of the fish as well as the herbs and vegetables. You should have about 750ml (26 fl ox/ 3 cups) of broth. Depending on the fish you've used, you may be able to salvage some flesh for another use.

Heat the oil in a large wide pot and sauté the chopped onion until softened and pale golden. Add the chopped celery and sauté until that softens too. Next add the chopped garlic and cook until you can smell it, then add the wine. Cook until the wine has almost evaporated then add the tomatoes, potatoes, some salt and pepper and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add the fish broth and simmer for another 5 minutes before adding the fillets. Lower the heat and simmer uncovered until it loses the watery look and the fish is cooked through, 10 minutes or so. Add the lemon juice and the chopped parsley, rock the pot to distribute it all gently and taste for salt. Add a grind of pepper and serve hot with bread.



Cypriot Baked Lamb & Potatoes with Cumin & Tomatoes
This is so simple. It's a very typical Cypriot all-in-one meal called 'tava' - you just need the time to prepare the lamb and vegetable, then you can fling it in the oven, go out for a (Greek) coffee and come home to a ready meal. You could use lamb chops and leave them whole instead of cutting them into chunks, which makes it even simpler. And it doesn't need much by the way of accompaniments - perhaps a salad or some simple sautéed green vegetables.

Ingredients (serves 6):
2 red onions, roughly chopped
1.2kg (2 lb 10 oz) potatoes, cut into large chunks
1kg lamb, cut into chunks
4 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
3 heaped teaspoons cumin seeds
125ml (4 fl oz/ 1/4 cup) olive oil
4-5 ripe tomatoes, cut into thick slices
50g (1 3/4 oz) butter

Method:
Preheat your oven to 180'C (350'F/ Gas 4). Put the onion, potatoes and lamb in a 5 litre (175 fl oz/ 20 cup) casserole dish or a deep baking dish. Season with salt and pepper. Add the parsley, cumin seeds and olive oil and mix through very well with your hands. Put the tomato slices on top in a single layer and season lightly with salt. Dot the butter over the top and pour about 125ml (4 fl oz/ 1/4 cup) of water around the sides of the dish. cover with foil and back for 2 hours, tilting the dish from side to side a couple of times and spooning some of the pan juices over the top. The lamb should be very tender and the potatoes soft.

Remove the foil, increase the oven temperature to 200'C (400'F/ Gas 6) and cook for another 45 minutes or so, turning the lamb halfway though, or until the meat and potatoes are a little browned and the liquid has reduced. Serve hot or at room temperature.



Honey Cake 
I hope you are lucky enough to have tiny purple flowers on your rosemary when you make this, so you can scatter them over the finished cake.

Ingredients (cuts into 8-10 slices):
150g (5 1/2 oz) butter
115g (4 oz) dark brown sugar
175g (6 oz 1/2 cup) honey
200g (7 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon finely chopped rosemary leaves
2 eggs beaten

Lemon icing:
250g (9 oz/ 2 cups) icing (confectioners') sugar
100g (3 1/2 oz) butter, softened
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Method:
Grease and line  the base of a 22cm (8 1/2 inch) springform cake tin. Put the butter, brown sugar and honey in a small saucepan and add 1 tablespoon of water. Heat gently, stirring once or twice, until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves. Leave to cool for 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180'C (350'F/ Gas 4).

Sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl and add the rosemary. Add the money mixture and eggs and beat until smooth.

Pour into the tin and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean when ou poke it into the centre. Leave in the tin to cool completely.

To make the lemon icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Add the butter, lemon zest and juice and 1 tablespoon of water and beat until smooth. You might like to add a few more drops of lemon juice after tasting it. Spread over the top and side of the cake. The cake softens as it sits and will keep well for up to a week in a cake tin.

Recipes and images from Tessa Kiros: The Recipe Collection by Tessa Kiros, Murdoch Books, rrp $59.99, photographed by Manos Chatzikonstantis.

Update: Congratulations to Jan, Cassandra, Pam, Michele and Stefania who each win a book. This promotion is now closed.