This is where Ireland's Table lives most of the week: good food for busy evenings, with sensible washing-up and easy substitutions. Here are two favourites from the chapter to get you started, plus the full recipe line-up.

Honey, Mustard & Rosemary Chicken Traybake

Sticky at the edges, bright with lemon and built for the sort of evening when everyone is hungry at once.

Serves 4 · Prep 15 mins · Cook 50 mins

You need

  • 8 chicken thighs, skin on
  • 700g baby potatoes, halved
  • 2 red onions, cut into wedges
  • 3 carrots, cut into chunks
  • 2 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
  • 2 tbsp wholegrain mustard
  • 1½ tbsp runny honey
  • juice of ½ lemon
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 2 rosemary sprigs
  • sea salt and black pepper

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 200°C fan. Put the potatoes, onions and carrots into a large roasting tin.
  2. Whisk the oil, mustard, honey, lemon and garlic together. Add the chicken to the tin and pour the dressing over everything. Season well and toss the vegetables in the glaze.
  3. Tuck in the rosemary and roast for 45–50 minutes, turning the vegetables once, until the chicken is deeply golden and cooked through.
  4. Spoon the sticky pan juices over the chicken and serve with green beans or a crisp salad.

What to pour: Unoaked Chardonnay or a soft Côtes-du-Rhône. Make it stretch: use leftover chicken in wraps with yoghurt, lettuce and mustard.

Beef & Guinness Cottage Pie

A generous cottage pie with stout in the gravy and a crisp cheddar top — the sort of dinner that improves a wet evening.

Serves 6 · Prep 20 mins · Cook 1 hr 10 mins

You need

  • 750g Irish beef mince
  • 1 onion, chopped; 2 carrots, diced; 2 celery sticks, diced; 2 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 2 tbsp tomato purée
  • 200ml Guinness · 350ml beef stock · 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 1kg floury potatoes · 60g butter · 100ml milk · 75g mature cheddar

Method

  1. Brown the mince well in a large casserole. Add the onion, carrots and celery and cook for 8 minutes. Stir in the garlic and tomato purée.
  2. Pour in the Guinness and reduce for 2 minutes. Add the stock and Worcestershire sauce and simmer for 30 minutes until rich.
  3. Boil and mash the potatoes with butter and milk. Season well.
  4. Transfer the beef to a baking dish, top with mash and cheddar and bake at 200°C fan for 25 minutes until golden.

What to pour: A malty Irish stout, Côtes-du-Rhône or Malbec. Cook before: make the filling and mash a day ahead; assemble and bake when needed.