HALF the fun of cooking at festive times is the chance to revert to tradition and prepare the dishes which have been cooked over the centuries to make each festival special and significant.

Easter used to see kids, calves and the traditional lamb on the table, also bacon and ham, hot cross buns, Good Friday fish pie, pease pottage, saffron buns and bread, Easter biscuits, chocolate eggs and crystallised flowers. The following are just a few of the great classics of the season.

Cheese, Mustard and Leek Pie

LEEKS used to be raised; especially for the Lenten period, to add flavour to the harshness of the fast. Here is a modern and, appropriately at Lent's end, a very non self denying version of the leek pie, which uses a delicious concoction of cheese and egg to bind the cooked leeks. The cheese should be a decent, mature Cheddar.

This can be made with a short crust pastry as the base: however, messing about one day with some left over rough puff pastry, I, used that as the base, and blind baked it before adding the filling. It worked brilliantly.

The pastry technique comes from the Time Life series, The Good Cook and the recipe for the filling comes from The Greens Cookbook. The touch of mustard in the mixture is a note of brilliance. With some good chutney and a green salad, this is bliss.

The Pasty:

125g/4oz plain flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

125g/4oz cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

3 to 4 tablespoons very cold water

Sieve the flour, and mix with the salt in a mixing bowl. Add the butter and cut it into the flour rapidly, using two table knives, until the butter is in tiny pieces. Do not work for more than a few minutes. Add half the water and, with a fork, quickly blend it into the flour and butter mixture. Add just enough of the rest of the water to allow you to gather the dough together with your hands into a firm ball.

Wrap the dough in plastic film or waxed paper and refrigerate it for 2 to 3 hours, or put it into the freezer for 20 minutes until the outside surface is slightly frozen.

To roll shortcrust: roll out the dough from the centre until the pastry forms a circle about half an inch thick. Turn the pastry over so both sides are floured and continue rolling until the pastry is about one eighth inch thick. Roll the pastry on to the rolling pin, lift it up and unroll it over the pie dish. Trim the pastry to within half an inch of the edge of the dish, roll the edges under, press firmly with thumb and forefingers and crimp the edges.

To roll rough puff place the dough on a cool, floured surface and smack it flat with the rolling pin. Turn the dough over to make sure that both sides are well floured, and roll out the pastry rapidly into a rectangle a foot long and six inches wide. Fold the two short ends to meet each other in the centre, then fold again to align the folded edges with each other.

Following the direction of the fold lines, roll the pastry into a rectangle again, fold again in the same way and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Repeat this process two or three more times before using the pastry. To blind bake it, pre heat the oven to 425 F, unroll the pastry over the dish, trim, cover with foil and fill with rice or beans. Bake until the edges are slightly browned, then remove and remove the foil.

The Filling:

1lb leeks, trimmed, cut into quarter-inch rings

3 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup white wine or water

1/2 teaspoon salt pepper

2 eggs

1 cup cream or creme fraiche

2 to 3 good tablespoons good quality smooth or coarse mustard

3 ounces grated cheese

2 tablespoons chives, sliced into narrow rounds

Wash the leeks well and set them aside. Melt the butter in a wide pan, add the leeks along with the water that clings to them, and cook for two to three minutes, stirring constantly.

Add the wine or water and the salt, cover, reduce the heat, and cook slowly until the leeks are tender - about 10 to 15 minutes. Check the pan after seven minutes, and add more wine or water, if necessary. When done, season with freshly ground black pepper.

Beat the eggs and stir in the cream or creme fraiche, mustard, leeks and grated cheese.

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Pour the custard into the pre baked shell, smooth down the top, and scatter the chives over the entire surface. Bake the pie until the top is firm and golden brown. Let it sit for five minutes before serving.

Ham Cooked In Cider, With Plum Sauce

LAMB tends to be the Easter Sunday dish we automatically think of, but the French use the feast as an excuse to make the classic jambon persille, and in days gone by a boiled and baked ham was often an Easter tradition.

There are many things you can do to work on the flavour of a boiled ham. Ham cooked in hay, for example, is one of those dishes which causes decent folk to emote with disbelief at the carryings on of food lovers. What possible difference could a handful of hay make to the flavour, they say? Well, allegedly, the hay gives the ham a scent of coumarin, the substance which makes new mown hay so fragrant.

But there is no new mown hay; around now, so let's do something simpler.

Boiling the ham in cider is a good idea. At Christmas I cooked a ham in cider topped up with some water, following a suggestion by Niamh Colgan of The Old; Workhouse in Dunshaughlin Co Meath, who prepares her breakfast ham this way. It made a delight fully flavourful ham sweeter than usual.

Ms Colgan also throws chopped up apples and whole allspice into the pot, an interesting echo of the technique shown in Dorothy Hartley's great book, Food In England. Ms Hartley also uses vegetable trimmings and onions but Mrs Colgan feels these flavours get in the way, and prefers to stick with the apple cider combination, with just some star anise to give a final, entrancing note.

The rules to observe when cooking a ham are as follows:

A ham should be soaked for 24 hours before cooking, to reduce saltiness. A boiled ham should not be boiled: you simply bring it to the boil in its liquid - which should cover the ham generously - and then turn the heat down to a gentle simmer. It will then take about 20 minutes for each pound, plus 20 minutes, for the ham to be cooked.

Then, leave it to cool in the liquid which will keep it moist. When you lift it out, remove the rind and score the fat into crisscross shapes with a knife.

Baste all over with your preferred mixture - you can even buy jars of prepared mixture these days, but a mix of mustard and brown sugar is classic. You can stud the fat with cloves if you like. Place in a hot oven until the surface has a golden sheen.

A variation on the classic boiled ham is to cook it for three quarters of its cooking time, remove It, skin it, place it in a pot and pour over half a pint of Madeira. Cover and cook for the remainder of the cooking time. Then finish the ham in the normal way, but this extra braising with Madeira will give you a delicious sauce for the ham.

Instead of a mustard glaze, you can press fine breadcrumbs into the fat and then blister the surface under the grill.

Here is an accompaniment for the ham, a plum sauce which comes from Sara Paston William's National Trust book on festive cooking. The original recipe uses just vinegar for the poaching liquid but we like to supplement it with an equal quantity of white wine to tone down the tartness, and it goes without saying that the better quality the vinegar, the better the sauce.

Incidentally, this plum sauce also complements roast lamb, in which case add one tablespoon of chopped fresh mint to the finished sauce.

Plum Sauce:

450g (1 lb) plums

225ml (8 fl oz) white wine vinegar mixed with white wine in equal quantities

125g (4 1/2 oz) sugar

Stew the plums gently in the sugar, vinegar and wine mixture for about 10 minutes, or until soft. Pulp the mixture with a wooden spoon to give you a sauce consistency and remove the stones.

Serve hot.

Hot Cross Buns

THE aroma of hot cross buns is the quintessential scent of holiday time. Why we largely confine these magnificent buns to Good Friday is beyond me, for there is nothing remotely austere about them. Make plenty when you bake, for they are splendid for a couple of days after baking, toasted and oozing good butter.

The Dough:

100 ml (3 1/2 fl oz) milk 100 ml (3 1/2 fl oz) water 20g (three quarters oz) fresh yeast 500g (1lb 2oz) plain flour, plus a little more for kneading half teaspoon salt

1 level teaspoon mixed spice

1 level teaspoon ground cinnamon generous grating of fresh nutmeg

50g (1 3/4 oz) caster sugar

50g (1 3/4 oz) butter, softened 2

eggs

200g (7oz) dried fruit (currants or sultanas, optionally mixed with some chopped candied peel)

olive oil

To Glaze:

1 egg, beaten with some milk

To make the Cross:

3 tablespoons flour

3 tablespoons water

1 dessertspoon sugar

Warm the milk and water together until they reach blood temperature. Pour into a mixing bowl and sprinkle in the fresh yeast, stir and allow to stand while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Sieve the flour with the spices. Warm it by putting the bowl in a low oven for five minutes. Take out the flour and rub in the butter using your fingers. Then mix in the fruit.

Make a well in the centre of the flour and add the yeast liquid and then the lightly beaten eggs. Knead the mixture together, first, in the bowl, then turn out onto a well floured board. Knead for about seven minutes, scraping up the dough and flouring the board lightly again when it sticks - you can add up to about a quarter cup, more flour during this kneading process. The dough is ready when it becomes easy to handle, silky, and springs back when you press it.

Rub a large bowl, big enough to take the dough when doubled, with some olive oil, rubbing all over including up the sides of the bowl. Put in the dough, smear it too with a fine film of oil, cover the bowl with cling film, or a damp cloth and leave for about one and a half hours until doubled in size.

Preheat your oven to 400 F, 200 C, Gas 6. Punch down the dough and shape into 12 small round buns. Arrange the buns on a greased baking sheet, cover with a damp tea towel and allow to prove for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix together your topping to make the crosses, stirring the flour, sugar and water to make a thick smooth paste. Have ready either a piping bag with a small plain nozzle, or a squeezy bottle (a clean, empty ketchup bottle does the job) to apply the paste.

When the buns are ready for the oven lightly brush them with the egg/milk glaze. Finally, apply the paste from either the piping bag or the squeezy bottle - you'll find you have paste left over.

Bake the buns for about 20 minutes in the preheated oven (400 F, 200 C, Gas 6).

They are ready when brown on top, and when they sound hollow, if you tap them underneath. Allow to cool on the tin, then transfer to a wire rack.