York food writer Laura Mason says it's time to get back to basics in the kitchen. Maxine Gordon meets a woman on a mission.

DID you know that Chicken Tikka Masala is now Britain's favourite national dish? We eat more than 25 million portions of the Indian meal each year, making it more popular than traditional British staples such as fish and chips, steak and kidney pie and roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.

There is no denying our taste buds have become more adventurous and that our diets today are different from a generation or two ago, when standard fare was meat and two veg.

Pasta, rice, pizza, curry are today's bread and butter, while exotic goods such as lemongrass and coriander are just as likely to find a place in our supermarket trolley as bacon and eggs.

Pick any town in the UK and there is a good chance you will be able to dine in the kitchens of the world any night of the week, because Italian and Indian restaurants stand cheek by jowl with Thai, Mexican, French and Turkish eateries.

In the midst of this gastro-journey, it is easy to lose our appetite for good old British grub.

So you could argue that Farmhouse Cookery has arrived just in time. This new cookery book by Laura Mason, York food writer and historian, features old-fashioned favourites from the farmhouse kitchen.

Laura is aware that the book, a lavish full-colour publication from the National Trust featuring more than 180 recipes, is bucking the trend for all things international and exotic. But she quite likes that.

"It's such an unfashionable subject, but I like unfashionable subjects, because you are on the ground floor with them," she said.

"The book tries to tap into the traditional, which has not been fashionable recently.

"I tried to avoid what Nigel Slater and Nigella Lawson do and avoid big flavours and the fusion thing and stick to ingredients that could be grown here."

The original aim of the book was to promote the work and produce of National Trust tenants, whose livelihoods were seriously damaged by the foot and mouth crisis of 2001, which lead to the mass slaughter of animals and the closure of large swathes of the countryside. Besides running country houses, the National Trust also looks after more than 150,000 hectares of farmland.

Tenants were asked to submit traditional family recipes for possible inclusion in the cookbook. Back in York, Laura sifted through the submissions and spent weeks testing, tweaking and perfecting them in the kitchen of her home in the Groves.

"There were days when I started at 8am and worked until ten at night," said Laura. "I would call friends and say 'Please drop in on your way home and pick up a cake'."

Laura says much of the pleasure in putting together the book was the sense of nostalgia it engendered. She was brought up on a farm near Ilkley in Wharfedale and learned to cook by watching her mum, Kate, at work in the kitchen.

The recipes come from all over England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with each region given its own chapter in the book. Several of Laura's childhood favourites have made it into the Yorkshire section.

"There's a recipe for lemon curd - which is not particularly Yorkshire, but I associate it with the smell of my kitchen at home," she said.

And Laura has no truck with the modern shape of Yorkshire puddings. "Everybody thinks Yorkshire puddings should be round, but no! You need to make one by using a tray like a big bath!"

Other Yorkshire favourites include a rhubarb and ginger fool using forced rhubarb, a delicacy from Wakefield.

In this culinary tour across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, Laura celebrates the link between landscape and food and shows how our climate and culture have contributed to the diversity of British cooking today.

While many recipes reflect regional variations and honour traditional dishes, such as roast beef and steak and kidney pie, there are also more contemporary recipes, such as duck egg frittata and gooseberries with elderflower zabaglione.

With the upsurge in the popularity of farmers' markets and home-grown food, we Brits are starting to show a renewed interest in our culinary traditions, but there is still some way to go.

"It's something other countries celebrate because they realise it is part of their heritage," said Laura. "British people go to France and Italy and look for local food and dishes as if we don't have them ourselves. It's not that we don't, it's just that we aren't conscious of it."

Perhaps Farmhouse Cookery will help change that.

Updated: 10:45 Saturday, April 23, 2005