The dishes Fulton learnt at her mother's side informed her belief that every cook should be able to master a few simple and nutritious recipes. The repertoire should include a meal that can be knocked up quickly, one that can feed the masses, a popular favourite, a light alternative and a festive treat. To wit: an omelet, a roast, good potatoes, a salad and a chocolate cake. They are Fulton's five dishes everyone should master.

Recipes - Fulton's Five Essential Dishes

"My mother was very particular about food," Fulton says.

"At a time when people were boiling the life out of vegetables, she was cooking them lightly. At a time people were overcooking meat, she wasn't.

"The food I was brought up on was really what we eat today, whereas other people didn't have that."

That's possibly because everyone is now eating the food Fulton's mother cooked in the 1930s and '40s.

She managed to excite her six children with food even before such seemingly indispensable kitchen staples as fresh basil and refrigeration were available. The tiny Fulton, the youngest of the tribe, absorbed her mother's philosophies about fresh and healthy ingredients and spread the message in 1968 with the publication of The Margaret Fulton Cookbook.

By this time she had refined her recipes, having been exposed to new techniques and theories, but the basic principles learnt in her mother's kitchen were her defining influence. And once the basics are learnt, much more is possible.

"It's like learning the piano," Fulton says. "Once you learn the skills and get your fingers working well, if you learn it properly, you can go on."

Fulton's five essential dishes are:

The quick meal: an omelet

Fulton nominates an omelet as the most crucial of a cook's tricks. She often makes one for herself when she feels like something light in the evening, using whatever ingredients are in the fridge as filling. An omelet appeared in her first cookbook.

"People still want it," Fulton says.

"The reason I chose an omelet is because in a couple of minutes you've got a meal and, also, you learn to cook food carefully and quickly. Once you've mastered cooking eggs, you've mastered a lot of the fundamentals of cooking."

The family feast: roast chicken

Fulton cooked many chicken and lamb roasts by her mother's side but she prefers the French method of roasting for keeping the meat moist. The bird sits in the baking tray with water or stock and is basted frequently so the layer of fat under the skin cooks it from beneath.

"It doesn't go brown until the last minute," she says. "You panic a bit that it's not going to be a nice golden chicken. But basting it with the stock and with the wine gives it a lovely flavour and makes it lovely and crispy. You want to be able to invite people to dinner and have family around. You certainly don't want to be buying a roast chicken already done."

The popular choice: crispy potatoes with capsicum

Everybody loves potatoes. Fulton is particularly interested in the range of potatoes now available and how they are all good for something. Her crispy potatoes with capsicum are a healthy way to cook the vegetable and use Mediterranean ingredients such as olives and rosemary.

"People eat a lot of potatoes, they like potatoes and I thought, 'it's a good thing to know how to get that nice'," she says.

The light alternative: nicoise salad

Fulton remembers the days of woeful salads, when many of the ingredients we take for granted today were not grown in Australia and slices of beetroot and pineapple were thrown in. So it was magical when her boss's French wife served nicoise salad for lunch.

"I had never seen just a salad for lunch and it was so fresh and so light," she says. "It actually changed the way Australians saw salads."

Finer details, such as using small cans of tuna for the more delicate flesh, are paramount. Fulton served a nicoise salad recently to her daughter, cookbook author Suzanne Gibbs, who could not get over how delicious it was when done properly.

The celebration: chocolate cake

Sweet things were only for special occasions when Fulton was growing up. While her friends' mothers prepared brownies for after-school treats, Fulton's mother handed out apples. "It was a very sane approach," Fulton says.

But parties and celebrations call for cake. "Everyone's got to learn to make cake," she says. "There's birthday parties, there's family occasions. Once you get a good cake in your repertoire, there's always a cake you can take to someone."

Except for the omelet, all appear in Margaret Fulton Favourites, Hardie Grant, $39.95.

Recipes:

Many a good cook's reputation has been built on the ability to make an omelet. The perfect omelet must be beaten quickly, cooked in seconds and served immediately. Some claim the traditional French version of 2-3 eggs should be beaten, cooked and served in 90 seconds. It can be done if the stage is set: eggs broken in the bowl, the filling, if any, heated and at hand and the fortunate omelet eater already seated.

Basic omelet

Anyone who can make the basic omelet and discovers the other great versions will always be able to serve a delicious meal at a moment's notice.

3 eggs

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1-2 tsp butter

Extra butter

Beat the eggs with a fork only enough to blend the yolks and whites thoroughly. Add salt and pepper to taste. Melt the butter in an omelet pan over a moderate heat. As the butter melts and foams, tilt the pan to film the base and sides. When the foam has almost subsided and the butter starts to colour, pour in the eggs. With a fork, pull the edges of the egg mass towards the centre as it thickens. The liquid part will run into vacant spaces. Repeat until there is no more liquid but the eggs are still very soft. Lift the handle of the pan so the omelet rolls over on to the warmed plate. Smear the top with a little extra butter to give it that professional sheen and serve immediately.

Variations

Lightly mix one of the following into the beaten eggs.

Cheese Sprinkle in 1/3 cup shredded cheese.

Parsley Mix in lightly 1 tablespoon chopped parsley.

Herbs Add 1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano, thyme, basil, tarragon, chives, parsley or dill, in any combination.

Ham Add less salt to the eggs and mix in 2 tablespoons diced ham.

French roast chicken dinner

When I was a girl, a roast chicken dinner was a rare treat, enjoyed by our family only once a month. Now we cook chicken in a variety of ways, several times a week, but sometimes I still want roast chicken the way it was — firm to the bite and tasting so good on its own that you hardly need to do anything but roast it with a little sea salt, pepper and butter or olive oil. I also prefer to have chicken less often and pay a bit extra for a quality organic bird — one that has scratched around and pecked the ground and had some sort of life.

This kind of chicken dinner is worth travelling miles for, especially on a Sunday. The French roasting method is to add stock to the baking dish and baste the chicken during the cooking. The chicken may appear pale but miraculously the skin turns a lovely golden brown towards the end and the flesh stays beautifully moist. The potatoes taste good, too, having taken in some of the flavour of the chicken.

1 size 15-18 (1.5kg-1.8kg) free-range chicken

60g butter or ¼ cup olive oil

Salt and ground black pepper

A few tarragon or flat-leaf parsley stalks

3 strips orange rind

1 ½ cups chicken stock

500g baby new or 4 large desiree potatoes, peeled and quartered

½ cup white wine

Preheat oven to 200C. Wipe the cavity of the chicken with a paper towel. Place a little butter or oil plus salt, pepper, tarragon or parsley stalks and orange rind inside the cavity.

Truss the chicken (tie with string) and rub all over with the remaining butter or oil. Place the chicken on its side in a baking tray with some stock, preferably on a roasting rack. Add the potatoes to the tray and roast for 20 minutes. Turn the chicken on to the other side, baste with stock and turn the potatoes.

Reduce the oven to 190C and continue to cook for another 50 minutes, turning and basting every 15 minutes and adding more stock (or a little water) when necessary. There should be just enough stock to keep the juices in the pan from scorching. Towards the end, add the wine and turn the chicken on its back for the last 15 minutes to brown the breast. Turn the potatoes from time to time.

To test if it is cooked, run a skewer into the thigh joint. The juice should be clear. Remove the chicken from the dish and discard string. Keep in a warm place.

Serves 4-6

Crispy potatoes with roasted capsicum

There is something irresistible about the smell of fried potatoes. This dish not only looks and tastes great but has the added bonus of being good for you.

2 red capsicums

750g small red potatoes, such as desiree

¼ cup olive oil

¼ cup black olives, pitted

Leaves from a few sprigs of rosemary

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Place the capsicums on an oiled baking tray and grill under a high heat until blistered and blackened, turning frequently. Cool in a paper bag, then scrape off the blackened skin and rinse. Cut into thick strips and set aside. Peel the potatoes and cut lengthwise into quarters. Rinse and dry thoroughly with paper towels.

In a large heavy-based frying pan, heat the oil over a medium-high heat until hot. Add the potatoes in a single layer. Reduce the heat to medium and brown the potatoes thoroughly on one side before turning. Fry the potatoes for about 15 minutes, until they are golden brown, crisp on all sides and tender when pierced with a fork. Add the capsicum strips, olives and rosemary to the pan and cook for a few minutes until heated through. Transfer to a warm serving bowl and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serves 4

Nicoise salad

I first came across this salad in 1955 when I was invited to lunch by my boss's French wife. We had lunch in her pretty sunroom and the first course was a simple and delicious nicoise salad. Later I spent a few weeks in Provence and ate nicoise salad almost daily. I never tired of it; each day it was slightly different, depending on what the cook had on hand. Like all good salads, it is hard to ruin and usually delicious whatever the combination of ingredients, as long as they are fresh.

From its humble beginnings in the family kitchens of Nice, nicoise salad is now found on restaurant menus in every village in Provence and many around the world.

500g tuna steaks or 2 x 200g cans tuna in oil

Light olive oil

Lemony herbs such as lemon thyme, lemon balm and citrus leaves

500g new potatoes, scrubbed

4 large eggs, at room temperature

500g green beans, topped and tailed

1 cos lettuce or bunch of English spinach, washed and dried

3 tomatoes, each cut into eighths

½ cup black olives (preferably kalamata)

Chopped flat-leaf parsley, to garnish

Vinaigrette dressing

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 tbsp chopped herbs such as flat-leaf parsley, chives or oregano

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

2 tsp tarragon vinegar

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/3 cup olive oil

Place the tuna steaks (if using) in a snugly fitting ovenproof pan. Cover with light olive oil and add a few lemony herbs. Cover with foil and bake in a 150C oven for about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the oil.

Put the potatoes in a saucepan and cover with boiling water. Add a little salt and bring to the boil. Cook, uncovered, until the potatoes are tender, then drain. Lower the eggs carefully into warm water and bring the water slowly to the boil, stirring all the time so as to centre the yolks. Once the water is simmering, cook for five minutes. Drain, lightly crack the shells and leave to cool completely in cold water. Drop the prepared beans into a little boiling salted water and cook until tender, yet crisp. Drain immediately, refresh under cold water, drain again. Remove the tuna from the oil. Cut into large chunks. Arrange the lettuce on the base of a platter. Slice the potatoes thickly and arrange on top of the leaves. Arrange the beans, tomatoes, olives and quartered shelled eggs, and top with slices of tuna. Garnish with parsley.

For the dressing, mix together the mustard, salt, pepper, garlic, herbs, vinegars and lemon juice. Beat in the olive oil slowly to ensure the dressing remains thick and amalgamated. Beat again before using. Drizzle over the salad.

Serves 6

Sour cream chocolate cake

If I had to choose only one chocolate cake recipe to carry me through life, this would have to be it. It is just as a chocolate cake should be — not the fudgy, flourless kind that everyone loves for dessert but the perfect cake to slice into wedges for afternoon teas and picnics. The sour cream is the secret to its lightness. The cake cuts easily, yet is rich and beautifully moist. You can keep it plain or add a coating of buttery almonds.

The recipe makes one very large cake or two smaller cakes: one to eat and one to freeze for another time or give to a friend.

4 tbsp flaked almonds

1 cup boiling water

125g dark chocolate, chopped

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

250g unsalted butter

1 ½ cups castor sugar

3 large eggs, separated

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 ½ cups plain flour

A pinch of salt

1 tsp baking powder

2/3 cup light sour cream

Preheat the oven to 180C. Generously butter a three-litre fluted bundt tin or two 20-centimetre ring tins. Sprinkle with the flaked almonds (this step is optional), pressing them well into the butter to coat the base and sides of the tin. Put the boiling water, chocolate and bicarbonate of soda in a bowl and stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Leave to cool. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then add the egg yolks one at a time, beating after each addition. Stir in the vanilla essence, adding it to the chocolate mixture a little at a time. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder and fold in alternately with the sour cream, mixing lightly until just combined. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold into the mixture with a large metal spoon. Turn gently into the prepared tin(s) and bake for 1 hour-1 ¼ hours for a large cake, 45 minutes for smaller cakes, or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Leave for a minute, then turn out and cool on a wire rack.

Serves 16-20

Source: Good Living