Enjoy this trio of dinner party starters as the weather warms up, including Greek Australian chef Ella Mittis’s favourite dessert ever

This is my favourite way to cook artichokes. You can keep these artichokes under oil if you completely dry them out after blanching them. Just arrange them standing, cut-side down, in a tray covered with a clean tea towel. When they’re dry, pour a few tablespoons of olive oil in the bottom of a sterilised jar, fill it with artichokes and then cover them in olive oil. They’ll keep in the fridge for months and you can pull them out and fry them whenever you need.

3 lemons 1kg baby artichokes 500ml red wine vinegar, plus 3 tbsp for garnish ½ bunch thyme 2 oranges 3 cloves garlic, sliced Flaky salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste 400g podded broad beans (or 800g unpodded) 4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil 200g podded peas (or 350g unpodded) ½ cup torn mint

Fill a large bowl with water, halve two of the lemons, squeeze the juice into the water and add the lemon rinds into it too.

Clean the artichokes, removing the hardest outer leaves until you reach the heart of the artichoke, which has lighter and more tender leaves.

Cut the tip of the artichoke and trim the base. Rub the artichoke with half of the remaining lemon and plunge the cleaned artichoke heart into the bowl of water.

Pour the vinegar, thyme, juice and rind of one orange and two cloves of garlic into a pot with one litre of water. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Once it’s boiling, add the artichokes.

Cook over medium-low heat until the artichokes are soft and can be easily pierced with a knife.

Add the broad beans to a saucepan of boiling water and blanch until tender. This shouldn’t take long at all; if fresh, the broad beans may only take a minute. Drain and refresh under cold water then peel broad beans and discard skins. Transfer to a large bowl.

Quickly blanch peas, refreshing them in cold water until they have completely cooled off.

In a frying pan, add the remaining garlic, two tablespoons of olive oil and the artichokes and fry gently until there’s some colour on them.

Then add in the broad beans followed by the peas. Warm everything through then season with two tablespoons of oil, juice from the remaining orange and its zest, vinegar, mint, salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Dutch cream potatoes are my favourite with their waxy texture but you can use any potato you have on hand. A good variation on this recipe is to take out the almonds and instead add sliced red onion and capers.

1kg Dutch cream potatoes 8 tbsp olive oil 4 tbsp red wine vinegar 2 lemons, juiced 1 clove garlic, minced Flaky salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste 100g roast almonds 2 cups mixed herbs, chopped (such as chives, dill, mint, parsley and spring onions)

Boil the potatoes with their skins on until very tender. Drain and peel off the skins while still warm.

Cut the potatoes up into rough chunks – I try to think of a mouthful size when I’m doing this.

Dress them in olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon, garlic and a little flaky salt. If you do this while the potatoes are still warm, they will absorb everything more easily. Leave to cool slightly.

Roughly pulse the almonds in a food processor. You still want them to have a crunchy texture so don’t take them too far.

Once the potatoes are a little cooler, stir through the greens, almonds and check for seasoning.

This is my favourite dessert of all time.

For the syrup: 550g caster sugar 450g water Rind from 1 lemon

For the custard: 400g cream 600g milk 200g caster sugar, divided into 2 1 tsp vanilla extract 150g fine semolina 150g salted butter 4 eggs 250g salted butter, melted for brushing the filo 450g filo pastry

Preheat your oven to 165C.

For the syrup, combine the sugar, water and lemon rind in a pot, place over medium heat and bring to a boil. Once the sugar has dissolved completely, set aside to cool.

In a second pot, add the cream, milk, 100 grams sugar and vanilla. Place over a medium heat and bring to the boil.

As soon as the cream mix has come up to heat, whisk in the semolina. Do this incrementally: if you add too much at once your mix will get lumpy. Whisk until mix thickens: five to seven minutes.

Once the mix has stopped thickening, remove from the heat and add the butter. Continue whisking until the butter is completely incorporated and the mix has cooled slightly.

Separately in a mixer, beat the eggs with the other 100 grams of sugar until white and fluffy.

Once the semolina mix is lukewarm, gently fold through the egg mix with a spatula.

Melt the butter for the filo. Generously brush a baking dish with some of the melted butter then start assembling the pie by spreading sheets of filo in the dish and brushing with butter.

Repeat the process with half of the packet of filo, then spread the custard on top and fold over the filo that is hanging over the edges. Brush with butter.

Set one sheet of filo aside and add the remaining sheets over the custard, drizzling each one with melted butter. Then carefully cover with the final sheet, tucking it under the edges of the pie.

Score your pie into serving-sized pieces with a sharp knife; this will help keep the pastry intact when you’re cutting it later. Then pour the remaining butter over the top and bake for around an hour or until golden and crunchy.

When ready, remove from oven and pour the cold syrup over the pie.

This is an edited extract from Ela! Ela! – To Turkey and Greece, Then Home by Ella Mittis, self-published (RRP$60)