FOOD writer and blogger, Linzi Barrow is celebrating Lancashire’s rich culinary heritage with a recipe book that’s sure to turn up in many a foodie’s Christmas stocking.

Lancashire Recipes is a 64-page mouth-watering selection of 20 traditional recipes, some with modern twists.

Linzi, 45, who is head of procurement for a housing group, has a regular slot on Radio Lancashire and popular blog. She is also appearing this month beside celebrity chef Paul Hollywood in his BBC daytime programme Pies and Puds working with one of her favourite foods, black pudding.

She says: “One of my earliest recollections is standing on a stool in my nana's kitchen learning to rub in pastry. Local specialities evoke childhood memories in me. Collecting samphire with my grandfather on the coast, the smell of freshly picked Tarleton tomatoes, buying Lancashire oatcakes with my dad as a child in Preston, wimberries picked on the moors. Of course, there is also the butter pie, that famous Lancashire delicacy and the most popular recipe on my blog.

“Lancashire’s geography firmly influences the produce and the dishes that call this county home. We are fortunate to have hills and moorland which produce superb lamb and game, quality grazing land which enables the raising of high quality beef and dairy herds, and low-lying mosslands which are home to fantastic vegetable and fruit growers.

“Luckily for us its coastline also affords us a wide range of fish and shellfish. A humble honest northern cuisine has evolved in the county, utilising the great local produce with a frugal approach to ingredients with the emphasis on taste, not looks.”

Linzi’s favourite dish is Lancashire Hot Pot: “It’s pure comfort food. But I love anything seasonal. I grow a lot of my own fruit and vegetables, but I also enjoy shopping for local produce at farmers’ markets. I tend not to shop in large supermarkets, preferring our own local Booths.”

Linzi,who lives in Leyland with her husband Ian, says “My food blog Lancashire Food initially started as a vehicle to share my love of the county’s great dishes and fabulous ingredients. But it has recently grown and become so much more. My own Lancashire culinary heritage is of being taught to cook by my nana and my mum, but other than domestic science lessons at school I have no formal training. I am a home cook. I love baking and creating recipes and also eating out, and I feel that being able to cook with high quality produce is a right not a privilege. That’s why I was delighted to be invited to compile a recipe book.”

Linzi, who once created a cake model of Preston city to celebrate the Guild 2012 - is also a proud member of the Clandestine Cake Club, an international movement which meets in secret locations to bake and eat cake for fun. One of her recipes is featured in the Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook. She is keen to promote the organisation in East Lancashire and anyone wishing to set up a group should contact her via her Lancashire-Food.blogspot.

Published by Bradwell Books, Lancashire Recipes (ISBN: 9781 902674438) is available from Amazon, good bookshops, supermarkets and Tourist Information Centres priced at just £4.99.