On March 26th I had 20 people crammed into my living room for a fundraising dinner for Ukraine. Inspired by Olia Hercules and her heartbreaking stories on Instagram and seeing daily news of families fleeing for their lives I had to take action in the only way I know- to cook.

The starter was cold beetroot soup, tomato bread with burnt aubergine butter and transcarpathian buns with mushrooms, main was Slow cooked pork with kraut and dried fruit with Ukrainian garlic bread and for pudding Lyubas honey and berry tea cake with bay custard.

All the recipes were from Olia books Mamushka and Summer Kitchens and we raised an astonishing £1,000.

If anyone would like to copy me and doesn’t have the recipes please email me at  Marylucia.cadogan@gmail.com and I can send them to you.