WE may all love TV celebrity chefs but copying their techniques and dishes is another matter. Be honest, who hasn't rushed in from work, frantically tried to juggle ingredients and pans Nigella-style to make an instant meal - only to discover that the hottest ingredient is their temper?

It's hardly surprising, according to food writer Tamasin Day-Lewis, who's perfected recipes in a new book, Good Tempered Food, which ensure you remain cool, calm and collected.

She says: ''Somehow we've all fallen for the myth, perpetuated by television chefs, that cooking must be done at top speed in a sort of 'get it over with' way, and the only food worth preparing is so-called 'fast food'. That's totally wrong because not everything is quick and easy, and you do need techniques and method. The reality is that cooking takes time, but there are lots of straightforward ways of making it enjoyable as well as successful.''

Tamasin believes in 'good tempered' food, which is prepared in stages.

She's devised delicious dishes to ''love, leave and linger over'' that can be either wholly or partly pre-cooked, frozen, finished or reheated, or even transformed by new ingredients at a later date.

''A little bit of pre-planning of meals and recipes, a good store cupboard of useful ingredients ideal for pepping up left-overs, and a dash of patience are really what's needed. For instance, marinating a cheap cut of meat overnight transforms it into a mouth-watering treat and helps put the pleasure back into cooking, as well as cutting costs,'' she says. Her recipes suit every occasion from formal to casual and include many of her favourites such as a risotto with lemon, gazpacho, Mantuan chicken, or a grillade of lamb breast.

One of her supper party dishes, which can be prepared in stages, is:

SPICED PORK MEATBALLS WITH GUACAMOLE

(serves 8-10 as a dish with drinks)

1.2kg/2 1/2lb minced organic pork, fatty enough to stop the meatballs from drying out during the cooking

sea salt

1 red chilli, finely chopped with its seeds

1tbsp root ginger, grated

1tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped

1tbsp fresh coriander, chopped

1tsp fresh thyme, chopped

1tbsp Dijon mustard

zest of lemon

Throw everything into a large bowl and mix together well with your fingers, making sure that you don't rub your eyes afterwards: chilli is lethal. Form into small balls, the size of walnuts. At this point, you can leave the meat for an hour or two until you need it. Remember, if you cover the meatballs and put them in the fridge, don't cook them until they have come back to room temperature.

I cook mine on a griddle with no fat - there is enough in the meatballs - until crusted and crisped all over and cooked through to the stage where there are no pink juices flowing out of the meat when you test it with a skewer.

The guacamole can be chilled for up to an hour before you want it, so all you need to do is spoon it over the meatballs, cold with hot, when they are cooked.

GUACAMOLE

(serves 8-10)

3 ripe organic avocados

juice of three limes

1 chilli, finely chopped, with its seeds

sea salt

a handful of fresh coriander leaves, chopped

Mash the avocados on a plate with a fork until they are smooth but with the odd lump for texture. Stir in the lime juice, and the chillies and salt. Scrape into a bowl, cover and chill for an hour. Stir in the coriander, taste and adjust the seasoning and citrus to taste. Lob spoons of it on to the pork meatballs hot from the griddle.

If you want to eat this as a main course, you can make the pork balls into large, flat burgers, grill them in the same way, top them with guacamole and put them over and under a good floury bap or tortilla.

l GOOD TEMPERED FOOD by Tamasin Day-Lewis (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £14.99)