FOR Rachel Allen, home cooking is about making simple, wholesome food that the entire family can enjoy together – an ethos that is demonstrated in her new Good Food TV series and accompanying book, “To cook these new recipes, you don't have to know anything beforehand, they assume nothing," she says.

To find out how easy the recipes were, Rachel invited me to her family's world-famous Ballymaloe Cookery School just outside Cork in Ireland, to try my hand at making a few of her new dishes.

The school is quite simply out of this world. A stone's throw from the coast yet surrounded by rolling hills and farmland, its picturesque reputation is well deserved. The school now attracts pupils from all over the world.

While I was there, the 60-or-so students were busy readying menus for their final assessments that week. Nearly all produce used at the school is grown on site. There are chickens too, as well as cows and other assorted livestock.

During one of Rachel's three-hour demonstrations, she teaches the class how to de-bone and stuff a chicken, to butterfly a leg of lamb and, thanks to a local gamekeeper who’s brought in a brace of rabbits, how to skin and prepare an amazing stew.

Afterwards, we head off to the kitchen to prepare slightly less squeamish fare: vegetable laksa, which is a South-east Asian vegetarian noodle dish, prawn stir fry and, best of all, a baked ricotta and raspberry cheesecake.

Rachel's new Home Cooking series can be seen on Good Food each weeknight until October 7. As well as cooking delicious dishes, she'll also be visiting other chefs at home to find out what sort of food they eat.

"Another section of the show is here at the cookery school," she adds. "I show people how to cook for the family, or learn recipes their kids will want to eat.

"That's what I've tried to do with the new series and book; to make something for everyone."

Try Rachel's recipes for Baked Raspberry and Ricotta Cheesecake , Crispy Prawns with Chinese Noodle Stir-fry and Laksa