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This is the best time of year to discover new recipes. As the days get shorter and colder, a glossy new cookbook – and all the food-related inspiration that comes with it – can be just the thing you need. And there are plenty of new releases to sink your teeth into – whether you want to transport yourself to a sunnier country, settle down with some comfort food – or even get a head start on Christmas shopping. Some of the biggest names in food – including chef and former Saturday Kitchen presenter James Martin, BBC stalwarts the Hairy Bikers, and cult restaurateur Russell Norman – have new cookbooks out – and this is what you can expect from each of them. 1. ‘James Martin’s Spanish Adventure’ by James Martin If you were captivated by James Martin’s 20-part ITV series taking a culinary tour around Spain – from the Michelin-starred restaurants of San Sebastian to the local markets of Santiago de Compostela – you’ll want to pick up the accompanying cookbook. One of Martin’s favourite areas in the country is Toledo, “a special ancient city right in the middle of Spain”, he notes. “It’s famous for great produce including game, saffron, honey, olive oil, garlic and the list goes on.” Yorkshire-born Martin says he first fell in love with Spanish food when he came to London as a young chef, and wanted to dedicate this book to the cuisine because he “wanted people to know about the people, the fantastic variety of landscapes, and the spectacular produce available”, he says. “They have the best markets in Europe and the range of ingredients is fabulous – the seafood, the meat, the vegetables and the fruit.” In the cookbook, Martin highlights that Spanish cuisine is far more than just paella and sangria. There are plenty of recipes for traditional dishes – including tapas bites, croquetas, empanadas, Seville pork with patatas bravas and burnt Basque cheesecake – as well as classic Spanish ingredients (such as chorizo, olives and plenty of seafood). While Spain is predominantly known for meat and fish, Martin also shows some of the beautiful ways the country uses vegetables too – such as a dish for deep-fried aubergines drizzled with honey and served with a tomato sauce, and salt-baked celeriac with new potatoes and salsa. Valencia beans and red prawns “Located on the east coast, the 2,000-year-old city of Valencia boasts wide sandy beaches, striking architecture, a buzzing food scene and culture,” says Martin. “It has its own language (a dialect of Catalan) and unique cuisine, with a focus on rice, seafood and meat. This dish showcases red prawns on a bed of white beans and vegetables.” Serves: 2 Ingredients: 75ml olive oil, plus extra for drizzling 2 garlic cloves, chopped 1 onion, diced ¼ leek, diced ½ carrot, peeled and diced ¼ green pepper, cored, deseeded and diced 3 bay leaves 2 whole smoked chilli peppers (or a pinch of chilli flakes) 300g cooked butter beans Splash of white wine Small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, chopped 8 red prawns, split lengthways Sea salt Method: 1. If you want to use a BBQ, heat a BBQ until hot and the coals are white. 2. Heat a medium paella pan and, when hot, add the oil, then add the garlic, all the vegetables, the bay leaves and the smoked peppers. Cook for two to three minutes, then stir in the beans, 50 millilitres of water and the wine and cook for three to four minutes. Season with salt and finish with the parsley. 3. Meanwhile, pop the prawns onto the BBQ, drizzle with oil and season with salt, then cook for two to three minutes until charred, turning once or twice. Alternatively, grill on high for three to four minutes. 4. To serve, remove the smoked peppers (if using) from the beans and then pile the prawns on top of the beans and drizzle with extra olive oil if desired. ‘James Martin’s Spanish Adventure’ by James Martin (Quadrille, £27) 2. ‘The Hairy Bikers’ Ultimate Comfort Food’ by Si King and Dave Myers It’s hard to believe Dave Myers and Si King – otherwise known as the Hairy Bikers – have been on our screens for nearly two decades, with their first BBC show airing in 2004. They’ve written plenty of cookbooks over the years – dedicated to everything from Mediterranean food to curries – and their latest is all about comfort food. In the introduction, the duo think back to what comfort food meant to them growing up – for Myers, it’s a classic chip butty, and King picks out his mother’s curries and casseroles. British classics like these permeate the book – including beef and barley stew, sausage rolls and lemon drizzle cake – but there’s a definite international flavour, with dishes inspired by Myers and King’s travels all over the world. Think soba noodles with miso mushrooms, Szechuan lamb bao buns, chipotle prawn tacos and more. While comfort food might make you think of heavy, rich dishes you want to curl up in the winter with – and those recipes are represented – there’s also a wider picture of ‘comfort’ and what it means throughout the year. Lighter recipes such as the teriyaki chicken salad and Spanish-style roasted vegetables with halloumi will bring just as much joy in the summertime. Chocolate eclairs “Possibly everyone’s top teatime pleasure, eclairs are a bit of work, but are so worth it,” say Myers and King. “Just picture yourself biting into that beautiful choux pastry filled with cream and spread with chocolate.” Makes: about 8-12 Ingredients: For the choux pastry: 115g plain flour 100g butter 2 tsp caster sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract Pinch of salt 3 eggs, well beaten 1 tbsp icing sugar For the filling: 300ml double cream 1 tbsp icing sugar ½ tsp vanilla extract For the chocolate glaze: 100g dark chocolate (or 50g dark chocolate and 50g milk chocolate) 50g whipping cream 50g butter 25g golden syrup Method: 1. Preheat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4 and line two baking trays with baking parchment. Sift the flour on to another piece of baking parchment. 2. Put the butter, sugar, and vanilla extract in a pan with 225 millilitres of water and a generous pinch of salt. Heat gently until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved, then turn up the heat until the mixture is boiling. Remove the pan from the heat. 3. Pull up the sides of the baking parchment and slide the flour into the butter and sugar mixture. Stir the flour into the wet ingredients to form a thick paste which should come away from the sides of the pan in one solid mass. Put the pan back over a gentle heat and continue stirring with a wooden spoon for two or three minutes, until the mixture is slightly steaming and leaves a floury residue on the base of the pan. 4. Leave to cool for a couple of minutes, then beat for a couple of minutes more. You can then transfer the dough to a stand mixer or use electric beaters if you prefer. You will see steam escape from the dough at this point. Keep beating until the steam has subsided. 5. Gradually work in the eggs, just a couple of tablespoons at a time, until you have a thick glossy dough – it needs to be quite stiff and firm enough for you to draw your finger through it without the sides falling back in. The dough initially breaks up a lot, but eventually it will come together again. 6. Fit a large star or plain round nozzle into a piping bag and scoop the dough into the bag. If you don’t have a nozzle, simply snip off the end of the bag off – the hole should be about 2.5cm wide. 7. Pipe tiny amounts of the dough under the corners of the baking parchment on the trays to keep the parchment in place. For large eclairs, pipe eight lines of dough, as evenly as possible, on to the baking trays, making each one about 15cm long. To make sure they don’t spread to an oval shape, pipe them slightly wider at each end. To make slightly smaller eclairs, pipe 12 lines of about 10cm long. Wet your fingers and smooth out the ends of the eclairs if peaks have formed. If you haven’t used a star nozzle, run a fork along the length of each one. 8. Dust the eclairs with the icing sugar – this will help them darken and crisp up in the oven. Bake for 25 minutes by which time they should have formed a crust. Use a skewer to poke holes in each end of the eclairs so steam can escape from their centres, then continue to bake for another eight to 10 minutes. Turn the oven off and leave the door ajar. Leave the eclairs in the oven for about half an hour – this will help make sure they are crisp all the way through. 9. To make the filling, whip the cream until it is stiff, then fold in the icing sugar and vanilla extract. Chill for half an hour. 10. For the glaze, put the chocolate, cream, butter and golden syrup into a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Melt together gently to make a fairly thin ganache. 11. To fill the eclairs, cut three holes in the base of each one. Fill a piping bag with the cream and pipe it into the holes. Squeeze the eclairs lightly – they should feel nicely full. Dip each filled eclair in the chocolate glaze – this gives a much better coverage than trying to spread it – then leave them in the fridge to set. These are best eaten on the same day they are made as the pastry will eventually soften, but they will keep for up to 48 hours. ‘The Hairy Bikers: Ultimate Comfort Food’ by Si King and Dave Myers (Seven Dials, £25) 3. ‘Brutto’ by Russell Norman Russell Norman’s debut cookbook, Polpo, won the Inaugural Waterstones Book of the Year back in 2012, and anything the London restaurateur has done since has always been hotly anticipated. For his latest cookbook, Norman has turned his sights on Florence. Named after one of his London restaurants, “brutto” is the Italian word for ugly, and references the Italian expression, “brutto ma buono” – ugly but good. Tuscan cuisine is known for meat, offal, game and beans, Norman explains in the introduction – and these are all represented in the cookbook, albeit with a few more veggie options than you might seen in a traditional Florentine kitchen. You’ll learn a lot about food in Florence from Brutto – such as the city’s passion for wine bars, where antipasti such as coccoli (fried dough balls served with prosciutto and soft cheese) and deep-fried courgette flowers are served. Some of the recipes are Italian classics you’ll know about – such as tagliatelle with ragu and asparagus risotto – and others are more unusual, deeper dives into Italian cuisine – think Florentine-style fried chicken or an oven-baked spinach dish cooked with eggs, cream, Parmesan and a dash of nutmeg. Tuscan food is largely known as peasant food – meaning it’s relatively cheap and easy to make, while still being packed full of flavour. Spinach and ricotta dumplings “Gnudi translates as ‘naked’, as these little dumplings are the most nude and simple form of homemade pasta you can make,” says Norman. “The combination of spinach and ricotta is a very traditional marriage and appears in much of the pasta of the region, in ravioli and crespelle for example. It’s a very satisfying process, and easy enough for children to help with in the kitchen if you want to encourage an early interest in Italian cooking for little chefs.” Serves: 4 Ingredients: 500g baby spinach leaves, washed 50g ‘00’ flour 250g ricotta 1 large free-range egg, beaten 150g grated parmesan Flaky sea salt Black pepper ½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg 250g semolina 100g butter A large handful of sage leaves Method: 1. Steam the spinach for three minutes over a large pan of boiling water. Thoroughly drain and squeeze to remove the excess water, then chop the leaves finely. Set aside. 2. Mix the flour with the ricotta in a large bowl until it resembles lumpy breadcrumbs. Stir in the egg and two-thirds of the Parmesan. Add a pinch of salt, a twist of black pepper, the nutmeg and then add the spinach. Combine thoroughly with a wooden spoon or with your hands. 3. Put half the semolina into a bowl and shake the rest on to a baking sheet or a tray. Take small lumps of the flour, egg and spinach mixture and form them into small balls by rolling them between your palms, to the size of large olives. Turn each ball through the bowl of semolina, then place on the tray you’ve prepared with the rest of the semolina. When finished, you should have 24–30 little balls. 4. Fill a very large pan with water and bring to a rolling boil. Place the gnudi in the boiling water as quickly as possible, bringing it back to the boil on the highest heat, and continue to simmer for about three minutes. 5. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan over a medium heat, melt the butter and add the sage leaves. When it bubbles, reduce to a very low heat. This should take no more than two minutes, while the gnudi are cooking. 6. The gnudi will float to the surface when they are ready. Turn off the heat, remove them with a slotted spoon and drain the excess water on kitchen paper. Place on four warmed plates, pour the butter and sage over the top, then evenly distribute the remaining Parmesan. Add a flourish of black pepper. ‘Brutto’ by Russell Norman (Ebury Press, £32) Read More From a £22 bag of pasta to £28 sandwich – why do they cost so much? How to host a dinner party for under £2 per portion Pearly Cow, Margate, restaurant review: Go for the steak, but stay for the potatoes Three authentic Thai recipes to try at home What does Saturday Kitchen’s Matt Tebbutt cook at home? Three recipes that prove traditional Irish food is better than you think

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If you’re a dedicated skincare junkie, you might be thinking about how you can get that glow beyond your night-time skincare routine. Facials can be an appealing way of targeting any concerns you might have and giving your skin a bit of professional care. But they’re undoubtedly expensive, and generally more of an investment than buying a pot of moisturiser. Naturally, you want to spend your money as wisely as possible – and if you do have the extra funds for a facial, you don’t want to waste it. So, what’s the best type of facial to get for your age group? In your twenties “Facials and skincare choices in your twenties should be preventative; aiming to optimise your skin’s health and supercharging collagen and elastin levels,” says Dr Thuha Jabbar, aesthetic doctor and founder of Almas Dental. “Hydrafacials are a great, non-invasive skin boosting treatment that deep cleanse the skin, brighten and reduce fine lines. Chemical peels and other non-invasive facial treatments are also great to improve skin tone and keep breakouts at bay.” Dr Sophie Shotter is also a fan of Hydrafacials (which start from £125 depending on clinic and location – available in over 1,300 UK and Ireland providers). They provide a deep clean, followed by extracting any impurities then moisturising the skin. Shotter says they can “help to give the skin a deep clean, minimising the risk of breakouts. LED [light therapy facials] is also an excellent choice. Many facialists will combine techniques for best results.” Dr Radmila Lukian, dermatologist at the Lucia Clinic, recommends microdermabrasion for people in their twenties – a process where fine crystals and a vacuum are used to remove dead skin cells. She says it’s “a great treatment for brightening dull skin and reducing pigmentation. Perfect for young adults.” In your thirties When you hit your thirties, this is the time when Shotter recommends “starting to think about upping the ante” with your skincare. She recommends facials which incorporate microneedling – a process where small needles pierce the top layer of your skin. “We often start to notice the early signs of ageing, as collagen loss kicks in through our thirties, and these treatments can help to stimulate collagen production leading to significant improvements in skin texture,” Shotter says. Lukian recommends a facial that incorporates dermaplaning – where a scalpel removes hair and dead layers of skin – which she says can help “combat free radical damage, stimulate collagen and improve skin texture”. In your forties When you reach your 40s, Lukian suggests LED light therapy and laser skin resurfacing treatments, as they “become more relevant to target wrinkles, stimulate collagen and improve skin elasticity”. She adds: “Laser skin resurfacing uses targeted laser energy to promote collagen production – revealing healthier, younger-looking skin.” Kim Kardashian, 42, is a fan of laser facials, and often posts about her treatments on Instagram. Jabbar adds: “Your forties are a great time to try laser treatments, to reduce the visibility of wrinkles and boost the overall health and appearance of your skin. From laser skin resurfacing treatments to IPL [intense pulsed light] facials that reduce hyperpigmentation and sun spots, lasers are a versatile and non-invasive option which can restore a youthful glow to your skin.” In your fifties and beyond “In your fifties and beyond, keeping focused on collagen stimulation with similar approaches to our forties certainly helps a lot,” says Shotter. “But in our fifties, we often start to notice many more visible signs of ageing, including pigmentation and skin wrinkling (elastosis). Using deeper chemical peels or resurfacing laser techniques, which may carry a little downtime, but are worthwhile for the results.” For this age range, she says skin hydration “is also often a higher concern than in younger years”, so hydrating facials are an excellent choice too. While Hydrafacials are great in your twenties, they’re equally beneficial in your fifties and beyond – singer and actor Jennifer Lopez, 54, recently collaborated with the brand for her own ‘JLo Beauty Booster’ that can come as part of the treatment. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live What is the TikTok ‘carnivore diet’ trend and is it actually good for you? How to save money on your summer barbecue as prices soar Exercise and yoga can help improve lung function in adults with asthma – study

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Sometime this summer, if President Vladimir Putin can be believed, Russia moved some of its short-range nuclear weapons into Belarus, closer to Ukraine and onto NATO's doorstep. The declared deployment of the Russian weapons on the territory of its neighbor and loyal ally marks a new stage in the Kremlin’s nuclear saber-rattling over its invasion of Ukraine and another bid to discourage the West from increasing military support to Kyiv. Neither Putin nor his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, said how many were moved — only that Soviet-era facilities in the country were readied to accommodate them, and that Belarusian pilots and missile crews were trained to use them. The U.S. and NATO haven’t confirmed the move. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg denounced Moscow’s rhetoric as “dangerous and reckless,” but said earlier this month the alliance hasn’t seen any change in Russia’s nuclear posture. While some experts doubt the claims by Putin and Lukashenko, others note that Western intelligence might be unable to monitor such movement. Earlier this month, CNN quoted U.S. intelligence officials as saying they had no reason to doubt Putin’s claim about the delivery of the first batch of the weapons to Belarus and noted it could be challenging for the U.S. to track them. Unlike nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles that can destroy entire cities, tactical nuclear weapons for use against troops on the battlefield can have a yield as small as about 1 kiloton. The U.S. bomb in Hiroshima in World War II was 15 kilotons. The devices are compact: Used on bombs, missiles and artillery shells, they could be discreetly carried on a truck or plane. Aliaksandr Alesin, an independent Minsk-based military analyst, said the weapons use containers that emit no radiation and could have been flown into Belarus without Western intelligence seeing it. “They easily fit in a regular Il-76 transport plane,” Alesin said. “There are dozens of flights a day, and it’s very difficult to track down that special flight. The Americans could fail to monitor it.” Belarus has 25 underground facilities built during the Cold War for nuclear-tipped intermediate-range missiles that can withstand missile attacks, Alesin said. Only five or six such depots could actually store tactical nuclear weapons, he added, but the military operates at all of them to fool Western intelligence. Early in the war, Putin referenced his nuclear arsenal by vowing repeatedly to use “all means” necessary to protect Russia. He has toned down his statements recently, but a top lieutenant continues to dangle the prospect with terrifying ease. Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council who served as a placeholder president in 2008-12 because Putin was term-limited, unleashes near-daily threats that Moscow won’t hesitate to use nuclear weapons. In a recent article, Medvedev said “the apocalypse isn’t just possible but quite likely,” and the only way to avoid it is to bow to Russian demands. The world faces a confrontation "far worse than during the Cuban missile crisis because our enemies have decided to really defeat Russia, the largest nuclear power,” he wrote. Many Western observers dismiss that as bluster. Putin seems to have dialed down his nuclear rhetoric after getting signals to do so from China, said Keir Giles, a Russia expert at Chatham House. “The evident Chinese displeasure did have an effect and may have been accompanied by private messaging to Russia,” Giles told The Associated Press. Moscow’s defense doctrine envisages a nuclear response to an atomic strike or even an attack with conventional weapons that “threaten the very existence of the Russian state.” That vague wording has led some Russian experts to urge the Kremlin to spell out those conditions in more detail and force the West to take the warnings more seriously. “The possibility of using nuclear weapons in the current conflict mustn’t be concealed,” said Dmitry Trenin, who headed the Moscow Carnegie Center for 14 years before joining Moscow’s state-funded Institute for World Economy and International Relations. “The real, not theoretical, perspective of it should create stimuli for stopping the escalation of the war and eventually set the stage for a strategic balance in Europe that would be acceptable to us,” he wrote recently. Western beliefs that Putin is bluffing about using nuclear weapons “is an extremely dangerous delusion,” Trenin said. Sergei Karaganov, a top Russian foreign affairs expert who advises Putin’s Security Council, said Moscow should make its nuclear threats more specific in order to “break the will of the West” and force it to stop supporting Ukraine as it seeks to reclaim Russian-held areas in a grinding counteroffensive. “It’s necessary to restore the fear of nuclear escalation; otherwise mankind is doomed,” he said, suggesting Russia establish a “ladder" of accelerating actions. Deploying nuclear weapons in Belarus was the first step, Karaganov said, with perhaps a follow-up of warning ethnic Russians in countries supporting Ukraine to evacuate areas near facilities that could be nuclear targets. If that doesn’t work, Karaganov suggested a Russian nuclear strike on Poland, alleging Washington wouldn’t dare respond in kind to protect a NATO ally, for fear of igniting a global war. “If we build the right strategy of intimidation and even the use of it, the risk of a retaliatory nuclear or any other strike on our territory could be reduced to a minimum,” he said. “Only if a madman who hates his own country sits in the White House would America risk to launch a strike ‘in the defense’ of the Europeans and draw a response, sacrificing Boston for Poznan.” The Moscow-based Council of Foreign and Defense Policies, a panel of leading military and foreign policy experts that includes Karaganov, denounced his comments as “a direct threat to all of mankind.” While pro-Kremlin analysts floated such scenarios, Lukashenko, the Belarusian leader, says hosting Russian nuclear weapons in his country is meant to deter aggression by Poland. He claimed a number of nuclear weapons were flown to Belarus without Western intelligence noticing, with the rest coming later this year. Officials in Moscow and Minsk said the warheads could be carried by Belarusian Su-25 ground attack jets or fitted to short-range Iskander missiles. Giles, of Chatham House, said the deployment was about “cementing Putin’s control over Belarus” and did not offer Moscow any military advantage over placing them in Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad that borders Poland and Lithuania. The West should recognize this as a ploy "that has far more to do with Russia’s ambitions for Belarus than any genuine impact on European security beyond that,” Giles said. Some observers question whether the deployment to Belarus has even happened. Miles Pomper, a senior fellow at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute, challenged Lukashenko’s claim that nuclear weapons were covertly flown to Belarus. They are normally moved by rail, he said, and there are no signs of "the support elements that you would see that would go with shipments of weapons.” Others note Russia could have deployed the weapons without adhering to protocols used in the 1990s, when Moscow wanted to show the West its nuclear arsenal was secure amid economic and political turmoil. Belarusian military analyst Valery Karbalevich said keeping such details secret could be a Kremlin strategy of "applying permanent pressure and blackmailing Ukraine and the West. The unknown scares more than certainty.” Alesin, the Minsk-based analyst, argued that U.S. and NATO may play down the deployment of nuclear weapons to Belarus because they pose a threat the West finds difficult to counter. “The Belarusian nuclear balcony will hang over a large part of Europe. But they prefer to pretend that there is no threat, and the Kremlin is just trying to scare the West,” he said. If Putin decides to use nuclear weapons, he may do it from Belarus in hopes that a Western response would target that country instead of Russia, Alesin said. The political opposition to Lukashenko warns that such a deployment turns Belarus into a hostage of the Kremlin. While Lukashenko sees such weapons as a “nuclear umbrella" protecting the country, "they turn Belarus into a target,” said exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who tried to unseat the authoritarian leader in a 2020 election widely viewed as fraudulent. “We are telling the world that preventative measures, political pressure and sanctions are needed to resist the deployment of nuclear weapons to Belarus," she said. "Regrettably, we haven’t seen a strong Western reaction yet.” ___ Yuras Karmanau in Tallinn, Estonia, Jill Lawless in London and Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington contributed. ___ The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. ___ Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ireland won’t offer condolences to Russia if Putin dies, Varadkar says Ireland unlikely to offer condolences to Russia if Putin dies, Varadkar says Angry Russia refuses to speak at UN meeting on its attacks on Ukraine's key port city of Odesa.

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