From an early age I have enjoyed cooking. Because my parents ran a shop, I was often left to cook for my siblings and myself, and enjoyed experimenting with whatever I could find in the fridge and cupboards.

I invented the wonderful cupboard pie which consisted of ham, cheese, tuna, bacon, vegetables or whatever else I could find in the cupboards, piled into a pastry base, covered in beaten eggs and milk and baked. Several years later, I found that somebody else had also invented cupboard pie but they had named it Quiche.

When I left home and shared various houses and flats, I became famous among my friends for my ‘bung it’ cookery. The main strength of this style of cookery is that you don’t have to go shopping for special ingredients, you never get halfway through a recipe and realise something crucial is missing, and the permutations and possibilities are endless as you sling in a bit of this and a jollop of that, adding just a smidge of the other and garnishing with the merest soupçon of whatever is left in the salad drawer.

Of course, along the way you will create culinary masterpieces that would make angels weep with delight, and then not be able to remember how you did it, but on the other hand, if something is an unmitigated flop, you are less likely ever to produce it again than a herd of monkeys typing Shakespeare by mistake.

From time to time, when something works out well, I may share the discovery here on the blog. Those brave enough to try ‘bung it’ cookery themselves may discover a whole new world of gastronomic delights.

Cupboard Pie