Impromptu needs planning

"It is already afternoon. What am I going to cook? I do not want the sense of summer ease to end. I do not want to drive myself to distraction. Yet, I do want the evening to be imbued with a certain degree of elegance and grace. I want the food to be superb - how could I be satisfied with anything else? - and the cooking to be easy. It CAN be done." Madhur Jaffrey

Summer is technically here, although as I sit here wrapped up in a jumper, cardigan and scarf, and look out of the window at grey skies, it's hard to imagine summer. But I'll try. Summer brings with it lots of opportunities for impromptu entertaining, or slightly better organised informal entertaining, and you will find all the magazines going on about what fun it is to throw an impromptu party - like Madhur Jaffrey speaking in the introduction to her book for family and friends. Yes it can be done but not without planning.

By planning I do not mean planning in advance for a particular event, but planning for emergencies. Having a whole host of things on hand with which to throw together a wonderful meal.

Part of being a good cook is knowing what to have on hand - in your fridge and in your store cupboard, maybe even in your garden if you have green fingers. And I'm probably preaching to the converted here, as I'm sure that you know what I'm talking about. If you've got pasta, rice, vegetables, some cooked meats or tinned or smoked fish, some cream, cheese, wine, oil, herbs and spices then you can do anything. You can probably even produce something for someone with specific dietary problems.

And we are also so spoilt these days by what's available in your local supermarket - classy bread, a wide range of sliced meats, jars and jars of pickles and pastes and salsas and relishes - although one step up the scale, you will have your own home-made varieties of these already. Cheese from all over the world, and designer tomatoes. Then you can produce something like this - I confess I was somewhat taken by this - simple but Christmassy and a little bit different. No cooking required here. And the kids would love preparing it whilst you are whipping up your pasta or your stir-fry or your barbecued prawns - now you would have had to go to the shop for the prawns - unless you had some in the freezer I guess.

It's from the Fresh magazine. In my youth it would not have been possible - no cherry tomatoes, no bocconcini, no salami even, though there would have been ham. No olives either most likely. And I guess you could do the same kind of thing with fruit. It's just a couple of things on a toothpick, arranged in a loose kind of circle and drizzled with oil. Sure - you might have had to run to the supermarket, but actually if you are a good planner, then you might well have had most of the ingredients in your fridge anyway. I always have some salami and ham in there, just in case. Cherry tomatoes too. The bocconcini might be the only thing I wouldn't have as a matter of course - they go off too fast. But there's always cheese of some kind or other.

"Improvisation is key to human progress and will probably be even more important in times to come if all the disaster scenarios come to pass. But creating a meal is a very small and insignificant example of improvisation - and we should be grateful that we live in a society where creating something from a vast array of possible ingredients is so everyday." Inside my fridge - my first post

I think it was Robert Carrier who first alerted me to making sure that I had emergency supplies in my kitchen, in his Robert Carrier Cookbook, his second major work. The supplies were somewhat different back then - I vaguely remember that he had a lot of tinned fruit and vegetables. I know that you can still get these, and they are useful - particularly tinned beans and tinned tomatoes. I know that many people still use them a lot, otherwise they would not still be on the supermarket shelves, but the more adventurous cooks amongst us probably would eschew tinned peaches for fresh ones these days. I don't think he mentioned couscous or Asian noodles - it was before his Moroccan conversion, but nevertheless the principle was one worth thinking about and it is still relevant.

I suppose I have learnt over the many years of my cooking life how to improvise from what I have available. This week I am very low on fresh vegetables for example other than salad, and carrots, and so I have had to improvise meals around them. But that's a good challenge that I enjoy. Like tomorrow I have to assemble a picnic to take to my grandchildren's end of year school concert. I only learnt about this today and have had no time today to think much about it - so that will be my challenge for tomorrow. Some kind of quiche I expect. Carrots and salami perhaps? I saw that combination in a cookbook somewhere. I think in one of Bert Greene's books. Or I could roast the carrots and make a salad with some potatoes and frozen peas - plus the salami.

“improvising is wonderful. But, the thing is that you cannot improvise unless you know exactly what you're doing.” Christopher Walken

One of my very first quotes that one - and a good one.

For the learners amongst us I found a Guardian list of 101 simple, quick foods for a picnic - which, of course, could be a cold meal as well. Here's one example, just to give you a taste of what's there - something different to do with the carrots - Peeled grated carrots with chopped dates - Mix with cumin, minced chilli, lemon or lime juice, mint or parsley. There are some amazingly good suggestions there and all possible if you have planned your store cupboards well.

And of course the planning also has to include the right implements - knives, bowls, food processors, pots and pans, griddles etc. etc.

So forget the word impromptu - or redefine it because you can't really do impromptu without having planned your kitchen with forethought.