My mother was a demi-Bohemian, or as much as one could be on £700 a year. She never made egg and chips or meat and two veg, but recycled a series of dishes that her family liked, and were cheap, but that sounded vaguely exotic — we’re talking about the mid-60s here: macaroni cheese, spag bol, tuna kedgeree and moussaka.

Somehow, on leaving home in the early Seventies, the food went with me, though I don’t remember ever seeing a recipe or having cooked at home.

Anyway, in 1975 I fetched up in a lefty-feminist commune in Manchester, where male housework was the minimum qualification for acceptance, and I took my weekly turn as chef, attempting to replicate what I remembered of Mum’s culinary repertoire — week in, week out.

After six months remarks began to be made, and sharp questions asked about what was for supper that night. “Lobster surprise,” I once told them, the surprise being that there was no lobster. If they were lucky, however, it was goulash night, because goulash was, and still is, my most successful dish.

Method

1 Cut up some onions. Three maybe? Two, possibly. Pre-heat some oil in a casserole. Put in onions and two bay leaves. OK, one if you prefer one.

2 While the onions are turning “golden brown”, cut up some beef into inch cubes. Bung that in with the onions. I used to sprinkle salt over the meat at that point, but it kills you, whatever they say in fairy tales. Stir, and keep stirring. This dish is about 50 per cent stirring. Brown the beef “sealing in the juices” or whatever.

3 That’s the fiddly bit, now for the sloshing. Put in half a tube of tomato purée, one tin of tomatoes, a quarter of a tube of garlic paste, a glass of red wine, a severe sprinkling of mixed herbs and two pinches of caraway seeds. Nearly forgot the Hungarian paprika. Put that in too, as much as you like. Stir. Bring to the bubble and then to the simmer. Stir. Stir. Turn down for a while.

4 Wash, peel and cut up some potatoes. Parboil them. The objective is to have them almost edible by the time the meat is done. So keep stirring and after an hour or so sample the meat. Is it done? Excellent! Tip the drained potatoes into the casserole. Stir.

5 Now, it’s almost ready. The potatoes are beginning to come apart in the sauce. Stir. Remove from the heat , and stir in half a pot of sour cream. Serve with a sigh of absolute finality. You will find this delicious.

How to enter the competition

Do you have your own secret recipe? A family favourite passed on through generations or a dish you learnt from your best friend? If you’d like to share it then send it to us and we’ll consider it for publication. If it arrives before 5pm on May 27, it will automatically be entered for our Reader’s Recipe Exchange competition. Gordon Ramsay will select his five favourites and each winner will receive Waitrose vouchers worth £150 (also redeemable at John Lewis).

Send your favourite family recipes to recipeexchange@thetimes.co.uk or post them online by clicking here.

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