There are, as we all know, and broadly speaking, three kinds of cooks. There are the Deliacolytes who follow recipes so closely that they leave streaks of snot on the page. There are those – most of us, I’ll say – who’ll have a look at a recipe and vaguely follow it here and there but largely end up with something they can to some extent call their own. Then there are those who don’t bother with recipes at all and good luck to them.

There isn’t of course a right or wrong way, though I reckon types 2 and 3 probably have more fun in the kitchen than type 1. I tend to hover between the last two, so when Rosie sent me this beaut of a recipe from the terrific Uyen Luu I had a look and thought I might muck about with it and see where we ended up. Maybe it could do with some garlic in the dressing, a splash of fish sauce perhaps. And then I decided maybe I should just put my faith in Uyen, who teaches cookery, and do what she says.

Or, close enough. I omitted the birdseye chilli because I’m a wuss and it was quite hot enough, though if you’re going for full-on Szechuan, eye-watering heat then bung it in. Oh, and my aubergines needed a bit longer but that’s because I have an insultingly small frying pan. Other than that I followed it to the letter, adding some toasted peanuts as suggested, and it was just splendid. 

So why am I writing this? Erm. Good question James. Partly I’m saying that while it’s often more fun to take a recipe and run with it, occasionally it’s rather encouraging just to leave yourself in the hands of the recipe writer and trust they’ll see you through.

A coda on recipe writing: I’ve known writers, bloggers, cookers and cheffers to get a bit arsey when someone adapts one of their recipes, even with a credit. I’d have thought this is preferable to doing the above without crediting the author, or worse, copying the recipe verbatim which happens more than you’d think, but seemingly not. There is no such thing as a perfect recipe. A tweak doesn’t have to imply an improvement, a criticism, a subversion. Recipes are fluid and sometimes infinitely adaptable. That’s what makes cooking fun.

A second, extended outro: Sometimes, however, a recipe is just fine as it is. With the permission of its original author there’s nowt wrong with re-publishing it yourself. You don’t have to add fish sauce just in order to lay some claim of ownership. Especially if it’s a cake.

Are you a Deliacolyte, a tweaker, or a freestyler?