Cooking with simplicity

Morning Glory

Morning Glory

Obsessive cook
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Maidstone, Kent, UK
Increasingly, I find myself creating recipes which are simple and straightforward. I think it began when my health was so bad that I could barely stand long enough to cook anything. Although I'm a bit better now, I still find I'm drawn to cook in that way. There is something satisfying about creating complex flavours and attractive looking dishes from basic ingredients and methods.

What are your thoughts?
 
I have also needed to make things easier. I have reworked a lot of my recipes. Instead of everything from scratch I use canned or prepared items to replace some of the ingredients.
 
Good question! I definitely lean toward simpler things, and I think there’s something to be said for being able to craft a delicious meal out of five ingredients.

Too many things in a dish, the flavors compete with each other and the whole thing becomes muddled.

Also, most professionals chefs that I’ve read say over and over again that it’s not the complexity of a dish that makes it, it’s using the highest quality ingredients you can and just keeping it simple so those can shine.
 
Tonight’s supper is very simple. I found some bits of rotisserie chicken in the freezer, a little jar of tomato-ricotta pesto in the cupboard, I’m boiling some spaghetti, they’ll all get tossed together topped with some bread crumbs I’m crisping up in a skillet.

***POOF!*** - posh restaurant dish for mere pennies!
 
Simple!

IMG_2363.jpeg
 
TastyReuben said:
Tonight’s supper is very simple. I found some bits of rotisserie chicken in the freezer, a little jar of tomato-ricotta pesto in the cupboard, I’m boiling some spaghetti, they’ll all get tossed together topped with some bread crumbs I’m crisping up in a skillet.

***POOF!*** - posh restaurant dish for mere pennies!
Click to expand...
And only one dish to wash!!! 👏
 
I do both
I prefer SE Asian food and it often uses spice pastes with quite a lot of ingredients. Sometimes I make them from scratch, sometimes I "doctor" bought stuff.
But I can also really enjoy simple dishes with just a few ingredients

Besides that, I like stews & curries. Just a big pot on the fire, add what you got then freeze some in portions
I would call it simple as timing is not really important and lots of choice in ingredients, size of cuts and whatever
 
Morning Glory said:
There is something satisfying about creating complex flavours and attractive looking dishes from basic ingredients and methods.
Click to expand...
Absolutely. I'm a minimalist cook at heart and simplicity is something I'm very tuned into. Also am fascinated by the physics and chemistry of food and cooking - combinations, methods, steps - what makes things turn out a certain way, flavour, texture and so on, and the simplest, most elegant methods to get there. A lot of my often-made or what I might call my signature dishes are very simple but interestingly often also get the most compliments.
 
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Morning Glory said:
Increasingly, I find myself creating recipes which are simple and straightforward. I think it began when my health was so bad that I could barely stand long enough to cook anything. Although I'm a bit better now, I still find I'm drawn to cook in that way. There is something satisfying about creating complex flavours and attractive looking dishes from basic ingredients and methods.

What are your thoughts?
Click to expand...
I do this too. I don't really do super fancy, I just try to make sure that whatever I'm doing, I do it the best I can with the best ingredients. Like my sourdough bread. It's not fancy at all, I just try to make it as best I can. I love how texture is just as important as flavor. How the flavors work together and play their role in the dish. Similar to guitar harmonies; you have one note (flavor) that sounds and is great on it's own, and then you have another note (a different ingredient) which is also great on its own, but when they are use together, properly they create a separate "third sound" (a combination of the other ingredients together, a harmony that is pleasing) that are amazing and delicious and would not be possible without the base notes they came from, yet is still impossible to achieve without the ingredients that got it there.

For clarification, Dr. Pepper contains butterscotch. You don't taste the butterscotch, but that ingredient, combined with another ingredient, created something (a harmony and separate combined flavor) that is responsible for the overall flavor profile that is Dr. Pepper.
 
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