Searching for an easy (but delicious) way out

Tell them there is always an easy way, if you know where to look.” Terry Pratchett

We have some very old (in the sense that we have known them a long time) and special friends coming over for dinner this weekend and I am trying to decide what to cook for them. French I think, because we have recently come back from there, and two of our friends, at least, are francophiles like us. And because they are special friends I want to cook them something special. But I have a very busy week and am running out of time.

Because we were mostly in the Languedoc area of France on this holiday I first thought I would make a cassoulet. But I have since discarded this idea, not only because of the time it takes to make it properly, but also because deep down I think this is a somewhat overrated dish. A bit stodgy? Not quite as tasty as it could be? But I will return to the topic of cassoulet some other time. It deserves a post of its own.

A few years ago I made a cookbook for my children (well the daughters-in-law really), on quickly prepared food because one of them asked for some ideas for quick food. I made a few cookbooks for them over the years - in retrospect I guess they were a forerunner of this blog, although obviously the emphasis was on recipes. And because it was for my children and I was trying to encourage them to cook, the emphasis was always on the easy.

Anyway I dug out the cookbook to see if I could get any ideas. And I also got out Delia's How to Cheat at Cooking for some ideas, and whilst I have not actually decided on anything from this or any other cookbook come to that, they did give me some ideas for an approach to a delicious meal, created without a lot of effort. Beginning with a first course of bits and pieces - some bought, some created quickly. An hors d'oeuvre trolley if you will. Do you remember them? Very sixties and seventies I think. And my spread will include some 60s and 70s things.

“Endeavour to play easy pieces well and with elegance; that is better than to play difficult pieces badly.” Robert Schumann

It seems to me that there are two contradictory things going on in the world of cooking these days. Firstly you have the amazingly elaborate - epitomised by the Master Chef franchise on television. Is this something to aspire to for normal people?

"A look at your TV will reveal programmes that persist in ridiculing and humiliating people who can't cook (since they've never been taught), all the while perpetuating the myth that cooking skills belong to the privileged few." Delia Smith

I think it's like everything amazing - from sport, to cooking, through the arts and business life. It's something to aspire to - or something to make you feel very ordinary and a failure. People like to watch people being humiliated - it's the slipping on a banana skin thing. If you watch any of those candid camera type shows (I don't - but I have seen glimpses) - the vast majority of the shots are of people having an accident of some kind. I suspect that these TV programmes mostly make people feel failures - leading to them never trying. But I guess it does pull out the exceptional people and give them a chance that they might not otherwise have had, to strut their stuff. We should admire excellence. And we should aspire to better things. And without a doubt, Master Chef has launched some into successful careers in the world of food.

“Simplicity is, as simple as you make it.” Anthony Liccione

On the other hand you have the messiahs of the easy, quick and simple - 'You too can do this' - they are saying. In this bracket are Jamie, Delia, Nigella, Donna Hay, Bill Granger, delicious magazine ... et al. There are too many to list here. And all power to them really. They are on a mission - particularly the first two - to encourage 'ordinary' people into cooking for themselves.

"Cooking does not belong exclusively to professional chefs (TV or otherwise). Home cooking always has been, and always will be, something different" Delia Smith

Dare we say that home cooking is, indeed, the main game. These cooks' books and programs are easy on the eye, informative and chirpy in their individual ways. Their books are bestsellers, but whether it really translates into people previously addicted to fast food and takeaways now cooking healthy meals for themselves I really don't know. Somebody should do some research on this.

And I suppose, now that I think about it, there is also an absolute plethora of places in which to eat at a reasonable price these days. Every suburb has heaps of them - it's not just confined to the city centre and the trendy inner city haunts of the urban hipster. Which is another reason why people don't cook any more.

But back to my dilemma. First course sorted. Second course - no time to cruise through all the cookbooks looking for ideas, so I shall extemporise on a theme as it were. Because I have been cooking for years, and I suppose, know what goes with what. And I know where to look for particular recipes. I also have in mind a dish I ate in France, but have so far failed to replicate faithfully. I'll give it one more go. And it's simple, but hopefully elegant. Well maybe not elegant, for it is basically peasant food - on which all haute cuisine rests. And I also the world's worst at 'plating' food elegantly. A pot will just be plonked on the table for people to help themselves.

“In normal life, "simplicity" is synonymous with "easy to do," but when a chef uses the word, it means "takes a lifetime to learn.” Bill Buford

For dessert - I have a few ideas - a couple from Delia and one, variations of which I have seen here and there.

it will be a lazy meal, because I'm basically a lazy person in all sorts of ways. There will be something though - so never fear friends, if you are reading this. But it won't be cassoulet I'm afraid. When I looked for quotes based on the word 'easy' I found that the majority were very derogatory of 'easy'. 'Difficult' is much more admirable. Sometimes it is - yes - but sometimes easy is also good - and delicious in this context -and should not be scorned for it's simplicity. True elegance, after all, is often extremely simple - at least superficially. Less is more and all that.

“I will always choose a lazy person to do a difficult job because he will find an easy way to do it.” Zlad K. Abdelnour

I hope that's me.