Simple 2 - Ingredients - how many and what to do if one is missing
"I thought that imposing a '10 ingredients or less' limit to my recipes was going to be a big challenge but it was actually the biggest thrill. The temptation to add layer upon layer of flavour and texture is one I often happily fall for, but knowing that I couldn't do that here was a form of liberation." Yotam Ottolenghi
'10 ingredients or less' was the second version of 'simple that Ottolenghi imposes upon himself in his book Simple. It was obviously difficult for him to pare things back to a minimal number of ingredients. When I did my web browsing I found endless posts of cooking with less than five, or four or even three ingredients - and there was a very successful series of books called, simply, 4 ingredients and also Jamie Oliver has done one for five. So the fact that Ottolenghi can't get fewer than 10 is interesting. After all there are heaps of things you can do with just two - bread and cheese, flour and water, bacon and eggs - you get the idea. Mind you I suspect that some of those pushing recipes for the lower number of ingredients are actually using prepared spice mixes, sauces and other tins, packets and bottles. I know that Coles - who often have recipes with just a few ingredients use various products from their shelves. And the trouble here is that you could well be adding things - like sugar - that you don't really want. Mind you even Ottolenghi cheats in that he doesn't. include basics like oil, salt and pepper, and sometimes garlic in his ingredient count. But then neither do all those other purveyors of the 'look just a handful of ingredients' school. So I suspect that Ottolenghi is actually being rather more honest than some in the number of ingredients used.
"With the exception of harissa, though - one of my absolute pantry must-haves - and one recipe what has a tablespoon of sriracha in its dressing, I decided not to rely on ready-made chilli blends like Thai green or red curry pastes. There are some really good pastes available but, as freshness is so important to me, I'd rather make simple quick curry paste of my own, using a few key ingredients, than use an ingredient-packed ready-made version." Yotam Ottolenghi
Mind you he clearly doesn't count five-spice powder as fivesparate ingredients, or curry powder either. Now I'm sure that Madhur Jaffrey would have a word to say about that!
But I am sort of with him about the curry pastes. Although that said I do have a few jars of Patek's and Sharwood's curry pastes in my pantry for emergencies and when I'm feeling really lazy but fancy a curry. And also, like Ottolenghi, I do have a tendency to keep adding just that one more ingredient that I either have to get rid of (some leftover sauce or something from the fridge), or that I think might go with the food being prepared. I've never really been a 'less is more' person. I tend to overdo it, and just end up with a bit of a mish mash. When I have followed an actual very, very simple recipe I am often amazed at how good it is.
It is off-putting though isn't it to be confronted by a long list of ingredients. How many times have you been put off making something that looks wonderful by the page long list of ingredients? A lot of Asian food is like this, though actually when you look into it, the recipe is actually very simple. It is probably just a matter of assembling a lot of different spices, grinding them and adding to the dish at some point, or just assembling a lot of bottles of stuff that need to be added at different points. For me, more daunting than a long list of spices is a long list of herbs (they need to have the leaves picked off sometimes and sometimes be washed as well), or vegetables such as spinach, or celery that take comparatively long to prepare. Or complicated procedures. Yes, if I'm in the wrong mood I can indeed be put off by long lists of ingredients.
And I have to say that even the 'less than 10 ingredients' recipes in this book often have almost ten ingredients, plus those extra basics. There are none with just one or two.
Lots of them though have ingredients you may not recognise, may not wish to fork out large amounts of money to get or may not wish to travel long distances to find. An example is black garlic, or urfa chilli flakes. So what to do?
"many people fear that without all the correct ingredients on hand, a recipe simply won’t taste good. Fair point. And for a beginner cook, it’s an added point of panic in an already stressful new world. It’s a fear that clogs creativity, or worse yet, keeps people from expanding their culinary repertoire." Jessica Goldman Foung - Kitchn
The urfa chilli flakes? Easy - just use ordinary chilli flakes and Ottolenghi himself recommends this. Black garlic though! He doesn't offer an alternative, but says:
"Black garlic has a highly concentrated taste: liquorice meets balsamic meets the absolute essence of garlic. It's a quick way to inject a huge amount of flavour into a dish."
What to do? Do I lash out and spend $6.00 on a few cloves in Coles, or do I substitute? And if so what?
"To fill an ingredient gap, start by asking yourself what the ingredient does in the dish. Is it a sauce or a textural element? Does it lend a certain taste (salty, sweet, bitter), bulky meatiness, or color? When you’ve pinpointed an ingredient’s purpose, then try to find its food twin" Jessica Goldman Foung - Kitchn
The same lady also advised going to Google - well I did and I have to say that with black garlic I didn't find a lot of joy - roasted garlic or garlic + black pepper was all I found, which didn't sound very likely to me. So maybe this is one instance where one simply has to lash out and be extravagant. At least one would learn what it actually tastes like. And if I don't buy it they will stop stocking it. I confess I often find that foodies will extol the virtues of some particular spice - for example saffron - and then when you try it you wonder what all the fuss is about.
Anyway - to conclude the general stuff before moving on to a few recipes with a relatively pared back ingredient list - Ottolenghi is famous for long and complicated lists of ingredients and he obviously has trouble paring it all back - but at least he is honest about it. And after all it's the ingredients, and the combination thereof that make his recipes so interesting. Here are few identified as simple because they contain less than 10 ingredients. I have tried to stick to those which have only this 'simple' criterion.
Now I'm not a fan of Gorgonzola but helpfully he says: "I love the strong blue cheese here, but use any other cheese that you have around or prefer: it will work just as well." This recipe has just 6 ingredients and none of them uncommon.
Coconut crusted fish fingers (It's called Coconut and lime-crusted haddock on the Guardian site where I found this online version - the recipe is the same as in the book). 7 ingredients.
"The fish in this simple dish requires very little cooking, because it’s already semi-cured by the lime. Some of the delectable coconut crust will come off in the cooking, so make sure you don’t lose it: just spoon it from the tray and over the fish when you come to serve. Thanks to Jamie Kirkaldy, free-diver and fisherman extraordinaire."
This is offered as a side for roast chicken and also should be served warm so that the pecorino doesn't melt. 6 ingredients.
This looks absolutely yummy and has the added advantage of being able to be made in advance. 8 ingredients. I guess you could make it with any other stoned fruit, berries or nuts, but all the posts I saw described the peaches and raspberries as a match made in heaven. Peaches are coming into the shops now and raspberries are cheaper than blackberries, so maybe I should try next time a cake is required. Saturday perhaps. The kids are coming to dinner before they disappear to the US and Canada for 8 weeks.
How few ingredients can you get down to something that isn't interesting?
