World's Simplest Recipes

[BadRabbit]

This weekend I made a couple of my old standbys and realized that the two most popular dishes I made were both essentially 3 ingredients or less (not inculding S&P).

Fried cornbread

Fine ground corn meal (must be fine or extra fine ground)

Water

Salt

Oil for frying

Mix 1 tsp kosher salt per cup of corn meal. Add water until batter is considerably wetter than pancake batter about 125-150% of meal by volume.

Note: I've never actually measured the water so this is just a guess. You really just want it wet enough to spread out where there is an edge that is really thin and crispy.

Pour into just enough hot oil to cover the bottom of a cast iron pan. Use spatula to spread out so the edges are thinner than the middle (you still want the middle to be about 1/4 in). Fry until golden brown on both sides.

Grilled Spring Onions

Vidalia Sping Onions

Olive Oil

S&P

Cut root tip off onions. Lightly coat with olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste. Toss on grill and cook until soft.

What are your favorite simple recipes?

Edit: Clarifying directions

Edited February 28, 2011 by BadRabbit (log)

[gfweb]

Potatoes au gratin- sliced yukon golds, hint of garlic,salt, pepper, cream.

[Paul Bacino]

Good Pasta, garlic, olive oil..parsley ( basil ) Locatelli to finish

[HungryC]

One perfectly poached egg, on brioche toast, w s&p. 'Course, the brioche is homemade, so that might disqualify it as simple.

[BadRabbit]

One perfectly poached egg, on brioche toast, w s&p. 'Course, the brioche is homemade, so that might disqualify it as simple.

I think that would only count if one had an excellent bakery nearby where one could acquire the brioche. I made some last weekend and simple is certainly not how I would qualify it.

[dcarch]

Chinese "white chopped chicken".

Basically plain boiled to perfection, free-range chickens.

Dip in a little pepper salt mix.

If you have not tried it, there is no way I can tell you how good it is.

dcarch

[Kim Shook]

Steamed crabs with Old Bay.

[Katie Meadow]

Love this topic. I used to try and collect 5-ingredient recipes, but 3 is even better. One of my favorites: summer tomatoes, chopped and barely warmed and left to muddle in a bowl with salt and pepper, a pat of butter, eaten over hot freshly cooked pasta or basmatti rice.

[rebecca]

roasted chicken. olive oil, s&p, a fresh organic local chicken, and some time in a toasty oven. throw some potatoes in there if you're feeling crazy.

[Wholemeal Crank]

Haven't gotten this one down 100% yet, but Chocolate Chantilly is just water and chocolate. I think another couple of tries and it will be a go-to standby, along with a variety of simple breads (flour, water, yeast, salt); garlic potatoes (garlic, potatoes, olive oil, salt & pepper)....and that's about where I hit a wall.

Several other super simple recipes just cross the threshold--like Mujadarrah, lentils, rice, onions, olive oil; or zuppa di farro (spelt or barley, mint, pecorino cheese, good stock).

[BadRabbit]

Just to clarify, I didn't mean to set an arbitrary threshold. 3 ingredients just happened to be what I observed this weekend. 4 and 5 ingredient recipes certainly fit into the discusssion.

[PetersCreek]

I reconstructed this salad from a dish I had at a local sushi bar:

Snow crab leg meat, whole

Cucumber, sliced into "noodles"

- toss with a splash of sushi vinegar,

- add a touch of sesame oil,

- garnish with a couple of pinches of sesame seed

This is a really refreshing summertime salad.

[Mjx]

Peposo: cubed beef (about a kilo), crushed tomatoes (enough to mostly cover the beef), a few cloves of garlic, couple of teaspoons (no, not a typo) of ground pepper, some water, and a glass of wine.

Combine the first four ingredients in a pot, add enough water to cover whatever the tomato doesn't cover, simmer covered for a couple of hours, add the wine, cook another hour (last half hour or so with the lid off, so it reduces), and you're good. Great on its own, over gnocchi it's just incredible.

Traditionally, you don't even brown the beef, but I like the extra layer of flavour you get from that, so I do.

[dcarch]

How about one ingredient?

If you go to a Chinese restaurant and order live shrimps.

This is how they serve the shrimps:

Steamed shrimps. No salt, no oil, no anything.

As a matter of fact, how many ingredients do you think is in sashimi?

dcarch

Edited February 28, 2011 by dcarch (log)

[maggiethecat]

My mother's "Scotch Omelet" -- really a bread pudding made with a couple of cups of cheddar. Four ingredients (plus s&p) to bliss.

[ambra]

Does Singapore Chicken and Rice count? Or does the making of the sauce take the simplicity out of it? I LOVE that dish even in it's most simplest form: boil a chicken with ginger, spring onion and salt. Saute chopped garlic and ginger add rice and cook using broth from chicken. But then there's the sauce. It's really just a combination of a bunch of ingredients though so it's still pretty simple. I forgot the exact recipe, but it's the broth, red chili sauce, spring onion, for sure. Can't remember the rest off hand.

I also love potatoes, peppers and onions. Delicious and simple. Pasta with Cime di rapa, anchovy, garlic and red hot pepper another fave. Maybe too many ingredients too.

[rebecca]

potatoes, onion, apple and sausage, sauteed together, maybe with oregano or other herbs. really delicious and hearty.

and how about desserts? I saw a recipe once for something that was cream, sugar and lime juice. the cream was simmered, sugar added and then the lime, then it was put into dishes and allowed to sit, and i guess to curdle and set. has anyone heard of this, or am I just making it up?

[rarerollingobject]

potatoes, onion, apple and sausage, sauteed together, maybe with oregano or other herbs. really delicious and hearty.

and how about desserts? I saw a recipe once for something that was cream, sugar and lime juice. the cream was simmered, sugar added and then the lime, then it was put into dishes and allowed to sit, and i guess to curdle and set. has anyone heard of this, or am I just making it up?

That's called a posset. Originates from the Middle Ages, actually. Recipe I use is here (I don't bother with the sauce) and you're right, it's really easy and tasty.

[IndyRob]

While cooking some fettucine, saute some bite sized pieces pieces of shrimp in (preferably herbed) oil. Remove from pan and pour in some cream, and a spoonful of pesto. Mix and reduce slightly. Combine pasta, shrimp and sauce.

If on Top Chef, add some lemon juice and garnish with chopped fresh basil.

[tpogue@comcast.net]

Here's one I make often. It won a prize from the Atlanta Constitution.

Curried Lamb Chops

Recipe By: Leslie Revsin

Published in: The Simpler The Better, page 108

Ingredients

2 tablespoons Flour

1 tablespoons Curry Powder

4 lamb chops - loin -- 2" thick

1 tablespoons Lemon Juice -- fresh

1 tablespoons Vegetable oil

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Mix flour with curry powder. Season with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper. Dip both sides of chops into lemon juice. Then dredge well in season flolur.

2. Heat oil in a large, ovenproof skillet over medium high heat. Add chops and cook first side until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Turn over and lightly brown second side, 1 to 2 minutes. Pour off fat from pan.

3. Transfer to oven and roast, turning once, until medium rare, 8 to 10 minutes.

Serve hot.

Variation:

Not a curry fan? Then try brushing both sides of the chops with a mixture of mustard and lemon juice before dredging in flour.

Recipe Notes

this is the perfect recipe to use on those humongus lamb chops you get at Costco or Sams Club.

I did this 12//04 using a rack of lamb cut into chops. Fabulous. No oven time required with these little gems.

Terry

The new edition of

Cyberfeasts and Foodstocks

Second Helping

is available

<http://www.cyberfeasts.com/cookbook2.htm>

[runwestierun]

Jim Lahey's no-knead bread.

Bread flour, salt, yeast and water get mixed in a bowl that sits on the countertop overnight. Then you flop the dough out onto a board and let it sit. Then you flop the dough into a searing hot dry ungreased dutch oven and let it bake. Voila! Crusty rustic bread.

[Tri2Cook]

Less is never more. Sometimes less is better... but it's not more.

Yes, I understand the point being made. It's just one of those buzz-phrases I don't love.

Without going into the Alice Waters "all we are saying is give a peach a chance" zone, I agree that sometimes keeping it simple is the best way to go. Fresh tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, salt and fresh basil really doesn't need anything else except some pasta and a fork.

[IndyRob]

My son had bought some pork ribs and wanted and easy way to cook good ones for his GF. I thought back to a method I got from Top Secret Restaurnt Recipes for Tony Roma's ribs that was easy to convey in a minute....

Put a sheet of aluminum foil on a sheet pan. Cover half with barbecue sauce. Put ribs on top of that. Cover ribs with more barbecue sauce. Fold other half of aluminum foil over the ribs. Seal, but leave the bone tips exposed. Roast at 300F for a couple of hours until meat is meat has retreated from the bone tips and is falling off the bone. Optionally, finish on grill or under broiler.

This will not pass the purist test, but is extremely simple and will wow most.

*Simple cleanup of sheet pan requires medium or large dog - sold separately.

[djyee100]

Freshly made basil pesto with spaghetti. It's perfect. Pesto has only 5 ingredients that go into the blender: basil, oil, pinenuts, garlic, cheese.

[janeer]

Fried cornbread

Fine ground corn meal (must be fine or extra fine ground)

Water

Salt

Oil for frying

Mix 1 tsp kosher salt per cup of corn meal. Add water until batter is considerably wetter than pancake batter about 125-150% of meal by volume.

Note: I've never actually measured the water so this is just a guess. You really just want it wet enough to spread out where there is an edge that is really thin and crispy.

Pour into just enough hot oil to cover the bottom of a cast iron pan. Use spatula to spread out so the edges are thinner than the middle (you still want the middle to be about 1/4 in). Fry until golden brown on both sides.

This sounds suspiciously like a thin jonnycake to me. Which, yes, is perfection. Although you use water, like we use for thick ones.

In addition to corn things, I think a fresh tomato sauce--tomatoes, olive oil, salt, cooked for a few minutes, is unbeatable.

And I adore a salad of fresh pineapple, EVO, salt, and chopped basil or coriander. People I serve it to go crazy.

Onion rings: sweet onions, buttermilk, flour, salt, cayenne, fried in oil

A parsley omelet--eggs, parsley, salt, pepper, cooked gently in butter, not browned.

Simple is best.