Simplicity is key.
Life can be difficult. It can even be daunting. When you come home from a hard day of wrangling penguins, the last thing you want to do is put together a meal with 27 different ingredients.
So you reach into the larder (does anyone even have a larder anymore? When's the last time you saw the word "larder"?) and pull out a handful of ingredients. No more than five. And you make a meal, or at least a dish.
It may not be as complexly flavored as the one with 27 ingredients, but on the other hand, there is less to go wrong, too. It's clean. Efficient. Simple.
Simplicity is key.
And from such simplicity can come bold flavors. We made a pot roast out of five ingredients, and it is so roundly delectable that we're calling it Five-Ingredient Bourguignon.
That may be stretching the point, but only a little. We began with a hunk of meat (top or bottom round; we used top) and we braised it until tender in red wine with onions and thyme.
The key is to cook the meat at a low simmer for a long time (ours took a little under two hours). This not only makes what is typically a tough piece of meat deliciously tender, but it also gives a chance for the acidity in the wine to mellow out as the alcohol cooks away.
It's a breeze to make, and the result is a hearty roast, just right for a cold winter's night.
For a side dish to stand up to the beef -- or an excellent vegetarian main course -- you might want to consider White Beans With Rosemary and Garlic.
Naturally, this is a dish of white beans that has been flavored with rosemary and garlic, plus olive oil and salt. But the recipe comes from Alice Waters, who revolutionized American cooking with her world-famous restaurant Chez Panisse, so you know it is going to be extra good.
And so it is. Beans, garlic and rosemary combine to bring out an almost unworldly earthiness in each other; it is a truly great grouping of flavors. Waters' recipe calls for soaking beans overnight and then simmering them for a couple of hours, but we took the easy way out and used beans from a can.
It was superb.
And so was Teriyaki Chicken With Bok Choy. Bottled teriyaki sauce adds just the right sweet-spicy notes to chicken that play beautifully off the mildly bitter taste of the bok choy. Serve it on rice and you have a satisfying, easy meal.
Even faster and easier, though, is Crispy-Coated Lemon-Pepper Salmon. The secret to this is lemon-pepper-flavored panko bread crumbs. They add a snap of lemon and a hint of black pepper to salmon, which goes perfectly with them.
The only other ingredients needed are buttermilk and melted butter, both of which help the bread crumbs adhere to the fish. It all takes the salmon, which is already great, and makes it better.
There is just something magical about the way Italian sausage blends with sauteed onion and the natural sweetness of a mild pepper. And it's even better when it is sandwiched between two pieces of good crusty bread.
And all of this could only be topped with dessert. Something simple (simplicity is key). Something elegant. Something blissful.
In fact, something exactly like Vanilla Pots de Creme, which is to say a light vanilla custard. It's just a gentle combination of milk -- you don't even have to use cream -- sugar, egg yolks and vanilla. Cook until it's thickened, then cook some more in a water bath to regulate the temperature.
It's so good, so creamy on your tongue, you'll find yourself wondering: How can something this amazing be made from only four ingredients?
Five-Ingredient Bourguignon
21/2 pounds beef, chuck roast, top round or bottom round
Salt
2 cups red wine
1/2 onion, in lengthwise slices
1 teaspoon dried thyme OR 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
Generously season beef on all sides with salt. Place meat in Dutch oven or large, heavy-bottomed pot with the wine, onion and thyme.
Bring to a boil, cover, lower temperature and cook at a low simmer, turning occasionally, until meat is cooked through, about 13/4 to 2 hours.
Makes 6 servings.
White Beans With Rosemary and Garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon fresh rosemary leaves, coarsely chopped
2 (15-ounce) cans white beans, rinsed
Salt
In a heavy-bottomed saucepan or skillet, heat oil over medium heat and add garlic and rosemary. Cook just until garlic is soft, about 2 minutes. Add the beans, taste for salt and adjust if needed. Let the dish sit for a few minutes before serving to allow the flavors to marry.
Makes 6 servings.
Adapted from The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters
Sausage Sandwich
1 tablespoon oil
1 bell pepper, any color, cut into strips
1/2 onion, cut into lengthwise strips
4 Italian sausages, pork or turkey
4 hoagie rolls or 1 baguette
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add bell pepper pieces, onion and sausage. Cover and cook, occasionally turning the sausage and stirring the vegetables, until sausage is cooked and vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes (or less, if using precooked sausage). If using pork sausage, drain off excess oil. Serve each sausage in 1 roll or 1/4 baguette, smothered in peppers and onions.
Makes 4 servings.
Teriyaki Chicken With Bok Choy
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/4 cup PLUS 1/3 cup teriyaki sauce, divided use
8 bone-in chicken thighs
1 cup long-grain white rice
2 bunches baby bok choy, quartered
Heat oven to 450 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil.
In a large bowl, combine the garlic and 1/4 cup of the teriyaki sauce. Add the chicken and marinate for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, cook the rice according to the package directions.
Roast the chicken on the prepared baking sheet, basting with the remaining 1/3 cup of teriyaki sauce, until cooked through, 25 to 30 minutes. Add the bok choy 10 minutes before the chicken is done. Serve over rice.
Makes 4 servings.
Recipe from Dinner Made Simple by the editors of Real Simple magazine
Crispy-Coated Lemon-Pepper Salmon
4 tablespoons butter, divided use
1/2 cup lemon-pepper panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 (11/2-pound) salmon filet, cut into 4 serving pieces
In a small saucepan, melt 3 tablespoons of the butter. Mix with the bread crumbs. Place buttermilk in a shallow dish. Dip salmon in buttermilk and press crumb mixture evenly on top of salmon pieces.
Melt remaining 1 tablespoon butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Place salmon, skin-side down, in pan, cover, and cook until fish flakes easily with a fork, about 10 to 14 minutes.
Makes 4 servings.
Note: Can also be grilled over medium heat, covered.
Recipe adapted from Betty Crocker's Fast From-Scratch Meals
Vanilla Pots de Creme
4 egg yolks
2 cups whole milk
3 tablespoons sugar
1 (2-inch) piece vanilla bean
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
In a medium bowl, whisk the yolks just enough to break them up. Set a strainer over a different medium heat-safe bowl. Set a kettle of water on the stove to boil.
Pour milk and sugar into a heavy-bottomed pot. Slice the piece of vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the tiny seeds from each side into the milk mixture. Add the pieces of bean to the mixture, and heat the pot on medium heat, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. When the milk is hot, whisk a little bit of it at a time into the egg yolks. When you have added 1/4 of the milk to the yolks, pour the mixture back into the hot milk.
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens just enough to coat the back of a spoon; if you draw your finger across the coating on the spoon you will be able to see the trail it made. Do not let the mixture boil. Remove from the heat and quickly strain into the heat-safe bowl.
Pour the custard equally into 4 ramekins and set the ramekins in a large baking pan. Place the pan in the oven and fill the pan with the boiling water at least halfway to the level of the custard, taking care not to spill water into the custards. Cook until the sides are set but the center of the custard is still loose and jiggly, 30 to 45 minutes. Remove the baked custards from the water to cool, then refrigerate.
Makes 4 servings.
Recipe adapted from The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters
Food on 02/01/2017