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Simple Food - Simple Kitchens
baltimore eats - November, 2008
by John Shields
Curling up with one of my favorite cookbooks, Irish Traditional Cooking, by Darina Allen, and admiring, as always, her simple, down-to-earth approach, I began to consider the way we operate in our kitchens today. Spurred on by a barrage of fancy advertising, the "modern" cook clamors for more and more-STUFF.
We became convinced that we need more gadgets, more pots and pans-different coatings on each pan, or anodized aluminum pots. Or maybe we should switch to all copper to conduct the heat more evenly? Then, of course, we need knives that are "balanced" and German forged.
In every mall and on every Main Street there are cookware stores specializing in the latest culinary equipment, dazzling the eye with every glamorous accessory one could imagine. Of course, then we need more and more storage space for all these "time-saving" efficiency-enhancing gismos. I must confess that as a chef, I too, have been thus seduced and through the years have gathered quite a collection of culinary bric-a-brac of my own. Like many of my readers, I'm sure, I rarely pick up and actually use most of it.
In Irish Traditional Cooking I found some interesting history on the Irish kitchen of yesteryear. Darina notes on Irish stew:
"There is a certain amount of argument about what constitutes an authentic Irish stew -and who really knows anyway? It seems reasonable to assume that Irish stew was the inevitable result of combining simple, available ingredients in the big, black, three-legged pot and cooking them over the open fire. After all, this dish originated in Irish cabins where utensils were scarce. A griddle, a kettle, a frying pan, a three-legged pot and a bastible-or pot oven-would have constituted the entire batterie de cuisine."
Wow, what a concept! Simple, readily available, local ingredients prepared in simple basic cookware. This is the way many cultures still cook, thus preserving the very heart and traditions of their culinary heritage. Kitchens were, and should be, the center, the soul, of the home. And by keeping the cooking and utensils uncomplicated there is more congregating room in the kitchen for the family being nourished with these healthy, simple, locally available ingredients.
As mentioned in Our Common Table, July 2007, which I wrote while traveling in Italy and feasting on the wonderful traditional foods of the Mediterranean, I am finished with overly pretentious food. I am just plain bored with combining all sorts of exotic ingredients simply for the sake of seeming creative and trendy. I am all for simple food, real food that is prepared with little fuss or muss, allowing the true flavor of the ingredients to shine through-or, if you will, to sing.
Let us return to the example of an Irish stew. If I stop by several of the stalls at my local farmers' market and collect a shopping bag of onions, potatoes, carrots, and a small piece of lamb, there within the one bag are all the simple ingredients for my stew.
I return home and haul out my trusty cast iron Dutch oven. A layer of sliced potatoes, a layer of sliced onions, coarsely cut carrots, a tad of lamb meat, thrown in, some salt and pepper, add boiling water to barely cover (a sprig of rosemary from the kitchen garden or herb pot is a nice addition), put on the lid, simmer for a couple of hours.
When the stew is finished there lies one of the finest meals I can imagine-a hearty blend of simple ingredients that have been transformed into a savory, nourishing meal, easily feeding a large group of people.
So there we have a perfect meal that is cooked in a simple pot, providing lovely sustenance for family and friends. And, by the way, it could have been cooked in a fireplace just as easily!
Should there be a bit left over, with a touch of flour and perhaps an egg, the mixture may be fashioned into little cakes, and cooked on a griddle or lightly fried in a pan.
This is the way the world has cooked for thousands of years, with no complicated equipment needed, making best use of the wonderful ingredients that are grown nearby. It nourishes our bodies, nourishes our homes and nourishes our local food economy. It's that simple.
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