Simplicity

What makes a memorable meal? It often has little to to with the food it is always about the company you keep, the table and the love that is evident in the cooking. Some of my favourite meals have been in the simplest of surroundings – an awesome bowl of Spaghetti al Nero di seppia – a Sardinian dish with fresh cuttlefish and ink sauce at the Nielsen Park Kiosk in Shark Bay; an old converted tearoom in a leafy suburb of Sydney.

Sitting with an amazing Italian couple, the Lieto’s who owned the place and had painstakingly scraped out the ink sacks of dozens of little cuttlefish for my bowl of sumptuous spaghetti and Darren Simpson an old chef mate and tour guide watching the sun set over Sydney Harbour with a glass of magnificent local Chardonnay is a meal that will rate as one of the finest I have consumed.

Simple food is the hardest to get right – there needs to be such attention to detail because with simple food there is nowhere to hide. There are no elaborate garnishes, no flourishes with sauce, no molecular hanky panky – just well sourced fresh ingredients that have been treated with respect.

Another sublime simple meal springs to mind and that was cooked by Simon Hopkinson at Bibedum in London; Poulet de Bresse Roti – roast chicken by any other name. Bresse chickens are legendary and have no equal and this one was roasted in a Le Creuset dish in the oven with butter and tarragon which was continually spooned over the bird to give it a succulent golden sheen. When the chicken was ready it was removed from the oven and the breast and legs were removed. The legs were returned to the oven to crisp further. The juices from the roasting dish were poured into a saucepan and reduced with some rich chicken stock. The breast was served with some sautéed potatoes and lashings of the luscious reduced sauce. Having wantonly devoured the breast the crisp leg was then served with a small green salad comprising of sharp bitter and peppery leaves with a simple vinaigrette.

It is meals such as these that are to true essence of simple food.

To cook simply the first skill that has to be mastered is shopping – seeking out your ingredients is as important as the cooking procedure itself. Simple cooking is about pristine ingredients, ingredients that are at the top of their game, in peak season, bursting with ripeness and flavour - ingredients that are just begging to be thrown on some hot coals. Fish that is screaming to be filleted and gently steamed, tomatoes so ripe they feel like they could explode in your hand,  fresh peas like erect nipples yearning for fresh mint and a faint brush against sautéed sweetbreads, strawberries so plump you could… you get the picture. But ingredients at their best should evoke lustful emotions, the passionate cook should have sleepless nights, twisting and turning at night – do I serve the asparagus cold with a rich mayonnaise and some soft boiled eggs or grill it over open coals, give it a hefty squeeze of lemon, a drizzle of some good extra virgin olive oil and some parmesan shavings or do I just steam it and serve it with a voluptuous hollandaise.

These are the issues that should be keeping you up at night not mortgage payments or global warming.
To shop you must be prepared to travel; we are not talking about trekking into the dessert at midnight on full moon to pick the bud of a bushel that only blooms every seven years; although they do make a damn good salad particularly with a soft poached egg, some crisp lardons and a drizzle of sherry vinegar. You must seek out purveyors of good produce; you will need a good butcher more often in life than a lawyer and if buying fresh fish means heading down to the harbour to see what the boats have bought in then so be it.
You will be amply rewarded for your shopping sojourns by the oohs and aahs from friends who can’t believe how succulent and tasty your slow roasted pork belly. The fact that you had to drive for an hour and a half to that farm that raise, slaughter and butcher their own organic pigs is neither here nor there. This self same farmer will organise you a suckling pig on request to spit roast on New Years Day; a spit roast that will leave your contemporary’s lying in your waking and their women folk quivering at your every word.

Be a bold shopper and ask your local supermarket for ingredients they don’t stock and if they aren’t helpful shop elsewhere.