Cape Cod Locavore

“I’ll have the Roasted Tenderloin of Beef with Potato, Fennel, Leek and Artichoke Ragout, French Beans and Truffle Sauce.” This is what dining in the 21st century has become. There is a competition to see which chef can be the most daring, inventive, or at the very least who has the largest culinary vocabulary. I am sure that the dish described above is absolutely delicious and offers the palate a broad stroke of tantalizing flavors.

What is lost is the sustenance and pleasure one receives from simple foods, prepared in such a way as to emphasize the inherent flavor and character of few ingredients. I do not have issue with creative and inventive complex cooking, my issue is with having it every day.

Now that we have multiple channels on TV showing how to create all kinds of complex dishes from around the world, competitions to see which chefs can out cook the other, we have created a sport out of cooking (and, by default, eating). Books and websites are filled with recipes that raise the culinary bar for any would-be creative chef.

We have to ask ourselves if preparing complex meals on a daily basis is sustainable. Meals are often not shared anymore so “single cooking” has become more prevalent, even among families. Simple meals with 3-4 ingredients can be incredibly invigorating, nourishing and, naturally, simple to prepare.

I usually think about the basic building blocks of food—carbohydrates, protein, and fat—when preparing a simple meal. I like to include greens whenever I can. A typical simple dinner might be brown basmati rice lightly sauteed in toasted sesame oil with some collard greens and aduki beans or tofu. The tomato/tofu salad I wrote about a few days ago follows this as well. One of the keys to a successful simple meal, is, of course, using high-quality, fresh ingredients to start with.

For me, there is a real joy in eating food prepared in this way. Perhaps the energy is closer to the earth, perhaps it is like listening to a small group of musicians. We truly are what we eat, and eating simply brings an energy of peace and non-clutter into our usually over-stuffed lives.