Is less more?

Is less more? I’m very bad for reading many, many recipes online and looking at them and saying to myself “I should give that a go”. But when the list of ingredients is longer than my arm and the amounts of each is soo little I often wonder are they really needed.

I was making fondant icing for a cake a long time ago and didn’t have any vanilla extract left. It was only 5ml required for the recipe. So I called my mum and asked about it. She said that such a small amount in the recipe shouldn’t make a difference. For all the little it was, you wouldn’t taste it.

This stuck in my head for a while. The idea that something might have been added out of habit and actually wasn’t needed in the dish. This is how it was taught and now everyone must do it this way.

I’ve just finished watching the new season for “The Bear”. It showed the hard work and dedication that goes into running a restaurant. In one scene they even talked about not repeating ingredients. Only using them once in a menu. This idea seemed crazy to me. Crafting a menu with the ability to only use an ingredient once. So many times we use ingredients over and over. Throwing more into the pot hoping that something magical happens. Yet it can be as simple as just using 5 ingredients and celebrating them.

In the past I have been bad for this. Putting soo many ingredients into sauces that everything gets lost. I do want to try and do more with less, celebrate the ingredients more. I think some of this has gotten lost in our modern world.

I can have a rack full of spices from all around the world and do very little with them. It’s a big problem, have everything there but no way to celebrate it.

In an upcoming series I will try and play with these ideas. Using the same 5 base ingredients to make 10 different dishes. Then a super simple series, celebrating the main ingredient showing ways to cook around it.