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Somehow I generally like the taste of easier recipes better


BeeR
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Recently had some friends over to help us eat 5 lbs of shrimp we needed to get out of the freezer and eaten - did some regular boiled/then chilled old bay style, a "shrimp verde" and some shrimp/spinach/artichoke hearts/umpteen other ingrediants thing. The "verde" is basically just shrimp, scallions, garlic and parsley. The last one had like 3 times as much stuff and steps and etc. All worked out fine but IMO the verde was best and that I think largely because it was something more than same ol/same ol ie the basically plain chilled shrimp (first one).

 

Anyway I seem to be finding that this is typical ie the more lavish/complex dishes, although great, aren't the best, whether I make em (rare) or not. Just seems to me you'd figure the more one puts into a dish you'd think it'd be generally better than simpler stuff and I'm finding the opposite. Just me?

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integrating a lot of ingredients can be complex (ie: sometimes there is little margin for error). there is a large contingent that believes that by highlighting a small amount of ingredients can really make them shine. as for eating i like both. cooking at home....depends on my mood and how busy i am. both can be fantastic.

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As usual, Bier's right. Sometimes, the techniques used to prepare a more complex dish can be as important as the ingredients themselves, maybe more so. Getting everything done at exactly the right time makes all the difference in the final product. Sometimes, a simple, classic dish becomes classic because it is simple and just tastes damn good. Finally, just throwing more things into a pot isn't necessarily going to make a better dish. It could end up being just more stuff that doesn't all work together.

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I remember reading an interview with this old-timer who'd won the Texas St. Chili Cook-off a bunch of years in a row. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that's sort of a big deal. At any rate, his recipe had like 5 ingredients in it. Meanwhile, the also-rans were putting chocolate, coffee, and dog-knows-what. "You make your chili better by taking things out of it, not by putting more things in it" was a line that really stuck with me.

 

Personally, one of my pet peives about many high-end restaurants is that every freaking dish takes a paragraph to describe. That's often not a dish I'm going to enjoy and is something I might refer to as culinary masturbation. Basically, a chef getting off for his own sake as opposed to getting the hell out of the way of his ingredients.

 

So, in short, I am not in the least surprised by your revelation.

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