Keeping It Simple

 

 

 

This post will be different from most, in that there will be no references to drinking, or post drinking culinary exploits. For the last few weeks I have been behaving like an actual grown up and laying off the drink (apart from the odd glass here and there - nobody's perfect). I'm not sure how much longer this will last, but while it does, let me share a few of my findings:

1. Not consuming more than one drink on a Friday night enables you to achieve feats normally unthinkable on a Saturday.

2. Quite a lot of people are up and about and doing stuff early on Saturday morning.

3. A weekend not spent either drinking or recovering does bring an enormous sense of smuggery, especially when you live with someone who is not following the same regime.

 

 





I'm pleased to say I've been making the most of it. Yesterday (Saturday) morning, after jumping out of bed at 8am (8am!) and having a quick shower and putting my face on, I headed down to my local fishmongers to pick up a crab I had ordered the day before. This in itself was a revelation, because I normally don't make it to the fishmongers before 3pm on a Saturday, by which time there isn't a lot left. At 9am it's a different story. The counter was full of gleaming, glistening, spanking fresh fish, all straight off the boats sitting in the harbour just next to the shop. Unfortunately I had no need of any of it, but that's not the point. I picked up my crab, which was still warm from having just been cooked (caught only hours before) and skipped home with it, shouting loudly 'Morning!' to bemused American tourists, all fresh off the cruise boats.

I could have just ordered crab meat and saved myself the hour it took when I got it home to smash it up, pick, scrape out and painstakingly check for bits of shell, but where would be the fun in that? Also, it is much more cost effective to do it yourself, much more satisfying to eat, and actually quite fun when you get into it. Above all, preparing crab like this at home has given me one thing I did not have previously - an appreciation for the brown meat.

 



Like some crustacean based coming of age, I have graduated from my preference for the sweet white meat, and found true love in the earthier, richer, crabbier, more delicious dark meat. For me, realising that the brown meat is so much nicer than the white is akin to the realisation that the best bit of a prawn is what is contained in the head. It's a graduation, from the safe and childlike to the grown up. From Cosmopolitans to Old Fashioneds. From Dairy Milk to 70% coco solids with chilli. From kissing, to hands-in-pants. There was a time when I wouldn't have touched the stuff. Apart from anything else, it doesn't look very appetising. Even when  it has been properly mixed up, it is essentially a grainy, brown wet paste. 'This isn't for me', I used to think. That is until I stopped buying the meat in bags and started bringing home the tough little fuckers to do battle with in my own home.

 

 

 

You see, there is so much brown meat to be found in a crab (I am talking about brown crabs here, I've yet to have a go on a spider or king crab), and after spending just over £10 and an hour of your life decimating it, to just throw away a good portion of the fruits of your labour seems nuts. So, after deciding to man up, not too long ago, I tried it. Not added to something else, or disguised by other ingredients, or lost in a crab cake, but just on its own, on a slice of freshly baked brown bread and butter, with a bit of white meat on top, mayonnaise and a squeeze of lemon.  And you know what, it was delicious. So much so that I now look forward to the brown meat more than the white. But I have to admit that I have still not moved on from the original brown bread, butter, mayo, lemon combo. Why would I?

 

 

I've thought about it, don't get me wrong, and I own shelves and shelves of books containing hundreds of recipes for crab. A brief search on the internet will bring you hundreds of thousands, but I can't help but return to the question - What's the point? I don't know if it is age, whether I am subliminally taking on board the message being spread by many celebrity chefs at the moment that 'simple is good' or 'take three ingredients', or just that after the recent fixation with 'molecular gastronomy', chemicals in the kitchen, foams, spherification, mists, gels and Heston, we're all just craving something different again. But whatever it is, I'm certainly finding the most exciting things I'm eating at the moment, both in my kitchen and outside of it, are simple and inexpensive. A few weeks ago for lunch, I ate a few bits of toasted ciabatta rubbed with garlic, some chopped ripe tomatoes that had been sitting for ten minutes in olive oil, white wine vinegar and salt and pepper, some fresh basil leaves, and some amazing mozzarella.

 

 

 

The mozzarella so creamy inside that it barely held itself together. A bit of fresh black pepper on top and that was it. A few years ago I would have turned my nose up at that (cheese and tomato on toast? Piss off), but right now it just feels right. Whether you're a bit strapped for cash or not, what's the point in eating expensive items all the time? Don't get me wrong, I won't ever stop eating and enjoying fillet steak, foie Gras, oysters, lobster and champagne, it's just that I don't think there's the need to do it as often. Thrifty cooks from around the world unite: Keep it simple. It's the future (I've seen it).