5-Ingredient Unfix

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   Ron issued a challenge, yesterday, to make a Spam dish using only five ingredients (http://www.foodsoftheworld.activeboards.net/topic3844_post28204.html#28204)
He really pushed my button with that. And, rather than threadjack his contest further, I figured it best to start a new thread.

Am I alone in thinking the five-ingredient thing was the stupidest culinary trend of modern times? It's an artificial constraint that does not achieve its stated goals. About the only thing it accomplishes is making money for its proponents through the sale of books, TV shows, and speaking engagements.

The avowed purpose is to simplify cooking. This implies that there is a certain magic number of ingredients, below which food is simple to prepare, above which it is complex.

Does anybody here really believe that nonsense? Simplicity or complexity is not a function of the number of ingredients. It's a matter of the techniques and food-handling methods that go in to preparing the dish. 

On the Spam thread, for instance, Dan posted a Spam stir fry recipe. The height of simplicity. Yet, it has 8 stated ingredients, and I bet he left some out, like salt, pepper, soy sauce....

Whoops! My bad. In order to force recipes into the five-ingredient rubric, proponents have a long list of "these don't count" ingredients. Nobody ever explained why those are not counted. And they're sure not leaving them out of the recipes. But, among them are salt, pepper, other spices, water, oil, and even vinegar. 

Also going without explanation: If a product is used in different forms, it is only counted as one ingredient. For instance, orange zest and orange juice, used in the same recipe, are counted as one ingredient. Uh, huh! Next time you make something calling for juice, just substitute zest and see what happens. Any real cook calls that two ingredients.

But I don't need an explanation. It's obvious that most of the time a dish cannot be made with only five ingredients. So we'll back out commonly used ones. And devise other was to reduce the count. Just so we can reach that magic number. 

Elsewhere at FotW I have posted my recipe for Seafood Lollipops. This is one of the most complex recipes I make, and I don’t know of many less complicated ones. But the dish actually started as seafood sausages.

As such, it has 11 honest ingredients. And preparing the dish is the height of simplicity. Toss the main ingredients together. Run them through a meat grinder or food processor. Beat in eggs and cream. Spoon the puree onto squares of cling film. Wrap them to form logs. Drop into simmering water to poach. 

It’s only when taking it to the next level that things get complicated. You have to use a disher or large spoon to drop the puree into simmering stock, and partially poach them. These balls then get cooled, sticks inserted, and dipped into a beer batter (which is made with five ingredients of its own, but which the five-ingredient folks would count as one), and deep fried. 

The lollipops are served with a peach gastrique. Question: Is that one ingredient? Or do with count the component ingredients that go into it. Actually, if you’re a five-ingredient fix type, the “sauce” is a separate dish, made with five or fewer ingredients of its own. 

My point here, obviously, is that we’ve used the same ingredients to make two different dishes. One on the simple side, the other rather complex.  In neither case does the actual number of ingredients make a difference. 

Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with challenging yourself to use food in different, creative ways. To stretch your culinary skills and ambitions. 

Artificially limiting the number of ingredients is just not how that’s accomplished.  