Recipe 22

Salty sungolds with sesame and soy

In her book, Small Fires, Rebecca May Johnson writes, “Some people find their dependence on recipes intensely vexing. They declare their vexation with great gusto."

She goes on to talk about the ‘no-recipe recipe book’ by Sam Sifton of New York Times fame. The proposition of the book is that you don’t need a recipe to cook, but as Rebecca points out, “…for each dish for which there is not a recipe, there is a list of ingredients on one side of the page, and instructions for how to use them on the other. The only difference I can see is that mostly, Sifton does not specify quantities - though he does give guidance on quantities (and sometimes, he gives quantities).”

I thought about this idea of refusing recipes and what actually constitutes a recipe tonight while making a salad of sungolds (I used cherry tomatoes) with sesame and soy. The recipe is from Alison Roman’s latest book, Something From Nothing. You combine 600 - 800g of halved little tomatoes with tamari, sesame oil and finely chopped chives and leave everything to sit for a while; the longer the better, apparently. We had the salad with little bavette steaks and some rice. It was a very good dinner.

I don’t always cook with a recipe. I like to make things up as I go along with whatever it is I have in the fridge or pantry (though I don’t go quite as far as my father-in-law, whose latest culinary delight was, I’m told, a monkfish Thai green curry that he put apple into. Don’t ask). But equally I like following a recipe. Following a recipe doesn’t mean slavishly following it to the letter. Sometimes I will, but sometimes I will adapt as I go along. Though I’m not sure you can ever slavishly follow a recipe - for example, what constitutes a pinch of salt in my mind might be quite different to that of the author.

What I have been toying with lately, though, is whether I am slightly cheating at my own game by preparing a new recipe that is as simple as the one I’ve made tonight: slicing up one vegetable and throwing it together with a couple of sauces and some fresh herb. The whole thing took me less than five minutes to make. It took longer to cook rice and cook steaks. The onion relish that I made recently, new recipe number 21, is another case in point.

I have come to the conclusion that I need to resist downplaying these simple recipes; resist categorising them by trying to convince myself that they’re somehow not recipes, or recipes of a different kind of quality. They are, ultimately, recipes. And I am ultimately following them; being guided by them. Were it not for Alison Roman’s suggestions and guidance, I’d probably have never thought to dress tomatoes with tamari and sesame oil. As it happens, I’m really damn pleased to have taken her advice. Madhur’s too on the onion relish.