Good food is simple

A recipe, why not, I mean, the name of the blog made me do it.

What I will write now is actually on my menu for tomorrow, so I can let you know afterwards if this is a good one. I normally don’t cook with recipes, I like to just go shopping and see what catches my eye. I once cooked for my friends without going shopping. I just went to their house as they were getting home from work, I looked in the fridge, freezer and pantry and just started cooking. That’s my favourite way, the unexpected. To be honest, it doesn’t always work, but I’m super happy if it does.

Bakers need one of two things: A clear recipe or a golden set of experienced skills. A cook needs two other things: A good nose and some logic.

I’m a cook, so I need not bother with recipes. Of course I also need experience, skills, fridges, pepper and salt, garlic and cream, but hey, it sounded like a good quote! Ok, here we go!

WE NEED:
Potatoes, Pumpkin, Broccoli, Carrots, Any kind of meat, Pepper & Salt, Garlic, Brussels sprouts, Olive oil, Salsa or BBQ sauce or Garlic sauce. I’m a lazy chef, so I am satisfied with whatever sauce they sell in the store!

WE DO:
Potatoes
Wash the potatoes, don’t peel them. It’s fast, it looks cool, and I’m told most of the vitamines are right below the skin. Since I have a Rational-oven, I just oven the potatoes. Because I’m Flemish, I say it like that, I could say roast, but that sounds like I’d need a grill for that to my Flemish ears. So oven. No idea how long, just use small ones or cut your bigger ones into chunks. Add enough Olive oil, Pepper, Salt and who knows, maybe some other flavours you like. Half way through, I might add Garlic, Rosemary or Honey, maybe all three. I don’t add it from the start because all three of them will burn. The potatoes are done when you can pinch one and it breaks in two. If it doesn’t, wait. If you can squeeze it to pulp, use your time machine to go back. No other solution. If you need fuel for the flux capacitor, just use the mushy potatoes!

Veggies
Buy cleaned and washed vegetables, if at all possible, even buy them cut. It saves you work, it helps the economy, etcetera, etcetera… Mix them all together in an ovenpan, add Olive oil, Pepper, Salt and the flavour of your choice, but keep it simple! Oven them until they look good. I suggest you add the pumpkin after the first 20 minutes, so it doesn’t go mushy. Carrots, sprouts and Broccoli sort of play nice together. One could always add fried mushrooms at the end, but make those in the way I describe here.

Meat
I will serve this with boomstammetjes tomorrow, no idea if this even exists in English speaking countries. It’s basically a meatball, rolled out to a cylinder, then breaded with actual breadcrumbs. This too… is ovened.

Sauce
As said before, this meal is perfect with a side of some spicy sauce from a bottle. But please try to be a bit more creative than Ketchup, HP or Tomato sauce. Sure, Americans, Brits and Aussies can feel spoken to. Here are some good options: Remia Mosterdsaus, AH knoflooksaus, Remia Satésaus or Mississippi BBQ saus.

With a bit of luck, about 30 minutes after serving this, your pan will look like the picture at the top!

Have fun!